Nanatsu no Taizai: Imashime no Fukkatsu – 08

「ドルイドの聖地」 (Doruido no Seichi)
“The Sacred Land of the Druids”

Diane just can’t catch a break, can she? Or so it seemed at first, when she unknowingly ran smack dab into the Ten Commandments. Which would have been a death sentence if a certain giant onee-chan hadn’t revealed herself to be alive, and sporting a new-found fondness for human-style clothing as well! Honestly, what I’m most impressed about is that I actually give a shit about a character who “died” last episode turning up alive now. She wasn’t a big enough character to get an emotional response, but I’m still happy about it, mostly for what it’ll mean to Diane. Though it doesn’t hurt that Matrona is pretty cool herself. Dem abs yo, jeez.

This season is doing a fairly good job of keeping the Ten Commandments as menacing threats without them totally blowing the Sins away, even though they by all rights should. Matrona got Diane out of one sticky situation, and Mama Hawk extricated them from another. Mama Hawk for MVP of the episode! It was basically a throwaway gag used to write Suzuki-sensei out of a corner, but I’ll admit it. I laughed. And thus, I’ll allow it.

I’m also a big fan of Merlin-stole-a-bunch-of-Meliodas’-power, let’s-go-get-it-back as a method to power Meliodas up for the fight against the Ten Commandments without it feeling … well, colossally stupid. Which this doesn’t. I keep joking about the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, but that was always a rather stupid plot device, so having a better mechanic is appreciated. It also gives us two rockin’ things.

First, these druids. These druids are great! I especially like Jenna (Akaneya Himika) and Theo
(Watanuki Ryuunosuke) for being just so fun to watch, while it appears Zaneri (Chisuga Haruka) is there to do all the actual plot stuff. Suzuki-sensei knows how to make some fun characters. More of them is not a bad thing.

Second, the trip into druid lands gives us an excuse to do for Meliodas what we’ve been doing for Diane: dig into his past and start fucking with his head. And cracking out the deceased love of his life (who looks suspiciously like Elizabeth), Liz (Amamiya Sora), is let’s-fuck-with-this-character’s-head 101. I love it. We know broadly what went down, but we haven’t gotten to feel it. I’m ready.

This season has been shaky at times, but the last two episodes have been great. Hopefully it will continue as it’s going currently.

Random thoughts:

• That girl who tried to help them looks familiar…
• He’s fifteen!? Clearly I need to get on the Druid diet. He looks like Alex Louis Armstrong’s long-lost crunchy nephew. Quick, someone get him to pose!

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