Nanatsu no Taizai: Imashime no Fukkatsu – 24 (END)

「君がいるだけで」 (Kimi ga Iru Dake de)
“As Long As You Are Here”

Everything’s back to normal. Right?

Several moments stood out about this episode, many of which are continuations of themes/inclinations that have stretched across Imashime no Fukkatsu. I’ll talk about the other ones, and save the overarching matters for the final impressions below. For now: Fraudrin. Having him back down from detonating because of Griamore was a great moment, and fortunately it was also set up by Fraudrin’s seeming desire to re-possess Dreyfus last episode, even though there was no good reason to do so. That makes for a compelling moment, even if my immediate reaction was “Oh, so this is why Griamore was still a child.” Sometimes the hand of the author is too present in Nanatsu no Taizai.

Meliodas’ feelings, and the tears he shed, show the kind of struggle in store for Meliodas. He can win, and easily, but it’s a classic tale: How do you win without losing your soul? Only for Meliodas it’s really, really literal. Which is going to be tough, because as soon as he’s not fighting, Meliodas seems to go back to normal, which isn’t how this should work. If he’s changed, he should act changed all the time! Otherwise we’ll have to keep being reminded that he’s changed, which means he hasn’t. (Also, tears = pretty big emotions imo.) Characters who keep their cards tight to their chest are always hard to write, especially in TV or comics, where descriptive text can’t be harnessed to show by telling by showing.

Other than that, this entire season was an odd one, and this doesn’t feel like a good point to end off on. So I’ll skip on down to the final impressions, with one final thought: lawl Griamore! Not that Veronica-hime doesn’t seem entirely displeased. I’d say “Shipping furiously!!” if I wasn’t already shipping them. So: still shipping furiously!!

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ED Sequence

Final Impressions

This has been an odd sequel. In retrospect I think the search for the missing members of the Sins gave the series badly needed structure, more so than I realized, because Imashime no Fukkatsu felt more aimless, despite the danger being even more clear and present. It may be that the fun part of Nanatsu no Taizai was learning about the Sins themselves, and once they were all introduced, there were no more good reasons for new abilities and tactics to suddenly be injected into the story; thus, when that happened anyway, it felt like an asspull rather than a revelation.

In truth, Imashime no Fukkatsu didn’t get off to a good start. The power level thing rankled from the get-go, and it’s a wound that never got better. The introduction of the Ten Commandments themselves was good (save for the power level issue, again—they always seemed so insurmountably more powerful than the Sins, until they suddenly weren’t), but I feel they were largely squandered as characters, since we only here at the end got to start learning what makes them tick as individual (ex: Derieri’s anger at goddesses). Which I guess makes sense, since this isn’t the end of this arc, but rather the middle of the struggle against the Ten Commandments. Which is another issue. I’ve long held the opinion that stories should move more quickly than they think they should, to make sure things are always happening. Things were always happening in Imashime no Fukkatsu, but they didn’t amount to much. After all this, only Galand and maybe Fraudrin appear to be dead for realz? And I don’t even believe those. What was the point! So I guess I should amend that: stories should move more quickly than the author thinks they should, to make sure things of consequence are always happening. This sequel didn’t do so well on that mark.

There’s also the part where three of the seven Sins were completely absent from the “final battle,” and another one, Ban, was completely useless. Which makes sense if this isn’t the real final battle, but why were they teasing us with this big group battle in the OP, and then never delivering? Gah!

In the end, it’s not like Imashime no Fukkatsu was bad by any means, and some parts were really good, such as the integration of Elaine (she’s a great addition to the core group of characters, and I hope she comes back real soon), the rise of Elizabeth (she’s finally standing as an equal with Meliodas, which makes her both more formidable and removes some of the squick/unfavorable power dynamics from their relationship), the big battle where Meliodas dies (for a while), and anything to do with Escanor (praise the sun!). It’s just that, for everything that was done well, there was a tournament that was just okay, or a Merlin reappearance that’s a total deus ex machina, or a plot “twist” like Gowther removing Diane’s memories that still feels like a status quo maintaining waste of time. Imashime no Fukkatsu isn’t as good as the first seasons, but it was still pretty fun. I just wish I had blogged the original instead of this one. C’est la vie. Maybe next time will be better.

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