How the Seven Deadly Sins lost its way in the end

When Seven Deadly Sins first aired, I was hooked on the anime. For someone like me who had already finished multiple anime and was tired of watching the same format story, I hoped to come across a new concept. This series offered me just that. In my opinion, the concept was fresh, the characters were vibrant, and the world felt huge and full of mystery.

I was hyped to watch the series, as looking at Meliodas just made me jump out of my seat due to excitement. I still remember when his character made an entrance. Initially, he seemed like a harmless pervert with a childlike grin who turned out to be terrifyingly strong. This was a classic shonen genre move but done differently. That is why I had high hopes for the story, and for a while, it proved itself to have immense potential.

The chemistry between the Seven Deadly Sins, who were a legendary group of knights accused of betraying their kingdom, was something special. But somewhere along the way, as the anime pushed toward its climax, everything began to fall apart. The tight storytelling I admired started to unravel.

I feel that the main plot got intertwined with the subplots, and somewhere everything began falling apart. Plot threads got tangled, characters were pushed aside, and emotional payoffs began to feel empty. What started as a sharp, exciting series full of promise ended up limping to its conclusion, and honestly, it still stings.

During the early season of the Seven Deadly Sins, it has a magical formula. It had every highly entertaining concept, for instance, it covered themes like high fantasy, knights, demons, forbidden love, and world-ending stakes.

One of the characters that really pulled me in is Meliodas. While I agree he was a little too into Elizabeth, his constant groping and pervy antics weren’t always funny, and sometimes they made me cringe. However, as the story progressed, his behavior was something endearing about how devoted he was to her.

I thought this was because it was clear that his fate with her was sealed. As the story unfolded, we found out just how true that was. And it is not only the romance between Meliodas and Elizabeth. Ban’s backstory, stealing from the Fountain of Youth, falling for Elaine, and then watching her die, was heartbreaking.

Additionally, Ban’s bromance with Meliodas in Seven Deadly Sins added layers to both characters, showing how loyalty and regret defined their actions more than any code of honor. We got this beautifully emotional, character-driven narrative that made the action matter. It wasn’t just about who could hit harder. It was about why they fought.

Even the fall of animation led to the downfall of the Seven Deadly Sins

I can’t talk about how the Seven Deadly Sins lost its way without mentioning the animation. When the production switched from A-1 Pictures to Studio Deen for the third season (Wrath of the Gods), the quality nosedived.

I’m not exaggerating, go look up Meliodas vs. Escanor in Seven Deadly Sins and try not to cry. A fight that should’ve been one of the most visually stunning in anime history looked like a slideshow with rubber-faced characters.

Suddenly, characters were off-model, action sequences were jerky, and emotional moments were undercut by awkward visuals. It was heartbreaking. We had gone from crisp, dynamic animation to meme-worthy screenshots.

It’s not that I can’t enjoy an anime with subpar visuals; I’ve watched enough One Piece to know how to power through rough animation, but this was different. The decline in animation quality signaled a bigger problem: the series was being rushed, possibly undervalued by the production team, and clearly not getting the love it once had.

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Final thoughts

Despite all the flaws in the anime, I do not regret finishing the series. I still love what the series could have been. The early seasons were magic. The characters will always mean something to me. Ban will always be one of my favorite anime characters, and Meliodas, problematic or not, had one of the more complex arcs in Shonen history.

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