Manga
The manga that were hits in Japan in the 2010s.
2010S HITS
About
When they were accused of trying to overthrow the monarchy, the feared warriors the Seven Deadly Sins were sent into exile. Princess Elizabeth discovers the truth the Sins were framed by the king's guard, the Holy Knights too late to prevent them from assassinating her father and seizing the throne! Now the princess is on the run, seeking the Sins to help her reclaim the kingdom. But the first Sin she meets, Meliodas, is a little innkeeper with a talking pig. He doesn't even have a real sword! Have the legends of the Sins' strength been exaggerated...?
Character analysis
Meliodas runs a shabby traveling bar and acts goofy and perverted around his companions, which makes it genuinely startling whenever his true, centuries-old strength as the former leader of the Seven Deadly Sins surfaces.
Elizabeth sets out to find the Seven Deadly Sins and clear their names in order to save her kingdom from a corrupt order of knights, and her gentle, trusting nature is constantly tested by the violent world she's walking into.
Ban gained immortality from a magical fruit, and he fights with a reckless, grinning confidence that comes from knowing injuries that would kill anyone else barely slow him down.
Diane is immensely strong and towers over the rest of the cast, and the story plays her romantic feelings for the much smaller King partly for comedy and partly as real, unresolved longing.
King spends much of the story appearing as a small, drifting figure with a relaxed attitude, which hides both his true adult fairy form and a long-buried tragedy connected to his own people.
Status evaluation
Character designs are distinctive, though some action scenes trade detail for speed.
The quest structure and slowly revealed backstories keep things moving, even when individual arcs follow familiar fantasy beats.
Meliodas's perverted-innkeeper routine and the Sins' bickering keep the tone light between major battles.
Backstories like King's and Ban's land well, though the show leans more on spectacle than sustained drama.
Demonic threats look intimidating, but the tone stays adventure-focused rather than frightening.
Battles get violent and destructive, with injuries shown fairly directly.
A large ensemble and overlapping backstories add some tracking without becoming hard to follow.
This figure has not been verified against a current source and should be treated as approximate.
“A pervy tavern owner who turns out to be centuries old and terrifyingly strong is a twist this series never stops having fun with.”