Heaven just got a lot sexier.
Seven Heavenly Virtues or Nanatsu no Bitoku is an anime from the 2018 Winter season based on a figure line from the creators of Queen's Blade and animated by Bridge. It is a Spin-Off from the 2017 anime Seven Mortal Sins. An English dub has been confirmed
to be released on October 2018.After the Mortal Sins begin to spread their influence over mankind, the Seven Heavenly Virtues descend from the Heavens and search for a suitable candidate to be the new messiah.
Tropes in Seven Heavenly Virtues
- Actionized Sequel: Inverted. While the original focused on Lucifer's hostile takeover of Hell, this Spin-Off is set to be comedic shorts of the Angels trying to recruit a human.
- All There in the Manual: There is a lot of information about the Virtues in the official site (in the profiles of the angels and the short stories) that cannot be learned just by watching the anime. Obviously because a series of anime shorts doesn't have enough time to adapt everything. For example, the anime never reveals that Uriel has Playing with Fire powers.
- Arch-Enemy: The Seven Mortal Sins, the demon lords that rule over Hell.
- Artistic License – Religion:
- Beyond everything that would fall under Our Angels Are Different, there is the fact that Michael is portrayed both as the Virtue of Faith and Lucifer’s opposite. Faith is the Virtue that opposes Despair, so it would make more sense for her to be the opposite of Astaroth. The Virtue that is opposite to Lucifer’s Pride is Humility.
- The names of the Heavenly Virtues are noticeably mismatched compared to the real list of angels who embody the Virtues. Particularly weird because their Arch-Enemy, the Mortal Sins, are correctly named after the patron demons of each Sin.
- The Cameo: Belphegor makes an appearance in episode 4 talking with Sandalphon, although not in person. She is seen only as an icon in a computer screen.
- Casting Gag: This isn't the first time Ari Ozawa and Brittney Karbowski voice a clumsy blue-haired girl.
- Continuity Reboot: While the show takes place in the same timeframe as Seven Mortal Sins, it doesn't follow the same continuity nor does it continue the same story. Instead, it focuses on an entirely new story with a softer tone and the virtues having Adaptational Heroism, more akin to their role in Abrahamic religions, albeit much more incompetent in an endearing way.
- Denser and Wackier: In addition to being Lighter and Softer, the series has a bit more emphasis on gags with the central plot being plucking a random guy and declaring him to be the messiah much to his humorous discomfort, as opposed to wanting to take over hell for serious reasons like in the first anime.
- Early-Bird Cameo: In a sense, the entire anime is an example of this. Despite it being based on a figure line, of the seven angels only Michael had her figure revealed before the anime premiered. The other six angels made their animated debut before the release of their figures.
- Genre Shift: While both shows have an emphasis on fanservice, Seven Mortal Sins was a series of 24 minute action oriented episodes where Anti-Hero Dark Is Not Evil demon girls keep a serious veneer on their quest to support Lucifer. Seven Heavenly Virtues on the other hand is a series of comedic shorts where the Light Is Good (if incompetent) and Classical Anti-Hero angels encounter a bunch of mishaps on their quest to find the Messiah. Seven Mortal Sins also falls into the Yuri Genre while Seven Heavenly Virtues have the angels mostly interacting with flustered males they deem to be the Messiah. Given how conflicting the tones, plots and depictions of the angels are in both shows, who have Adaptational Heroism this time, the series fits more into a Continuity Reboot.
- The Ghost: The Mortal Sins. They are the Arch-Enemy of the Virtues and allegedly their reason for coming to Earth, but they never show up in this anime (barring Belphegor's cameo). Probably because it would be hard to have any meaningful conflict between Heaven and Hell in a series of shorts.
- Lampshade Hanging: When Raphael spills her ice cream over her body, the boy accompanying her is quick to ask how she managed to accidentally spill it in such an erotic way.
- Lighter and Softer: The first anime had a serious plot about Lucifer battling other Demon Lords to become the new leader of the Mortal Sins, while this story is purely about comedic, light-hearted and Fanservicey hijinks involving the Heavenly Virtues. Also, this time Light Is Good, if a little incompetent and heaven has humanity's interests in heart. No confirmation is on if the Sins are truly more evil this time.
- Light Is Good: Unlike the previous show, this version of the Heavenly Virtues are the heroes this time around and believe humanity to be redeemable.
- Male Gaze: The camera frequently shows off the angel's assets. Bonus points because some of those shots are implied to actually be the point of view of the Messiah Candidates.
- Marshmallow Hell:
- When they're on a crowded train, Michael, Raphael and Sariel end up accidentally giving this to the passengers sitting in front of them. Gabriel disapproves, but in a twist of Irony, when she tries to scold Sariel she ends up receiving this herself, due to the difference in height between them.
- Gabriel repeats the process with Michael in the episode 10. Michael’s (lack of) reaction implies this is a common occurrence. But when she tries to do the same with Sandalphon, she ends up hitting her head, causing Sandalphon to be declared a “Gabriel killer weapon”.
- Mythology Gag:
- After getting pissed with how every man on the train was looking at her and the other angels with lewd eyes, Michael declares humans have no salvation anymore and they should purge Earth. She quickly backtracks when a boy gives his seat on the train to an old lady, but back in Seven Mortal Sins, God Himself came to this same conclusion and actually tried to do it, and Michael supported Him.
- At the end of episode 10 the Virtues are wearing the same angel robes seen in the previous anime.
- The Nudifier: In a special episode, the Virtues play with water guns, except the water is enchanted to dissolve clothing.
- Our Angels Are Different: For starters, they are all sexy women.
- P.O.V. Sequel: A Spin-Off that focuses on the Heavenly Virtues, the angelic group that opposes the Mortal Sins, the main characters of the previous anime. Due to being a bit of a reboot however, the more heroic virtues are almost different characters than their previous incarnations.
- Rotating Protagonist: The anime doesn't have a protagonist; each of the Virtues get their own episode. After each angel got their turn, new episodes group some of them to share the spotlight.
- Seven Heavenly Virtues: The main characters of the series. Except that while they try to be true to those virtues, more often than not they fail.
- Training Montage: The first episode features two, as Michael tries to toughen up her Candidate.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Averted. As Uriel's candidate finds out, having a weird, scantly clad woman following you everywhere at work isn't gonna speak highly of your work efficiency.
