Manga / The Seven Deadly Sins

aka: Nanatsu No Taizai

The Seven Deadly Sins^note Clockwise: Escanor, Diane, Merlin, King, Meliodas, Gowther, and Ban.

The Seven Deadly Sins (Nanatsu no Taizai) is a fantasy adventure manga about the land under a terrible tyranny brought about by the Holy Knights, who have taken control of the land and are making life miserable for everyone. Elizabeth, princess of a kingdom conquered by the Holy Knights, has traveled the land looking for the only group that might be able to defeat the Holy Knights, seven knights thought dead, feared throughout the land for their great and terrible power... The Seven Deadly Sins. The Sins are presumed dead after they had apparently tried to overthrow her father the king.

To her surprise, Elizabeth finds one of the Sins, Meliodas, the Dragon's Sin of Wrath, happily running a tavern, and he is nothing like the stories say (he doesn't look anything like his wanted poster, for one thing)... save that he is incredibly strong. At Elizabeth's request, she and Meliodas go on a quest to find the six remaining Sins. However, the quest will not be easy, as the Holy Knights are hunting for the Seven Deadly Sins, and Elizabeth as well, and will go to great lengths to capture or destroy them.

The manga is by Nakaba Suzuki (who also created Kongoh Bancho), and it was serialized in Shōnen Magazine from 2012 to 2020. It has been released in English by Kodansha Comics. It was later confirmed that the series would have an anime adaptation by A-1 Pictures. It began airing on October 5, 2014, and ran for two cours (24 episodes). The anime was licensed and dubbed by Netflix as one of their "original" shows, premiering on November 1, 2015, with Funimation acquiring the home video license in 2017.

A second season of the anime was announced, but then encountered delays, rumored to be to allow the manga time to finish a required arc or two. The anime ended after five seasons, a sidestory movie, and an epilogue movie on October 1, 2021.

Not to be confused with another anime called Seven Mortal Sins (officially named as Seven Deadly Sins/Sin: Nanatsu no Taizai) about scantily clad female demons themed after the Seven Deadly Sins. Or a certain other manga/anime featuring anthropomorphic personifications of the Seven Deadly Sins.

A sequel series titled Four Knights of the Apocalypse began serialization on January 27, 2021. A two-part interquel movie was released to bridge the gap between the two stories.

Beware of Unmarked Spoilers.

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Contains examples of:

A-B

• Adaptation Distillation: In regards to the A-1 Pictures anime, certain events and things that happened originally in the manga have been distilled.
  • In regards to Ban's past with Elaine, the anime retains the important scenes regarding their relationship however it doesn't include the small montage showing said relationship's development. The first OVA of the anime though does include said development.
  • The initial encounter with Veronica and Griamore is cut out in the anime as the Sins immediately head to the Vaizel Fighting Festival after reuniting with King. The pendant that Elizabeth originally received from her sister in that encounter however still pops up in the festival, though it's changed from a Chekhov's Gun to a plot device that Veronica just whips out almost all of a sudden.
  • Oslow's original introduction during the Capital of the Dead is cut out in the anime. He however does appear later on in the anime due to the important role he serves in the story. Like the pendant mentioned above though, the change in introduction changes him from a Chekhov's Gunman to a sudden convenient plot device.
  • During the kingdom infiltration arc, Gowther's encounter with Slader is completely cut out in the anime. Any other subsequent plotlines related to said encounter, such as Slader desperately trying to save King Baltra, is omitted from the anime as well.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • For the first few episodes of the anime, some extra scenes were added such at the start of each one. Most notably, the start of the very first episode which details the aftermath of the Sins' escape from Liones after they were framed.
  • The Armored Giant is given more character before it goes berserk in conjunction with the new scenario created in the anime.
  • The Ban OVA covers Ban's backstory in whole but adds a few minor scenes. The most significant though is the scene where Ban plants the seed given by Elaine.
• Adaptation Explanation Extrication:
  • Due to the anime skipping Veronica's initial introduction and other pieces of dialogue, some things don't exactly add up in the Vaizel Fighting Festival to regain Diane's weapon. Why exactly is Veronica helping out the Holy Knights who usurped her father's rule in the first place isn't explained as the dialogue detailing her reasons was skipped. She merely acts antagonistic to the Sins and the contradiction of her allegiance is not addressed in the anime. There's also what happens after Meliodas is injured by Guila and taken somewhere else to recuperate. What happened originally in the manga was that Elizabeth gave him the pendant she received earlier from Veronica on the pretense that it's a charm given by their father to ward off evil, and then started praying in a sense. Basically, she was praying for this specific thing to help out an injured Meliodas. However as Elizabeth didn't receive the pendant for to give to Meliodas in the anime, her sudden praying for his protection in this particular scene kinda gives off a completely different context.
  • The explanation of Oslow's ability to teleport people via eating them is also given as an explanation as to what actually happened to the two Holy Knights he ate prior to the Capital of the Dead incident. As the anime cut out Oslow's original appearance, the ability and its explanation somewhat loses some context. There's also the explanation as to why Oslow isn't seen around much with the rest of the group despite being King's loyal companion. The reason is that Oslow's favorite food is pork, something that would greatly not sit well with both Hawk and his mother hence why he was kept away. The anime keeps the explanation but due to the changes, it somewhat makes it look more like a Hand Wave as why King never ever mentioned him before rather than anything else.
  • The fight with Arthur and Hendrickson has the former being defeated by the latter. This occurs both in the manga and anime, however the latter leaves out the explanation that this was actually Arthur's first real fight and that his powers hadn't manifested yet. The omission thus frames Arthur's battle against the Great Holy Knight very differently as well as leave out the reason why he didn't use his powers despite Hendrickson constantly sensing it.
  • The battle between Dreyfus and Hendrickson in the Liones capital is significantly changed in the anime and leaves some things a bit iffy. The first foremost major change is that the battle in the anime is only between these two with Griamore being completely cut out altogether. Apart from changing the dynamic of the fight altogether, his exclusion makes certain things that happen requiring a bit of more explanation. The biggest of which is Elizabeth accidentally getting injured amidst the battle. In the manga, she's protected by Griamore's barriers but is rendered immobile thus unable to get away from the battle when she accidentally gets hit. In the anime, she just simply stands around when all this occurs, basically making her getting injured looking a bit like her own fault. This also ties in with the second foremost change which is how she is injured. In the manga, Dreyfus actually slips and injures her with a misdirected attack, an act that actually serves as an important plot point later in the actual story. In the anime, she's simply injured due to simply being a collateral victim caught due to being too close to two major attacks.
  • The anime at the very end has a season Sequel Hook that involves Gil, Howzer, and Griamore investigating some books that Dreyfus had. Why they're investigating isn't explained and doesn't make much sense since the anime changed several scenes involving Dreyfus. Said scenes made them question him due to contradicting accounts thus leading to said investigation.
• Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole:
  • In the first season of the anime, some events were changed wherein Howzer doesn't get severely wounded by Dreyfus. This leads to him participating in the battle with Hendrickson when he originally didn't in the manga. In the second season however, these particular changes are completely ignored and unaddressed. Things instead follow the manga with not only it being mentioned that Howzer was wounded, but also him not knowing the powers of a Gray Demon which Hendrickson used when he eventually encounters such a demon.
  • Related to the above, some events in the first season of the anime were changed from the manga and thus the three members of Dawn Roar that were killed by Dreyfus were Spared By Adaptation. In the second season however, these changes are completely ignored and not addressed at all with it being mentioned that these three were killed by Dreyfus. This is further shown when they appear as spirits through Denzel's ability Dead Man's Revenge, an ability that causes an opponent to be haunted by those they've killed.
• Adapted Out: Pelliot and his friends who tie in with Gowther's introduction in the manga are adapted out in the anime. In their place, Gowther is given a completely different introduction involving the Armored Giant more closely instead.
• The Alcatraz: Baste Dungeon, a large fortress-like prison seemingly built in a mesa wherein Ban was imprisoned.
• Amplifier Artifact: Each of the Sins is supposed to have a sacred treasure, a holy weapon that allows them to draw on even more of their innate power. Unfortunately, Ban, Meliodas and Diane got separated from their treasures when they broke up.
• Amusing Injuries: Ban is the champ of this trope, due to his immortality. Even in some dire situations, his getting cut in half can elicit some laughs.
  • Hawk suffers a number of these as well, with jokes about something smelling tasty usually following.
• And the Adventure Continues: The first season of the anime ended this way, presumably in case it didn't get picked up for a second season.
• Animal Motifs: Each of the Sins has a motif of an animal that is either usually associated or stereotyped with their respective sin. This is primarily presented as their monikers and tattoos.
  • For Meliodas the Dragon's Sin of Wrath, it's dragons which relate to his sin based on them being very wrathful and destructive. His broken sword has a dragon handle design and he has fire based powers, a common power of dragons. The motif also relates to him being a demon as dragons in the Medieval folklore were equated to demons. Of special note, his dragon tattoo design resembles an Ouroboros, which in some cases is depicted with a dragon instead of a serpent. The symbol is associated with cyclicality, something that Meliodas seems to be associated with as evidenced by some of his closest friends apparently being reincarnations.
  • For Diane the Serpent's Sin of Envy, it's snakes which relate to her sin based on them being seen as symbols of envy.
  • For Ban the Fox's Sin of Greed, it's foxes which relate to his sin based on the idea that they're seen as very sneaky and greedy thieves. Additionally, his surrogate father Zhivago was a thief who happened to be a werefox.
  • For King the Bear's Sin of Sloth, it's bears which relate to his sin based on the idea of them being rather slothful such as during long periods of hibernation. Additionally, the second form of his spear is a giant teddy bear.
  • For Gowther the Goat's Sin of Lust, it's goats which relate to his sin based on them seen as a symbol of lust, such as the case with satyrs and other such similar creatures.
  • For Merlin the Boar's Sin of Gluttony, it's pigs which relate to her sin based on Gluttonous Pigs. Additionally, she has a rapport with Hawk the pig.
  • For Escanor the Lion's Sin of Pride, it's lions which relate to his sin based on them being seen as symbols of pride.
• Animation Evolution: Seasons 1, 2, and Prisoners of the Sky were all animated by A-1 Pictures and were very high quality. However, by season 3, the anime transferred studios due to scheduling issues. It was briefly animated by Studio DEEN, but that studio was busy so it had to be transferred again to Marvy Jack. The animation ended up becoming very cheap and low quality, most notably in the Meliodas vs Escanor fight. However, the animation slightly improved for season 4 onwards after Studio DEEN returned to work on it again.
• Arc Symbol: A triskelion-like symbol constantly shows up now and then. To name some notable instances, it's the shape of both Meliodas' belt buckle of the armor he once wore before the Sins were framed, and the Balor's Power Eye that Hawk later obtained, and it's on Elizabeth's right eye.
• Armor-Piercing Question: In chapter 69, Slader claims that the King of Liones declared the Seven Sins to be traitors who murdered the previous Great Holy Knight and are enemies of the kingdom. Gowther asks him if he actually heard the King say those words. Slader is shaken when he realizes that he didn't.
• Armored Villains, Unarmored Heroes: Though the Sins wore armor in the past, they don't wear such in the present. Instead they prefer to wear relatively casual clothes. In contrast, the Holy Knights are practically almost always seen in full armor.
• As Lethal as It Needs to Be: Meliodas and the Sins as well as the Holy Knights are able to shrug off massive amounts of blunt force trauma and come out of it with bruises at minimal, and Meliodas in particular takes repeated lightning attacks without being shocked into submission. Blades however, appear to still be able to carve up even powerful combatants. Played with when King brings out Chastiefol, one form of which is a Storm of Blades. They're capable of doing incredible and lethal damage as their nature implies, but never seem to really put anyone on the verge of death, particularly Guila, who had the entire barrage aimed at her point-blank.
• Attack Reflector: Meliodas' power, Full Counter, reflects any attack directed at him with greater power back to the attacker.
• Babies Ever After: In the final chapter, we're introduced to Tristan, the son of Meliodas and Elizabeth. After the ending, an extra chapter introduces Lancelot, the son of Ban and Elaine. King and Diane are also mentioned to have a child together.
• Badass Creed: The knights of Liones have one. Meliodas and Gilthunder in particular take it rather to heart.
  "Your eyes are to discern evil, your mouth to speak the truth, your heart is to be filled with righteousness, and your sword is to purge evil."
• Badass Finger Snap: This happens a lot in this series. Expect King to do it every other time he brings out Chastiefol, expect Merlin to do it a few times, and expect Hendrickson to indulge in it once in a while.
• Balking Summoned Spirit: Denzel, a Holy Knight of Britannia, keeps one emergency ace in the hole as his personal Godzilla Threshold: a member of the Goddess Race resides in his sword and when backed into a corner, he intends to becoming its vessel at the cost of his own existence. Upon doing so when facing several powerful demons, the Goddess elects to flee in his body rather than face down the threat he gave his life to summon her to face.
• Bait-and-Switch Character Intro: Most of the title characters are introduced like this. In particular, Meliodas is introduced as some kid who tends a bar and has some unnamed business with the Sins, before revealing his true nature during a fight a little later. He's also seen acting vaguely threatening and like he's about to get into a fight with some of his customers... before it's shown that he was just teasing and is actually a very amiable individual.
• Barbarian Tribe: A barbarian horde decided to invade Britannia. They were completely destroyed by Gilthunder and Howzer alone.
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: There are certain instances in the story wherein female characters are completely naked. Fortunately though, their naughty bits aren't drawn for censorship reasons.
• Barrier Warrior: Griamore's power, Wall, allows him to create a force field around him.
• Batman Grabs a Gun: Meliodas is a pacifist that prefers to not kill and even not use actual weapons in lieu of his strength. However upon facing the Armored Giant, an opponent that can't be defeated by pacifist means, Meliodas is forced to break these particular personal vows as they are severely hindering him from doing the right things necessary.
• Because You Were Nice to Me:
  • Diane fell in love with Meliodas because he treated her like a regular girl and not like a Giant.
  • Ban also decided to follow Meliodas because Meliodas was the only one besides Elaine to accept, in Ban's own words, a shitty person such as himself.
• Behind the Black: Diane is a 30-foot-tall woman. Characters routinely fail to notice her until she's right next to them, even if she's directly in their field of view.
• Berserk Button: For Meliodas, it's stealing his sword. Ban tried to take it... once. He still has the scar, which is saying something since no other weapon has left a lasting mark on him. In the present time, hurting Elizabeth is also a good way to make Meliodas beat the crap out of you.
• Betty and Veronica: Elizabeth and Diane to Meliodas. Elizabeth's a royal Betty due to being a generally calm regular human while Diane's a common Veronica due to being a clingy easily jealous exotic giantess.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Each of the Sins, when their Berserk Button has not been pushed, are among the nicest people you could meet. Press that button, though, and they don't hold back.
  • Meliodas in particular, due to being the Sin of Wrath, takes this to extremes. It's implied that the last time he really lost his temper it resulted in an entire kingdom being blasted off the map.
• Big Red Devil: The Demon who attacked the Forest of the Fairy King is depicted as this.
• Bizarrchitecture: In a side story, the Vampire King's Space Master ability does this to the Edinburgh castle. Think the inverted castle from Symphony of the Night with some parts not only facing upwards but some also facing in all the other directions. All of this combined and arranged in a mess that can be best described as looking similar to a meat pie that Meliodas cooked.
• Black Eyes of Evil: A common feature amongst demons and those affected by demon blood.
• Bubbly Waitress: The Boar's Hat Tavern often employs the women of the team (and Gowther) as the hostesses/waitresses. As such, Elizabeth and Diane bring their cheerful and optimistic personalities to their duties, serving food and ale with smiles and being bubbly and upbeat. Subverted by Merlin, who remains her typical stoic, intellectual self.
• Busman's Holiday: Before they were framed, Meliodas would usually manipulate the team into taking trips together to places like the beach or mountains on their days off. During their play at the beach, they disturbed a kraken that was hurting a local village, and in the mountains destroyed a swarm of dangerous monster bugs plaguing the forest. No one, save Merlin, seems to have noticed this manipulation.

C-E

• Cain and Abel:
  • Dreyfus and Zaratras with the former having killed the latter and framing the Sins for it in order to take over the position of Great Holy Knight.
  • Kay and Arthur per the mythos. When younger, Kay is shown to be a Big Brother Bully who attempted to seriously his younger adopted brother Arthur.
  • Meliodas and his two demon brothers have this dynamic. They are both the Cain to his Abel.
• Call-Forward: The Ban OVA adds a scene near the end credits which references him using his own blood to provide sustenance to the seed that Elaine gave him.
• Calling Your Attacks: This happens in virtually every single episode of the anime; whenever a character uses a magic-based attack, they will always call out its name and a text pop-up in both Kanji and English will appear.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: In the Great Battle Festival arc, Meliodas and Ban spend the entirety of their first fight arguing over whether Elizabeth or Elaine is better... While defeating the bird demons relentlessly attacking them without even realizing it.
• Central Theme: Sins and atoning for said sins is a recurring theme within the series.
• Chekhov's Armoury: The story has a number of things that later turn out to be important much later.
  • When Meliodas and Gilthunder meet in the forest, the Holy Knight arrogantly declares he is stronger than any of the Sins. This statement turns out to be an established trust passcode between them if Gilthunder was ever in a desperate situation.
  • Elizabeth's accounts of what to her father and sister in two separate incidents in the past, and the incident wherein both Meliodas and Dr. Dana recover from otherwise fatal injures are brought up again later as it's revealed that Elizabeth has healing powers.
  • The pendant that Veronica gives to Elizabeth prior to the Fighting Festival becomes important during the chaos ensues during it.
  • The magical spheres Ban swiped from Giula in Byzel end up being fundamental when he uses a Hyper Recovery one to heal Diane and Gilthunder from almost lethal injuries.
  • The seed that Elaine gives to Ban in his backstory is brought up later in the story as it's planting is the reason as to how Ban become the new Fairy King.
  • The book that Dreyfus was reading when Gil and Howzer came back from defeating the barbarians, the literal slip up he had that almost killed Elizabeth, the cloth he used to stop her bleeding, all turn out to be important much later on as it's revealed that there's some sort of darker force controlling Dreyfus behind the scenes.
• Chekhov's Gag: Meliodas fondles Elizabeth's butt in the Forest of White Dreams, somehow swiping her panties in the process. This is what tips him off that she's the real thing, as she was the only "Elizabeth" to refuse to jump, as she had nothing to prevent what would normally be a Panty Shot from being far more revealing.
• Chekhov's News: Arthur is mentioned early on in the manga. Come 50 or so chapters later, and he appears in person.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Diane gets really jealous when Meliodas interacts with other girls than her, most notably Elizabeth. Sometimes her jealousy is expressed subtly and sometimes it's expressed as large as her size.
• Clothing Switch: For the cover of chapter 19, four of the characters then are presented as having their attires switched. Ban wears Meliodas' clothes and vice-versa, while Diane does the same with Elizabeth.
• Colossus Climb: Meliodas, Arthur, and several Camelot Holy Knights do this when they scale the gigantic golem Albion.
• Compressed Adaptation: The A-1 Pictures anime adaptation manages to squeeze the entire first major story arc of the manga into its first 24 episode season. Said story arc had over 100 chapters worth of content.
• Cool Helmet: Many characters in the series wear cool helmets that look like they came straight out of Berserk.
• Cool Sword: As you might imagine, there are a number of these.
  • Wrecked Weapon: Meliodas' Dragon Handle, of course.
  • BFS: Simon's katana fits the bill.
  • Oddly Shaped Sword: Gilthunder wields one.
  • Serrated Blade of Pain: Slader's BFS is also one of these.
  • Divine Sword Escanor... is really just Escanor's hand doing a karate chop, but with the results it gets, it might as well be called a sword.
• The Corruption: Demon's Blood is capable of killing creatures or turning them into Demons themselves.
• Crazy Workplace: The ex-Praetorian Guard of Liones was a squad of, essentially, whatever supernatural creature was not wanted by their own race. They were easily the strongest soldiers in the kingdom, but they did not have the patience or gentility to police civilians, much less aristocrats. After their exile, Meliodas formed a bar notable for the inedibility of its food and for being carried on the back on a giant pig, and the rest of the knights eventually joined (and this happened to begin with because a princess of the kingdom stumbled upon the bar while looking for them).
• Creative Sterility: Fairies lack certain imaginative things that humans normally have. These range from mundane yet otherwise unique looking helmets and clothes, to concepts such as "culture" and "philosophy".
• Crossover: Suzuki Nakaba, mangaka of the series, had a special Christmas crossover collaboration with Hiro Mashima of Fairy Tail wherein each of them did a short story with the other's characters. For the Seven Deadly Sins, the protagonists (before Gowther joined) visited Magnolia, the hometown of the Fairy Tail guild, for the holidays.
• Crystal Prison: Meliodas briefly gets trapped in a small crystal charm.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Hendrickson after drinking the blood of a grey demon and transforming into a hybrid delivers this to both the Seven Deadly Sins and a massive force of Liones' Holy Knights. Hendrickson single-handedly incapacitates Gowther, easily keeps Meliodas, Diane, King, and Ban at bay, and decimates dozens of Holy Knights with lethal magic, all while withstanding consecutive, devastating strikes that would kill a normal human or Holy Knight several times over and emerging virtually unscathed. But then Meliodas' demon seal is broken and he repays Hendrickson in kind.
• Dark and Troubled Past: A number of the Sins revealed so far have back stories which paint them as more than simply Sin-themed criminals. It's also a rule among them that they do not ask each other about their pasts.
  • Meliodas: He received his broken sword from a dying acquaintance. He also supposedly had bouts where he lost control of himself and destroyed a lot of stuff. He was formerly the leader of the Ten Commandments, he was so strong and respected by fellow demons that he was considered the worthy successor to the Demon King. Under certain circumstances he betrayed the whole Demon Clan and killed two of the Ten Commandments. This creates a gap in power that started the war and sealed the Demon Clan 3000 years ago.
  • Ban: He received his immortality when he tried to save a Fountain of Youth from a Demon. The destruction caused by the Demon unfortunately got blamed on him and his greed.
  • King: In relation to Ban, for not being the one who actually protected the fountain, he lost his sister and the forest he lived in was destroyed.
• Darkest Hour: Meliodas died at the hands of Estarossa. A month after that Brittania has fallen to the Demon Clan led by the Ten Commandments. People are desperate to find strong souls to sacrifice just so they can live.
• A Day in the Limelight: There's a number of side stories which focus solely on a particular character or two.
  • A short story involving Elizabeth and Hawk going on a simple shopping trip.
  • Ban's backstory which details how he became immortal and a criminal.
  • A short story showing Guila spending her time off with her little brother.
  • A short story of Gowther settling in his own niche of the Boar Hat Bar.
  • King's backstory which details why he left his forest home and how he became a criminal.
  • A short story that fleshes out more of Ban and Elaine's past.
  • A short story of how Arthur met King Baltra Liones.
• Deadly Ringer: Ruin, a Holy Knight and member of the Weird Fangs, uses a bell-topped staff that, when rung, allows him to inflict hypnotic hallucinations on his opponents.
• Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: Merlin's backstory involves her scamming both the Supreme Goddess and Demon King. Born with an incredible magical gift, both the Supreme Goddess and Demon King wanted her allegiance to their respective sides. Merlin, while still a young child, asked for blessings from each to decide whose side to join. From the Demon King, she received all the magical knowledge and protection from Goddess possessions and brainwashing. From the Supreme Goddess, she received Divine Protection that can ward off any level of curses or commandments. In short, she had the ultimate No-Sell on each side. With these in hand, she then refused to take either side. Their wrath at being played by this child resulted in both sides raining all manner of attacks on her hometown.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Diane's power, Creation, is an ability to bend iron like toffee, raise the ground like towers, and turn minerals into sand. It is an ability exclusive to her and other Giants due to their deep connection to nature.
  • Taken to extreme levels when she has her war-hammer Gideon and is capable of launching entire mountains into the air.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Gilthunder did this when visiting Bernia, which is known for their famous ale. Gilthunder mocked their efforts and when a boy, Mead, wanted to get even by putting a worm in his drink as a harmless prank, Gilthunder responded by plunging his sword into the ground and stopping the water flow, preventing the town from making their ale, nearly leading to their economic ruin since it's how they thrive. Given what we later find out, Gilthunder most likely did all of this in order to get Meliodas's attention.
• Distant Finale: The final chapter takes place years after the defeats of the Demon King and Cath, as it features the 10th birthday of Meliodas' and Elizabeth's son, Tristan.
• Distracted by the Sexy: While escaping from prison, Ban beats up Jericho and steals her clothes, leaving her in her underwear. When the other guards find her, she orders them to mobilize to find the prisoner as well as get her a new outfit. The guards spend several seconds blushing and staring at her before she yells at them to get moving.
• Distracting Fake Fight: One episode sees Meliodas and Ban forced to fight two-on-two with a pair of demons. Naturally, they blow off the fight and instead get into a physical argument about which of them has the hotter girlfriend. Their demon opponents die after trying to attack them while they are still arguing and get torn apart by the force of Ban and Meliodas' attacks on each other.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • The scene wherein Ban first meets Sennette almost looks like an attempted rape if it weren't for the fact that in reality Ban was only interested in the dagger in Sennette's possession. This nonetheless was apparently noticed and was therefore omitted in the anime adaption.
  • Ever since their first encounter wherein Ban stole her clothes, Jericho's been asking him to take responsibility especially since he, to quote Jericho, made her into a woman. Sounds like something one would say after a one night stand or so.
• Dogged Nice Guy: King really wants to spend some time with Diane. However due to varying circumstances and the fact that Diane only has eyes for Meliodas, he's really having a hard time. That is, until Diane's memories return.
• The Dreaded:
  • The Sins are feared and renowned throughout the kingdom as extremely legendary and powerful criminals.
  • On the other side, the Holy Knights are considered knights among knights who protect Britannia. They are supposed to be heroes but are terrifying beings with each one possessing enough power to match a country's army. They pull a collective face-turn once the possessed Hendricksen is defeated, though.
• Druid: Known as the sorcerers of the forest, druids are those who revere the Goddess Clan and have the distinction of casting a number of White Magic related spells. A number of characters within the series are descended from these druids. Amongst the druids also, there is a particular sect wherein the women act as Apostles of the Goddesses while the men serve as mere priests.
• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • In the anime, a number of the Sins' sacred treasures are depicted alongside their armored selves early on instead of the apparent placeholder weapons that they had in the manga.
  • In the anime, a number of races can be seen in the opening. Among them are Gray Demons.
  • Gowther apparently appears during the Vaizel Fighting Festival to regain Diane's weapon in the anime before his proper introduction as one of the forms◊ he can change to as detailed in a page◊ of volume 11 of the manga.
• Ecchi: Apart from actual fanservice scenes, the series stating it has some ecchi elements is usually advertised on the chapter covers.
• Empty Piles of Clothing: When Oslow the Black Hound first appears and attacks a pair of Holy Knights, it looks like he has devoured them with the only thing remaining of them being their clothes. Later, it's revealed that while he did eat them, he actually teleported them to another location excluding their clothes.
• Empty Shell: When a person's soul is pushed out of their body by a Demon, they becomes this.
• Enchanted Forest:
  • One is the Forest of White Dreams, a foggy forest inhabited by imps called Hide and Seekers and the location where Diane hid.
  • One forest is the Forest of the Fairy King, the home of King and Elaine, which unfortunately was burnt down by a demon.
  • One forest is the revived Forest of the Fairy King. Said forest was revived by Ban planting the seed given to him from Elaine in a new location. He did this at some point before allowing himself to be imprisoned in the Baste Dungeon.
• Enemy Civil War: It quickly becomes apparent that the Holy Knights are far from a unified front. The (highly permeable) lines are drawn across the factions of Grand Masters Hendrickson and Dreyfus, and they increasingly come to blows.
• Enemy Mine: King temporarily teams up with the Holy Knights in order to get at Ban when he believes the latter is the one responsible for his sister's death. He only sought Ban and not the other Sins though. The truce falls apart after being reunited with Elaine's ghost in the Capital of the Dead.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": King's name is just a title used by others as a reference to him being the Fairy King. His real name is Harlequin.
• Everyone Has a Special Move: It appears everyone has their own unique powers base on their personality.
• Everything's Better with Samurai: Simon from Dawn Roar is pretty much a samurai themed knight in an otherwise Arthurian based manga.
• Evolving Credits: The second opening sequence has several evolutions to both the opening narration and the sequence itself as the series goes on, showing the state of the kingdom, properly adding Gowther once he's introduced, and eventually showing every introduced Sin without their armor.
• Eyes Always Shut: Guila, of course.
• Exact Words:
  • Merlin enters into some negotiations with Zeldris to learn about Elizabeth and the situation in Camelot. Her entire act involves screwing with him with the exact words of her deal.
  • In exchange for handing over Merascylla the person won't attack the rest of the Sins. She does so but she then binds Merascylla's prison in her Perfect Cube to get more questions answered if he wants the spell undone.
  • When finishing these negotiations, the other party warns Merlin if she tries anything, he is ready to strike her down then and there. She swears saying, "...I won't do anything. I won't that is." Cue attack from a third party behind Zeldris.
  • "The one who absorbs all ten commandments shall become the demon king." Really means whoever absorbs all the commandments will have their body taken over by the Demon King and become his new body through Demonic Possession.
  • The And the Adventure Continues ending of the first season of the anime centers around this. Elizabeth is feeling sad about her adventures being over and the Sins leaving to go on another quest, when suddenly Hawk's Mom walks past the castle, and Meliodas climbs down and points out that her quest was to find the Seven Deadly Sins, and she only found six of them (Escanor only appears as an unvoiced background character in flashbacks in the first season). So she's free to join them on their travels until they find the final missing Sin, which she does.
• Expy: The various armors worn by the Holy Knights make them look like the New Band of the Hawk from Berserk. Fitting as the second generation of Holy Knights bolster their ranks by having potential members drink Demon's blood, an act that's basically a Deal with the Devil which, while differing in method, is what the New Band of the Hawk also did. Incidentally, this act also makes them evil expies of the Grey Wardens from Dragon Age: Origins due to the method of how both join their respective orders.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Diane's power, Creation, allows her to control metal as well as dirt.

F-H

• Facial Composite Failure: It's a Running Gag that most of the Sins wanted posters are "off" for one reason or another. Sometimes this is justified in story but other times it just seems like they had no idea what the Sin in question looked like.
• Fan Disservice: Hendrickson arguably qualifies when he's activated the Red Demon blood in him and gotten all buffed up. He looks more muscular and his shirt's gone, and his hair is longer and his beard gone for those who like that...but he's also half covered in dark oozey demon blood at all times holding him together.
• Fanservice:
  • The series has its share of both Mr. Fanservice and Ms. Fanservice characters along with its ecchi moments.
  • In the anime, the camera suddenly seems supsiciously fond of Hendrickson's collar and shoulders after he enters Gray Demon form.
  • Chapter 132 essentially is a shirtless, all-male training montage. It opens with this tantalizing shot, and then Howzer, Gilthunder, Griamore, Slader, Gowther, Meliodas and Arthur all start their training.
  • The Sins on Vacation special chapter features the titular Sins in swimwear. It includes Ban and Escanor in speedoes, and Diane wearing particular tight fitting giant two piece within the chapter itself. Special mention however goes to Merlin who basically goes naked with nothing but an enchanted seemingly transparent but actually light refracting two piece made from floating water barely covering her "important parts".
• Fantastic Racism:
  • Certain non-human races tend to be either feared or oppressed by humans depending on the situation. One example would be the mistreatment of werefoxes. Not all humans though have this mentality against other races and it doesn't apply to all races however, those humans that have such feelings tend to cause enough conflict for others from other races to form a bad opinion on humans in general.
  • Humans in turn tend to be looked down by most other races such as giants, fairies, and demons. They're seen as either being too weak with their short lifespans and frail bodies, or too greedy.
• Fastball Special: Unorthodox method of transportation between towns during emergencies, courtesy of Diane. Most Sins lack safe landing strategies, but make up for it by being Nigh-Invulnerable or possessing Healing Factor.
• Fertile Blood: Ban's immortality-infused blood restores the Fairy King's Forest which he periodically returns to water the revived Sacred Tree.
• Filler: The second "season" of the anime consists of four episodes of slice-of-life antics of the Sins while they help rebuild Liones. The actual story resumes in season three.
• First-Episode Twist: The main character is Meliodas, captain of the Seven Deadly Sins
• Flight: This is King's specialty, as he and his spear are able to levitate effortlessly.
• Flying Seafood Special: During the Vaizel Fighting Festival to regain Diane's weapon, Guila and the Holy Knights with her arrived at there riding upon flying manta ray-like creatures.
• The Force Is Strong with This One: Various characters, including the Sins, are capable of sensing the power of strong individuals.
• Foreshadowing:
  • On the cover of chapter 26, the two kids that the Sins met before entering the Capital of the Dead are seen on a crystal. The only other person on a crystal is the deceased Elaine. These foreshadows that the kids were Dead All Along.
  • During the party celebrating Gowther being reunited with the rest of the Sins, Gowther being able to identify who King was based on his smell is brought up. Upon inspecting whether this was true, one of comments was that his smell has a nostalgic feel to it. This foreshadows Diane and King's shared past that would later be revealed as King's flowery smell is one of the things Diane still vaguely remembers from it.
  • When Meliodas quickly recovers from the injuries he sustained while fighting Gilthunder, it's easy to shrug off due to him being ridiculously strong and durable to begin with. However, when Dr. Dana also miraculously recovers from a nearly-fatal wound, it foreshadows Elizabeth's healing powers, which aren't officially revealed until dozens of chapters later.
  • Dreyfus declares a truce so that the Holy Knights and the Sins can deal with the threat posed by Hendricksen. Gowther inquires "Which one of you is saying that?", and though Dreyfus blows it off, it's later clear that Gowther was asking whether the words came from Dreyfus or from the demon possessing him.
  • Estarossa actually being a part of the goddess clan, specifically Mael, was foreshadowed in chapter 113, in Elizabeth's dream where she saw "Estarossa" wearing the symbol of the goddess clan engraved on to his armor in various places
• Four Is Death: A spell called "Dead Man's Revenge" is triggered by the appearance of a rune-like symbol that happens to look like a sideways 4.
  Denzel: Those stricken by this sacred seal will not only be haunted by the ghosts of those they've slain but those very ghosts will also seek their very lives until they fall dead.
  • And Dreyfus/the demon possessing him has killed a lot of people.
• Fountain of Youth:
  • Ban gained his immortality from drinking from an actual one. In addition, this also fixed his body at the age he gained his immortality thus granting him an eternally youthful body. Though his hair can still get longer and he can grow a beard, things that would make his appearance look older, these are just minor superficial changes as he still retains a physical body that never grows old.
  • After drinking some Red Demon blood which he altered based on the results of his experiments, Hendrickson turns himself into a younger albeit more muscular version of himself with demon abilities. He doesn't stay too long in this form and much later reverts to his former self.
• Fox Folk: The Beastmen known as Werefoxes are anthropomorphic foxes.
• Frame-Up:
  • Prior to the story, the Seven Deadly Sins were framed for killing the Great Holy Knight and Gilthunder's father, Zaratras, and trying to overthrow the kingdom.
  • Diane was falsely accused by a couple of Holy Knights of killing her leader and several of their comrades. Her accusation led to her being recruited for the Seven Deadly Sins.
• From Bad to Worse: Meliodas gets himself into a very nasty position in Liones when he jumps in to attack Hendrickson. Gilthunder arrives to take up the fight while Hendrickson focuses on Arthur. In the manga, Gilthunder and Meliodas fight evenly but Meliodas gets the upper hand. In the anime, this is reversed, and Gilthunder repeatedly gets the advantage on Meliodas. In both versions, before they can finish, Hendrickson makes short work of Arthur and jumps in, giving Meliodas a hell of a time just surviving. And then Vivian decides to join the fight for more fun, turning it into a three-on-one.
• Gecko Ending:
  • The first season of the anime ends with the Sins being stated to be heading over to Camelot in order to help Arthur. However before that happens, Meliodas along with the rest comes to Elizabeth in the midst of a meal with her family in order to invite her to continue their adventures together as they haven't yet reunited with Escanor. She accepts and is whisked away. As they're leaving, Ban decides to go somewhere but promises to return. He leaves with King deciding to follow him, a decision by both of them that no one really seems to mind. It basically all ends with an And the Adventure Continues scenario for the main characters. After the credits, a scene shows Gil, Howzer, and Griamore investigating some books that Dreyfus had set up a season Sequel Hook.
  • Although the first season of the anime concludes with an original ending with Elizabeth leaving with the Sins, the second season quickly rectifies this in its very first episode. It's handwaved that this was All Just a Dream that Elizabeth had.
• Ghostly Gape: During the nightmare sequence in which Gowther Mind Rapes Dreyfus with his powers, the still impaled and bleeding corpse of Zaratras, Dreyfus' brother whom he murdered, appears. As Dreyfus cowers in guilt at this apparition, its eyes and mouth become dark empty abysses which spew out blood all over Dreyfus.
• Girl in the Tower: Discussed by Gowther when he, Meliodas, and Ban try to guess wherein the capital of Liones Elizabeth had been taken to when she is kidnapped by the Holy Knights.
• Glamour: Inverted with King. Instead of transforming into a more youthful form, he can take on a older, fatter one. He originally used it as a form of respect rather than a disguise. However after reuniting with the Meliodas, he unintentionally uses it for a wide range of reactions for various hilarious situations.
• Gluttonous Pig: Hawk is often seen eating any leftovers that may have fallen one way or another. He particularly prides himself on this fact.
• Golem
  • Diane is capable of making two golems called Fillet and Loin to serve her.
  • The gigantic Albion golems are mountain-sized weapons created by the Demon Clan.
• Good-Guy Bar: The Boar Hat serves as the base of operations for Meliodas and the Seven Deadly Sins. It's actually a mobile home carried on the back of Hawk's mom, a giant green pig, essentially making it a literal Boar Hat. Incidentally since the Sins are criminals in the setting, it can be seen as a Bad Guy Bar from a different perspective.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: Ban usually doesn't bother dodging despite his immense speed and gets pretty roughed up in his fights. King tries to circumvent this by turning Ban to stone when he knew Ban wouldn't bother dodging his attack. Also used to show just how powerful Meliodas is as he is the only person to ever leave a lasting mark on Ban.
  • Jericho's power basically serves as an antithesis as she's the only person whose attacks Ban doesn't immediately heal from.
  • Gowther also tanks an attack that would have killed a normal human to gain the upper hand in a fight.
• Great Offscreen War: In the ancient past, there was a great war in which the Human, Fairy, Goddess, and Giant Clans united together to fight and seal away the Demon Clan.
• The Great Serpent: * While Melascula "The Faith" normally appears as a human-like woman, her true form is that of a giant white cobra, having been a normal snake that was turned into a giant demon when she found herself in the Demon Realm.
• Handy Mouth: During the Byzel Tournament, Hawk the pig proves to be rather proficient in making a doll-sized dress with just his mouth from a single piece of cloth for a shrunken Elizabeth.
• Happily Adopted: Elizabeth is actually not the daughter of King Baltra Liones yet she's been happily adopted by the royal family as evidenced wherein Baltra desperately tried to get her down from a tree despite not knowing how to climb. Elizabeth's recounting of the incident opened up a boy from Bernia, Mead, into explaining the troubles the town had with the Holy Knights. He too was Happily Adopted by the entire town when his parents died from an epidemic while traveling through the town. He initially thought he wasn't but after Meliodas' help, learned the truth.
  • Also, as far as Elizabeth is concerned, much as the King is her father, his biological daughters are her sisters.
• Having a Blast: The Holy Knight Guila has the ability Explosion, which creates explosions with her rapier.
• Healing Factor: Ban, the Fox's Sin of Greed, has this as one of his two abilities. He is literally unkillable by conventional means, but unconventional means like being Taken for Granite still pose much danger for him. It is unlikely to kill him,but...
• Hellfire: The fire demons produce is a special kind. It was what destroyed the Forest of the Fairy King which was otherwise immune to regular fire.
• Heroic Ambidexterity:
  • According the first Databook, Dreyfus who is one of the two main antagonists of the first part is ambidextrous. With the rank of Great Holy Knight, he is incredibly strong, and comes close to killing one of the main protagonists in combat.
  • The first databook also mentions that Gowther is ambidextrous. His ambidexterity is best shown when he wields his Sacred Treasure, a pair of twin arm-mounted Energy Bows with which he can simultaneously shoot a Magic Missile Storm of energy based arrows.
• Heroic RRoD: While Sunshine gives great power to Escanor Mael reveals to him that the strain of the Grace has damaged the Escanor's body to the point where taking it again would kill him.
• Hidden Villain: The Living Shadow that is possessing Dreyfus. Strongly hinted to be the instigator of all the bad things that have happened to this point.
• High Fantasy: The series has a high fantasy feel what with its title characters who fight against enemies who are numerous and corrupt in a fantastical world filled with fairies and other magical beings.
• High School AU: A special side spinoff which advertises Uno Fog Bar hairspray features the various characters in a high school setting. Of note, Diane is depicted as a normal sized human, a number of the characters just simply wear school uniforms over their full body armor, and Gilthunder is a Student Council President who has a bit of an Out-of-Character Moment when his hairspray is stolen.
  • Later, a more proper High School AU spinoff based was created. It's however separate from the first incarnation due to some differences. Noteworthy is that Diane is a giant school girl rather than a regular human one.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • The Ten Commandments aren't immune to their own powers and abilities. This means if Galan, the Commandment of Truth, lies, his own power will petrify him.
  • Gowther uses his usual mental attack to destroy Escanor in a match between them. However, while the Illusion!Merlin decries Escanor, claiming him to be someone she would never love, it makes Escanor realize it doesn't matter if Merlin ever reciprocates. Her presence in his life is all he needs. It is hope, kind, warm, and guiding, just like the sun. Cue him transforming into Dayform in the middle of the night.
• Hufflepuff House: Out of the five races, the Giants and Fairies get the short end of the stick in regards to the plot compared to the other three.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl:
  • Ban and Elaine. Since Elaine is a fairy, this would be true of them even if Ban were not abnormally tall for a human, at around seven feet tall. As a result, with her feet on the ground, Elaine doesn't even reach Ban's chest.
• Humans Are Special:
  • In King's backstory, it's stated that despite humans having shorter lives than fairies and often warring with one another, they are capable of making things like uniquely looking helmets and clothes, and have concepts such as "culture" and "marriage". These otherwise mundane things make humans fascinating to fairies and the like.
  • Gowther, who is clearly something that isn't human, finds the heartfelt human stories to be fascinating.
  • In an omake showing more of Ban and Elaine's backstory, Elaine questions human greed, namely desireing more than is necessary, for which Ban gives the answer that because human lives are so short they want to leave a mark on the world.
• Human Pincushion: The Great Holy Knight Zaratras was found propped up dead this way with several spears and swords sticking through him.
• Hurricane of Euphemisms: Howzer unleashes a set of these when fighting a human-sized Diane in a tournament, which Meliodas commends him for. Too bad Howzer didn't actually mean them that way, going so far as to Face Fault and clear the air before continuing his match.
  Howzer: Just lie back and leave everything to my magic hands! I promise it won't hurt. I'm gonna make you feel like you're flyin'!
  Meliodas: That guy's amazing! Everything he says is sexual.
  

I-K

• Identical Grandson: In King's backstory, the grandson of a hunter he met looks exactly like the original hunter albeit without a telltale scar.
• Immortality Inducer: The Fountain of Youth which granted Ban's immortality is this. Typically just simply drinking a small amount of the magical waters that flowed from the eponymous cup would prolong a person's lifespan by a number of years, how much depended on the amount drunk. Drinking the entire contents of the cup though grants eternal youth and immortality however at the cost of the cup losing its ability to produce its life sustaining waters, hence was part of the case that led to Ban becoming immortal.
• Immortality Seeker: Ban sought out the Fountain of Youth in order to become immortal. His reason for doing this was that he believed that if he lived long enough, something good would eventually happen for him. He gave up this quest when he learned that it would destroy the forest. Unfortunately, he still became immortal via Elaine's Heroic Sacrifice.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
  • The Great Holy Knight Zaratras was impaled to death with several spears and swords through his body.
  • Ban is sometimes the victim of this but survives it due to being immortal.
• Impossible Thief:
  • Ban is capable of stealing an object a great distance away, and even an opponent's heart with a blunt three-stick nunchaku without any attachment. He can even steal a person's stats and power, like taking Meliodas' strength during one fight, or a vampire's awareness of being full and the vampire finds itself now a blood-filled balloon, immovable and an easy target.
  • At one point, Meliodas manages to remove the panties Elizabeth is wearing despite both of her feet being planted firmly on the ground.
• Idiot Crows: Not with a crow per se but with a bird with a similar call that nonetheless fulfills the trope. After the incident with the Vaizel Fight Festival to regain Diane's weapon, Hawk proudly claims to himself aloud that he almost defeated Guila in their last battle. Cue a nearby bird making a call that sounds like "Idiot" in Japanese in light of his statement. For good measure, the bird even poops on Hawk.
• Inspector Javert: Due to whoever framed the Sins as well as various rumors, Elizabeth's sister, Veronica, steadfastly believes the Sins are manipulating Elizabeth for something. From what we've seen of the Sins' pasts however, it's obvious she's not getting the full story.
• Interspecies Romance:
  • King, who is a fairy, is in love with Diane, who is a giant.
  • Elaine, another fairy and King's sister, is in love with Ban, a human.
  • Diane in turn had a massive crush on Meliodas, a demon. While she loses her memory of King twice, she does regain them and falls back in love with him.
  • Meliodas and Elizabeth; there's a few reasons that the guy is a lot older than he looks. It turns out that their's is probably the worst case in the series. Meliodas is a high ranking demon while Elizabeth was an equally high-ranking goddess, who died and has since been repeatedly reincarnated. And there's no indication that any of her 106 reincarnations have been anything like a demon, and were in all probability human.
• Jerkass Gods: The leaders of the Demon and Goddess clans cursed Meliodas and Elizabeth for falling in love. Meliodas never aged past the day he was cursed and Elizabeth is reincarnated, destined to meet him and fall in love. However over time her memories will resurface of their past life and three days later, she will die to begin the process anew with Meliodas having to keep watching her be killed over and over no matter what he does. Ironically, for two leaders set to kill each other, their disgust at their champions loving each other is the one thing they agreed on.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In Ban's backstory, when he went after the elixir of immortality, Elaine told him that if he were to take the elixir, the forest surrounding it would die. Ban promptly decided that it wasn't worth it (claiming that the wildberries used in one of his favorite drinks was grown in that forest). He may be a thief, but he is not a monster.
• Just Following Orders: This is how a goddess defends herself and the actions of her fellows when it is revealed they killed all the prisoner demons and demonic children they held captive because of orders from the higher ranking goddesses. Derrierie is unimpressed and kills the goddess and her host in a furious rage.
• Knight Templar: Apart from being actual knights, the Liones Holy Knights are willing to overthrow their king, subjugate and kill innocent civilians, and other atrocities in order to prepare for a Holy War that was prophesied to come. They're also willing to use a Demon to enhance their powers.

L-N

• Lady and Knight: Veronica and Griamore have this dynamic.
• Lampshade Hanging: It is amazing what a lack of a small beard, longer hair, and no Hellish Pupils can change. Dreyfus has to make sure the man he's talking to in his own memories is really Hendrickson.
• Land Shark: Sandcrawlers are carnivorous desert monsters capable of swimming through ground as if it were water and basically look like seal shark amphibian things. Being around the size of Hawk at their smallest, they typically prey on small creature and thus are considered low on the danger level. They however are very territorial and would attack anything that enters their domain such as people and horses. Furthermore, Sandcrawlers can get really big and those that matured into full-blown adults are known as Earthcrawlers. Significantly larger, Earthcrawlers can span dozens of feet long and are extremely formidable in power. There have even been documented cases of not only buildings but also Tyrant Dragons in the stomachs of the larger ones and those exceeded beyond 100 feet in size. Earthcrawlers can even get so big that they can easily swallow a regular sized giant in one bite with room to spare. Many Sandcrawlers and their adult forms the Earthcrawlers are found in the labyrinth of the Vaizel Fighting Festival hosted by the Ten Commandments due to having been displaced when the massive structure was formed.
• Laser-Guided Karma: In her past, Diane didn't go for the kill and spared the lives of some barbarians who fought her and Matrona. When the Knights of Liones betrayed Diane and Matrona, capturing Diane and leaving Matrona for dead, one of the barbarians Diane sparred arrives, and saves Matrona's life.
• Lean and Mean: Galan of the Ten Commandments' Truth who looks like a skeletal suit of armor.
• Lethal Chef: Meliodas. Under his ownership, the Boar Hat tavern became famous as having the best ale around and the absolute worst food.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: While the Sins' antics can be charming and quirky, once they decide to cut loose... run.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!:
  • The Sins split up when they came across the corpse of the Great Holy Knight, Zaratras, and were surrounded by the Knights of the kingdom. A main plot point of the story is Putting the Band Back Together after a ten-year separation.
  • Meliodas invokes this again by angering and trolling the Ten Commandments to do this trope. He justifies it because if they are apart, aiming to reclaim their power, they will be easier to defeat than if they are all in one group.
• Light Is Not Good: The Holy Knights are the equivalent of paladins, and many of them are incredibly cruel.
  • The higher members of the Goddess Clan are hardly any better, especially Rueduciel, who behind his benign façade is a genocidal maniac prejudiced against demons. If Cursed By Light is canon, the Supreme Deity is worse.
• Lightning Lash: Galla of the Six Knights of Black fights with an energy infused whip. By spinning it into a circle it can release a blast of energy.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: Dreyfus is an ambitious Well-Intentioned Extremist Knight Templar who won't let anything stand in his way, even going as far as to stage a coup against his king. Dreyfus' son Griamore is a loyal and devoted knight who has sworn to protect one of the kingdom's princesses. Their contrast is even highlighted by their powers. Dreyfus' power is to literally blast through anything in his way. Griamore's a Barrier Warrior. Despite their contrasts though, Dreyfus is a "Well Done, Dad!" Guy who cares deeply for his son.
• Locked in the Dungeon: When the Holy Knights took over the kingdom, Princess Margaret was locked in the dungeons. However, it seems like she did so on her own volition. Elizabeth as well gets locked in a different cell in the same dungeons along with Hawk who was accidentally carried along by a teleporting masked Holy Knight.
• Long-Lived: Fairies and Giants have extremely long lifespans compared to humans.
• Longevity Treatment:
  • The Fountain of Youth which granted Ban's immortality was normally this prior to certain events. The waters that flowed from it had rejuvenating powers and drinking them would add years to a person's lifespan, the number of which depended on the amount partaken. A mere lick of the waters would add ten years of life while a simple swallow would add a hundred. Drinking the entire contents of the cup grants immortality however at the cost of what the waters were actually used by the Fairy Clan for. The waters from the Fountain of Youth in truth were used to sustain the Fairy King's Forest. When Ban drank the entire contents of the cup and gained his immortality during that infamous incident in his past, the lifeblood of that forest which could've healed it from the damage suffered that day was lost or so it was believed.
  • Though the original Fairy King's Forest was lost, Ban was able to create a new one with the seed Elaine gave him. To sustain it in the absence of the original Fountain of Youth, Ban uses his own blood to help it grow as he is essentially the new vessel for the Fountain of Youth that pours forth life.
• Lord Country: Princess Elizabeth and the rest of the royal family share their surname with the name of their kingdom, Liones.
• Love Confessor: Chapter 110 "Confession" has Elizabeth confessing to Diane she's in love with Meliodas and in return Diane confesses she has realized she's in love with King.
• Love Dodecahedron: Meliodas is protective of Elizabeth and is fond of groping her, though it's unclear what exactly he feels when he's doing it and if he might be seeing her as his deceased lover, Liz. Elizabeth herself is definitely in love with him, saying it feels like she's known him for a very long time. It is later revealed that Elizabeth is Liz's reincarnation, and Meliodas is perfectly aware of this (although she isn't). When she is first introduced, Diane is initially in love with Meliodas for being nice to her in the past however her feelings aren't reciprocated. King, in turn, is in love with Diane due to a shared past however his feelings are likewise initially not reciprocated due to complicated matters. When she regains her memories of the past, however, Diane later realizes she's actually in love with King. The relationship though is hampered partly due to Diane not making her feelings more clear to King, and due to him being oblivious to them as result of him deciding to completely give up pursuing a relationship with her so that she could be with Meliodas. From the sidelines, Howzer at least greatly respects Diane, possibly more, though he's not much of a factor in all of this.
• Love Triangle:
  • Gilthunder and Princess Margaret are in love with one another. Vivian however is absolutely obsessed with Gilthunder. So much so that she took Margaret hostage when they found out who really killed Gil's father in order put him on her own personal leash. Said act caused Gilthunder to adopt a Jerkass act to protect Margaret.
  • Ban and Elaine are in love with each other despite life and death separating them. Complicating this however is that Jericho, despite refusing to accept it herself, has apparently fallen in love with Ban after he saved her after she transformed into a Demon.
• Magic Knight: Many characters from both the main protagonists and main antagonists fit this description as they are both inhumanly strong and possess magical abilities.
• The Magnificent Seven Samurai: The eponymous Seven Deadly Sins are seven extremely powerful criminals who in order to atone for heinous crimes, became knights for the Liones Kingdom.
• Major Injury Underreaction: The more badass a character is, the more likely it is they will display this. Frequent offenders are Meliodas (thanks to his sheer power - plus he takes a fist to the face with the most deadpan of expressions every time he's punished for groping Elizabeth), Ban (who has the most potent Healing Factor this side of fiction) and Gowther (who, being a golem, is barely inconvenienced by such little things as decapitation and dismemberment).
• Mark of the Beast: As Meliodas becomes more and more demonic he gets covered in a black mark that spreads as he gets stronger and stronger and is changed into a variety of offensive shapes in his fight with Helbram. He later learns to control it to the point that he can concentrate it in a small spot.
• Mayfly–December Romance: Elaine, a more than 700 year old fairy, fell in love with Ban and, in reciprocation, he has sworn to make her his despite her being dead.
• Medieval European Fantasy: The general setting of the series is medieval fantasy complete with knights and princesses based around the time of Arthurian England.
• Miscarriage of Justice: Although the public generally have a favorable view towards the titular heroes due to them constantly showing up to save the day, it should not be forgotten that most members of the Seven Deadly Sins are not guilty of the attrocities they are branded with along with their sin. Had Bartra and Meliodas not intervened, most members would either have been executed or is currently serving jail time for a crime they did not commit.
  • Meliodas, the sin of Wrath, was accused of massacring the whole town of Danafor and wiping the town off the map, leaving a giant crater in its place. What really happened was Fraudrin, one of the Ten Commandments, has massacred all inhabitants of the town and killed Liz right in front of Meliodas. Unable to contain his wrath, he lost control of his power and destroyed the town. Although responsible for wiping the town off the map, all inhabitants are already dead prior to Meliodas going berserk.
  • Diane, the sin of Envy, was sentenced to death for killing Matrona, her mentor, out of jealousy and trying to cover it up by murdering the Liones Holy Knights who have witnessed the crime. What really happened was that the Liones Holy Knights had hired the giants as mercenaries in order to battle the foreign savages. However, that turns out to be a ruse as the real plan was to defeat Matrona in order for the holy knights to make a name for themselves. Matrona was hit by a poisonous arrow as a result of shielding Diane from their attacks. With Matrona succumbing to the poison after inflicting 330 casualties to the knights, Diane lost her will to resist and was subsequently arrested and framed by the survivors of the ambush group.
  • Ban, the sin of Greed, was sentenced to death for destroying the Fairy King's Forest and killing the Fountain of Youth's Holy Maiden, Elaine, all in order to satisfy his greed for immortality. Although Ban did try to drink the Fountain of Youth, he quickly changed his mind after Elaine explained to him that the forest will die without the fountain. Over the course of a week, Ban and Elaine quickly bonded and fell in love with each other. However, a red demon suddenly appeared at the forest and both were mortally wounded as a result of its attack. Elaine, in an act of self sacrifice, passed the Fountain of Youth to Ban and with his newfound immortality, successfully slew the red demon.
  • King, the sin of Sloth, was sentenced to 1000 years in prison for abandoning his duty as a Fairy King and turning a blind eye to the massacre of humans for centuries, which was committed by a fairy. What really happened was that a group of fairies including Helbram, King's best friend, were tricked by human merchants and butchered as merchandises. King, worried that the group of fairies hasn't returned yet, abandoned his position to seek out his friend and left Elaine to take care of the forest. King finally found the human merchants, but was attacked and knocked out, resulting in the loss of his memories. In the meantime, Helbram, who survived the attack, grew to resent humans and indiscriminately massacred them. It was only after King recovered his memories and found out that Helbram has survived, that he chose to kill Helbram in order to stop the indscriminate killing of humans.
  • Gowther, the sin of Lust, was accused of raping and murdering Princess Nadja of Liones. What really happened was that Nadja suffered from an illness and was dying as a result. After hearing her last words and passing away, Gowther, unable to accept the fact that she has died, tore out his own artifical heart in an effort to bring Nadja back to life. This attempt failed and to make matters worse, a few soldiers walked into her room at the time, mistaking Gowther for a rapist and a murderer.
• Mobile Kiosk: Due to the Boar Hat being carried on a giant pig, the bar can be moved around the land to serve various other customers in other places. As such, it often comes off as The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday to people who come across the bar for the first time.
• Mobile Maze: For the first round of the Vaizel Fighting Festival that the Ten Commandments host, a gigantic canyon-like labyrinth is erected from the very landscape itself to thin out those who've dared take up their challenge. The labyrinth automatically manipulates the earth it's made of to challenge those who dare enter it. The labyrinth's at least 300 foot tall walls which dwarf regular-sized giants move to prevent anyone from simply bypassing through it. This includes restoring broken parts to prevent anyone from simply breaking straight through, and shooting out pillars to block anyone simply jumping to the top of it. Also to prevent anyone from leaving, once someone enters the labyrinth through one of its many openings, it immediately blocks off the way used. Within the very labyrinth itself, there are various traps laid hidden in certain parts. To name a few, there are pillars that pop out from the ground and walls like springs to propel anyone who gets near them like a pinball, pitfall-like fissures that open up from otherwise solid ground into stalagmite laden pits which skewer anyone who drop into them, and revolving walls that separate people from one another. These along with whatever monstrous creature whose natural habitat was caught up in the labyrinth's creation provide the challenge.
• Mr. Fanservice:
  • Drink whenever Ban loses his shirt, and you'll be drunk in no time.
  • Escanor gets buff during the daytime, and daytime happens pretty often.
• Ms. Fanservice: Merlin and her barely-there outfit.
• Magic Mushroom: There are a variety of sentient mushroom-like creatures that produce magical spores. One of which is capable of shrinking people with spores if frightened.
• Muggle and Magical Love Triangle: Early in the series, the human princess Elizabeth and the giantess Diane both have feelings for Meliodas. It's eventually subverted when Diane moves on from Meliodas to be with the fairy King and Elizabeth is revealed to not be normal either, since she's Meliodas' goddess lover reincarnated as a human.
• Mushroom Man: There a variety of sentient mushroom creatures that inhabit Britannia.
• The Need for Mead: The Boar Hat is a typical fantasy tavern.
• Non-Indicative Name: The Boar's Hat tavern is actually located on the back, not head, of a female pig. But then again, the Sow's Backpack doesn't sound as good.
• Noodle Incident: When explaining how pathetically weak King is without his weapon, Meliodas recounted that King lost a fight with a mere cat who stole his snacks.
• Noodle People: The second Albion to appear is noticeably very skinny and noodle-like in body structure.
• Not Just a Tournament:
  • In the Vaizel Fighting Festival in which the Sins enter to regain Diane's holy weapon, some Holy Knights infiltrate the tournament in order to capture the Sins.
  • Another Vaizel Fighting Festival happens later on but it's held by the demons in order to acquire human souls more easily.

O-Q

• Odd Couple: Two of the Ten Commandments, Monspiet and Derriere, are often seen together. Monspiet is male, completely covered with a cloak, and a sophisticated speaker while Derriere is female, barely clothed, and is so rudely terse (her version of "long story short" is "straight from the ass") that Monspiet has to translate for her.
• Obstructionist Pacifist: Despite being the Sin of Wrath, Meliodas is a Technical Pacifist who chooses to be Willfully Weak and not kill his opponents. While this mindset works out early on in the manga as he and his fellow Sins are vastly more powerful than their opponents, it becomes a deterrent when they encounter the Armored Giant. Not only is this demon so strong that only using their full strength and killing it is the only way to stop it, but killing it is also the only merciful thing to relieve its suffering. Meliodas initially doesn't want to go this route and even hinders comrades of his that want to. It's only when the gravity of the whole matter is apparent to him that he decides to actually stop holding back.
• One-Man Army: Each individual Holy Knight is considered the equal of a thousand men. When the northern barbarians invade with an army of three thousand men, two knights working together are able to wipe the army out with minimal effort. High ranking knights and protagonists take it further, to the point that army of Holy Knights sent to intercept protagonists comment that they weren't even able to slow them down.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted with two characters named Elizabeth. One is the princess and the other, known more as Liz, was Meliodas' former lover. But then it turns out to be played straight after all.
• Only Knownby Their Nickname:
  • Meliodas' former lover is primarily referred to by her nickname Liz.
  • Most folk know King by his title rather than his real name of Harlequin. Of worth noting, King is a nickname he choose to call himself in reference to his title.
• Only Mostly Dead: Guila, one of the Holy Knights, stabs and puts herself in a state of near death in order to pursue the Sins to the Capital of the Dead, a place only either the dead or people with a shared memory with the dead can enter.
• Our Demons Are Different: They're HUGE, practically ogres, are incredibly destructive, and have multiple hearts. And those are the weakest ones.
• Our Fairies Are Different: King and his sister, Elaine, are long living child-like wingless humanoids capable of levitating themselves and other things. King, though, can transform himself into an older, fatter version of himself as he sees it as a form of respect when dealing with royals and others.
  • There is also Oslow who is a fairy type Hell Hound capable of teleporting people to other places by swallowing them.
  • Apparently King and Elaine are so far the only wingless fairies. Other fairies actually have wings.
• Our Giants Are Bigger:
  • Diane, the Serpent's Sin of Envy, is a very attractive young lady... who happens to be enormous. She's too big to fit in most buildings, and actually laments her great height, since it means she can't interact normally with Meliodas, on whom she has a major crush.
  • Bigger than Diane and apparently the few other Giants she supposedly knows is the mountain sized golem Albion.
• Our Vampires Are Different: Low ranking vampires aren't that powerful and act almost like mindless zombies. They likewise can be destroyed in a similar way via decapitation or complete dismemberment of the body. Higher ranking vampires possess magical abilities like other powerful characters within the series and are more sentient. They also can't be killed so easily through dismemberment as shown with Orlondi who manages to remain alive despite being reduced to only an eyeball by Ban. Vampires as a whole are twice as powerful during the night.
• Outlaw Town: Ravens, the town of thieves which Ban in his youth grew up in.
• Party of Representatives: As noted by Gowther, the main protagonists consists of individuals of different races and dispositions such as there being an immortal, a giant, a fairy, and a pig to name a few.
• The Pearly Gates: During the Holy War, a portal between the realm of Brittania and the Celestial Realm - home world of the Goddess Race and the Supreme Deity - exists at Stigma's headquarters the Light of Grace. When the demon armies launch an attack there, it is revealed to have been nothing more than a distraction so that Melascula and Gowther could convert the portal to the Celestial Realm into a portal into the Demon Realm. Or at least that was what Melascula intended, Gowther having tricked her into creating a portal to where his creator (also named Gowther) was imprisoned.
• Personality Powers: Well, not entirely. Ideas and experiences also play a fact in what magical power manifests in a person. Dreyfus explains that his power, Break, is a result of his indomitable will that allows him to forge on through any obstacle without faltering, and its primarily physical power allows him to decimate his enemies and overpower attacks thrown at him. Hendrickson's power is a little more event-based, as he developed it from desperately wanting to leave his job as a child, which involved watching corpses that were in danger of being filled with evil spirits and reanimated. The fact that it doesn't work on demons is implied to be because of his fear of them.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Meliodas, in his backstory, wiped out the kingdom of Danafor single-handedly when he lost control of his powers in the past.
  • All of the Sins are powerful enough to qualify, though best exemplified when Meliodas and Ban manage to destroy an entire prison simply by greeting each other over-enthusiastically.
• Play-Along Prisoner: Ban spent five years locked up in The Alcatraz, kept secure in his cell by being literally nailed to the wall, and kept on a starvation diet. When he learns that some of the other Sins are in the area, he pulls himself off the wall, yanks the spikes out of his body, and kicks the door to his cell down.
• Playful Pursuit: After regaining her 200-year-old memories of her time spent with Harlequin, Diane offers Harlequin one wish if he is able to catch her in a chase across the city. This is a callback to their shared history where he once offered her the same, and she asked that he "love her forever." He still does, and apparently, Diane reciprocates.
• "Pop!" Goes the Human: There's a 50/50 chance of this happening to a human who drinks demon blood.
• Power Levels: There's a power level system that determines an individual's abilities and it can be measured through a Magical Accessory called Balor's Power Eye. An individual's power level is the sum of three different stats. These stats are Power which measures an individual's magical abilities, Strength which measures their physical abilities, and Spirit which measures their willpower in battle. These power levels can determine whether or not a person is Holy Knight material. The standards for different kingdoms vary, but for the Liones kingdom, a power level of at least 300 is required for a person to qualify for knighthood.
• Powers Do the Fighting: King uses his Flying and Morph Weapon Chastiefol to do most of his fighting since he is a Squishy Wizard who apparently lost a fight with a mere cat who stole his snacks.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: While the anime adaptation by A-1 Pictures changes some things, some of said changes could be considered pragmatic in a way.
  • The scene wherein Ban meets Sennette in Baste Dungeon is omitted and how Sennette is freed is changed. Considering the original manga scene had a shirtless almost predatory Ban look like he was about to do something nasty to a shackled and helpless Sennette, the omission is understandable even if in reality Ban was only interested in the dagger that Sennette had in her possession. This change is a bit notable as most other displays of fanservice and violence have been left unaltered in the anime adaptation.
  • Ban's backstory is integrated into the main story as flashbacks rather than being a separate sidestory like in the manga. Only a few minor details are left out however the first OVA of the series covers the backstory in whole.
  • Starting with an Early-Bird Cameo during the Vaizel Fighting Festival to regain Diane's weapon, Gowther's introduction to the story and reunion with the rest of the Sins is changed significantly from what actually happened in the manga. It paints his relationship with the Armored Giant in a more sympathetic light though at the expense of his relationship with Pelliot as the latter and his friends are Adapted Out.
  • Like Ban's backstory, Guila's visit with her brother on her day off is integrated into the main story rather than as separate sidestory. The only difference from that of the manga is that it takes place after the Vaizel Fighting Festival to regain Diane's weapon rather than before it based on certain dialogue. Said dialogue though was excluded and the event's placement after the tournament better ties in with future events related to it.
  • King's backstory is likewise integrated into the main story as a flashback rather than as separate sidestory.
  • The anime has a crow usually seen in scenes with Gilthunder. Said crow is later revealed to be a chimera that's been keeping tabs on Gil, just like the one that's been keeping Margaret hostage.
• Prized Possession Giveaway: In a Season 3 Episode, set 45 years before the events of the series, Nadja comforts Gowther by gifting him one of her favorite storybooks, so he can enjoy reading it when he feels sad or depressed. Funnily, Gowther gives it back to her after he reads all of it by merely flicking through the pages in less than a minute.
• Product Placement: The first High School AU spinoff was basically created just to advertise the Uno Fog Bar hairspray.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: Typical members of the Giant clan. Their entire culture revolves around fighting until they get a glorious death on the battlefield, even if it means that their numbers are gradually dwindling.
• Psychological Projection: Variation: Diane's infatuation with Meliodas is actually her buried memories of her close childhood relationship with King projecting on to her Captain, who was the first person to be kind to her after King erased her memories. She had recently remembered and was on the verge of confessing to King when she got KO'd and forgot everything except that she's a member of the Giant Clan.
• Public Domain Artifact: The Fountain of Youth which granted Ban his immortality, a magical cup that's ever flowing out with waters that have life sustaining properties, is combination of two famous things from lore. Its name and the magical waters that pour out of it like a spring make it a clearly obvious reference to the mystical fountain of the same name. Given it's a cup and considering the series takes various inspirations from the Arthurian Legend, this is also a reference to the Holy Grail, an artifact that's sought after in many Arthurian stories.
• Pull Yourself Down the Spear: At one point Ban was impaled by an enemy tentacle and pulled himself closer so he could get in hitting distance.
• Purple Is the New Black: Hendrickson's Gray demon form is understandably a shadowy grey, but in the anime this is almost constantly rendered as a muted purple to prevent lighting problems.

R-T

• Really 700 Years Old: Most of the Sins are actually very old indeed. King (and his sister Elaine) are well over 1,000 years old; they're Fairies who naturally have very long lifespans; Diane is the closest to the trope's literal sense at around 750 even though she looks like an adolescent; she's a Giant. Merlin has been around since around the time of the last Holy War 3,000 years ago. She looks middle-aged, but her real body is stuck right around 12. In her case, she used her innate Infinity magic to halt her aging. Gowther is also from the last Holy War; he's an Artificial Human: a doll created by a powerful Demon (from which he got his name). Meliodas was a key figure in that same war; he's actually a Demon cursed with Immortality. Ban also has Immortality from the Fountain of Youth, and he exploits this in Purgatory to survive around 1,000 years (time-compressed) inside trying to save Meliodas.
• Recruiting the Criminal: Years after having been branded as criminals after their frameup, the Sins were sought after in order to battle the Holy Knights and save the kingdom.
• Red Light District: The Black Pleasure District of Bellford, which has food stalls and prostitutes.
• Reincarnation Romance: A particularly cruel Deconstruction between Meliodas and Elizabeth, as punishment for betraying their respective sides in the Holy War. Elizabeth loses her memories with each resurrection, but will always encounter and fall in love with Meliodas. However, should her memories return, she will inevitably, inescapably die 3 days later (should her memories not return, he gets to watch as she slowly ages and dies of natural causes while he remains young). Meliodas maintains his memories; his curse acting more like Resurrective Immortality, but he does lose his emotions between lives. The real gut-punch of the curse though is that he will always be forced to witness Elizabeth's inevitably deaths. He's had to watch the woman he loves die horribly 106 times already and according to him, It Never Gets Any Easier
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Several characters and elements are based on and named after various things found in the Arthurian legends:
  • The name of the Kingdom of Liones is obviously based on Lyonesse, a kingdom in the Arthurian mythos. This is also why it was translated as such by scanlators early on before how it was supposed to be spelled in English was revealed.
  • The country in which the series takes place is naturally named Britannia. The first Fanbook further cements this with a map that shows the setting is indeed set in Britain. The British Isles are later shown within the manga itself as the campaign of the Ten Commandments is discussed.
  • The main character Meliodas is named after Tristan's father.
  • The two Elizabeths are named after Queen Elizabeth who is the wife of King Meliodas.
  • One of the Sins is named Merlin but is a Gender Flipped version. And she's Arthur's right-hand while also being his mentor.
  • Ban and Elaine are named after Lancelot's parents.
  • Gowther is named after Sir Gowther from an eponymous medieval tale, who is mentioned in passing to be the half-brother of Merlin of Arthurian Legend, due to both being sired by the same demon on different women.
  • Escanor is named after Escanor, a knight of the Round Table who kidnapped a serving maid from Arthur's court and was killed by Sir Gawain for it.
  • Arthur and Camelot are naturally named as such based on the king and his capital.
  • The Albion golems used by the Demon Clan are named after the old name of Britain which is often related to King Arthur.
• Resurrection/Death Loop: A goddess was cursed to spend eternity being repeatedly resurrected as a human. Every time she regains her memories, she dies within three days and is reborn immediately as a new infant. Elizabeth is her 107th reincarnation.
• Rewatch Bonus: In the "Apostle of Destruction" chapter, a berserking Meliodas looks behind Elizabeth, and then shapes a magical wing that he flies away on. In hindsight it's fairly obvious that he was confused by her lack of wings, which she had in his oldest memories of her.
• Right Out of My Clothes: Happens to a pair of Holy Knights who get eaten by Oslow, King's pet Black Hound. They were actually teleported to a crowded village elsewhere. However, just to humiliate them, King had them teleported without their clothes.
• Romantic Spoonfeeding: Diane feeds King like this during a flashback of their time together when she was a child taking care of King while he had amnesia.
• Rotten Reincarnation: Elizabeth goes through this trope due to being afflicted with a durable curse by the Demon King as punishment for a rebellion in her first life, that causes the victim to reincarnate when they die and forget everything they did in their past lives only to unavoidably die in three days in some way or form once their memories return. Elizabeth has gone through this ordeal 108 times over in every new life she's reborn, and much of Meliodas' drive throughout the plot is to break the cycle.
• A Rotten Time to Revert: While training in Istar, Griamore gets transformed into a child because of a spell cast by the wraith Anaon, and Griamore stays like that for a while. During the aftermath of Fraudrin's death, the child Griamore is crying and cuddling in bed with Veronica. Seeking to comfort him, Veronica gives him a kiss on the forehead. To both's surprise, the kiss finally breaks the spell and Griamore returns to his normal form. Unluckily, his clothes don't grow to adult size with him and Guila finds a stark naked Griamore on top of Veronica in bed.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Elizabeth, in spite of being a princess, goes to great lengths to help the Sins on their quest, and often regrets not being able to do more. She saves two of the Sins by stealing the magic bell off a Holy Knight's staff... by biting the bell off while she's getting beaten bloody with it.
• RPG Mechanics 'Verse: The story has a number elements that makes it feel like a RPG. A medieval fantasy setting wherein almost everyone has a special magical skill, ranging from status buffs to healing spells. The power ranking used in the story in fact resembles something out of a RPG, as Power Levels are determined by three different stats. A lot of this makes sense as the author has stated that he has been influenced by Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of Final Fantasy, as he tries to emulate the same amount of effort and love that was taken in the creation of various characters from games such Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger.
• Rule #1: There are a set of rules that go with being a Sin. Rule number three is "A Sin shall ask no questions of another member's sin," according to Ban.
• Scare the Dog: When he is first encountered, the Black Hound Oslow is frightened by Ban and Meliodas when he senses their respective Killing Intent and Animal Battle Aura.
• Sealed Evil in a Can:
  • The Eternal Coffin of Darkness which is where the Demon Clan were sealed after they lost their fight against the other clans.
  • The vampires were sealed away by the Demon Clan because of their betryal. They were supposed to have been executed but Meliodas' brother was in love with one of them so he "spared" them. Unfortunately by the time Meliodas and the Sins fought them the vampire lover was tired of living as an immortal monster so she was killed by Meliodas.
• Selective Magnetism: Part of Ban's ability, Snatch, allows him to pull things to himself from great distances like a magnet.
• Seven Deadly Sins: Each of the Sins has a mark representing a sin, and has powers related to that sin. Their personalities and back stories, though, play with the sin they represent.
  • Wrath: Instead of a stereotypical warmongering Blood Knight, Meliodas is a trickster-like Mellow Fellow who is often seen fondling Elizabeth one way or another. In reality however, he is the type you don't want to see wrathful. His past with what happened with Danafor involved his wrath going completely out of hand on epic proportions. Because of what happened, he is generally a pacifist by nature unless push comes to shove. Due to a curse placed by his father the Demon King, Meliodas unfortunately becomes more of a typical wrathful Blood Knight as his emotions are stripped away each time he comes back from death.
  • Envy: Diane is generally envious of regular sized girls as she can't interact normally with Meliodas. In reality though, what she really envies deep down are people who are in love. With her abilities, she's considered as a prodigy even among her fellow giants, basically someone who others would be envious of. Her backstory involves her being accused of killing her fellow giantess Matrona out of jealousy. In reality, the real perpetrators of the crime were some Liones knights who wanted to be the envy of others via killing the two giantess, and she was made a scapegoat for the whole mess that occurred.
  • Greed: Ban is a thief that would steal anything that isn't nailed down. His backstory, however, is a subversion of greed as he decided not to steal the elixir of immortality upon learning the truth behind it and even unselfishly tried to save Elaine and it from a demon. He unfortunately was blamed for the destruction for the forest on accusation of greed.
  • Sloth: King carries around a pillow and generally floats around. His so called human form also looks like a slothful fat guy. In addition, he is so pathetically weak by himself that his strength heavily relies on his Sacred Treasure and magic. His backstory involves his dereliction of his responsibilities to keep the peace between the humans and fairies. However, it is a subversion as in reality he didn't willingly neglect them, he just suffered from amnesia for a long time and only Remembered Too Late. Nonetheless he was accused of sloth via doing nothing. Him being constantly too late to do the right thing is a bane of his as he was too late to save his sister who took up his duties to guard the elixir of life, and he was too late to protect Diane.
  • Lust: Gowther is an extremely effeminate looking man but he has a very emotionless personality that lacks, among other things, traits normally stereotyped with lust. His powers are more light and mental based rather than physical but the way they are used invoke themes of lust. Two noteworthy techniques of his are a Lotus-Eater Machine power to trap opponents with illusions to show their heart's desire, and a power that basically Mind Rapes a person. Also while he doesn't lust in the traditional sense, he does however long to acquire feelings to a degree that it could be considered as lust. Then there's the fact that he's actually the "Selflessness" of the Ten Commandments or more specifically the real Gowther who created and used him as an avatar was, a thing that greatly contrasts lust. His supposed crime that made him a Sin involved the intimate relationship he had with the elder sister of Baltra Liones, Nadja, before he threw away his magic heart along with his feelings and memories. Due to a misunderstanding, it looked like he had raped and killed the princess but in reality what really happened was the exact opposite of a lustful crime.
  • Gluttony: Merlin is a sexy stripperific Lady of Black Magic that even the coverpage of chapter 85 lampshades by mistaking her for the Sin of Lust. Her Sin title and her moniker of Crimson Pig are clear references to the Gluttonous Pig concept however, she isn't even remotely close to anything that could be associated as a Big Eater or anything else related to overconsumption of food. She does though have an insatiable hunger except it's for knowledge rather than food. Her hunger for knowledge is so insatiable in fact that she used a spell to suspend her own body's time in order to pursue her endless research without the worry of a normal limited lifespan. Additionally, she has an over excess of magical power and spells. All of which is aided by her magic ability Infinity, an extremely hax power that allows her spells to remain for eternity unless she herself dispels them.
  • Pride: At night, Escanor is basically a pathetically weak skinny polite wimp that constantly apologizes for his sorry ass existence, the complete opposite of pride. Despite this, he however has a honorable sense of pride in doing things. During the day, he's a buffed up beefcake filled to the brim with arrogance that becomes even more powerful as the day becomes noon. Regardless of all the pride he might spew however, he is somewhat of a humble character at least in regards to women. He Wouldn't Hit a Girl directly by his own choice and in regards to his love for Merlin, he sees her as a light that he'd humbly and fully devote himself to regardless whether or not his feelings are reciprocated. In a sense, Escanor adheres to a form of humble knightly chivalry found common in classical Arthurian and medieval lore which upholds women and their honor without guarantee reward for oneself. Furthermore considering certain aspects of his character, he is both at the same time the worst of the Sins in regards to how ridiculously strong he can get when compared to the rest, and not the worst in regards to his personality especially at the night that's clearly more morally grounded than those of the rest.
  • Additionally there is the case of Pelliot and his friends who pretend to be the eponymous Sins in their little games. Unlike the actual characters they are pretending as though, Pelliot and his friends childishly display and exaggerate one dimensional traits that are stereotypically associated with sins when they play. This includes for example, Pelliot acting like a loudmouth hothead since he's pretending to be the Dragon's Sin of Wrath, and one of his friends acting like a extortionist since he'd pretending to be the Fox's Sin of Greed. The only one who doesn't act like this is ironically Armando, who in reality is a persona of Gowther.
• The Shadow Knows: Meliodas casts a rather demonic shadow in Chapter 28 as a hint of his true nature.
• Ship Tease: There are multiple instances which ship tease certain couples.
  • There is Meliodas and Elizabeth despite the former's very perverted nature towards the latter. This seems so far to stem from Elizabeth looking like Meliodas' former lover Liz.
  • There is Ban and Elaine, the latter of which often if not always appears alongside him in various covers and other media as a Cute Ghost Girl.
  • There is King and Diane. One of the most blatant of this was the chapter 45 ballroom dancing colorspread which not only shipteases them but the above two couples as well.
  • After seeing how kind she is, there have been some slight moments that show Howzer has developed some feelings for Diane. Said feelings however have made him conflicted between duty and what's right during the kingdom infiltration arc.
  • After she is saved from being turned into a demon, Jericho develops some feelings for Ban. The pairing is slightly teased more as it's revealed in a story about Hendrickson that they had met before. A very young Jericho not only met Ban but also in a rather childish and non-serious manner, randomly asked him to marry her.
  • Merlin and Meliodas share a moment in the tavern at Chapter 197.5, where she claimed that he gave Elizabeth plenty of "Something you couldn't give me." Whether she is talking about love is left ambiguous.
  • The Vampires of Edinburgh special teases the pairing of Escanor and Merlin with the former's obvious crush on her, and the latter deciding to hear his poem after the whole incident ends.
• Shock and Awe: Gilthunder's main power. He comes by it honestly.
• Shout-Out:
  • In Chapter 68 when Slader puts on his mask, he shouts out "Make-up" similar to Sailor Moon's "Makeup" catchphrase.
  • Both versions of King look more like Naoki Urasawa characters than the others, especially in his introduction chapters (the two kids at the village also look like Urasawa's style).
• Shown Their Work: The first Fanbook shows with a map that the setting takes place in Britain. Of particular note is the location of Edinburgh. It is in the same place that the real life Edinburgh is actually located.
• Shrink Ray: Well more like spores than rays, there's a mushroom creature that will shrink you if it feels scared. Later on Merlin comes up with a pill that has the same effect.
• Sibling Yin-Yang:
  • Meliodas is a peace loving generally laid-back and aloof blond haired demon who looks like a child and is left handed. This contrasts with his more evil brothers. His brother Zeldoris looks uncannily like him but has a different hairstyle and color, is a serious and no-nonsense type of guy, and is right handed. His brother Estarossa looks like an adult version of him with a different hair color.
  • Elizabeth's sisters Veronica and Margaret are this. The former's a Rebellious Princess while the latter's a Princess Classic. They are also a Tomboy and Girly Girl respectively. Elizabeth is in the middle compared to them, a classic princess who wants to fight.
• Silent Scapegoat: Ban, regarding Elaine's death and the destruction of the forest. His motives for not letting on haven't been revealed so far.
• Skinny Dipping: Ban requested Elaine skinny dip with him in the past.
  • In the extra of Volume 6, Meliodas teaches King to be more bold, which involved Meliodas going to a pond where Elizabeth and Diane were bathing. Of course, the two were okay with Meliodas being there. King tried to join in, but Diane angrily kicked him out.
• Slasher Smile: Gowther sports a creepy grin in the finale of the anime, complete with Scary Shiny Glasses.
• Spare Body Parts: Demons in the series have two hearts instead of one. This means that ripping out one heart out of one doesn't kill it.
• Staring Contest: The occurrence of the trope is heavily prevalent in the series the point it's practically Author Appeal. Nearly every major conflict includes the one or many of the protagonists getting up close and personal to have an intimidating stare down with one of the antagonists.
• Start X to Stop X: The Great Holy Knight Hendrickson's plan concerning the prophesied Holy War is by reviving the Demon Clan and having the Holy Knights fight these foes. Basically, he wants to start the Holy War as foretold so that he can fight to stop the Holy War. It makes sense for him as he is a massive Colonel Kilgore who believes that war is the sole reason for the existence of his order.
• Stealth Pun: Every night before they go to bed, Meliodas is tied up so he can't molest Elizabeth while they're sleeping in the same bed. By Hawk. In other words, Meliodas is getting hog-tied.
• A Storm Is Coming: Days prior to the Demon who burnt down the Fairy King's Forest appearing, Elaine noticed some ominous clouds in the distance.
• Squishy Wizard: King has incredible magic skills especially when aided with his Holy Weapon. Physically however, he's ridiculously weak to a degree that he apparently lost a fight with a mere cat who stole his snacks. In fact, according to a Q&A from the first Fanbook, he's actually weaker than Hawk.
• Staredown Faceoff: The series absolutely loves this trope, having used it during every significant confrontation before a fight begins between the protagonists and antagonists. This even occurs in groups!
• Strip Poker: The cover of Chapter 43 has Meliodas, Ban, and King playing a game of poker with King having lost his clothes.
• Sue Donym: Ban enters his and Meliodas' names in the Vaizel Fight Festival to regain Diane's weapon as Baan and Meliodaz respectively. While the aliases didn't really hide who they were, they were enough of a Paper-Thin Disguise to fool one of their dumber opponents, Howzer.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Meliodas seems to have one as indicated via a shadow on a wall and during his match against Ban in the tournament which he briefly called upon to squeeze out a last minute win.
• Supreme Chef: Contrary to appearances, Ban is an excellent chef: his food is as good as Meliodas' isn't. In chapter 101, Hawk refers to him as "god" for his efforts... which are made from ingredients past their expiration date.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Dreyfus and Hendrickson staged a coup against the king, manipulating the Holy Knights and Princess Veronica into doing their bidding while murdering Zaratras, putting Hendrick's own nephew and his betrothed Princess Margaret under a Geas. Later seasons reveal they were brainwashed and possessed by a Ten Commandment named Fraudrin, who was using them to free the demons. Even though a resurrected Zaratras gives his life to free his little brother and Dreyfus and they vow to atone for what they did under the demon's control, Cartesian Karma is in effect. Bartra gives them The Pardon under Moral Pragmatist but refuses to make either of them Grandmaster for essentially committing treason; he instead gives Howser the title since Howser was the only Holy Knight with Incorruptible Pure Pureness. Not to mention that the Pleiades hate Hendrickson's guts for causing their leaders' death, and the other Holy Knights obey their orders with reluctance. Margaret herself doesn't trust them when they have to escort her on a rescue mission for Gilthunder; she ignores Hendrickson and Dreyfus's warnings to not let Ludociel posses her because at least the goddess hasn't betrayed or kidnapped her.
• Taken for Granite: King's spear has this as one of its powers.
• Talking Animal: Hawk, the series mascot, is a talking pig.
• Team Title: The series is named after the Seven Deadly Sins, a Badass Crew formed by seven criminals who were recruited as Liones Kingdom's most powerful knights.
• Telekinesis: Fairies such as King and Elaine are capable of levitating things via their powers.
• Thanks for the Mammary: In Episode 1 of the four-episode mini-series, the Sins are trying to catch Hawk (who is about the size of a kitten due to Events). Hawk runs up the inside of Diane's dress (Diane has also been shrunk to human-size due to Other Events) and up between her boobs. Diane begs King to help her. He lunges forward to catch Hawk, and winds up with a double handful of boob instead. He passes out from blood loss as a geyser of blood spurts out of his nose.
• There Is Only One Bed: Meliodas and Elizabeth share the same room and sleep in the same bed, so he can "protect" her. In response though, Hawk ties him up every night as a precaution against what is clearly anything but innocent.
  • Jericho tries to invoke this, but Ban prefers the floor.
• Time Dissonance: Once, a kind hunter gave King and his companion soup after the companion helped him with his work. A few pages later in the story, the same hunter comes across them when King's friend is sick and gives her medicine, after which King finally thanks him for giving him that soup 'recently.' The hunter stops, baffled, before realizing he meant the soup he gave them years ago. The next time we see the hunter, it's actually his grandson. The entire chapter takes place over the course of hundreds of years, but seems to be rather short from King and his companion's perspectives.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: King, a fairy, and his lady love Diane, a giant, can't be more different in size.
  • And then there's Meliodas and Elizabeth, since Meliodas has the appearance of a child while Elizabeth does not.
  • Zarpa and Matrona provide another example. While Zarpa seems to be on the tall side for a human, Matrona is a giantess.
• Tournament Arc:
  • The Sins participate in a Vaizel Fighting Festival to regain Diane's holy weapon.
  • Later on, another Vaizel Fighting Festival is announced throughout the land inviting all with the promise that the winner of the tournament gets to have any wish granted. This one however is being held by the demons for nefarious purposes.
• Trading Bars for Stripes: To atone for their original crimes, the Sins were offered the choice to become knights that answer directly to the king of Liones.
• Tragic Keepsake: Meliodas uses a seemingly worthless broken sword as his primary weapon and never goes anywhere without it. It was never revealed how he got the item but is one of the keys to unseal the Demon Clan. Meliodas says carrying around this sword is the only thing he can do to atone his sins, so you better not touch it.

U-Z

• Vagueness Is Coming: A Holy War was prophesied to engulf all of Britannia heralded by the appearance of a unique pattern of shooting stars in the night skies. However who the Holy War would be against is not stated. The King of Liones tried to prevent the war by asking his knights to lay down their swords. The Holy Knights instead decided to prevent the war by overthrowing the king and forcing the various civilians to make preparations for it.
• Villainous Parental Instinct: Played with. Fraudrin, an ancient Demon and member of the Demon King's elite group, possesses Holy Knight Grandmaster Dreyfus. To keep up his act, Fraudrin raises Dreyfus' son Griamore. However, Fraudrin eventually develops a legitimate care for the boy, seeing him as truly his own son. When he finally leaves Dreyfus' body to try and destroy Brittania, he sees Griamore and, knowing that Griamore would be a victim if he goes through with his plans, decides instead to allow himself to be killed rather than hurt his "son".
• Villains Out Shopping: There is a short story staring Guila in which it shows her spending time with her little brother in her free time.
• We Are as Mayflies: To Fairies and Giants, Humans have very short lifespans.
• Wham Episode: Has its own page.
• What's Up, King Dude?: Gowther does this to King Arthur in chapter 83. Although Arthur doesn't mind, King calls Gowther out on it, despite never having minded when he himself gets the same treatment.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Diane calls Gowther out over what he did to Guila and Zeal over his need to learn about human feelings.
• When the Planets Align: According to the prophecy within the story, the sky being filled with several shooting stars whose paths crisscross with one another was an omen that heralds the foretold Holy War.
• White Magic: Healing Magic and other such related spells are abilities that can only be used by druids and their descendants.
• Whole Episode Flashback:
  • "Bandit Ban", the story of how Ban met Elaine, and how he became immortal.
  • "The Fairy King Who Never Came" is about King's failure to protect his friends and his subsequent failure to stop Helbram from murdering humans, due to amnesia.
• Whole-Plot Reference:
  • The manga is loosely based around Arthurian Legend in a fashion similar to how Dragon Ball was originally based around Journey to the West. A number of characters are actually basically Ascended Extras of minor obscure characters from the original mythos.
  • An allusion to Arthur's sword in the stone is made with Gilthunder's sword embedded in Bernia. Later the actual sword is referenced regarding Arthur's backstory.
• Winged Humanoid:
  • Most fairies have wings, though King and Elaine do not have them for some reason. Fairy wings however are valuable. As a result, fairies have been tricked and captured by less than savory humans in order to pluck their wings.
  • Additionally, when Hendrickson injects himself with Gray Demon blood, he becomes a Satanic being with fallen angel-like wings.
• World of Badass: Various characters within the series possess such incredible strength that massive amounts of destruction is quite common.
• World Tree: The Sacred Tree of the fairies is a gigantic pink leafed tree that serves as a link between the Fairy and Human worlds. Fairies are capable of using parts of it for a number of uses, such as with King whose magical shapeshifting spear was made from the tree.
• Yandere: Vivian for Gilthunder, and Estarossa for Elizabeth once he loses his mind after absorbing three Commandments, leading him to believe he is Meliodas.
• You Are Too Late: This has apparently been a repeated bane that has plagued King's life. He was too late to do anything in an incident that happened in his past, he was too late to save his sister, and he was too late to protect Diane.
• You Are Worth Hell: Melodias and the original Goddess Elizabeth are both cursed by their respected factions just for falling in love with each other. In a vicious cycle, a reincarnation of Elizabeth would die in front of Melodias three days after having her memories restored, and he would fall into despair, helpless to stop it. Melodias hopes to find a way to break this curse so they can finally be together, showing how much he cares for her.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!:
  • The Sins manage to defeat the Holy Knights, even going so far as get a number of them to join them; rescue Elizabeth and her father; clear their names; and basically save the entire kingdom of Liones. However just as it seems like celebrations should be in order, cue a buffed up younger Hendrickson appearing to continue causing trouble.
  • The Sins finally manage to defeat the Demon Blood-enhanced Hendrickson and in the aftermath, the entire kingdom celebrates their exploits. With this, the main plot since the beginning pretty much appears to have been resolved. However, there are several other subplots that remain unresolved. Of note is that the prophesied Holy War has yet to come and the Eternal Coffin of Darkness which seals the Demon Clan is missing. Cue the Demon Clan being reawakened.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: The Sins always had this reputation since they were criminals but it's obvious they're good people at heart. Once they got framed however, this became legit by the time the story begins.

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