Manga Disgusting.
This was at first a glowing review, then a downward spiral of hate, and the last form it will go through is bitter, bitter bitterness.
For the first half of the series, we have a Mary Sue Author Avatar who is ridiculously, shonen-style overpowered to the point where the only thing challenging him is himself holding back, able to cut a mountain in half by swinging a twig, but despite this we are supposed to take him seriously. This same protagonist completely violates and molests a girl he doensn't know who comes looking for him, who not only barely fights this, but falls in love with him. Not because they have a deep relationship or things in common, but because he agreed to help her. Once. And then a few days later, she is willing to sacrifice her life for his and says her sister, who has known her much longer than said AuthorAvatar, is just a meanie who doesn't understand. And an annoying pig.
But still, things weren't terrible. We had interesting side cast, like Ban, Diane, and especially King. Although Ban's relationship with Elaine is out-and-out pedophilia, which I refuse to support even a little, and is disgusting. It was, Meliodas aside, a series that had overpowered main characters and didn't hurt for it.
After Hendrickson, who was a decent antagonist who provided legitimate threat, is beaten, things go to shit. I mean actual, literal shit. I went from loving this series to loathing it. Meliodas gets a sword after having his broken that lets him multiply himself (with no effort on his part, it's just given to him) that is never used again because right after, he gets the other 90% of his power back. And then beats two of the obscenely powerful Ten Commandments by himself. It takes the other ten showing up to trash him all at once to get close to beating him. Yeah, that danger and risk that we had in the first half? It means nothing now, Meliodas was just badly handicapped. If that's not enough for you, even when Estarossa out-and-out KILLS him, he still doesn't die, because it turns out Meliodas has a curse from the demon king that won't let him. Yeah. We're really feeling that meaningful risk and conflict. And Escanor trashes Estarossa with no effort, who was not only a cool antagonist, but the only one who actually felt like a threat. Oh, and the pedophilia returns with a vengeance
. Somehow we are supposed to think this is okay because reincarnations make everything excusable.
In short, this series started shaky, but good, and then took a nosedive into the garbage from whence it can't come back. Just another example of a shitty mangaka beating off to his own work and somehow getting good sales from it.
Manga No Hugging, No Kissing Proudly Defied
The Seven Deadly Sins is so far one of the only Shōnen manga I've followed dedicatedly where hugging and kissing and love confessions get shown in full. Most times, the authors of these works will be allergic to this sort of thing and keep it out of the work until the very end, and even at that point may try to tiptoe away from anything major by downplaying it, or have the romance cut short by tragedy and/or never be meant to be. Yes. I know that such happens here, too, but at least Suzuki's polite about it by giving us advance warning- some works will just do it as an "F you" at the end. I can't begin to tell you how many times I've run into that. It makes me feel like authors have a grudge against the nitty-gritty of love, or that the Japanese culture is so full of wistful and sentimental feelings leads me to a rather admittedly fallacial argument that they think sadness is more beautiful than love.
But here, romance is not forbidden. It adds meaning and character to the story and Suzuki doesn't hesitate to let it emerge in the work when it really matters. That's why I like it so much. Some people are bound to complain about the gushy sweetness these moments bring to the table, but they keep the story beautiful in my book... well, when they're not blatantly perverted, that is.
Manga Ups and downs, but worth checking out overall
So Seven Deadly Sins is what got me back into anime after I had lost interest in the medium for a few years. I never thought it was the greatest thing ever since I had seen better anime before, but I still did and still do like it. I even went out of my way to read the manga because I had a lot of fun with the anime's first season. That said, I don't blame people for disliking it since there are some blatant low points. Now for a summary:
Characters: This is the real draw of the manga for me. Even in the story's low points, the cast is really enjoyable. At the start, there's a mystery about who these people are, and learning more about them helps endear them to you. Some of these characters are among my favorite anime characters period. The main character is an acquired taste since a lot of his comedy involves him being a pervert and can get grating, but the rest of his personality is pretty fun if you can look past that. While I do like several of the romances present, one I cannot defend involves an adult human and a 1000-year-old fairy who looks like a child falling in love. Even if I like the characters themselves, that's just creepy. The final villain is also underwhelming compared to his predecessors.
Story: This is really where the ups and downs come from. The story is at its best near the start and slowly becomes convoluted where despite still having strong moments, you just are left confused at times. Stuff from hundreds of chapters ago suddenly returns after you've long forgotten their relevance and foreshadowing to get treated as really important, such as being the key to a character unlocking a new power needed to win a big fight. It works at times but gets overused in the final arc. Said arc just drags on. "Yay, we beat the generic final villain after like 50 chapters of us getting new powers hinted at long ago! Oh no, the final villain isn't really dead and we have to spend another 20 chapters doing the same thing! Yay, he's dead! Oh no, something we forgot about 100 chapters ago is finally relevant and we have to spend ten more chapters killing it!" I wouldn't blame you for dropping the series during the final battle, as if I didn't like the characters so much, I probably would have. They could have ended the final arc at least 50 chapters sooner than they ended up doing. Also for anime watchers, there's a strange instance in the first season where they cut out a character's introduction, only to bring him back later once he becomes relevant to solving a problem two of the characters have. They basically create an Ass Pull where there wasn't one originally, which is odd since they added foreshadowing to something else that felt convoluted in the manga.
Artwork: Not particularly amazing, but good nonetheless. The character designs are distinct and memorable, and the manga's action is well-drawn. The first two seasons of the anime have nice visuals, but as the entire internet has memed to hell and back, the third season takes a dip in animation quality. Even so, I've seen worse animation.
Overall, Seven Deadly Sins is a series with a great cast in a messy story. Depending on your tastes that might not be to your liking, but I'd recommend checking it out for the characters alone and a few of the story's best moments.