YMMV / The Seven Deadly Sins

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A-I

• Adorkable:
  • Merlin's positively bashful when Elizabeth, who has just regained her memories from her time as a goddess, asks if Merlin will call her 'big sis' like she apparently used to when she was little. Merlin tries to act like she doesn't remember, and gets even more embarrassed when Escanor asks Elizabeth to tell him that story when they have time.
  • Gilthunder has spent season one as an Anti-Villain revealed to be Trapped in Villainy and forced to fight his mentor Meliodas, and endangering the town. The mid-season episodes have him allowed to give an uncharacteristic Squee when watching the Sins playfully spar against each other, with Ban and Meliodas settling a score as well as King trying to fight fairly. He even cries Tears of Joy from the excitement.
  • Whenever King is around Diane, expect him to act all shy and easily flustered.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • In his review of the anime, Arkada proposes that Meliodas's constant harassing of Elizabeth is merely an act by Meliodas to appear more human on the basis that it feels forced like it's not part of Meliodas' character. Additionally, Arkada also proposes that the reason Meliodas doesn't get reprimanded from Elizabeth for his harassing her is because she actually enjoys it.
  • While the Demon Clan are portrayed as vicious and have no issue taking innocent lives, are they like this naturally or are they like this from having to fight for their very existence from all the other races who despise them for who they are?
  • Are the Goddess Clan a race of arrogant Jerkass knight templars no better or even worse than the Demon Clan, whose bigotry and pride prevents peace from being achieved between the five clans? Or do they have a point, in that the demons are such a threat to all life that it requires the rest of the clans united to defeat them?
  • the exact reason why escanor was not affected by the commandment of love in his fight against estarossa-is it because, as escanor claims, he did not really hate estarossa because he is so proud that his susceptibility to negative emotions is beneath him or because he escanor unknowingly possessed the grace sunshine which renders the user immune to the power of the commandments the real reason?
• Arc Fatigue: The final battle. By the time the Demon King has possessed Zeldris and faces off against Meliodas, the Seven Deadly Sins had already beaten him in a form that was much stronger than his current form. The fight is still painfully drawn out, as the characters get more power ups to fight an antagonist that was pretty much equally matched when he was just against Meliodas. This is somewhat justified, as the goal isn't to kill him, but to free Zeldris (then kill him), so it's understandable that they can't just immediately finish the fight. Still, the lack of tension and length of the fight make it a bore, despite being the climax of the series. Things only get more exasperated when the finale also brings in Arthur reigning in Chaos and Cath Pulug to fight, but that's the end of it afterwards.
• Awesome Ego: Escanor is so arrogant, he demands the Vampire King apologize for even existing in Escanor's world. Considering he can back it all up with his immense power, the fanbase loves him for it.
• Awesome Music:
  • "Dora Gong4n", the show's introduction theme and overall theme of the titular Seven Deadly Sins. Its a Celtic-inspired roller coaster of intensity from start to finish.
  • "Perfect Time", the show's premier Theme Music Power-Up. Whenever you hear the Celtic-inspired opening riff, you can tell that ass-kicking is going to ensue once the music explodes into its powerful chorus. Its lyrics also depict Melodias's perspective.
  • "Escanor's Theme". Pure Awesome Ego in musical form. Whenever it starts up, you know somebody's about to get stomped hard.
  • "Demon King". An organ solo that erupts into a haunting choir, which befits the Archangels, the enemies of the Demon King, and later a Commandent-consumed Mael, who absorbed four tenths of the Demon King's power.
  • "Cath Palag". A nightmarish nursery song that transforms into an anxiety-inducing rock piece.
• Base-Breaking Character: Meliodas himself. Some people consider him to be a funny and badass protagonist in need of a hug, but others consider him to be overpowered and a disgusting pervert who Elizabeth should just ditch.
• Broken Base:
  • The anime adaptation has gotten some divided opinions. People were already split the moment A-1 Pictures was revealed to be the studio behind it (considering their track record regarding a number of their previous anime adaptations), but said Broken Base has only gotten more heated due to certain changes made that don't follow the manga. Some feel that these changes do a disservice to the source material, while others enjoy the anime for its visuals and argue that some of the changes border on Pragmatic Adaptation. The change to Studio DEEN, in the third season however, is more unanimously negative.
  • The defeat of Estarossa by Escanor has some fans split. Escanor still has his Awesome Ego that everyone loves, but after watching Estarossa easily brutalize Meliodas, many felt that he went down entirely too easily for someone with that much potential to someone with Escanor's win streak. Though this turns out to be justified in that Estarossa is not really Meliodas's brother, but a brainwashed Archangel Mael, and the same one to have once held Escanor's power.
• Complete Monster: Both instigators of the Holy War:
  • The Demon King is the tyrannical master of the Demon Clan. Waging the Holy War to kill the Goddess Clan and many mortal races to take control of Britannia, the Demon King grooms his two sons Meliodas and Zeldris to supposedly succeed him. Having them become vicious killers, even attempting to force Zeldris to kill his own lover, the true purpose of becoming his successor is to be his host. He preferred choice was Melodias, using the Supreme Deity's curse to remove the part of his son's representing his emotions and confine it in Purgatory with him as his way of grooming his son with each death. Upon the later return of the Ten Commandments, the Demon King has them run rampant through Britannia, devouring souls, before he himself is freed. Possessing Zeldris, having lost Melodias, the Demon King attempts to also wipe out Britannia and kill all life there before he can be defeated.
  • The Supreme Deity is the cruel ruler of the Goddess Clan who intends to have the Holy War last forever. When her daughter Elizabeth falls in love with the demon Meliodas and seeks to make peace with their clan, the Supreme Deity conspires with the Demon King and allowed him to cursing Elizabeth to forever die and be brought back to life while Meliodas suffers in immortality. To prevent peace with the Demon Clan, the Supreme Deity has her archangels slaughter hostage demons and after the end of the Holy War seeks to restart it, eventually opting to try and wipe out all life in Britannia in her insane quest.
• Critical Dissonance: The manga won the Best Shōnen Manga at the 39th Kodansha Manga Awards and was nominated for the 2014 Manga Taishō award and Best Youth Comic at the 42nd Angoulême International Comics Festival in France. Amongst the manga community, The Seven Deadly Sins is one of the most hated shōnen series and experienced widespread derision since it ended.^note Much of this has to with how most of the plot ended up being tied to romance, the uncomfortableness of Meliodas and Ban's relationships with Elizabeth and Elaine, the ridiculousness of the power-scaling, the anti-climactic final villain in the Demon King, and the finale's Arc Fatigue. Not helping is the very shoddy anime adaptation of Season 3 and onwards by Studio DEEN which became ridiculed by many for its poor, stiff animation and off-model art.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: Many theorize Gowther to be in the Autism spectrum due to his lack of understanding on human emotions, his monotonous speech, and his lack of social skills.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Oslo is surprisingly popular for a bit character, having even made it into sixth place of the poll himself.
• Evil Is Cool: "Evil" in this case involves:
  • Helbram, who uses multiple borrowed powers and gives King a hard time and then starts using a storm of leaf knives.
  • Vivian, a highly competent mage who gets points for her amazing helmet alone.
  • Dreyfus, whose powers allow him to literally break down anything in his way.
  • Guila, a cunning strategist who stomps Meliodas twice and eventually does a Heel–Face Turn.
  • Hendrickson, who makes it his business to utterly brutalize everyone previously thought to be the strongest of the strong and looks unconcerned about any of them.
  • The Ten Commandments are basically an entire crew of these.
• Fanfic Fuel: When it was revealed that there have been 107 Elizabeths over the span of 3,000 years thanks to the reincarnation curse placed upon her, it provided fuel for fans to come up who the other Elizabeths were since only 4 of them (#1 the original goddess Elizabeth, #2 Elizabeth the barbarian, #106 Liz the Holy Knight, and #107 the current Elizabeth) had been revealed in extensive detail up to that point. The anime also adds a child Elizabeth that died before becoming an adult and an incarnation of Elizabeth that never regained her past life memories and lived a full life with Melodias.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Prior to his name being revealed, Puora the fairy was given the name Gawain by some Japanese fans since he looked like a character from one of Nakaba's previous works.
  • Prior to Gloxinia's name and actual gender being revealed, he was given the fan nickname of Octololi for his rather misleading appearance.
  • In the NNT Chinese forum on Tieba, Elizabeth is sometimes referred to as "Silly White". This is because her name is 伊麗莎白 in Chinese and the characters 莎白 sound similar to 傻白 (silly white). It's also a play on words on how they had issues with her character portrayal in the beginning.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: While still doesn't have the same level of fandom like old-time heavyweights like Saint Seiya, Dragon Ball, Captain Tsubasa, Sailor Moon or Cardcaptor Sakura in the region, the anime adaptation is very popular in Latin America, to the point where it managed to reach the Top 10 of the most watched Netflix series in that region. It's one of only two animated series that managed to reach that position (the other being Castlevania), and the only anime so far.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • In the second High School AU spinoff, there's a little skit which involves Gowther and Guila who're a student and a member of the school disciplinary committee respectively. Basically, the skit involves Gowther briefly brainwashing Guila's little brother Zeal in order to bypass her. The whole thing is played for laughs considering the nature of the spinoff. Come some certain chapters in the manga proper though, this skit doesn't seem as hilarious as it was before.
  • Elizabeth has some Green-Eyed Monster about Meliodas's previous love, Liz, in seasons one and two. She wonders how this woman was very important to him. Later, Tomato in the Mirror ensues; Meliodas reveals that she is Liz, a reincarnation of her, and each incarnation is doomed to die.
  • With season three, Meliodas prepares to move the Seven Deadly Sins out to Camelot to handle a crisis, and he tells Elizabeth coldly she should stay in her kingdom now that the coup has passed and her family is safe because it's too dangerous to deal with this threat. Elizabeth gets upset and calls him out, saying she doesn't want him to see her as baggage. She ends up being close to the truth; Meliodas later reveals that he and Elizabeth are cursed as Starcrossed Lovers, that the minute she learns of her past lives, she'll die in three days and be reborn, while he'll outlive her. And this has happened 107 times already! Meliodas was trying to give Elizabeth a chance to avoid the curse, in the case of I Want My Beloved to Be Happy.
  • Gowther in Obliviously Evil mode brainwashed Guila into thinking they were betrothed because he wanted to know what love is and to regain his heart. We find out in a Flashback Episode that he fell for King Bartra's sister who was ill but rescued him from beneath the castle's taverns. When she died, Gowther was overcome with heartbreak and regret that his heart couldn't save it, and it triggered his Laser-Guided Amnesia.
• Ho Yay:
  • With Slader, a guy who appears to be a badass Straight Gay, and Gowther, an extremely effeminate looking guy that could easily be mistaken for a girl. The conclusion of their battle in the Liones capital pretty much looks like something that could fit in a romantic comedy.
  • Ban and Meliodas. They were ecstatic to see each other again and Ban has the same lack of sense of personal space with Meliodas as with Elaine. In chapter 87 he literally said "I love ya, cap'n" and he obviously doesn't want to kill Meliodas despite he is willing to do so to get Elaine back. It's taken further in the Ten Commandments arc where Ban takes on the Commandments to save Meliodas, who calls him an idiot affectionately and tells Ban to save himself. Ban then grins and says they'll be idiots together.
  • At least in the anime, when King is upset at having to sleep in a room with Ban, Ban just grabs him and tugs him down to go to sleep with and/or cuddle with. No joke.
  • Ban actually seems to get a lot of this.
    Ban: What're ya doin'?
    Gowther: [while groping Ban's pecs] This is the greeting the Captain showed me yesterday.
  • Dreyfus and Hendrickson, whatever their differences, display the kind of Heterosexual Life-Partners relationship that always seems to leave room open for it not being quite so hetero. For example, Griamore, whose father is Dreyfus and whose mother is dead, calls Hendrickson "uncle". Think about it.
  • Elizabeth & Diane have been getting a fairly good Womance vibe after Diane has befriended Elizabeth and let go of her previous jealousy regarding Elizabeth's relationship with Meliodas. One of the stronger cases was when Elizabeth & Diane accidentally found a plant that shrank them to Tiny & Human size respectively (both appeared to be nude). In which later on in the episode when we see Diane in the tournament human-sized it was revealed that she had a tiny nude Elizabeth in her cleavage and Diane was seemingly Going Commando.
    • To a milder extent in Episode 2 of Season 3 in the anime, there was a scene where Diane & Elizabeth were having a little chat about their feelings for King & Meliodas respectively. But if you see the scene without any lines it practically looks like they are on a date with each-other with their body language and massive amounts of Luminescent Blush.
• I Knew It!:
  • Many speculated that Armando would be actually Gowther in disguise and that the gigantic armor assumed to be Gowther would actually be controlled remotely by him. A lot of people guessed correctly about Armando actually being Gowther but almost no one expected Gowther to be so effeminate looking when he revealed his true identity. The identity of who really was in Gowther's armor on the other hand, apparently was something completely unexpected.
  • Elizabeth being the reincarnation of Liz was speculated by some. In a similar vein, she also being the reincarnation of Meliodas' lover from 3,000 years ago who convinced him to turn good and that lover was the first of a long line of multiple reincarnations was speculated by some as well.
  • There was a bit of a theory by some that Escanor's glasses allowed him to be in his nighttime form during the day when it was noticed he was in said form during certain times that suspiciously couldn't possibly be at night. Sure enough, this later proved to be true.
  • Elizabeth's original incarnation being actually the daughter of the Supreme Goddess was speculated based on some clues.
  • It was speculated within the fandom that Escanor's sun-based powers may be related to the Goddess Clan. This proved true when it was revealed that Escanor's ability, Sunshine, is a actually special blessing called a Grace that was once wielded by the Archangel Mael.
  • Prior to the twist revelation that Estarossa is actually Mael, the topic was one of the more speculated theories before it was proven true.

J-W

• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Dreyfus. He murdered his own brother and blamed the Sins, but his obvious remorse and love for his son (and he thinks for a while said son was killed by his former best friend who now has become evil) make him this trope. Later it's revealed that he allowed himself to be possessed by one of the Ten Commandments to spare his best friend from being taken over.
  • Jericho. An Attention Whore Glory Hound who simply can't catch a break. Her brother thinks she shouldn't be a Holy Knight because she is a woman. Her friend Guila joins the Sins and Jericho doesn't understand why. And finally, the power that was supposed to prove her brother wrong turns her into a horrible monster that almost killed him. She later loses the "Jerk" part after Character Development but steps into The Woobie territory when time and again she's reminded by Ban and others that his love for Elaine is so strong that she will never have a chance in hell at winning the guy's heart. Despite this, she still keeps trying to get him to notice her, even if it's just a little. She also wants to support him in his quest, no matter how impossible it is.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Merlin, the Boar's Sin of Gluttony, is the second-eldest of the Sins, a sorceress from the land of Belialuin and the last survivor after she fooled the Demon King and Supreme Goddess into granting her their blessings. Achieving immortality, Merlin became aware of the creator entity Chaos and sought to revive it, knowing she would need to destroy the Demon King or Supreme Goddess. Guiding Meliodas in forming the Seven Sins, Merlin sent him away upon the emergence of the demon Fraudrin and guided the young knight Arthur against the Holy Knights. Manipulating the Sins through the Holy War to destroy the Demon King and revive Chaos in Arthur, Merlin dedicates herself to guiding Arthur to craft a new kingdom of men, also accepting the feelings of the Lion's Sin of Pride, Escanor, by kissing him as he burns to ash to bear the scars of his existence forever.
  • Gowther of Selflessness is an extremely powerful demon and brilliant artificer who is a member of the Ten Commandments. The creator of the younger Gowther, the automaton who would one day be the Sin of Lust, and mentor to Fraudrin, Gowther is one of the most compassionate of the high-ranking demons, and hatches a brilliant plan to end the Holy War between the Five Races with minimal bloodshed. Knowing that the war is heavily imbalanced in favor of the Goddess Clan's alliance due to Meliodas' defection, Gowther uses his power over the mind to rewrite the memories of the world's entire population to cause the Goddess' strongest warrior, the Archangel Mael, to defect to the demons under the new identity of Estarossa. With the war now at a deadlock, the angels sealed themselves and the demons away, sparing the world further devastation, and the elder Gowther died content with his gambit a success and his son ready to carry on his mission.
  • Fraudrin of the Ten Commandments is a brilliant manipulator in the Demon Clan. Possessing the Holy Knight Dreyfus, Fraudrin masterminds the framing of the Seven Deadly Sins to oust them from Britannia before working to revive his brethren. Succeeding, Fraudrin and the other Commandments set forth to conquer Britannia, nearly triumphing and even when bested in combat Fraudrin prepares a suicide attack to take the kingdom with him, relenting only out of love for Dreyfus' son.
• Memetic Badass: After Chapter 124, several people are saying that DREFYUS IS A BRO!
  • Though he doesn't have jack on Escanor though to be fair who does?
  • LORD TWIGO. Due to how Death Is Cheap in the show, some people jokingly believe that Lord Twigo, a character that was killed off in episode one, is still alive, and is using his status as presumed dead to manipulate the events of all of anime ever.
• Memetic Loser: Griamore (the Holy Knight that makes barriers) just can not catch a break when it comes to who he is up against. The fact that he continues to fail at protecting the Liones princesses, and that his father, Dreyfus, turns out to be Evil All Along due to Demonic Possession, doesn't help. The most noteworthy example being that he spent a majority of the Ten Commandments Saga as a child before being restored by Veronica, though nude and blasted out of the castle by Guila over the misunderstanding that followed.
• Memetic Molester: Melodias, though it's anyone's guess as to why.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Using the Dark Souls often quoted phrase "Praise the Sun!" in regards to Escanor who has sun based powers. It's especially used when he's in his terrifyingly overpowering muscular day form and about to pretty much completely rekt those foolish enough to face him.
  • Almost overnight, when it came to light that Meliodas's mentor is named Chandler, people immediately started making jokes that Meliodas learned everything he knows from Chandler Bing from Friends.
  • After Ban went missing for an important mission, people begin to ask who Ban is.
  • The third season of the anime moved from A-1 Pictures to Studio Deen, and resulted in some memetic QUALITY.
    • Seven Deadly Frames ^ExplanationA play on the series's name, referring to the poor, stiff animation of many scenes since being adapted by Studio Deen.
    • Meliodas and Escanor's fight. It was so bad that people compared it to fan animations and found the fans did better.
    • Buff Meliodas ^ExplanationThat extremely off-model shot of Meliodas is used to represent the poor quality of the season. Though it's an in-between shot where it's purposely off-model, it's on-screen long enough that it's noticeable.
    • This season and Season 4 are so bad that it's become a common thing to post comments on higher-quality series how a single scene has better animation than those entire seasons.
• Moral Event Horizon: Galan of the Ten Commandments wastes no time demonstrating how awful he is by leveling the entire capital city of Camelot, murdering countless bystanders just for breathing room for his fight.
• Narm: The gravitas of Escanor's very dramatic death scene is undermined at least somewhat by King's Reaction Shots during said death scene, as he remains nestled firmly between Diane's breasts for the whole scene. Ultimately, what can only be described as a highly inappropriately-timed use of fanservice will likely reduce what was supposed to be a very poignant moment to a downright farcical one for at least some viewers.
• Narm Charm: Hendrickson's Gray Demon form. He's got clawed fingers, evil eyes, and his chest is bared, but....he also has purple skin, has cute little giraffe-looking horns on his head, and has adorable little purple wings on his back that don't look nearly big enough to support him. It's hard to know whether to be awe-inspired or laugh.
• Nausea Fuel: Ban's backstory has him so desperate not to starve to death that he'd eat his own vomit as a kid. Nasty.
• Rooting for the Empire: During a particular flashback of the Holy war 3,000 ago, some fans are beginning to root for the Demon Clan. The Ten Commandments are not only a Badass Crew but are clearly awesome. Plus they have every reason to seek Britannia's destruction: one of their brethren betrays them, killing two of his comrades, and the Goddess Clan takes this opportunity to incite the other races to attack the demons, which ended with the demons being sealed for three thousand years, while the ones truly responsible for the war enjoyed the spoils. It doesn't help the fact the Goddess Clan are clearly not in any way better than the demons as they captured thousands of demon civilians, children included, just for bait and killed them all.
  • This is helped by some unanswered questions. For example, how bad were the demons before the holy war and how much of the Ten Commandments' current actions are because of the atrocities they witnessed in the great war, which for them was little more than a month ago? They find it impossible to forgive the other races for the crimes committed against the demons simply because, from their perspective, it just happened.
  • There's a contingent who, while believing they should be stopped in the end, should be allowed to get their vengeance on Meliodas for betraying and working with the Goddess who wanted to exterminate them for just existing.
• Seasonal Rot: Anime-only example: The third season was met with backlash from fans of the Manga. Not only did the 3rd season change studios from A-1 Pictures (which animated the first 2 seasons) to Studio DEEN (whose reputation is rather poor), but it also suffered from censorship like Censor Shadows and changing the blood from red to white or pink, bland coloring, and lackluster animation reminiscent of One-Punch Man's second season.
• Squick: Some find some of the relationships presented in the manga to be rather squicky. While opinions differ, a common thing that is often brought up among the relationships is how they consist of characters whose appearances make them look vastly different in age.
  • Some find Meliodas' constant fondling of and general Lovable Sex Maniac antics towards Elizabeth to be rather squicky especially considering that he receives little to no reprimand for his actions from her and instead has Elizabeth slowly fall in love with him. Meliodas being Really 700 Years Old but having the body of a kid adds to the squicked out factor for some. There's also the fact that he's known her since she was very little which some interpret as Wife Husbandry even though technically he didn't actually raise her himself.
    • While the general thing with Meliodas and Elizabeth has been squick for some in one way or another, it reached new heights in Chapter 183. The chapter shows the exact moment that Zaratras and Baltra meet Meliodas immediately after Danafor was destroyed. Coming out from the destruction was Meliodas holding baby Elizabeth, who at this time has been revealed to be the reincarnation of Liz, Meliodas' former lover. Meliodas is still clearly protective of his lover who just moments ago died and reincarnated, and lashed out at Zaratras and Baltra, who tried to take her from him and get him medical attention, saying "DON'T YOU DARE LAY YOUR HANDS ON MY WOMAN!!!" With or without the prior context of Elizabeth, Meliodas' exact line in this moment referring to baby Elizabeth as his woman really came off as highly squicky for a lot.
    • Taken a step even further; Elizabeth was born after Liz died, Liz died just before the destruction of Danafall, and Danafall was destroyed 16 years ago, meaning Meliodas has been groping a teenager.
    • What adds another layer to the uncomfortable nature of their relationship is the power dynamic. Meliodas is the highly respected leader of The Seven Deadly Sins so no one really questions him to begin with. On top of that, he's so ludicrously powerful that there's no option to forcibly stop him. Elizabeth's options are either meekly take it, ask him to stop only to get ignored, or just leave the group, which is out of the question due to her needs.
  • Some find Ban and Elaine's relationship to be rather squicky as he is a grown man and she has the body of a child. This disregards the fact that Elaine is actually a fairy and Really 700 Years Old, making Ban, a human, the younger of the two. Ban looking and acting like what could be interpreted as a lustful pedophile around Elaine in some scenes however doesn't help much.
    • On the other hand, Elaine overall does act more mature than Ban (so her age isn't just a number), even though both have their immature moments.
    • Their reunion in Chapter 142 is sweet and they even kiss. Too bad Elaine was revived with dark magic and Ban was bleeding profusely from the mouth. The fact that they continue to make out with one another, despite Jericho being three feet away from them, counts as a Kick the Dog moment to her and Jericho's fans.
  • Some find Vivian's obsession with Gilthunder to be squicky especially considering that she's been in love with him since he was eleven and she was nineteen, and that she had taken him and Margaret hostage to prevent them from revealing the frameup of the Sins.
    • There's also the abduction and not listening to 'no' no matter how repulsed or angry Gilthunder is.
  • Gowther's brainwashing of Guila and making her believe she's his lover was definitely not portrayed as good and he got called out for it. What isn't addressed is the implication that he may have had sex with her when she was brainwashed. Which would be rape.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • The reaction to certain changes made for the anime adaptation which involve cutting out a number of things from the source manga such as characters, foreshadowing, and even entire events. Two notable ones are a Chekhov's Gunman and Chekhov's Gun respectively, Oslo and the pendant that Veronica gives to Elizabeth before the Vaizel Fighting Festival. The two do later appear in the anime during the parts wherein they actually become story-relevant; however, due to the cutting out of their initial introduction, they come off as looking a bit more like sudden convenient plot devices than anything else. This is somewhat more in the case of Oslo whose sudden appearance in the anime comes as looking like an Ass Pull.
    • To their credit, the writers had Diane throwing a lampshade on Oslo's appearance, and King giving a Hand Wave explanation for why Oslo only appeared now - his favorite food is pork, and Hawk was conveniently out of the picture.
  • For Season 3, many weren't happy about Studio DEEN animating the series since it suffered from its lackluster animation, Censor Shadows, and changing the blood from red to white or pink. Having enemies bleed white blood becomes unintentionally funny when the blood looks more like semen than actual blood.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Meliodas when he kills Fraudrin. The story goes out of its way to paint what he did as a despicably cruel act, and while he was Slowly Slipping Into Evil at that point, Fraudrin was a brutal demon who slaughtered the entire Kingdom of Danafor to break the seal on the Coffin of Eternal Darkness before going after Liz, whose blood is what he needs since she was Elizabeth's reincarnation at the time. After Melodias destroyed his physical form along with Danafor, he enlists Hendrickson and Dreyfus against their will to help him get revenge on Melodias and gather the Coffin of Eternal Darkness. Fraudrin also happily went along with the Demon Clan's terrorizing of human citizens in Britannia after Meliodas's death, even blackmailing villages into selling the souls of Holy Knights to the Demon Clan in exchange for their safety. Though he was killed by a cold-blooded Meliodas after he finally relents and accepts his fate, it also felt like a good moment to Break the Haughty.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Meliodas for some readers. While there is actually a reason behind his sexual harassment of Elizabeth, it doesn't justify his actions for some. In general he comes off as much, much less endearing than intended because of his perverted and creepy tendencies.
• Unpopular Popular Character: In the series, King is an extremely unlucky Butt-Monkey who isn't even liked by his former fairy subjects. According to the first character popularity poll however, he's the most popular character overshadowing even the main character Meliodas. In postcard votes submitted by fans alone, he's in fourth place but combined with online votes, he's the most popular character by a landslide with nearly four times the votes Ban in second place has. To really put this into perspective, Meliodas is 5th place with 6668 votes, Ban is 2nd with 32086 and King is 1st with 121945 votes, more than the other members of the top 10 combined.
• Values Dissonance: As an anime/manga series straight from Japan, a number of things can be attributed to as being products of Japanese cultural norm than anything else.
  • Meliodas' perverted behavior towards Elizabeth and her general submissive attitude towards it is often portrayed in a comedic tone. Much of this can be attributed to just being part of the Ecchi comedy the series showcases.
  • When it comes to the romantic relationships especially for the main leads, the series runs a gamut of romances that could be considered unconventional. These include Interspecies Romance, Mayfly–December Romance, Eternal Love, and Reincarnation Romance. Some of the more unconventional relationships in the series of note involve those wherein one character is ageless and chronologically very old yet looks practically prepubescent child-like, while their love interest is chronologically younger but looks physically older than them. While the tropes involved in these relationships might excuse them or at the very least make the matter complicated, their bare appearance can be attributed to the age of consent that Japan has.
• Viewer Gender Confusion:
  • When Gowther revealed his true form, many were confused whether Gowther was a man or a woman due to his rather effeminate features. Some are still confused, even in the show. Since he was originally a doll, he technically didn't have a gender at first. Especially since he was modeled after his creator's lover and gave him a male form to make things less awkward for him.
  • When Merlin finally revealed herself in the present, there has been some confusion over what gender she is. Most of it comes from her first full body reveal which despite presenting Merlin with her rather Stripperiffic Ms. Fanservice outfit, her breasts aren't that pronouncedly drawn big. Fortunately, Chapter 84 did a better job in, ah, detailing her (complete with some bounciness in the chest), making her being a woman much clearer.
  • Simon who at least one person asked about his gender according to the Q&A in the first Fanbook. The answer is that he's a boy with a girly face.
  • Hawk might be seen as female due to his eyelashes, usually being the only one offended at Meliodas groping Elizabeth, and Crossdressing Voices.
  • Gloxinia a.k.a. Octololi of the Ten Commandments. Due to appearance and use of feminine Japanese Pronouns, alot of people assumed for the longest time this character was a girl. Then his actual gender is revealed along with the fact that he's actually a fairy.
• Woolseyism: The English Dub translates Derriere's Catchphrase to "Bottom Line", which works as a pun and an actual phrase that makes sense for her to say.
• The Woobie: In this manga most of the cast need a hug...
  • Meliodas saw his girlfriend Liz die and supposedly destroyed his own kingdom. The background behind that is much sadder. He, a member of Demon Clan, and Elizabeth, a member of Goddess Clan, were cursed as a punishment for loving each other. Meliodas was cursed with immortality, while Elizabeth was cursed to continuously reincarnate into a human. They would meet and fall in love with each other again but when Elizabeth remembered her past life, she would die after three days and the cycle would continue. Meliodas destroying Danafor is partly because he had to see Elizabeth die in front of him 106 times over the past 3000 years.
  • Ban had an absolutely ruthless childhood, being horribly beaten and abused by his parents, and eventually running into people who intended to sell him to a noblewoman who is also serial child-torturer/murderer, only escaping with Zhivago's intervention, who would become his surrogate dad. Then when he was grown, Ban tragically lost Elaine, the first person to actually acknowledge him, and it has been his personal quest to revive her. This has driven him so much so that Ban was beside himself when he was offered the chance to revive her if he would kill Meliodas, his best friend and the only other person Ban cares about. And then he watches his father figure die in front of him and sacrifice his chance to enter the afterlife to keep Ban's soul from being eaten.
  • Due to incidents beyond his control, King has suffered and lost a great deal. These include King's best friend going mad to a point that King had no other choice but to Mercy Kill him THREE times, and the loss of the original Fairy King's forest along with the life of his sister. Worse yet, he is constantly reminded of and blamed for all of these tragedies even when he was otherwise indisposed to prevent them.
  • Gilthunder. He lost his father at a very young age and for years had to remain silent about the identity of the murderers (one of them being his own uncle), while everybody blamed his dear mentor and said mentor's comrades. All of this because a Yandere threatened to kill the woman he loves with one monster while having another monitor his every move. And he never complains or shows his suffering.

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