Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. *Takes a deep breath* So, Nanatsu no Taizai is returning next month.
*Unknown cheers*
And everyone is naturally excitement. I mean, why couldn’t be? It’s a great series with awesome characters and badass fight scenes. It’s a series that really does capture the heart and soul of what makes a shonen series so good. Since the third season is coming it only seems fitting that I review the second season to build up hype and remind everyone what happened. After the success of the first season, everyone was waiting for the second one to be announced. Many people thought it was gonna make a return in 2017 after the OVA series got released in 2016 but A-1 was too busy working on other animes and thus the series got pushed back to the beginning of 2018 where it became one of the most watched anime of the season and one of the best animes from 2018. Surprisingly, the original director and writer left the project and it was handed off to someone else. Did this new group give us an exciting story. Let’s find out and review Nanatsu no Taizai S2: Revival of the Commandments.
Opening and Ending Theme
The first opening is “Howling” By FLOW X GRANRODEO. Just from these two bands alone, you know the opening is gonna be epic and get you hyped for the anime and sure enough it does. It sounds great while building up the excitement to a big fight while also introducing the villains of the season as well as showing the personal battles some of the characters are going through with themselves or each other.
The ending for the first is “Beautiful” by Anly and yeah the song is beautiful. I’ll admit I didn’t really care for the song when I first heard it, but after going back and listening to it I actually found myself enjoying the song a lot more. It’s very peaceful, inspirational, and perfectly matches up with the character of Elizabeth who’s feelings for Meliodas continues to grow the more time they spend with each other.
Episodes 1-4
The anime starts by revealing that the last part we saw at the end of last season was all a dream from Elizabeth (huh, I imagine she would have had something dirtier in mind for a dream). In the dream she also saw Meliodas get attacked by some shadowy demons and start to transform into a demon as well. After the dream Elizabeth wakes up (in a huge bed mind you. Just getting ready for the future) and goes to visit the Seven Deadly Sins (or 6 Deadly Sins since we’re still missing one) where we find out they’ll be getting medals tomorrow for their heroic service. Not only that but Ban plans to leave the next day for the Fairy King Forest and King is going with him. The next day comes around and Ban and King leave in the early morning without so much as saying goodbye. At the medal ceremony a few of the holy knights don’t believe they deserve the medals (well fuck you guys too). Meliodas decides to call them out where 3 knights step forward and one of them challenges Meliodas to a fight (that is like the dumbest thing to do) and gets his ass handed to him (anybody else want some?). The other two knights stand down and take their leave allowing the award ceremony to continue in peace. As the episode draws to a close, we see that Dreyfus and Hendrickson are both still alive (and I thought the sins were immortal). Hendrickson has returned to his human form while Dreyfus is possessed by some demon and we get to see the villains for the season the Ten Commandments, ten powerful demons that were sealed away long ago.
In episode 2 Ban and King are being followed by Jericho who followed them all this time because she has a crush on Ban (the women of this anime have strange taste in men). The three manage to reach the new Fairy King Forest where King isn’t welcomed because he’s seen as a traitor (you did leave the forest behind for your own selfish reasonings) and Ban is seen as their king (don’t know whether to laugh at this or be worried about them). Back in the kingdom, Gilthunder, Howzer, and Griamore set out on their journey and Elizabeth goes to see Meliodas where we see he’s about to head out and he doesn’t want Elizabeth to come with him because he knows what’s coming and for her own safety he wants to keep her in the kingdom. Elizabeth and Diane have a chat where Elizabeth admits that she loves Meliodas (kind of obvious if you think about it) but she doesn’t confess her feelings because she knows Meliodas still loves Liz (fuck Liz, she’s dead) but Diane implores her to tell Meliodas how she feels as there’s no telling what the future will hold. Diane confesses that she remembers her past with King and now realizes that she’s in love with him (and he left before you could tell him. Way to screw yourself over King). As they continue to talk they see Guila’s brother wandering the streets where he has no recollection of Guila at all (oh no, what did Gowther do?). They find Gowther and Guila where Guila doesn’t recognize Zeal and Gowther confesses that he altered her memories and replaced them with memories of him being her childhood friend who were engaged at a young age (oh goddamn you Gowther). Why did he do this, because he wants to understand love and since Zeal and Guila’s bad memories were getting in the way of his understanding he eliminated them (what the hell man?). Diane says he has to stop this but he refuses so a fight breaks out between the two sins (man this season is hitting me in the feels. We spent all of first season getting these guys back together and now they’re destroying each other from within).
Episode 3 is just full of action. Diane manages to beat Gowther who restores the memories of Guila and Zeal (scene here: https://youtu.be/6tT73g5H5Ms). Surprisingly Guila isn’t mad at Gowther (which is amazing, because I be pissed) as she kind of understands where he’s coming from (you do?) and thanks him for sharing the fond memories she has for her father. After Guila and Zeal take their leave, Merlin turns Gowther into his true form, a doll (there’s never a dull moment with these guys). Yep, Gowther is actually a doll who was bought to life by a powerful sorcerer a long time ago (this. . .explains so much). They return to the Boar’s Hat with Slader who has been tasked with joining and helping out the sins in the fight to come. Meliodas tries to get Elizabeth to leave so nothing bad happens to her, even going as far as saying she’s just needless baggage in the hopes of getting her to leave but she knows he doesn’t mean it (you’ve got to tell him your true feelings). Their talk get interrupted when Merlin senses a powerful magic near Camelot and teleports everyone there where we see the kingdom is being attacked by a golem named Albion (who looks like Mr. Stay Puff from Ghostbusers) who was created by the demon clan a long time ago. The only way to destroy him is to destroy the core within his body so Meliodas, Arthur, and his men scale the creature to find the core. Meliodas’s sword gets destroyed while protecting Arthur but Merlin tosses him his sacred treasure Lostwayne which she bought back at a pawn shop in Camelot (it was only 99 cents). With this weapon Meliodas chops off one of Albion’s arms and the golem tries to destroy Meliodas with 5 cannons but Meliodas shows he can use clone jutsu and splits himself into 5 people (run Elizabeth run) where he uses full counter and destroys Albion completely (scene here: https://youtu.be/3OoTRk0zFn0). Meanwhile, in the Fairy King Forest we see that Ban offers up his blood to keep the forest healthy and continue to grow. We also see another golem appear to attack the forest (this one looks like the Slender Man).
In episode 4 King takes on the Slender Man golem all by his lonesome self where he’s clearly outmatched by the thing and takes a beating but continues to get back up to protect his home (he lost it once he won’t lose it again). As all of this is going on Gerheade another fairy attacks Ban claiming he’s not the true Fairy King nor will she acknowledge him as the king (okay. Why are you fighting him in the first place? He doesn’t acknowledge himself as a king nor does he want the title in the first place so why are you fighting him?). To Gerheade, King is the true king and Ban is just an energy source for the forest to feed on so she wants to keep him around as some eternal battery for the forest. Back outside the Slender Man cuts the great tree down (not again) and the fairies finally see enough of King risking his life and decide to sacrifice their lives to save King. But King is selfish and refuses to watch his people die so he unleashes the true power of his holy weapon which destroys the Slender Man and saves the forest (scene here: https://youtu.be/w_lS0iLEznA). Back with Meliodas and the others, they get done explaining to Arthur what the 10 Commandments are (numbers 5 & 6 are the ones everyone seem to mess up on) when Galland a member of the 10 Commandments shows up to fight his power level exceeds Meliodas and the others easily.
Episodes 5-8
Episode 5 is quite the shocker. Meliodas and the others take on Galland and get destroyed. Even when Meliodas uses his demonic powers he’s still no match for Galland who stabs Meliodas in the chest and eye (https://youtu.be/clgfRkyGqrc, exactly), Slader and Diane get stabbed in the chest as well, and Merlin gets turned into stone and crushed (this is quite scary to see all of these characters we’ve come to see as overpowered maniacs get destroyed so easily and these 10 Commandments aren’t even at their full strength yet). The only ones left standing are Arthur, Elizabeth, and Hawk who can’t be hurt thanks to Merlin’s cube which has kept them safe (scene here: https://youtu.be/7xQlFEwAFtw). Galland takes his leave and Gowther reappears laughing like a maniac (all while being naked). While this is going on the other 10 Commandments begin stealing the life energy of humans as a magic supplement. Gilthunder, Howzer, and Griamore come across being attacked by a red demon where they destroy the red demon but a grey demon appears along with Hendrickson who’s come out to help them fight.
At the start of episode 6 Gilthunder, Howzer, Griamore, and Hendrickson defeat the grey demon and Hendrickson tells them that Dreyfus is still alive but under the control of a demon named Flaudrin who is the same demon responsible for killing Meliodas’ beloved Liz (you bastard). Hendrickson explains that 10 years ago he and Dreyfus were sent on a mission to investigate the destruction of Danafor a large kingdom that was destroyed without a trace and the only thing left was a huge crater in the ground. They go down into the crater where they come across Flaudrin who tries to possess Dreyfus, but Dreyfus is too strong (wow, Griamore’s dad was a badass). Since Flaudrin can’t possess Dreyfus he instead possesses Hendrickson and this time succeeds (you weakling). In order to save his best friend’s life, Dreyfus agrees to become possessed by Flaudrin and Hendrickson wanting to keep Dreyfus safe became Flaudrin’s accomplice in killing Gilthunder’s dad (because he posed a threat to the demons) and putting the blame on the sins. Speaking of the sins, we see they’re all okay for the most part thanks to Gowther who manipulated the mind of Galland into believing he killed them all (bad end denied). At first Gowther was about to leave them but Merlin stopped him by putting a bracelet on him which keeps him calm. Oh yeah, Merlin transferred her soul to her sacred treasure Venus Aldan which is a sphere that acts as a vessel for her soul. Merlin tells them they will all need to get stronger if they hope to defeat the 10 Commandments and that includes finding the final member of the sins, Escanor. Meliodas, Elizabeth, and Hawk go to check on Diane as King reappears where he goes with them. Once they reach Diane we see that she’s suffering amnesia as she doesn’t remember King at all (blue-balled by the world again).
So in episode 7 we find out Diane’s amnesia is actually more severe. Not only doesn’t she remember King but she’s gradually losing all of her memories and the person responsible for this is of course Gowther who was testing out Diane’s reasoning that things like memories can’t be erased and to understand emotions (https://youtu.be/BNsrK6P9QvI). King punches Gowther for his lack of emotions (funny. Aren’t you the guy who did the same thing to her a while back?) and then goes after Diane who has left Canterlot and is returning to her homeland which is Megadoza, the land of giants (the perfect destination for those into big women). As Diane returns to her homeland, we get a flashback where she was a warrior from her clan and her chief Metrona followed the ideology of Vikings (which is you live to fight in battle and the greatest honor of all time is to die in battle). One of Diane’s friends was another giant named Dolores who was a pacifist and hated fighting so she planned to leave and never come back. Diane was on the fence about this but when she overheard Metrona talk about how she was training Diane to be the next chief (not taking into consideration how she felt about all of this), Diane said screw this and decided to leave with Dolores who had second thoughts and decided to stay because what place would accept their kind. So, Diane left Megadoza where she met Meliodas who invited her to join up with his gang. This gave Diane hope that she found a place for her and Dolores so she ran back to Megadoza only to discover that Dolores died at the hands of humans. Angered by this she attacks Metrona for sending Dolores to her death but Metrona beats her telling her to give up on her dreams and to fight (because that is all Metrona knows how to do. She doesn’t know any other way to live outside of fighting so this is the only way she can tell Diane how to live). The next day Diane and Metrona get hired by the holy knights of Lionnes to fight some savages only to get betrayed by the knights who set them up to be killed. Metrona dies protecting Diane from a poison arrow but not before taking out all the knights herself with her earthbending. After the credits, we find out that Diane got captured by the holy knights and they pinned Metrona and the holy knights’ death on her. She was sentenced to death but was saved by Meliodas who bought her into his squad of misfits and crazy people (she fit right in).
In episode 8 Diane is only a short distance away from Megadoza which is now the home base of the Ten Commandments (oh hell). She gets attacked by Galland and another member of the Ten Commandments named Monspeet only to get saved by Matrona who is still alive (and she got abs for days. (Shizuku): Abs for days? (Nitsuj): Abs for days). She knocks out Diane and manages to escape Galland while Monspeet fires a ball of fire at Meliodas and the others which gets eaten by Mama Hawk (go mama). With Diane in “good hands”, Meliodas changes their course and heads for Istar, the forest of the Druids, to retrieve Meliodas’ true power that Merlin took from him in the past because it was too powerful and dangerous (you mean to tell me this perverted bastard has still been holding back on us?). They enter the land of Istar (if you were expecting Woodstock 1969 I’m sorry to disappoint you) where we the leaders of Druids, Jenna and Zaneri, along with their priest who protects them Theo (who looks incredibly good for a 15 year old). Meliodas and Elizabeth get taken into a pillar where Meliodas must overcome a trial to reclaim his powers which is reliving the past and coming face to face with Liz (scene here: https://youtu.be/yYcu60MN-zU, Elizabeth is prettier).
Episodes 9-12
We get to see what Meliodas’ trial is all about, suppressing his emotions and getting over the death of Liz. Meliodas gets put in a continuous time loop where he’s spending good times with Liz only to be torn away from them and arrive at the point where Liz dies and he loses control of his powers to go on a rampage. He goes through the trial multiple times (geez it’s like Re:Zero only in fast forward). Zaneri stops the trial fearing for Meliodas’ sanity but he wants to go back in and Elizabeth supports him in his decision. Speaking of trials, we also see that Hendrickson, Gilthunder, Howzer, and Griamore just got done doing a trial which was so brutal that they passed out from it (and keep in mind, these are guys who are pretty much one level beneath Meliodas and the others). Elizabeth also has a trial which is trying to get a seed to grow (I can’t help but feel this is a little sexist). Anyway, Meliodas goes back into the Re:Zero stimulator where he keeps trying to suppress his emotions only to discover that it’s impossible (obviously, Zaneri is asking you to forget about the person you loved and lost, how do you ask a person to do that?). So when Meliodas sees that trying to forget Liz is impossible he goes for the next best thing, acceptance. Accepting that Liz is gone, learning to live with it, and vowing to protect what he values now. This works and Meliodas passes the trial (scene here: https://youtu.be/WNgjJEm7Xn8). Meanwhile, Ban is traveling with Jericho to look for a potion or spell to revive the dead. Their search leads them to the city of Ravens a city full of bandits and thieves which was the city Ban grew up in (and he is clearly a product of the city). When they turn in for the night they save a werefox who everyone says can revive the dead but in truth he can’t however he is dying from old age (as will I but I intend to age gracefully like Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp). As the episode winds down we get a look into Ban’s past when he was just a kid who got caught trying to steal potatoes and thrown in prison where he met a guy named Zhivago (the man who would change his life forever).
In the first half of episode 10 we continue with our look into Ban’s past. He and Zhivago escape prison and Ban returns home where his home was shit. He had an abusive dad who always beat him up (even when he was asleep) and an alcoholic mom who allowed the abuse to take place. Ban finds his way back to Zhivago where he begins to train Ban how to be a thief (it’s what he was born to do) and we even discover that Zhivago has a son of his own and he steals in order to feed him. Ban and Zhivago form a bond with each other and on their next job, Zhivago overslept so Ban tried to rob a mansion himself only to get caught. Zhivago was about to save him but the knights find a werefox in the mountains and are about to kill it and Zhivago abandons Ban to save the werefox. Why, because Zhivago is a werefox in human form and the werefox the knights attacked is his son. Zhivago arrives late as his son is dead and after the flashback we find out that the werefox Ban and Jericho saved is Zhivago who after all these years has been haunted by his choices and failure to save his sons. Ban reveals who he is to Zhivago, tells him he never once held a grudge against him, and they hug (I love you fox daddy). In the second half, we return to Meliodas and the others as the others begin their training which is fighting a high powered monster in a team of two (strangely, this sounds way easier than Meliodas and Elizabeth’s trials). We see Gilthunder and Howzer fight a clay dragon where they have to beat it without their armor or weapons (I can’t help but think Jenna wanted to see them shirtless) and just a wooden stick. As they fight the two realize their weaknesses. For Gilthunder, it’s being too rigid, something that Meliodas has been telling him ever since he was a kid. For Howzer, it’s being too careless, he doesn’t think things through all the way and dives head first into danger. As the two realize this they change up their fighting style with Howzer using his head to combat the dragon and Gilthunder thinking outside the box and creating a suit of armor out of lightning (Yin-Yang: Damn it! Why didn’t I think of that?). While the two still lose this was a step in the right direction. Meliodas and King also enter the cave where Meliodas tries to get King to work with Hendrickson so that they can beat the Ten Commandments (we need all the bodies we can throw at them) but King won’t listen and instead attacks Meliodas and questioning which side he’s really on since he knows so much about the demon clan and comes from it (King, if Meliodas wanted to betray you guys, he would have betrayed you guys).
Episode 11 starts off with Ban still talking to Zhivago where we actually go a little deep and get an idea as to why Ban left the group, he feels like shit. He tried to kill Meliodas last season all for the chance of reviving the person he loved and he didn’t hesitate one bit (he had a choice between his best friend and lover and he chose his lover). Yet, despite this Meliodas didn’t hold it against Ban at all, he just smiled and forgave him (even though Meliodas didn’t mean it, he wounded Ban so deep that not even he can heal from it). Now Ban doesn’t know how to face Meliodas anymore, he tried to kill who could possibly be his only true friend yet without a second thought only to fail and be forgiven (what does that mean for their friendship and how does he face Meliodas from here on out?). Zhivago tells him to stop self-loathing, face Meliodas, let him know how he feels, and apologize from the bottom of his heart. After saying this, Zhivago sadly passes away (first he lost the love of his life, now he loses his father. Ban truly does live an unlucky life). Back with Meliodas, he and King fight with King wanting to know who’s side he’s on. The fight gets stopped by Jenna who tells the two come out immediately but before heading out Meliodas says he can’t tell King everything as of yet and King says that he’ll be watching Meliodas closely from now on (scene here: https://youtu.be/hFCvD1mmyGM). Once out of the tower, Jenna gives Meliodas back his power which was so massive that it actually blocked out the sky in the area they were in (he has really been holding back on us). Once he gets his power back, Meliodas ask Merlin to teleport him to the Ten Commandments where he fights and beats Galland (this is payback from episode 5 isn’t it?). He also delivers a warning to the rest of them (you mess with Meliodas, you’re a dead man) and then gets teleported back (scene here: https://youtu.be/sbgWzgzqsDE).
In episode 12 after Meliodas gets done beating the crap out of Galland, the Commandments decide to split up into teams of two and start regaining their powers through any means necessary. Back with Meliodas and the others they all leave where some of them have powered up a bit such as Hawk now gaining the powers of a dragon after he got eaten by one and ate himself out of it (that’s some pig). The only one who didn’t pass her test was Elizabeth because Zaneri rigged it for Elizabeth to fail. There’s no seed in Elizabeth’s pot meaning it was impossible for Elizabeth to grow anything. The reason Zaneri did this is because she too is in love with Meliodas but knows he won’t return her feelings (yeah, he and Ban have a thing for dead girls apparently) and was trying to pull them apart so Meliodas won’t go berserk should something happen to Elizabeth since she’s the reincarnation of Liz (why am I not surprise?). Meliodas’s next move is to find Escanor who according to Meliodas is actually stronger than him. Meanwhile, Melascula uses her aura to summon the souls of the dead and raise a zombie army. One of the souls resurrected is Elaine who’s become yandere and attacks the other fairies for having fun with Ban. King senses this power and leaves the group hoping to find his sister before it’s too late. Ban and Jericho get done burying Zhivago where Elaine shows up and kisses Ban in a very passionate kiss (scene here: https://youtu.be/7GGgomgpvF0, damn that is cute and disturbing at the same time. I do feel bad for Jericho though).
Well this was an exciting first half. Let’s reconvene next week for the second half where we’ll finally meet the only character who can match Meliodas in terms of badassery.
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