This manga follows the popular anime show almost exactly. A clever cast of characters is established with names derived from the Christian Seven Deadly Sins, with the twist being that these characters are actually the heroes, and possessed of incredible and unique powers. Genuine friendships, true love, and a complex conflict that spans millennia makes for an interesting story. Ample misogynistic jokes objectifying the female protagonist are cringeworthy at times, and violence is dramatic, but neither are as "in your face" as many other manga. When considered alongside the anime, this is manga is a worthy addition to a high school library collection.

Finished Vol 1-5. The story is interesting, and the fight scenes are cool. But the sexual harassment is not necessary. It can be a good Echhi without it. ( )

I wanted to see what the talk was about, so I checked out the first volume, and I have to say, I'll probably get around to reading the rest sometime. The stakes are rather usual for manga. Uber powerful friends and foes, betrayal, ecchi, and talking pigs. The art is pretty damn good, but it's not absolutely fantastic. The story has potential, but I'd have to read at least 4-5 volumes before I'll know for certain.

Is it grabbing my attention enough for me to continue on at this moment? Probably not. I'll just have it stew a bit and return to it at a later time. ( )

As with UQ Holder, I read this through Crunchyroll's digital manga service. This is definitely a shounen manga as it's about a boy and girl trying to find seven legendary heroes (the titular seven deadly sins) to free the land from "Holy Knights" who are often capricious in their treatment of the populace.

While I like the main characters (including Pig who is an actual pig), there isn't anything to particularly distinguish it from many other similar manga. I'll keep up with the series, but I'd instead recommend [b:UQ Holder 1|18691083|UQ Holder 1|Ken Akamatsu|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388628448s/18691083.jpg|26537435] for an alternative shounen battle manga, or [b:Uchū kyōdai: 1|5196697|Uchū kyōdai 1|Chūya Koyama|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327887307s/5196697.jpg|5263821] (Space Brothers) which is about two brothers. One who is an astronaut going on a mission to the moon and the other who is an astronaut candidate. UQ Holder is better in the same overall genre, while Space Brothers is more appealing to a broader audience.

It's decent, it's just that there are others that are better written. ( )

The Seven Deadly Sins stars Meliodas, a tavern owner who serves utterly terrible food and whose only companion is a talking pig named Hawk. One day a mysterious "Rust Knight" arrives at Meliodas' tavern. The Knight, who turns out to really be Princess Elizabeth, is looking for the Seven Deadly Sins, a chivalric order made up of seven criminals who each bear the mark of a beast upon their bodies. The Holy Knights disbanded the Seven Deadly Sins years ago after they were accused of plotting to overthrow the kingdom.

Now, however, the Holy Knights have done what they accused the Seven Deadly Sins of trying to do, and Princess Elizabeth believes the Seven Deadly Sins are the kingdom's last hope. Luckily for her, Meliodas is not only one of those famed warriors, specifically the Dragon Sin of Wrath, he's looking for the others too.

I got this first volume in PDF form via a Humble Bundle a while back. Interestingly, the file was formatted in such a way that changing to "two page layout" actually properly placed the pages for right-to-left reading - definitely a step up from the Inuyashiki volume formatting.

This was technically okay. The artwork was actually pretty good, more detailed than I expected. I loved the way Suzuki drew the foggy forest. I occasionally had trouble following some of the action, but I think that was more due to the size of the PDF pages on my monitor (I didn't feel like zooming in) than to any problems with the artwork.

The fantasy aspect felt a bit generic, but that could change. This first volume was light on details as to what, exactly, each of the Seven Deadly Sins could do. Meliodas appeared to have super-strength - I wasn't sure if his broken sword was anything special or really just a random broken sword. One of the other Seven Deadly Sins, Diana, was a giant, but apparently that had nothing to do with the mark she bore (Serpent Sin of Envy) as a member of the Seven Deadly Sins. No information was given as to what the different beasts signified, although I assume they're important in some way and are maybe tied in to what each of the members of the group can do.

Hawk, Meliodas' animal companion, was reasonably cute and got points for calling out Meliodas' frequent gross behavior. Unfortunately, the character also added to the series' overall generic feel. I was reminded of Fairy Tail's Plue and Happy - it seems like every shounen fantasy adventure group needs at least one cute and comedic animal character.

The series' overly generic feeling is part of the reason I'm not sure I want to continue on. My other issue with this series was how much fan service and boob and butt grabbing it contained. The first time Meliodas met Princess Elizabeth, he groped her breasts while she was still unconscious, supposedly to confirm that she was female. From that point on, it felt like the story was a series of action scenes glued together with boob and butt grabbing jokes. Readers were supposed to laugh at Meliodas' antics and Princess Elizabeth's reactions (she mostly either didn't notice what he was doing or dismissed it as harmless - Hawk was more disgusted and upset than she was). I not only didn't think it was funny, I found myself becoming increasingly annoyed. It was a lazy and gross way for Suzuki to try to get some laughs.

There's a Humble Bundle available for another 24 hours that has volumes 1 to 22 of this series. Wikipedia tells me that The Seven Deadly Sins is still ongoing and is currently up to 31 volumes, so this is a pretty significant chunk. That said, I'm not sure that I want to take the plunge.

Extras:

Eight pages of design sketches for The Seven Deadly Sins.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )