The Seven Deadly Sins: Analyzing the Poor Animation Quality & Storytelling

by

The Seven Deadly Sins has grown into a very well-known franchise, frequently considered one of the most enjoyable anime series of the 21st century. It’s unique, grand in scale, has some playful fanservice, and features a compelling storyline – qualities many viewers look for in an anime. However, the series isn’t without its flaws, and as more episodes and seasons were released, many fans began to feel that The Seven Deadly Sins didn’t live up to their initial expectations. This article will serve as a review, analyzing the key problems with the The Seven Deadly Sins anime series.

  • The Seven Deadly Sins is a manga franchise created by Nakaba Suzuki. It has been adapted into an anime series, and it has also received a sequel series, titled The Four Knights of the Apocalypse.
  • The relatively popular multipart anime series The Seven Deadly Sins is often listed as one of the most entertaining anime titles of the 21st century.
  • Despite this, The Seven Deadly Sins has many problems, both in terms of the story and the technical execution of the anime series.

The Seven Deadly Sins seems fun, but if you dig deeper – there are many problems

As mentioned before, The Seven Deadly Sins is a manga created by Nakaba Suzuki, who both wrote and drew it. It’s become a very well-known series of the 2000s, and although it’s quite popular, it hasn’t quite achieved the devoted fanbase of some other manga. A continuation of the original story is also being released currently, and the series has also been made into an anime.

As a big fan of fantasy series, I was really drawn into The Seven Deadly Sins because it centers around Meliodas, one of the Seven Deadly Sins, and his quest to reunite the others. The core of the story is watching him bring the remaining six together so they can fight against evil. What I especially loved was how the characters developed – not just becoming stronger fighters, but growing as people too, which really boosted the quality of the series. However, even with all its good parts, The Seven Deadly Sins has gotten its share of criticism from both reviewers and fans, which is something to keep in mind.

A frequent criticism of the series centers around its fanservice. While the anime adaptation toned it down compared to the original manga, The Seven Deadly Sins is a prime example of fanservice in contemporary anime – whether you see that as a positive or a negative. It’s not simply the obvious instances – Meliodas’ flirtatious behavior towards Elizabeth, which provide some comedic moments and aren’t malicious – but the sheer amount of it. Other factors contribute to the problem too, such as the character designs and outfits, and numerous scenes that verge on being overly suggestive. Ultimately, this detracts from the series’ overall quality and limits how deeply it could explore its themes.

A lot of fans felt the story wasn’t very original, which was a big problem. While the author did a great job developing the main characters, the plot relies too heavily on familiar shonen clichés and doesn’t offer anything particularly new or captivating. It’s not a terrible series, but a lack of originality always holds it back.

To add to that, the villains have been criticized for being unoriginal, and it’s fair to say the author didn’t spend much time developing them. They largely follow familiar patterns, making them quite predictable, and often lack any significant growth throughout the series. While the story isn’t *about* the villains – it is a shonen series, after all – strong, well-developed antagonists are still important.

The artwork has received mixed reactions from fans, and that leads us to the next part of this article.

The animation quality of The Seven Deadly Sins was – at times – its worst aspect

The Seven Deadly Sins is known for its distinct animation style. While it’s similar to many other anime, it draws heavily from Western animation, and viewers often describe it as “cartoony.” That’s a fair assessment. Personally, I don’t particularly enjoy the series’ style; it doesn’t appeal to me visually and feels a bit low-budget, though it’s certainly not the worst I’ve seen (consider Baki or JoJo, for example). However, stylistic preferences aside, the actual animation quality is a separate issue.

Specifically, the animation quality has been getting noticeably worse throughout the series. Each new season saw a decline in quality, and by the end of the original anime, we were stuck with some strange choices, like the one shown in the image at the top of this article. We aren’t sure why this happened, but it likely stems from the later seasons being produced quickly by studios that were already very busy. This meant a lot of the animation had to be contracted out to other companies, ultimately leading to the lower quality we observed.

Even so, the animation is generally well-done, though we should warn you about some rough patches in the later seasons. However, that’s also when the story really improves, so it might make up for it a little.

Read More

2025-10-02 09:45