Nanatsu no Taizai 161-162 Review: Godhand

Nanatsu no Taizai, Chapter 161: The Legendary / Chapter 162: 

Seriously getting some Berserk flashbacks with Dolor rising those giant arms up towards a moon from the terrain and completely destroying it. I mean, it isn't quite as horrifying like Berserk creating the gigantic godhand out of the screaming visages of the souls of the dead and damned, but this is, y'know, mostly PG-rated. 161 is basically mostly a setup chapter with a big twist at the end, with Dolor creating this 'Gigant Gauntlet' and everone important just showing up and being all surprised and whatnot at the new villain.

And then the tentacle-covered little girl just goes absolutely apeshit crazy, saying how she'll clean things up, and activates 'Spirit Lance Vasquez 9th Form', meaning that, hey, she's using a variant of Chastiefol. King and Elaine mentions that they sense the power of fairies from her, so yeah, we've got ancient rulers for both tribes -- Dolor the giant and we've got the newly-named Gloxinia the fairy, the very first Fairy King. Or as she prefers her title now, The Ten Commandments' Gloxinia of the Repose. Repose meaning lazy tranquility or some such like that, so, yeah, we're just taking random religious-sounding aspects for the Ten Commandments while using some of the biblical versions for Galan and Gray Road. 'Kay. Whatever.

And Vasquez has some powerful attacks, creating these One-Piece-Birdcage-esque thorns that just lance out everywhere and even takes out someone who dodges it with... oh, poison powder or some shit. It's created from the Holy Tree, and unlike the current Fairy King, Gloxinia has these glorious giant butterfly wings. She might also be a dude, considering that, y'know, 'Fairy King'. And the fact that the androgynous Gowther exists in this manga.

162 has us explore a bit as King demands answers, but Gloxinia is just elusive, telling King that (s)he'll give him answers if he wins the tournament. Taizoo the MC has been gang-pressed to the Commandments' side, upon which the two survivors of Death Thorn -- Gowther, who is unliving, and Escanor, who is scared as shit and got stepped upon by Gowther -- show up. The Seven Deadly Sins are gathered all together at long last. Well, except for Merlin who's only there in spirit. 

Weakling!Escanor freaks out over his glasses being broken, upon which Gloxinia just sends one of her Cthulhu tentacles and stabs Weakling!Escanor through the abdomen. Well. Everyone was talking about how Escanor can just be flicked away by any one of the Commandments if it's the night, and this seems to affirm just that. Gloxinia then shows another form of Vasquez, dropping an elixir that just restores Escanor back to full functioning form. Fix Merascylla and Galan, Gloxinia!

Dolor splits everyone up into teams of two with floating rock platforms. We see Meliodas and Ban together, who are probably going to murder everyone present. Among our heroes that got paired together, Hendricksen is with Child!Griamore, Lovesick King is with Amnesia Diane, Escanor is with Hawk, Gowther is with Jericho, Elizabeth with Elaine, Matrona is with... OSLO!

Some of our heroes that got stuck with randoms are, well, Arthur and his hat-cat is with the Iai Samurai Nanashi. Hauser is stuck with the creepy elf kid Solatido (I get it, because music. Ha ha.) Threader is paired up with a random gladiator, Hyphan, and immediately hits on him. Gilthunder is paired with the ice magician from last chapter, Gilfrost... yeah, there is no way they aren't brothers or cousins or some shit. Two of the creepy assassin clowns, Tora and Jigmo, are paired up, while the third, Estaro, is paired up with crying pilgrim man Arbus. There is this super-armoured holy knight, Silver, who partners up with one of Gloxinia's bird demons, while the other two demons hang out together. And Dolor and Gloxinia just go all D&D boss and create avatars of themselves as the final team.

Elizabeth and Elaine are going to be faced off against the two assassin clowns... and while Elizabeth can't really do much other than heal, Elaine has wind powers, doesn't she? And even if the clowns provide to be a threat, y'know, Meliodas and Ban probably won't give two shits about jumping in and beating them up. Eh. We'll see how this tournament goes, but the setup and the intrigue around Gloxinia and the fact that we're so close to having all Seven Sins rock out against the Ten Commandments is just awesome.