Nanatsu no Taizai 177 Review: Seven Blades

Nanatsu no Taizai, Chapter 177: What Can I Give To You

Estarossa is just insane, isn't he? He apparently will kill Merascylla himself if Ban hadn't stepped in, simply because he wants to kill Meliodas himself. You... you do realize you could just order Merascylla to stop and she would probably listen, yeah?

The entire chapter is a long, agonizing show of having Estarossa summon blades and stab Meliodas in the heart seven times. Because 'Greater Demons' have seven hearts. All the while Ban is just yelling and screaming for Estarossa to stop, using his fox hunt and hunter fest abilities... the former doing jack shit but fucking up Ban's fingers, and while it's hilarious to see a muscled-up Ban hold Estarossa in a choke-hold... Estarossa gives no fucks and just keeps stabbing while monologuing about what a jackass Meliodas is.

Meliodas gets stabbed seven times, Ban cries, and then Estarossa just... splatters Ban apart into nothing but a spray of blood.

I mean, there's no way for the two of them to not return back to life, not with Mrs. Deus Ex Machina, Elizabeth, arriving on the scene in the second half of the chapter... but man, this is how you write a good death scene. This is how you convey utter desperation as the villain completely wins and trounces over the good guy, with Ban's desperate thoughts of protecting his friend being absolutely for naught and be turned to grief.

I don't like comparing and contrasting, but next manga over in Fairy Tail, they just apparently decided to randomly kill off Gajeel, and it took an entire chapter of him giving a super-sappy speech that serves to stroke that Gajeel-x-Levi shipper base more than trying to at least make it feel like a properly deserving death. Nevermind that the generic villain that 'killed' Gajeel was literally introduced and killed off in the space of one and a half chapters, meaning that whoever the villain was called, he had less personality than most starter villains in shonen mangas... yeah. I mean, this chapter isn't perfect and I would rather they not throw Elizabeth in so early (and if they did, at least show Elizabeth's healing powers not working so we have some suspension of disbelief) but it's a hella lot better than Fairy Tail, that's for sure.