Nanatsu no Taizai, Chapter 183: Danger Zone
I don't particularly care that much for Meliodas's discussion with what I assume is the Demon King in Purgatory. It's a lot of foershadowing and mysticism and hints about just who cursed Meliodas, but the wording used in their words are so ambiguous that, for example, Meliodas might be the Demon King's "son" in either figurative or literal sense. He might be cursed with the two Commandments that were his own or those that belonged to others. I don't really care that much, I think? It's cool to have some buildup to the Demon King after mentioning him so much, but a big smoke dude that seeped out of random craters, and feeds on Meliodas's emotions, honestly isn't that impressive.
We cut to Gilthunder, Hauser, Gilfrost, Threader (Slader? Spelling!), that roly-poly Marmas dude and a surprisingly alive Ban, suddenly unable to lift their weapons against an army of demons. And, shit, Estarossa, easily the most powerful of the Ten Commandments, show up. Ban and Meliodas, two of the most powerful characters on the good guys' side, couldn't do jack shit against him, and he's got Gray Lord, Derriere and Monspiet with him.
Estarossa's Commandment is "Charity", and he can make anyone who has hatred to be unable to lift their weapon, or even inflict harm on anyone. Except, well, when he does so to Meliodas -- but that was without hatred and he was lamenting it all throughout the act, so maybe he has to condition himself? No idea why Meliodas and the other Commandments were able to beat each other up during that fight -- hatred was definitely involved there -- so maybe Estarossa can switch it on and off?
Also what the fuck is Ban doing alive randomly? Not that I want him to die, of course, he's my favourite character, but it's surprising and honestly a bit anticlimatic.
And then Escanor of all people does the mother of all steps, absolutely obliterating the ledge between Gilthunder's forces and Escanor, and it surprises everyone present. And, shit, the two most powerful characters in the setting, fighting each other so soon? I certainly did not expect that, and I'm definitely twenty times more hyped for the Escanor and Estarossa battle than anything involving Meliodas, purgatory, Zaratros and Elizabeth. Escanor feels nothing but pity towards those he views as lesser beings, so he's completely devoid of hatred.
And he's already super-overpowered as he is already!
Honestly I wished the whole Meliodas resurrection thing didn't happen so early after the timeskip. Maybe have Elizabeth meet up with Zaratros and witness the flashback, but don't show Meliodas fighting to get out of purgatory so soon! It kind of kills the tension of all the shit happening in the world with Arthur and Escanor's respective groups fighting against this demon invasion, and I dunno. the pacing's a bit weird, and it would definitely be a shame if this 'Britannia ruled by demons' setting ends up getting waved aside just to show Meliodas returning.
But whatever the case? Next chapter will be Escanor versus Estarossa. If it was literally any other character other than Escanor facing Estarossa I would put my money on Estarossa. But it's Escanor! Deus ex Machina versus Deus ex Machina! Unbeatable versus Unbeatable! Strongest pretty boy versus Strongest pretty boy! E versus E! It will be supremely entertaining, too, because at this point Estarossa and maybe one of the other stronger Commandments like Zeldoris or Gray Lord would be the only ones that can conceivably prove to be a fair fight against Escanor considering how broken he is.
Blackjack I disagree with your stance on Ban he was not struck with purgatory flames which has proven to be the only thing that can leave everlasting damage on him. We still didn't know the true extent of his immortality so him splattering isn't much of a problem. Although I do agree with your stance on Meliodas him being shown so soon ruins the tension. Although Nanatsu No Taizai is still a shounen it's not like Nakaba(author) is trying to reinvent the wheel. But all things considered NNT is a better shounen than most.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind Ban being alive, not at all -- like Meliodas, I never thought being blown apart was going to be fatal -- I just expected there to be some inconvenience, some kind of minor subplot or whatever to bring Ban back, but I guess he just... gooped together into his full form off-screen? Which is just disappointing and underwhelming.
DeleteNanatsu no Taizai isn't trying to reinvent the wheel, no, but it has shown itself to be so consistently better in quality of balancing, I think, between quirkiness and action, between proper pacing, and between power levels -- while still retaining the expected super-badass-powerful characters from that genre. Other than the disaster of the Gowther-Diane-King subplot, NNT has been consistently pretty great in pacing. And pacing, either too fast or too slow, is one of the biggest failures of a lot of the bigger shounens. Bleach, Naruto, Fairy Tail and Toriko all suffer from pacing problems of both types.
But oh well. Can't be perfect, really.