Nanatsu no Taizai, Bonus Chapter: The Vampires of Edinburgh
Nanatsu no Taizai had a bonus chapter last week, and while I'm still waiting for this week's chapter, I realized I haven't reviewed this one... which is a crime, because it's a pretty eventful and awesome chapter. It's the first time we've had a Nanatsu no Taizai story actually set when all the Seven Sins are active as knights in Lione. And they're dealing with a crisis, because apparently Edinburgh has been overrun by vampires.The chapter starts off with this Holy Knight from Edinburgh coming in, pretending to be a messenger bearing news... when he himself has been turned by a vampire by the Vampire King who's taken over Edinburgh. Which is certainly different from Nanatsu no Taizai's normal tone, but why the hell not? We get a cool takedown of this small invading force by the Great Holy Knight Zaratras, who is fucking awesome! I think this is the first time we've actually seen him when he's not brutally skewered, and he is an awesome dude. Slicing limbs and using his 'Purge' powers on the vampires and freeing them from thralldom... Zaratras is pretty awesome.
We see a bit of the Seven Sins fooling around. We don't see Gowther and Diane anywhere in the story, but they're apparently just off-screen. King (in his original fat form) and Merlin discuss what's going on, and Merlin, in a funny little proper dress, gets to be an info-dump. Apparently a great sarcophagus sealing the Vampire Clan has been destroyed, but they are interrupted by Ban and Meliodas fooling around with a bet and Meliodas cooking this... thing that is apparently supposed to be food. It's a writhing mass of something that definitely isn't edible. Also, Ban has long hair.
They then go into a debriefing room alongside younger versions of Dreyfus and Hendricksen... is Dreyfus corrupted at this point? I dunno. Merlin monologues some more, saying how there are five great powers among the vampires not counting the Vampire King, and how the vampires have twisted Edinburgh and made it eternally dark and warped space so much they turned it into an Escher painting and preventing Merlin from teleporting in. So vampires are a lot more dangerous in this world than their normal selves, with reality warping powers and shit.
We get a bit of fun dialogue where Meliodas basically admits that the Seven Deadly Sin's greatest strength is their utter lack of teamwork and lack of strategy. Well, I guess when you're so godawfully strong...
Apparently Ban's been sent ahead as a scouting force, while Meliodas sends King, Merlin, Diane and Gowther as the main force while he recruits the so-far-unseen seventh sin, Escanor. We get a bit of Meliodas meeting little Elizabeth, but that short meeting was interrupted by young Veronica.
Ban is just walking around the twisted Edinburgh dressed in full armour, which is cool, while the vampires comment on how foolish it is for a single person to walk around. We don't really get a good look at the vampires, who are shadowed and mysterious and stuff, but Ban encounters this huge army of lesser vampires and just... one-shots them in one of the coolest panels in the history of manga. These awesome motion lines and he just beheads a shit-ton of vampires with 'Assault Hunt', and makes a Bond one-liner about how boring it is to kill everyone at once.
The vampire higher-ups discuss Ban's insane strength, and one of them theorizes that Ban might be the one responsible for sealing them thousands of years ago. One of the vampire royalty, Ordoni the Rose, who's this weird little boy with a girly bob-hair, shows up and attacks Ban, tearing off his helmet. Ordoni shows off his powers by waving his hands and creating holes on Ban's chest-armour... which apparently drills straight into his body, and Ordoni can just summon Ban's blood out as tendrils and drink them. Fucking awesome powers for a vampire, for sure! Also great art that makes it look rather awesome and disturbing. Granted Ban can probably just regenerate his blood with his Wolverine powers, but hey.
We cut away to Meliodas dragging Escanor's sacred treasure, which is this big battle-axe, while leading Escanor through a gate Merlin made. And Escanor is... this skinny, pathetic-looking dude in overly-baggy clothes. Which is not at all similar with the old man from the posters. This extra chapter isn't over yet, but it's certainly a very eventful one, introducing the final Sin and generally having an interesting plot. It also cleverly ties in to last week's chapter by featuring Edinburgh -- and maybe the ruins the Ten Commandments discovered was in fact Edinburgh and not Danathor? They did say they were going to Edinburgh when they were first revived, after all...
Also, fucking Escanor! What the hell is he? I bet he's going to be connected with the vampires in some fashion, which will make Gowther's 'none of the Seven Sins are of the same race' comment make some more sense, and as the Sin of Pride, he does seem prideful in a backhanded-compliment kind of way, going all 'oh, Merlin made the gate for me?' but he seems like a mostly decent guy.
Certainly looking forward to seeing what the hell is up with this weird dude.
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