Seven Mortal Sins (Season One)
Cast out of Heaven, Lucifer sought to make the most of her newfound freedom to take over Hell, defeating the Seven Mortal Sins at their own games. This should be fun!
Seven Mortal Sins (Season One)
What did you watch?
I started watching this series back in July 2018 when I watched two episodes and then abandoned it. The reason I dropped it was because of the rampant and overly censored nature of the version that was available on Funimation at the time. It was obscene how much they’d censored and made it completely unwatchable. I’ve never understood why these services do this when I’m paying with a credit card and have checked the allow adult material check box. What more have we got to do to prove that we’re adults and don’t need a corporation deciding what we can and can’t see? Anyhow, Funimation has the uncensored version and since they’re about to disappear, I decided I should watch it before it’s gone. This is an account of that adventure… and there will be spoilers.
What happened?
Lucifer was banished from Heaven for the sin – pride. She dared to challenge God’s plan and was sent to Hell for her decision. On the way, she crashed through a church and briefly met a student who could see her. Mortals shouldn’t be able to see angels and demons. Anyhow, Lucifer did something to Maria before she was plunged further into the ground and found herself in Cocytus, the ninth circle of Hell. There she was met by Leviathan, the Demon Lord of envy who was quite excited to see her.
Together, because Leviathan wouldn’t leave Lucifer alone, they challenged the Seven Mortal Sins who ruled over Hell. It looked like Lucifer was going to win, but her pride got the better of her. Belial, the Demon Lord of vanity cut one of Lucifer’s wings off, however, rather than upsetting Lucifer it freed her from God’s hold and gave her a taste of true freedom. With this freedom, she planned on defeating each of the Sins at their own game and taking control of Hell. She returned to Earth with Leviathan where she captured Maria’s heart and began to plot her revenge.
What did you think?
This series was created based on a line of figurines. As such the character designs are amazing. The story has a lot of potential and I probably find myself more excited about what could have been and the occasional glimpse of it. Unfortunately, it didn’t follow that path and ended up having lots of bizarre battles, like a pole dancing contest, a food eating contest, and a music video contest. It was fine in that respect, but had they gone a tiny bit darker it could have been amazing. There’s a wealth of untapped ideas that could have shown the various sins and how they influence the world. Lucifer was a very cool character and the definite highlight of the series.
What was your favourite moment?
It might not seem like much but there was a scene in the second episode where Lucifer had captured Maria’s heart, making her immortal and pretty much her slave. Lucifer had acquired the presidential suite at a massive hotel for all eternity for them to live in. It had a stunning rooftop pool which Leviathan had already jumped in. Lucifer gave Maria a look and then strutted towards the pool. As she did, her buckles and fastenings on her clothes released themselves allowing her clothes to fall away without missing a step. It was a short moment, but the confidence and swagger of Lucifer were intense. We saw little flashes of that from time to time, but if there had been more it would have been amazing.
What was your least favourite moment?
All the Sins had lost to Lucifer and basically switched sides, leaving Belial to stand alone. They even let Lucifer enter Hell and work her way down to Cocytus. However, Belial was one step ahead of Lucifer and since she was the ruler of the Seven Mortal Sins, she punished each of them according to their sin. It was fairly graphic and some of it quite uncomfortable viewing. However, it was the exact sort of thing I think this series was missing when it was goofing around with these contests earlier on. It had that edge that would have made the series that much better. So, not really my least favourite moment as I think there should have been more. It was, however, the hardest one to watch.
Who was your favourite character?
It’s Lucifer and there’s no question about it. I loved her confidence and that swagger. She also proved a lot of the things that I believe such as lust not really a sin. There’s no shame in enjoying sex and the likes. It was amazing how she managed to turn lust back on Asmodeus, the Demon Lord of lust when they fought. Of course, there’s bound to be some that would question my choice and that of the plot which had God preparing to destroy Earth and Hell to start over again, but that seems to make a lot of sense to me when you look at the God of the Old Testament.
Who was your least favourite character?
There were some characters that I found quite annoying at times, however, I’m going to make a weird selection here. I loved Leviathan. She was a crazy character with an even crazier dress sense, however, she was completely irrelevant to the story. All she did was get in the way, lose, and make strange decisions. At no point did she actually contribute to Lucifer’s plans. You could possibly argue that she dragged Satan into the middle of the ocean and bought Lucifer some time, but I don’t think that holds much weight. I just wish they’d given her some sort of development where she finally did something worthwhile.
Would you like some more?
This series was fine. It had some good moments and some not so good moments. I loved the idea behind it and the possibilities that were left unexplored. It ends without a real conclusion but the studio behind it is no more. They actually went bankrupt towards the end of the season and that meant quality dropped in the last two episodes. I think they were hoping this would be a good moneymaker for them and it seemed like there would be a second season, but I doubt it. That said, I would watch another season and also keep an eye out for something that might do what I hoped this series almost did.
What have you learnt?
One of the things that became apparent to me was how using existing characters, places, names, etc can have unwanted consequences. It seems like it’s a fairly common thing to do in anime. I’ve seen several series with Jean D’Arc in for example. However, many of these characters come with a certain amount of expectations. If you had a story with three characters called Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere you’d expect there to be a love triangle and some betrayal.
Now, that might be fine if that’s what you’re going to deliver. It can also work if you plan on deliberately playing with those understandings and pushing them in a different way. However, if you do something completely different and out of character, it can leave the audience feeling cheated. There was the scene where Belial cut Lucifer’s wing off and the other Sins all turned away saying they had no interest in torturing a defeated person. Hang on… isn’t that the idea behind Hell? As the series went on, it possibly made more sense, but it was too early to do something like that given that we only really had their names and the mental association.
I think you need to ask yourself whether it does anything to the story having those names in place. Would we have thought any differently of the Sins had they not been called Satan or Beelzebub for example?
Other Posts in the Series
- Season One
- Episode 1 – The Proud Fallen Angel
- Episode 2 – Driven Wild by Envy
- Episode 3 – Beach of Lust
- Episode 4 – The Town of Fog Where Greed Brews
- Episode 5 – The Languid Diva
- Episode 6 – Sloth Online
- Episode 7 – Guiltless Gluttony
- Episode 8 – Unleashed Wrath
- Episode 9 – Ye Abandon All Hope
- Episode 10 – Love Your Enemies and Pray for Those Who Persecute You
- Episode 11 – Ask, and It Shall Be Given to You
- Episode 12 – God’s In His Heaven, All’s Right With the World
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