REVIEW: ‘The Seven Deadly Sins,” Season 5 – “Dragon’s Judgement”

“Dragon’s Judgement,” part one of The Seven Deadly Sins Season 5, was released earlier this week on Netflix. The anime, which is an adaptation of the manga series by Nakaba Suzuki, is once again animated by Studio Deen. Last season focused on the members of The Seven Deadly Sins picking themselves back up to face off against the Ten Commandments once again. With only the first 12 episodes released, Dragon’s Judgement focuses on the conclusion of the second Holy War. An alliance is formed between the Arc Angels and the forces of Liones to put an end to the war. Ban ventures into the depths of Purgatory to find Meliodas’s emotions and bring them back. Estarossa goes berserk after taking on multiple Commandments and kidnaps Elizabeth. The Seven Deadly Sins and the Arc Angels form two groups to go after Estarossa and to stop Meliodas from becoming the next Demon King.

One of the major things that fans of the series will notice is that only the first 12 episodes of Dragon’s Judgement were released to Netflix. While the dubs for multiple languages have already been released, the first half of the final season was only added this week. It wouldn’t be surprising if this was because of the COVID-19 pandemic causing the season to be delayed until January 2021. Upon reaching the end of Episode 12, I couldn’t help but think that it an odd place to pause. Without going into spoilers, a major plot development with the Demon King and Meliodas takes place, which would have been carried over directly into the next episode. It disrupts the flow of the season, especially since it hasn’t been announced as to when the rest of The Seven Deadly Sins Season 5 would be added to Netflix.

An immense complaint that the previous season of The Seven Deadly Sins received was the poor animation in certain fights. Most of this came from the anime changing from A-1 Productions to Studio Deen. One of the major fights that suffered from poor animation involved Escanor and Estarossa. However, “Dragon’s Judgement” saw a major improvement in the animation. Every fight looked incredible and the action flowed really well. One of the fights that comes to mind involves King and one of the key members of the Ten Commandments. The emotion and intensity that the fight displays in the manga is perfectly emulated in the anime. As a long-time fan of the manga, it’s fantastic that the animation has improved exponentially. With the upcoming fights in the latter half of the series, it gives me hope that the fights will receive the same amount of dedication as the ones in The Seven Deadly Sins Season 5.

A key aspect from The Seven Deadly Sins Season 5 was Meliodas’s emotions. While his body is taking in several Commandments so he can become the Demon King, his emotions roam through Purgatory. His emotions are the foundation of who he is and why he was afraid of becoming the Demon King. The end of Episode 1 sees him hugging Ban after the two reunite. That connection, and with the rest of The Seven Deadly Sins, is an important part of his life. While the emphasis put on a character’s emotions isn’t something particularly new within any piece of media, fans of the series will care because of the time that they have spent watching Meliodas’s character development. He’s never let that darkness, which once controlled him, take over to save anyone he cares for.

Ultimately, The Seven Deadly Sins Season 5 offered an incredible season that focused more on Meliodas’s emotions and a season that redeemed itself in terms of the fight animations. The focus on Meliodas’s emotions makes his character much more sympathetic and will surely make fans want to root for him to not be the next Demon King. The redemption in the animation brought incredible fight scenes to life in a way that will leave fans impressed and clear any doubts they had. While it’s still unclear as to when the rest of the season will drop on Netflix, there’s no doubt that fans aren’t excited to see how the series ends. With major fights and plot developments coming up, fans are in for quite the treat.

The first half of The Seven Deadly Sins Season 5, “Dragon’s Judgement” is now streaming on Netflix.