10 Second Anime - sin Nanatsu no Taizai - Episode 9

Lucifer triumphantly passes through the Gates of Hell to face Belial. Lucifer has a plan for Hell while Belial has schemes of her own.

Episode 9 - "Ye, Abandon All Hope"

Meh.

There was an extended comedy scene with the old man Charon literally getting his licks in on Lucifer and Levi and its tone, pacing and even necessity felt off. After think about it, I realized what was missing: Maria. Without the audience's guide to all things dealing with the afterlife, and her very human reactions to all the confusing things, it was left to Levi to be Lucifer's guide to Hell. A demon explaining things to a former angel kind of makes sense, but there's no sense of wonder or hilarious bewilderment with Lucifer.

Charon is supposed to be paid a price to ferry souls across the River Acheron, but this wasn't explained very well, and did he really need to be paid by a fallen angel and a demon lord? The scene felt like it was just added for laughs and a little bit of tongue tentacle grape to offset whatever Belial was doing to Satan and Maria.

Speaking of Maria's torture, that wasn't explained either. At least with Satan's scene, there was some motivation for Belial to be cruel to one of her lieutenants. Was she tickling Maria? Sexually training her? Bad massage? What? That felt shoe-horned in there too. This stuff, along with Charon's scene, felt like they were padding time in Hell, otherwise it would have been a short walk to Cocytus, Levi wouldn't have had a chance to show her nipple and Behemoth Band-Aid, and all the discussion between the other Sins and Belial would have been over too quickly.

Heh.

It looks like Heaven made a deal with Hell for insane souls. What's that about? I suppose this will be related to why Lucifer was thrown out of Heaven.

Part of the agreement was to send Lucifer down to Hell. Too bad for them that she made a short stop on Earth before landing in the 9th Circle.

This is all end game stuff. We're going to go back to the beginning to explain things to have a satisfying season finale.

The episode title is a reference to Dante's Inferno and what's inscribed on the Gates of Hell: "Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here."

Satan told Belial that the other Sins never trusted her because she is Vainglory. Recall how none of them followed her orders to attack Lucifer in the first episode after she kicked Satan's ass into the throne room. The 7 Sins had problems way before Lucifer became their biggest one.

Tentacle grape! Or bad massage? Tickle torture? Maria does not look like she's having a good time regardless of what's happening here.

This wasn't made explicitly clear, but to open the Gates of Hell, Lucifer needed to collect followers like the other Demon Lords did. Obviously she's going to use Pride as the motivating factor.

She first went after the followers of the Demon Lords she defeated. I suppose that Judge is associated with Mammon for following the letter of the law, but that scene felt out of place compared to the fighter pilot, the beach trollops, and the idol with her fans.

Theologically, Pride is the greatest Sin because it's the first thing which separates Humans from God. Even Original Sin, which isn't conscious, is a part of pride, because a human soul must separate from the Holy Spirit at conception. The human soul feels the yearning to be part of God again ever after.

Also, it can be argued that all the other Sins are just aspects of Pride, because one must have greater regard for oneself as the principal motivation behind seeking indulgence in Wrath, Sloth, Greed, Gluttony, and Lust.

Anyway, it's not a surprise that Lucifer can gather 100 Million followers by appealing to their Pride as they indulge in the other Sins.

Uh oh. Belial is revolting. Wait. She's beautiful! What am I talking about? Right. The other Sins are rebelling against her!

Just as she promised, Astaroth is Belial's last ally. They're the Number 1 and 2 Sins after all.

Charon just had to be a dirty old man. His price is cheap: a peek at Lucifer's panties.

Lu doesn't care about her panties, but she felt like she would have lost if she showed them to Charon. There's that Pride again.

Well, Charon having a big old tongue is nowhere in any of mythology surrounding him.

Old man drool... Not a good look.

Tongue Tentacle Grape!

Tongue Slapping Levi! I admit it. I laughed out loud.

That comic scene is over with. Charon got to see Levi's Band-Aid for his payment after all that.

Lu explained to the other Sins what's really been going on with Belial, Heaven, and why she got thrown out.

The Seven Virtues were ordered by God to purge Hell and Earth. This explains a little bit why Lucifer was protective of Earth during her battle with Satan.

According to Lu, God is just some kid. Is He Jesus at this point, or just some middle schooler who doesn't know any better yet? We've got a few more episodes to find out.

Lucifer doesn't like how this Purge happens over and over again (think of the Great Flood myths like Noah's Ark). Lu thought she could run Heaven better than that and got cast out because of her Pride.

Since Lu isn't an Angel anymore, she has a plan to take over Hell, turn the afterlife upside down so the flow of souls goes to Hell and the damned go to Heaven. I'm sure the Angels and Belial will oppose such a thing...

We still need to hear why Heaven needs the souls from Hell driven mad by corruption. Were they the ones to be set aside to repopulate Earth after the Flood? If true, this explains why the Flood keeps happening. Anyway, I hope we find out.

Levi faces off against Astaroth, but she gave Behemoth to Lu for some added protection. Lu might need it, since she still have two Commandments in her curse siphoning power from her.

Geh.

Levi again gave us almost all the NSFW scenes, mainly because her shirt got ripped by Charon. Satan had a little bit of one scene with Belial, but it appeared to be totally unnecessary.

Lucifer just might be getting a sweet spot for Leviathan. She mentioned that she felt bad for the whale that got hurt as they escaped Charon's boat. It's only a matter of time, Levi, before Lu's feelings of cuteness for your minions transfer to you!

Belial bangs those taiko drums in her turn at the end card. Next time, the title makes it seem like we're going to be dealing with some Angels. It's about time we hear what the other Angels have to say for themselves.