10 Second Anime - sin Nanatsu no Taizai - Episode 11

Lucifer and Belial fight for the leadership of the Mortal Sins. Belial's plot is revealed as another faction joins the fray.

Episode 11 - "Ask and Ye Shall Receive."

Meh.

First, let's talk about these delays. This show already had a recap episode between episodes 4 and 5, but at least we got the full Astaroth music video out of that one. After the 10th episode, we had the voice actor for Satan playing bar games as she reacted and commented on some of the racier "action" scenes. In the meantime, Artland, the studio responsible for the anime production, almost filed for bankruptcy, but claimed they were negotiating with a buyer for final terms on their intellectual property. At the end of this episode, there was a notice to go to the website for the schedule for the last episode, which won't be broadcast until July 28th. This totally ruins the rhythm of the show and makes me unconfident that they will even show the special short episodes they had scheduled for the Summer. This all makes me look forward to the next episode less and less.

Heh.

As for this episode, we got the two revelations we had been looking for since the beginning. First, what was up with that angelic blood swap and second, what's Belial's deal anyway? We already knew that Lucifer was thrown out of Heaven because she didn't want God to purge the Earth again, so almost all the narrative arcs have been put to rest before the season finale. Kind of a winding way to get there, especially considering the Beelzebub and the Astaroth episodes, but we just made it to the line before we find out why the Angels are so hot to start another Noah's Flood.

Let's deal with Belial first. As I suspected, she was a fallen angel named Satanael who made a deal with Michael to get back to Heaven. She was cast out by God for making false miracles to gain followers. That fit Belial's personality of vanity, caring for appearances instead of substance, perfectly.

Lucifer, by appealing to a villain's pride to yak about their plans and plots, got Belial to renounce her leadership of the Sins, which made all the others she was torturing break free of their bonds. Even though it was just the appearance of authority, it was enough to control them. Without it, they're free to go back the leaderless system they had before or follow Lucifer's banner, which they all seemed pretty keen on doing.

As for the angelic blood in Maria and her heart in a jar, it turned out it was not only a revival spell, but it also swapped Lucifer and Maria's hearts. At the end of the episode, Maria has Lucifer's heart beating in her. I can't help but think this is tied to Lucifer's plot against God, perhaps installing Maria as the new God. We'll see how that turns out.

Anyway, all that exposition was spaced out over 24 minutes because we needed to look at naked women all that time they were talking. So much nudity! You'll see what I'm talking about in the next section.

Poor Belial. Her sword got broken again, along with her nice blue dress, again. She should have kept wearing Gnosis, but she got full of herself. Big surprise there from the Sin of Vainglory.

Too bad we didn't get to see Behemoth grind on Astaroth's axe. That would have been fun to see.

The end is the right set up for the final episode: Michael the Archangel busts into Pandemonium at the center of the 9th Circle of Hell. I hope it only takes half the episode to resolve things so we get some sexy hijinks in a laidback resolution. Don't get me wrong. I appreciated the nudity over the last two episodes, but I'm not a fan of mixing torturous violence into a scene with lovely naked skin.

Geh.

Speaking of lovely naked skin, I'm sure there were lots of goosebumps and hard nipples on those demon popsicles of Lucifer, Levi, and Astaroth. They weren't alone in giving the audience a very NSFW show as the other Sins were a captive audience too as they watched Belial fight Lucifer in the climactic scene.

A Lucifer popsicle looks awfully tasty... Lucifer remembered Satanael and how her false memories made the new Believers look more like followers of the Mortal Sins.

The five Mortal Sins made it out of their own versions of Hell. I didn't show Satan's black ichor prison because you wouldn't have been able to see anything anyway.

The fight between the other Sins and Belial initially went in Belial's favor because she used human blood somehow in her weapons and armor. That makes sense, since humanity is primarily the battlefield where Sins and Virtue clash. But Lucifer was the leader of the Virtues for a reason and she was cast down because she loves humans more than God does, at least that's how it looked from her perspective.

Belial doesn't sit like a proper lady once she's been defeated, again. She probably doesn't even have that stick on cover anymore either.

Next time, the finale. I wonder if they'll show naked angels underneath those robes. They showed some nice hints of how little they wear under there in the first episode as Lucifer fell. Let's see what Michael is hiding! In more ways than one! Let's quote Robert Browning for the next episode's title, shall we? "God 's in His heaven- All 's right with the world!"