Score: B

While the new season has already started, there was still a bit of unfinished business left. The last episode of the Nanatsu no Taizai 4 episode mini-arc landed and was certainly worth talking about. As much as anything the big takeaway from this episode was the confirmation at the end for Season 2 of the anime. This mini-arc served as a good way to bridge the gap and set up season 2 along with having a few amusing adventures along the way. The focus on Gowther, Merlin, Gilthunder, and Viviane was a good way to spend the time. Though I think if it hadn’t ended with announcing season 2 then it would have been a bit disappointing.

This episode shows how utterly incomplete Gowther is. He just doesn’t understand people’s emotions on any substantial level. The scary thing is that Gowther doesn’t really act out of malice. Anything good or bad he does is simply a course of action he found logical or intriguing enough to undertake. He utterly messed with that kid who had lost his mother, but he didn’t really see it that way. Gowther probably just looked into the kid’s memories and recreated the visage of his mother. Of course that might really screw the kid up for a good while, but there was no harm intended there.

It does bring back the question of….what the heck is Gowther? He made the point pretty clearly that he isn’t human. That in itself isn’t very strange for the Seven Deadly Sins. Very few of them could be considered human. Even the ones you might consider human are pretty darn bizarre (like Ban). My guess at this point would be that Gowther is some kind of artificial lifeform created by Merlin. It would explain why she acts almost like his caretaker and why he can survive some pretty extreme injuries.

The other part of the episode was wrapping up the issues with Viviane and Gilthunder. Really Gilthunder is a pretty forgiving guy. Although I think there is more to Gilthunder than being overly nice. I think the issue that despite his situation, Gilthunder did a lot of terrible things. While it was all to protect Margaret, he still hurt people and ruined lives. I think Gilthunder can relate to Viviane from that point of view. Both of them did terrible things out of love for someone. Viviane is utterly in love with Gilthunder and has done terrible things in relation to that. Of course no one is blackmailing her so Viviane’s actions are far more unforgivable.

I hate to say it, but Merlin’s extreme actions are on point. Viviane really does need a collar around her neck that will keep her from causing harm. If she threatens Margaret again or if she tries to take action against Gilthunder then that curse will step in. That is a good method of keeping her from going too far. Maybe someday she can calm down enough to not get utterly stupid when it involves Gilthunder.

The sad thing with all of this is how utterly naïve Viviane had been. Hendrickson had sold to her that reviving the Demon Race wasn’t a big threat. She utterly believed that they could handle the red and grey demons and that was all they had to worry about. The scary thing is that those demons were basically just the fodder for the Demon Race. They were strong, but nothing in comparison to the elites. That Viviane was going to help revive something that they had no hope of fighting should scare the heck out of her.

On the other side of that is the horror of what Hendrickson did at the end of the episode. Regardless of his motivations…he just took action to revive a threat beyond what humanity can handle. To say that he did something horrible and utterly stupid would be putting it lightly. Depending on the scale of demons that he released things could get very bad in a hurry. Although who knows if Hendrickson will actually survive the unsealing process. It did look like he was getting pretty badly hurt just going through with it. I’d say the King’s prophecy was pretty on point in terms of the threat facing them.

This series of episodes was a good bit of fun, but I couldn’t say they were amazing. There was some good fun like that fight between Meliodas and Ban. I can’t say there wasn’t anything enjoyable about this. If these episodes helped keep interest alive leading to a real Season 2 then I can’t complain too much. They dropped a lot of hints about where the story is going. We got a few laughs along the way. Although this episode showed that you really shouldn’t mess with Merlin if you want to live a happy life.

These episodes were fun, but sign me up for Season 2 when it arrives. They have built up the Demon Race to be a credible threat. I’m excited to see how that plays out in animated form. Hopefully Meliodas and company are up to the task.