We're into the second half of the series now, and things are beginning to get serious, and complex.

When we left off, a group of Holy Knights attacked the Sins, and the fight went badly for many of the Sins. Meliodas was captured inside a Goddess Stone, and King and Ban were defeated by a couple of the Knights. One of the Knights created a monstrous crevice which Diane (still small) fell into. Meanwhile, Elizabeth's older sister Veronica was killed, despite being guarded by Griamor.

One thing is becoming clear: not all the knights are evil. It looks like they're setting up Griamor and Hauser for heel-face-turns. Hauser in particular seems to be a very decent guy, and he has recognized that Diane is also decent.

Meliodas broke out of the Goddess Stone, somehow. And he looked like he was possessed by demonic power, with black marks over about a third of his body. His face looks blank, like he's completely out of his mind.

Some remnant of his memory still seems to be operating. He fires off a huge energy blast which leaves Elizabeth and Hawk completely untouched.

Apparently he still remembers her, on some residual level. Then he flies away and attacks the most dangerous of the Holy Knights, Helbram.

Hauser, on the left, is really worried about Diane. The guy on the right is the one who created the crevice, and Hauser cusses him out for it, partly because there was an innocent civilian in the way, which Diane threw to Hauser just before falling in, and because Diane was shrunken and her power reduced so attacking her this way was cowardly.

Hawk's mama shows up with Diane's clothes and gear, which she drops into the crevice. (So we don't get to see a naked giant girl running for the trees. Bummer.)

Meliodas is fighting Helbram, and despite being out of his mind he's doing a pretty good job of it. But Helbram is using a power called "Link" which means that a couple dozen allies are providing him with energy that makes him virtually invulnerable and absurdly strong.

Ban picks up King, who is unconscious, and Elizabeth, who is clueless, and runs for it.

That's because he sees Diane. Meliodas has lost his fight, and Helbram is about to off him, when Diane shows up with her hammer and with blood in her eye. She starts swinging at him, but he doesn't really understand his peril. (Ban, however, does and that's why he's running.)

Diane has used one of her best finishing moves, Mother Catastrophe.

That little speck on the top is Diane. That monstrous collection of dirt is floating in mid-air for the moment. Then she strikes it again with her hammer and it all falls to the ground. Anyone who would have been under it would be irretrievably buried.

Griamor seems to have survived it, carrying Princess Veronica's dead body.

We get a flashback of Diane talking to Hauser briefly just before she went after Helbram. She tells him to clear out and take the civilian with him.

After Diane finally finishes her finishing move, all the bad guys have left in extreme haste, and we get some peace. Elizabeth is feeling bad, but Diane cheers her up by telling her she has comrades. And it's clear at this point that all of them really are loyal to her, or at least that they're committed to her fight.

Ban and King are out in the woods training, though King doesn't seem to be really trying. Ban unloads a speech about it all, which I found very affecting:

Cap'n said, "Come with me!" He said that to someone who had spent his entire life as an outcast. To a shitty person living a shitty life! Elaine and Cap'n are the only two people in the world crazy enough to accept a person like that.

His reason for committing to the fight is that when it's over and they're victorious, he's going to ask Elizabeth for the Horn of Cernunnos, a magical artifact in the vaults of the castle. It will permit him to contact a Goddess, and his intent is to use it to bring Elaine (King's sister) back to life. So King acknowledges that as a respectable motivation, and it's clear that they're both completely committed.

They didn't come out of the fight completely unscathed. The dragon handle sword Meliodas has been carrying around all this time was captured by Helbram. And it seems that it's an essential part of a spell/procedure which will unleash a curse of demons upon the land.

Meliodas is no longer happy. He says the situation is dire.

He says, "I guess I can't hold back any more."

In the coda, we learn some more. There are three (?) princesses. The eldest is Margaret, and she's being held in a prison cell because she knows the truth about the "Holy" knights. The second was Veronica, and she's dead. The third, and youngest, is Elizabeth who now represents the most credible threat against the Knights, due to her having teamed up with the Sins.

The Sins are now even more formidable, what with King and Diane both having their weapons, and Meliodas finally getting serious.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 04:25 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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