List of The Seven Deadly Sins characters

The members of the titular order of The Seven Deadly Sins. Clockwise from bottom left: Meliodas, Ban, King, Escanor, Diane, Merlin and Gowther.

The Seven Deadly Sins are manga series written and illustrated by Nakaba Suzuki, set in a fictitious Britannia (ブリタニア, Buritania) in a time period superficially akin to the European Middle Ages. Likewise superficially, and frequently in ironic or contradictory ways, the series references various traditions, including Christianity (e.g., the Seven Deadly Sins, the Ten Commandments) and the Arthurian legend (e.g., in naming Meliodas, Escanor, Merlin, Diane, Gowther, King, and Ban).[1][2][3][4] The contradictory nature of the names given to the groups and characters is reflected in the emergence of the title group as the protagonists and the group of "Holy Knights" as the antagonists of the series.[5]

In accordance with the medieval theme, many of The Seven Deadly Sins are depicted as knights, broadly construed, who are clad in stylized variations of medieval armor, many of whom perform magic. The five major clans in the series are Humans, Giants, Fairies, Goddesses, and Demons, all of which possess powerful abilities and magical powers. In naming the characters, the manga offers a wide variety of further mythical, historical, geographical, and cultural allusions, e.g., King Arthur, Merlin, Gowther,[6] Zaratras (Zoroaster), Dreyfus, Gustaf, Frisia, Jericho, Galland,[7][8] Derierrie, Albions, The Vampires, and Zhivago.

  1. ^ MD Staff (March 20, 2017). "Meliad". MythologyDictionary.com [MD]. Retrieved March 20, 2017.
  2. ^ MD Staff (March 20, 2017). "Escanor". MythologyDictionary.com [MD]. Retrieved March 20, 2017.
  3. ^ MD Staff (March 20, 2017). "Merlin". MythologyDictionary.com [MD]. Retrieved March 20, 2017.
  4. ^ MD Staff (March 20, 2017). "Arthur". MythologyDictionary.com [MD]. Retrieved March 20, 2017.
  5. ^ Hansell, Chris (December 8, 2015). "Seven Deadly Sins Has a Groping Problem". Cultured Vultures. Retrieved March 19, 2017. [Quote:] Meliodas' lecherous groping is played for laughs and is near unavoidable for the first few episodes… [In The Seven Deadly Sins,] the main character is a pervert without even a basic understanding of consent and not once is he called out on this in any meaningful way…
  6. ^ MD Staff (March 20, 2017). "British Mythology". MythologyDictionary.com [MD]. Retrieved March 20, 2017.
  7. ^ MD Staff (March 20, 2017). "Mythology Dictionary". MythologyDictionary.com [MD]. Retrieved March 20, 2017.
  8. ^ RLDP Staff (March 20, 2017). "A Glossary of Names, Allusions, and Technical Terms in T. H. White's The Once and Future King and The Book of Merlyn". Robbins Library Digital Projects [RLDP]. Rochester, NY: Rochester University. Retrieved March 20, 2017.