The Seven Deadly Sins: Seven Scars They Left Behind

by Shuka Matsuda

[sa090]

I really enjoy this anime/manga series, probably my favourite currently ongoing shounen series and thankfully this novel was just as enjoyable to read. Really made me wish that we actually get OVAs about this instead of yet another retelling of one of the most overused stories in the entire series. Yes, B and E need to give me a break already.

Recommended Perquisites: Watch the anime (24 eps) OR Read the manga (first 100 chapters) to fully enjoy this. You can read it without it of course, but I don't think being out of the loop is fun.

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I really enjoy backstories when they're something I've never seen before and this gave me that in full, I'm not saying that Nakaba-sensei doesn't provide that, no. He does in a way in something called a "Gaiden" for each sin BUT he tends to only focus on a certain topic in them, focuses on the less interesting Sins so far and only handled sin backstories so far without the side characters so something like this is greatly appreciated, better yet (if his extra stories and everything we've seen so far is an indication) is that it's actually canon so we can use it for the series itself if the need should arise. I'm going off topic here but yeah bottom line I really appreciated the side stories and extra angles this gave the characters we don't know much about.

One more thing I appreciated here is that although it's written as if it's tackling 7 different instances they all get brought back to the bigger plot one way or another that it makes it a smooth reading without feeling disjointed. Better yet the Seven instances left by the sins are actually used for something one way or another and not just as a past time story if you will. In other words, the Scar or instance they left isn't a story that's being told to our protagonists as a legend of sorts but it actually gets used in the bigger scheme of things for something that more often than not turned out to be really interesting.

I'm not going to explain my favourites because that's just spoilers but if I had really had to choose something it would be Gowther's at the top followed by Merlin's since the latter and its focus on a certain someone actually gives me hints of a question that will be raised very late in the series compared to the timeline handled in this Light Novel. Regardless of all of that I really enjoyed learning more about Hauser, Griamore and Gilthunder's younger years while of course being able to focus on Margaret a little bit more, she may not be THAT interesting of a character but I always wanted to know more about the seemingly irrelevant-after-their-instances side characters.

One more thing I'd like to mention concerning the book is that the supposed "Scars" they left behind, aren't really scars; they're closer to mementos if anything.

Now personally the only thing I wished more about in the book was a bigger focus on the sins themselves and what led to the scars being placed, I mean we do get a page or two concerning them before we move on to the younger generation but it just leaves me wanting to see so much more from the sins' angle to get a better and bigger look on how they were before the 10 year exile or better yet how they were during it. I know that it might not happen but since there is another novel coming out at some point hopefully titled "Seven Wishes", I really hope that I get to read something about it.

Final rating: 4/5