Nanatsu no Taizai: Imashime no Fukkatsu Episode 23 [The Hero Rises!]

Looks like after that epic fight between Meliodas and the Ten Commandments, the animation quality has been slowly decreasing. Guess they went a little overboard with the animation for that fight, because there were a lot of frames in this episode that looked just outright BAD. Especially when Meliodas comes back. There was a frame that, excuse my bluntness, straight up looked TERRIBLE. This is what happens when you place all the budget into one episode.

Anyways, not sure how I feel about this episode. Wasn’t feeling Meliodas’ return, especially when he started groping up a storm on Elizabeth. Not to mention that the fight with Derieiri and Monspeet was super short lived. However, something definitely wasn’t right with Meliodas by the end of that fight. He claimed he rather not kill them but had no hesitation when he full countered them, all with a pretty sinister smirk and tone. And I think even Elizabeth noticed. More on that later.

But man, Grayroad scares the CRAP out of me. Not only does it capture people and essentially turn them into demons, but it sucks the remaining life out of people if they kill in its presence. That’s pretty horrifying since it renders everyone useless because you can’t kill these monsters without risk of dying. I’m pretty shocked that two characters died right off the bat in this scene. Dogedo’s death seemed like it was for nothing, especially since he was extremely reckless and just charged in without listening or thinking. It was like his death was just to show what would happen if you activated Grayroad’s commandment. Gustaf on the other hand, his was pretty sad. Just shows how much he actually cared for Jericho, having sacrificed what little power he had left to attempt to save both her and Zeal from turning into demons by freezing the eggs so they wouldn’t hatch. And while Fraudrin claims it was for nothing, Gustaf succeeded in buying time until miss OP herself shows up, aka Merlin.

Also, the fact that Gilfrost was Vivian all along, had that spoiled for me but it was no less funny when she’s just ups and leaves with Gil. Like byeee~

Now, I was a little confused on what transpired with Merlin. I had to go and read the manga to see if it made anymore sense (it didn’t). But she managed to undo Galand’s curse of petrification AND not be affected when Grayroad sent bugs at her, to which she overkilled with a power ray of some sort. Was that really necessary, Merlin? Of course, she also took one of the faces of Grayroad, so I guess? So Merlin’s magical ability is revealed to be “Infinity” to which she can use to invoke a spell so that it would last forever. Such as a fire that would keep burning and ice that would stay frozen. So she just had to use a spell to stop her time and boom, forever young. I love how it just pans through everyone’s expressions and they just straight up said that her ability is unfair lol. If she hadn’t already proven herself OP (which she has), she definitely and completely has now.

However, Merlin also reveals that she is Belialin’s daughter, sending both Grayroad and Fraudrin into a panicked shock. It was kind of unnerving to hear a weird blurb noise when Merlin spoke of her real name, which apparently humans can’t comprehend. Which was able to convince Grayroad that she’s the real deal and even started panicking and tried to flee. Though it proves to be futile when Merlin sucks up Grayroad into a small vial to be used as one of her experiments or researched.

The next part was a long time coming when Hendrickson attempts to take back Dreyfus’ body from Fraudrin. I’ve been hoping Dreyfus would be freed someday, since Fraudrin is just a piece of crap. Possession stories always freak me out and I’m always rooting for the person getting their body back. Unfortunately, Hendrickson’s Purge couldn’t even get Fraudrin out. However, what made this moment even better was how Zaratras came in to help save Dreyfus. The animation in this scene wasn’t the best, but at least it was dynamic enough to enjoy it.  But what had me laughing was demon Hawk that was pelted by Derieiri earlier in the episode happened to have crashed into the castle where the fight was taking place and just drops in front of Fraudrin. And then he snorts out some bad smelling breath or something, enough to distract Fraudrin and allow Zaratras to get behind him and use the rest of his power into his purge to eject Fraudrin out of Dreyfus’ body. And once we see Fraudrin’s true form, he’s super freaky looking if not slightly derpy lol.

It’s great to see the real Dreyfus after so long and him being brought back to consciousness because of Griamore calling out to him. Their reunion after Dreyfus sent a powerful attack at Fraudrin was really heartwarming. Not to mention hilarious how it didn’t occur to him at first that Griamore is a lot younger than he should be. It was also super heartwarming to see Hendrickson crying in tears of joy to see his friend back, especially since he felt at fault for what happened. And man, Zaratras, even what little time we got to spend getting to know this guy, he turned out to be such a great guy. It was sad to see him go, especially when he told Dreyfus and Hendrickson to pass on a message to Gil. If only Gil got to see him… that probably would hit me in the feels real hard. But I’m glad that Zaratras was able to save the two people he had wanted to save all those years ago and was able to pass after accomplishing his goal.You can finally rest in peace Zaratras…

However, things couldn’t possibly stay happy (or bitter sweet) because Fraudrin apparently uses his ability “Full Size” to survive Dreyfus’ attack, which only hit him in the ankle. This guy seriously refuses to leave. Speaking of refusing to leave, Meliodas shows back up and hoo boy… I was already getting bad vibes from Meliodas since his fight with Derieiri and Monspeet. His smirk was pretty ominous and it was essentially confirmed at the end that something is VERY wrong with him. This is definitely not the same Meliodas we knew. Especially when he drops the line of how his “hope will become despair and that’s the best feeling.” Even Hendrickson wonders if this is the real Meliodas. Considering what we found out in a previous episode, every time Meliodas dies, the Demon King devours some of his emotions. Looks like a part of his morality was taken away or something because this Meliodas feels VERY sinister and sadistic.

This episode was definitely up and down for me. Down because of the terrible animation (especially in the beginning) and Meliodas’ unnecessary groping. However, I did really like the second half of the episode because there were so many grown men feels lol. Though I must say I do like the twist that even though Meliodas did come back stupidly fast, something is terribly off about him morally. The next episode will be the last and I’m super hyped but also super sad because the next season probably won’t be coming out until a few more years. Hopefully they can scrounge up the last of their budget to make the fights at least less terrible like this episode and end this season with a bang.