The Seven Deadly Sins: Grudge of Edinburgh Part 1 trailer features plastic looking characters and janky CG animation
It is difficult not to write about the just-released trailer for the upcoming The Seven Deadly Sins: Grudge of Edinburgh Part 1 film without mentioning just how terrible the art style is, how non-fluid the CG animation, and how so much like a mobile game trailer it seems to be, rather than a promotion for a full-length movie.
Throw in the even worse character designs and, if this is the caliber of anime Netflix thinks fans want, they might as well just shut up shop completely and go home.
I mean, how is it possible for any animation studio to create anime characters that look like hollowed out versions or plastic models of the original people in the hit anime series?
Characters without the cuteness or intense personalities that jumped off the screen like their original counterparts.
Look at what they have decided will pass for the fabulous Elizabeth Liones, for instance. (screenshot below)
Sure, Elizabeth is supposed to have been struck down by some kind of curse in the upcoming film, but did that turn her into a 2D model of herself?
And what the hell happened to her FACE???
Only a couple of years ago, we all thought the travesty Studio Deen created with The Seven Deadly Sins: Imperial Wrath of the Gods was something we would never get over.
But, if this trailer is accurately showing what we can expect with The Seven Deadly Sins: Grudge of Edinburgh Part 1 when it releases next month, setting the footage on fire before it hits Netflix might just be its only salvation.
Along with the ugly art style, best-mobile-game-of-2015 feel, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers character designs, we also seem to be getting janky CG animation that blurs into out-of-focus at the height of each fight.
In this day and age, not only should CG be superior to this, but when compared to the A-1 Pictures’ gorgeously hand-drawn, beautifully animated first couple of seasons of The Seven Deadly Sins, a sacrilege doesn’t even begin to describe what I was just forced to watch.
Of course, this laughably poor animation and art style was predicted when the first teaser trailer for The Seven Deadly Sins: Grudge of Edinburgh Part 1 released last November.
At the time, I compared shots of the art style from the original series versus that of The Seven Deadly Sins: Grudge of Edinburgh Part 1, showing it had disintegrated from crisp, clear and beautiful to muddy and bland.
But who knew it would take animators Alfred Imageworks and Marvy Jack a full year to come up with a trailer that might be longer, but that looks even worse.
A trailer that only has one piece of good news along with it — The Seven Deadly Sins: Grudge of Edinburgh Part 1 isn’t a continuation of the anime’s original story, but is a spin-off instead.
That means you can avoid damaging your eyes any further, ignore the film completely, and choose to wait for the story continuation — The Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights Of The Apocalypse — to be completed instead.
As long as that isn’t passed on to Alfred Imageworks and Marvy Jack to animate as well, of course.
What is The Seven Deadly Sins: Grudge of Edinburgh Part 1?
The story is a spin-off of the original anime series and films, featuring both new characters and a return of older ones.
The film is directed by both Noiyuki Abe (The Heroic Legend of Arslan) and Nobuo Shirohata (Aguu: Genius Dolls), with screenplay by Rintarou Ikeda (Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It r=1-sinθ).
Netflix describes the The Seven Deadly Sins: Grudge of Edinburgh Part 1 plot this way:
14 years since the Kingdom of Liones defeated the Demon Clan and brought peace to the land, Prince Tristan is tormented by his inability to control two great powers: the Demon Clan power of his father, Meliodas, who served as captain of the Seven Deadly Sins as the Dragon Sin of Wrath, and the Goddess Clan power of his mother, Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth’s life is threatened, Tristan flees the kingdom and heads toward Edinburgh, where Deathpierce — who was once a member of a group of the kingdom’s Holy Knights, the Pleiades of the Azure Sky — maintains his castle. But what are Deathpierce’s intentions?
The wheel of fate begins to move and sweeps up even The Seven Deadly Sins…
Watch the tragically terrible The Seven Deadly Sins: Grudge of Edinburgh Part 1 trailer below, and make up your mind if you can sit through well over an hour of this.
I will because, as a Seven Deadly Sins super fan, I am still besotted enough to hold out hope the film cannot possibly be as bad as its trailer suggests.
The Seven Deadly Sins: Grudge of Edinburgh Part 1 releases on Netflix on December 20th. Mark your calendars. Or don’t.