Without any plans for the weekend, I decided that I would finally get around to settling down and enjoying my first trip into the realm of anime. I had been friends with a few people throughout my younger years who had been big fans of Death Note and the like, but it was something I never really got into myself. At 24, I figured that as I watch so much television I should really begin expanding my horizons once more, so I ventured onto Netflix to find an anime series that would hopefully kickstart a brand new addiction.
Credit: Netflix
There I saw Netflix original series The Seven Deadly Sins, sitting comfortably on the platform with a four and a half out of five-star rating. At under 30 minutes, I figured the first episode would be quite enough to see if this was a series for me. I found it hard getting past the first 10 minutes.
Yes, this is an adult-rated series, but it is disgusting and offensive to have the main characters' very first interaction with his female counterpart that we assume will be opposite him throughout the series to be one where he fondles her breasts while she lays unconscious. When she wakes up, he pretends he was checking her heart rate and she actually thanks him. It's a vile scene that should never have even been discussed, let alone made it to the final cut of a Netflix original series. Now I have never thankfully been the victim of sexual assault, but I imagine that somebody who has, who then goes into this unknowingly may be triggered by such a scene. It’s a dangerous and ugly thing to do. Imagine a child stumbles across the series on Netflix, sees this type of behaviour and decides to replicate it down the line. Things like this are exactly why rape culture DOES exist, no matter what the far right idiots like Milo Yiannopoulos may claim.
Though I didn’t want to let the scene slide, I decided to give the show a full opportunity to redeem itself. Just a few moments later when the female character was in distress, the male lead once again took the opportunity to grope her. She didn’t even flinch, though the talking pig character did give her permission to punch him. Unfortunately, she didn’t.
Doing a little bit of research on the show, it’s clear that this theme of sexual assault is one that runs throughout the series. At one point, a new female character is introduced and clearly lets her feelings be known towards the gropey male lead. When she basically offers herself up on a platter, he tells her ‘it isn’t as fun when you’re given permission’. Chilling.
I won’t be watching anymore and I put this out there as a warning to those of you who may be thinking about giving the show a try. Don’t. Send Netflix and the creators of The Seven Deadly Sins a message. We don’t want shows like this, even if what they’re doing is ‘fan service’. It’s reprehensible, wrong and has no place in the modern world. I implore Netflix to remove the series from their platform as soon as possible.
Tagged in Netflix