In 2018, Nakaba Suzuki, the creator of The Seven Deadly Sins manga, wrote a story that was adapted into a screenplay by Makoto Uezu. The story had its premiere on August 18, 2018 in the form of a movie titled The Seven Deadly Sins the Movie: Prisoners of the Sky. This was the first movie in The Seven Deadly Sins franchise and so far the only one, but a second movie is scheduled to be released in summer 2021. Still, despite Suzuki being part of the movie’s story, Prisoners of the Sky is a big enigma for fans, who keep wondering whether the movie is even canon, i.e., whether it is part of the established anime storyline or something completely unrelated but set within the same fictional universe. If you want to know whether The Seven Deadly Sins the Movie: Prisoners of the Sky is canon or not, be sure to keep reading until the end!
And while there are strong arguments for both sides – i.e., that The Seven Deadly Sins the Movie: Prisoners of the Sky is or is not canon – there is not enough data to completely establish the truth so we cannot confirm or deny that the movie is canon, although we are leaning towards the canon status.
In today’s article, we are going to tell you about The Seven Deadly Sins the Movie: Prisoners of the Sky movie that came out in 2018. You’re going to find out whether the movie’s canon or not and what actually happens in the movie. You’re also going to find out when the movie takes place and whether it can be considered a filled. Enjoy!
Is The Seven Deadly Sins the Movie: Prisoners of the Sky canon?
The Seven Deadly Sins the Movie: Prisoners of the Sky is the first movie from the franchise of the same name created by Nakaba Suzuki. The movie itself was released a couple of months after the anime’s second season and about a year before its third season. The plot and the setting of the movie are going to be discussed in the two paragraphs that are to follow.
The movie is quite hard to place within the franchise. While the characters are the same, their relationships, as well as some of the concepts, are completely different and there are also a lot of original characters and narrative elements. This confused fans, who have been wondering whether the movie is even canon or not. It wouldn’t be strange for the movie to be non-canon as anime movies quite often are, but it could also be a loosely connected tie-in and we are going to explain its exact status.
There are certainly a lot of arguments to consider the movie to be non-canon. The movie introduces a lot of new concepts and original characters, it is almost impossible to precisely place within the main anime’s chronology, and the relationships between the well-known characters are different. Some fans have even concluded that some of the events depicted in the movie are impossible when compared to the manga’s original chronology, which prompts people to think that the movie is definitely not canon.
But, further analysis has shown us that the events of the movie are not nearly as impossible, as the manga references practically all of the original characters and plot elements of the movie at one point during its run. That way, all of the novelties that Suzuki introduced in the film have been made canon, despite them having only brief appearances in the manga. The movie expands upon a lot, but that fact doesn’t really make it non-canon, right? On top of that, we cannot ignore the fact that the movie was based on a story written by Suzuki himself.
Why would Suzuki write a non-canon story for a movie adaptation of his own manga? This doesn’t really make any sense, so we are leaning towards the fact that the movie is, in fact, canon, but the truth is that we cannot fully confirm nor deny this. There isn’t enough data for us to establish, with authority, whether the movie is canon or not; we have given you the arguments for both theses, but until we get an official confirmation, we cannot be certain of either option.
What happens in The Seven Deadly Sins the Movie: Prisoners of the Sky?
The story takes place at a time when humans and non-humans lived in the same society. The Lion Kingdom was almost wiped out thanks to the misdeeds of the Demon Clan, but was saved by the efforts of the kingdom’s third princess, Elizabeth, and a group of powerful but terrible knights known as the Seven Deadly Sins.
With the return of peace to the Lion Kingdom after its almost complete annihilation by the demon race, Elizabeth and the Seven Deadly Sins decide to celebrate the king’s birthday by preparing many dishes at the Boar Hat Tavern. The leader of the Deadly Sins, Meliodas, and his talking piggy companion Hawk search Skyfish for a recipe that lands above the clouds and outside the Sky Palace after stumbling across a well in the nearby forest that they discover as a portal.
The Heavenly Castle is home to a race of winged people known as Heavenly, descendants of the race of the goddess who have been watching over an Indura-type demon sealed in their land since the end of the ancient war 3000 years ago. But as a group of demons calling themselves the Six Knights of the Black attack the Celestials and free the Indura, they force a young Celestial named Solaad, Meliodas and Hawk to inadvertently bring into his people’s land while he is on the quest after the legendary white pig Oshiro makes’ whose power was used to seal evil.
Solaad eventually encounters the other deadly sins, who took him to be Meliodas because of their similar appearance but manages to convince them to come with him when Meliodas went through a similar case of false identity with the Heavenly Ones. When the seven deadly sins confront the six black knights with the support of the heavenly warriors, it becomes clear that the leader of the black knights, Bellion, is an upper-class demon who was denied membership in the ten commandments by Meliodas in the past.
Meliodas is mortally wounded by the winged sword, a sacred sword specially forged to harm demons. But Solaad, who insists that the seven deadly sins insist that Meliodas be a good person, withdraws the sword and revives Meliodas. Solaad then uses the winged sword and the combined strength of his people, Sins and Elizabeth, to destroy the Indura.
Sins are celebrated as heroes and celebrate with the heavenly ones before they pick up a heaven fish and return to Liones on Hawk’s Mother, who is known to have been “Oshiro” all along. Some time later, King receives the cooked Skyfish and is appalled by its terrible taste when Meliodas cooked it. Hawk decides to eat it for him and, to his shock, takes the shape of a skyfish.
When does The Seven Deadly Sins the Movie: Prisoners of the Sky take place?
A big question related to this movie is its place in the chronology of The Seven Deadly Sins franchise. Namely, this is an ongoing issue with anime movies – they are rarely consistent when it comes to actual chronology. The movies are set within the same franchise, but their timelines don’t usually make sense when compared to the main anime series, nor do some narrative elements, which remain movie-specific even when the anime continues the narrative.
So, what about The Seven Deadly Sins the Movie: Prisoners of the Sky? When does it take place? The movie aired in August 2018, right between seasons two and three of the anime. You can find the whole The Seven Deadly Sins watch order in our other article.
The plot of the movie is also set some time after season two ended and from what we know, it’s not been a long time between the season two finale and movie. We know that in the movie, King can fully use his true form of spirit spear and Elizabeth can control her usage of Ark, which means that it is set somewhere in between King and Diane training and the Chandler ark
Is The Seven Deadly Sins the Movie: Prisoners of the Sky a filler?
Anime has a long history with fillers and for all of those who’ve followed anime series, a filler is something they’re well acquainted with. Filler episodes are usually present in long-running anime series when the anime movies too fast and there is no manga material to adapt. This is when the screenwriters come up with original content for the anime that is not present in the original manga. Sometimes it’s just an episode or two, but sometimes the writers come up with whole narrative arcs that are actually fillers. The important thing is that a filler is there to make up for the lack of original material.
Now that we have established that The Seven Deadly Sins the Movie: Prisoners of the Sky is an original story not connected to the manga, can we really consider it a filler? It is rare for a movie, especially one that was released in between two seasons of the anime series, to be considered a filler. It can be a tie-in movie that is directly related to the events of the anime, but it can also be a stand-alone story from the same universe. This fact does not make it a filler though and that is why we would not consider The Seven Deadly Sins the Movie: Prisoners of the Sky a filler.
And that’s it for today. We hope you had fun reading this and that we helped solve this dilemma for you. See you next time and don’t forget to follow us!
