The Seven Deadly Sins Creator Explains How Dragon Ball Inspired Their Manga

The Seven Deadly Sins series creator Nakaba Suzuki opened up about how Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball series inspired his own work! It’s been quite a wild road for Suzuki and The Seven Deadly Sins, especially over the course of 2021. Not only did the series officially end its manga run, and get started on its official sequel manga, but the anime franchise aired its final season and big sequel movie as well. It was a huge series for action manga and anime fans, and it seems that some of its core DNA has been inspired by Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball series.

Opening up about The Seven Deadly Sins on a popular manga themed show in Japan (as noted by @DbsHype on Twitter), original series creator Nakaba Suzuki revealed that Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball manga series is the number one influence on his own works. Explaining that the fight scenes in the manga are what had an impact on him the most, Suzuki even explained that some of the fight scenes in The Seven Deadly Sins are also inspired by Dragon Ball as well in terms of their speed and scale. 

“[Akira Toriyama] is one of few manga artists that can draw out the depth of the battle scene,” Suzuki began before elaborating further with, “[T]he sense of speed and three-dimensional effect of the battle. It made readers know how the characters fight…Toriyama sensei’s drawing of characters or inanimate objects is very incredible! Some of the battle scenes in The Seven Deadly Sins are inspired from Dragon Ball.” So if fans have ever spotted some of the same spirit between the two series, this is the reason why! 

The Seven Deadly Sins‘ original manga run might be over for now, but the official The Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse sequel is still continuing with brand new chapters on a weekly basis. The anime is also gearing up to continue with a new movie project as well. Announced to be in the works for a release on Netflix in the near future, Suzuki contributed an original story for this new film, The Seven Deadly Sins: Grudge of Edinburgh, which follows the child of Meliodas and Elizabeth. 

But what do you think? What kind of connections have you spotted between The Seven Deadly Sins and Dragon Ball? Where does The Seven Deadly Sins rank among your favorite action manga and anime franchise? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!