Meliodas

Meliodas (メリオダス Meriodasu) is the captain and the Dragon's Sin of Wrath of the Seven Deadly Sins and is the main male protagonist of the manga/anime series The Seven Deadly Sins.

He is voiced by Yuki Kaji in the original Japanese version and Bryce Papenbrook in the English version of the anime series, both of them are notable for the voice of Eren Yaeger.

Appearance
Despite having the appearance of a child, Meliodas is actually much older, being over three thousand years old. He is exceptionally short compared to other characters, with messy blond hair and a pair of emerald eyes. He also lacks facial hair, further accentuating his adolescent appearance. Regardless of his stature and youthful looks, he is relatively muscular, possessing an array of well-developed abdominal muscles. He is often shown wearing an ordinary, clean white button-front shirt and a black sleeveless vest on top with a loosely worn tie. His Broken Sword's scabbard is held on by a green leather belt with gold-colored buckles. Without any socks, he wears a pair of black boots. His most distinctive trait is his Dragon symbol carved at the top of his left bicep, just below his shoulder.

During his tenure as the leader of Danafor's Holy Knights, Meliodas wore their traditional armor, much like Cain Barzad's. Ten years ago he wore a full-body silver armor with a unique helmet, like the rest of the Sins. He also wielded a dagger that appeared to be his Sacred Treasure. Meliodas was issued a wanted poster, like all of the Sins were after being framed for the murder of Great Holy Knight Zaratras. The most current issue of his wanted poster does not accurately depict him but, coincidentally, does depict his brother, Estarossa.

After the Kingdom Infiltration arc, Meliodas sports a new outfit; a long-sleeved, high-collared white tunic over an undershirt, a pair of gloves, knee-length black pants, and black boots. This outfit is a bit more formal like a uniform with the "Boar Hat" embroidered on his back.

After his time in Purgatory, Meliodas now has seven permanent scars where his hearts are located and sports a new Black Mark similar to the one he previously had as leader of the Ten Commandments. He now wears his debut outfit he previously wore.

Personality
Meliodas's dominant traits are his frankness and his utter fearlessness, shown when he remains composed seeing the Rust Knight who was later revealed to be Elizabeth Liones. Due to his horrible cooking, when his customers vomit onto the Boar Hat's floor, he instructs Hawk to clean up the scraps, and scares him by saying phrases such as "roast pig" if he complains, hinting he may roast the talking pig. He is also shown to be very bawdy and loves to frequently tell jokes. Occasionally, he takes advantage of Elizabeth's naivety and gropes her breasts, not even ashamed of doing so in public or in front of her father. He also has a strong sense of justice and is willing to help people in distress. Even when he is severely injured, he tries not to show weakness, and stays strong in front of his companions. He holds resentment upon himself for being a failure as an older brother, and he also clashed swords with his own brother Zeldris in the past.

Despite his title as the Sin of Wrath, he appears to be a very calm person. However, if his companions or friends are harmed in any way, he is greatly angered. He is also shown to fall into a state of extreme rage when someone tries to take his sword, with this rage being capable of scaring even a Holy Knight and leaving a permanent scar on Ban's neck, despite his regeneration abilities. It has been hinted that Meliodas is guilt-ridden over the fate of Danafor, saying that his sin was being unable to save the kingdom. Ban and Cain point out that Meliodas tends to be soft and naive, due to him never killing anyone, even someone like Guila, who was a serious threat to the group. Meliodas dislikes killing, preferring to be merciful. Elizabeth points out that Meliodas is not naive or a simpleton, but just really kind.

Meliodas appears to have a darker side to his personality, as shown when he used the Black Mark that appears on his forehead when in trouble. When he uses the Mark, he becomes cold, quiet, ruthless, and murderous as he kills and attacks anyone near him without mercy. However, he does not kill Elizabeth, possibly due to her resemblance to Liz who was his lover. Despite being known as a womanizer to most people, Meliodas seems to be truly serious when Elizabeth or Liz are involved, but still cracks dirty jokes and tells of women's three sizes.

It turns out that Meliodas had always tried to keep his emotions under control due to his immense power. In the past, he destroyed Danafor in his rage after seeing the death of Liz. Also, after seeing a little girl getting injured trying to help the Seven Deadly Sins, he almost lost himself. At that moment, Merlin sealed Meliodas' immense power. The Deadly Sins also revealed that Meliodas never acted like a pervert ten years ago, as he showed no interest towards other females before. This seemed to change when Elizabeth appeared in his life and he started acting like one, which also hints at his single interest towards Liz and Elizabeth. His perversion is meant to be a joking act.

After his time in Purgatory, Meliodas's personality changes drastically whenever he uses the black mark, becoming far more ruthless in his battles and wasting no time in his attempts to kill his former demon allies, even stating that his outlook has changed and smiled as he attempts to destroy them. During his fight with Fraudrin, he used a clone of half his power to give Fraudrin hope of defeating him, only to erase that hope and put him in despair at the hopelessness of defeating his true power, and relished the position he placed his historic enemy in. This is contradictory to his previous self. This personality is Meliodas' old demonic self, who was once revered as the vilest demon in existence. Every time he dies, Meliodas's emotions are eaten, slowly reverting him back to that self. Meliodas is genuinely terrified of becoming that person again.

Abilities and Equipment
Meliodas' skill and power are legendary. He is the captain of the legendary Seven Deadly Sins and was once the leader of the Ten Commandments. Like all members of the Demon Clan, he is capable of manifesting their mysterious power of darkness, which enhances both his physical and magical abilities and he is also knowledgeable of demonic enchantments. He is most well-known for his skills with the sword and for his pure physical prowess, but he also has incredible magical abilities, notably his virtual immunity to magic attacks coming along with his ability Full Counter. An example of his immense combat skills was when he fought evenly against both Gloxinia and Dolor at the same time, both characters being on par with his strength. When recovering the power taken from him, the amount of darkness released from the Goddess Amber was enough to blot out the sky, and the subsequent aftershock from Istar could be felt from Edinburgh which is almost 100km away. Before the start of the series, he got lost in his rage and destroyed the entire Kingdom of Danafor. Merlin, feeling his power was too vast and dangerous for him to control, stole most of it before he could do the same to the Kingdom of Liones. Even with most of his power taken, however, he still had a Power Level of more than 10 times the standard for a Holy Knight of Liones. With his power returned, he is able to easily fight on par with and defeat members of the legendary Ten Commandments, even despite it only being a fraction of his full power.

After unleashing his full demonic powers in a desperate attempt to break free of Melascula's Antan no Mayu, Meliodas gains access to more of his power. Meliodas proved capable of easily outmatching Escanor in their fight despite his strength increasing every second, being defeated only when Escanor reach the peak of his powers. He is also able to effortlessly restrain both Zeldris and Estarossa, with not even the Demon King's power allowing Zeldris to move, and easily restrain his younger brother when he attacked him.

Meliodas has been afflicted with a curse by the Demon King as punishment for falling in love with a goddess and killing and betraying his demonic brehtren that revives him without fail no matter how many times he dies, whether via killing himself or getting killed. It additionally prevents him from dying of old age, effectively keeping him immortal. However, he would slowly lose some of his emotions in exchange, slowly returning back into his former self. The curse can last permanently and the only way to lift it is for someone with power rivaling that of the Demon King and Supreme Deity to lift it.

Trivia

 * His English Voice Actor, Bryce Papenbrook also voiced Makoto Naegi, Nagito Komaeda from Danganronpa, Cat Noir from Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir, Rin Okumura from Blue Exorcist, Kirito from Sword Art Online and Masaomi Kida from Durarara!!.