WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 5 of The Seven Deadly Sins, now streaming on Netflix.
The Seven Deadly Sins is rife with conflict as the Goddess Clan and the Demon Clan continue their Holy War. The world is full of superpowered beings with godlike abilities betraying and killing one another in a scramble for power. Despite the conflict between the various races, the heir to the Demon throne and an immortal human still managed to become the best of friends. Meliodas and Ban’s friendship is a brilliant ray of light in an otherwise dark and violent world.
When seeking to form the Seven Deadly Sins, Meliodas himself sought out Ban. Having heard of Ban’s unique ability to repeatedly survive being executed, the Demon Prince offered the immortal man a chance to escape imprisonment and join him. When Ban refused, Meliodas opted to use force, resulting in the first of their many fights. Finding Meliodas to be an incredibly fun opponent, Ban accepts his offer to join the Sins, so that they may continue their fight.
After several years of working together as part of the Seven Deadly Sins, their rivalry as fighters evolved into a genuine friendship, albeit a violent one. They two slam each other through walls as a sign of affection and even keep track of their arm-wrestling matches, arguing over who has the lead after hundreds of matches. Ban, the Fox Sin of Greed, respects Meliodas as his captain and considers him his best friend for being only the second person to accept him for what he is.
Part of the reason the pair enjoys fighting each other is that they don’t need to worry about killing or permanently harming one another, thanks to their respective abilities. Ban and Meliodas’ friendship and power were both hilariously demonstrated in the Great Fight Festival when they were too preoccupied arguing over whose girlfriend is better to even notice that they had defeated their opponents. The epitome of friends who share a single brain cell, Ban and Meliodas have fun regardless of their current circumstances.
Ban was once offered the chance to be reunited with Elaine, his true love if he killed Meliodas, and the captain of the Sins was happy to oblige. Meliodas understood how Ban felt being unable to save Elaine, even admitting that he’d do the same for Elizabeth, his own love if the roles were reversed. Ultimately, Ban is unable to go through with it and is wracked with tremendous guilt over his actions. Ban’s guilt is further compounded by the fact that Meliodas isn’t upset with him at all over what Ban considers to be a betrayal of their bond.
Their acceptance of one another is what fuels their friendship, as Ban is able to look past the fact that Meliodas is a Demon, despite his hatred for the race that took Elaine away from him. Even when Meliodas declares his intention to become Demon King in order to save Elizabeth, Ban does not hesitate to travel to Purgatory to retrieve the captain’s emotions. Ban does not know if even he can survive Purgatory’s harsh environment but goes anyway in a bid to help Meliodas.
Ban spends thousands of years of unending agony adapting his body to Purgatory and searching for Meliodas. When they finally reunite, they still manage to have fun while spending 500 years looking for the exit to this literal hellscape. More than just fellow warriors or two people forced to cooperate due to circumstance, Ban and Meliodas are simply best friends. Pure friendships free of ulterior motives are a rare thing in anime, bringing some much-needed light-heartedness to the gloomy world of The Seven Deadly Sins.
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