I’ll be honest, when this show popped up as one of the most highly rated Netflix shows available, I still didn’t want to watch it. I can admit that I have never really watched anime. But let me tell you, this show has opened up a whole new genre of television for me.

The Seven Deadly Sins was originally a Japanese manga, written and illustrated by Nakaba Suzuki. The manga began in 2012 and to date has sold more than 10 million copies. It was adapted into a 24-episode anime that aired from 2014-2015.

Netflix acquired the exclusive English streaming rights for the anime series and I am so glad they did because otherwise, I never would have found this show.

The show is set in the region of Britannia and focuses on a once active group of knights called the Seven Deadly Sins. Each member of the group is branded with a tattoo of the sin they represent.

The Seven Deadly Sins were disbanded after they allegedly attempted to overthrow the Kingdom of Liones, even going so far as to brutally murder the Holy Knight Grand Master, the leader of the Holy Knights, a group of soldiers with magical abilities, sworn to protect the Kingdom. The Seven Deadly Sins were supposedly defeated by the Holy Knights, but rumors of their survival were heard throughout the kingdom.

Years later, the Holy Knights have staged a coup d’état and captured the King of Liones, becoming the new, tyrannical rulers of the kingdom. The show opens with the third princess of the kingdom, Elizabeth, searching to find the Seven Deadly Sins so she can enlist their help in taking back the kingdom.

As a non-anime watcher, this show roped me in by about the fourth episode. I did want to know what was going to happen next. I wanted to find all of the Sins, learn who they were and see what abilities they possessed.

The story builds in a wonderful way. We learn more about each character’s back-story and with it, we learn of past betrayals, former partnerships and even previously undiscovered magical abilities.

Look, I can’t tell you whether or not this is one of the best anime out there, because I have only seen this one. I can say, however, that if you have never given this genre a try, this seems like a damn good place to start.

2. Stranger Things