Escanor
Escanor is the Lion's Sin of Pride in The Seven Deadly Sins, whose power Sunshine makes him grow stronger all morning, peak as the strongest being alive at noon, and shrink to a timid shadow of himself at night. Tomokazu Sugita voices him in Japanese and Kyle Hebert voices him in the English dub.
About Escanor
Escanor is the Lion's Sin of Pride, the strongest man alive at noon and a trembling, apologetic bartender after dark. Cursed, or blessed, with the power of Sunshine, his body and ego swell with the sun until at midday he stands, as he puts it, above all races. Behind the arrogance is the loneliest man in the Sins, and his devotion to Merlin gives the bombast a broken heart.
Appearance
Escanor has two bodies. By day he is a mountain of a man: hugely muscular, with swept back orange hair, a magnificent moustache in his prime and a bare chest crossed by his lion tattoo, radiating literal light and heat. By night he is small, thin and stooped, with a weak chin and apologetic eyes, looking like a man apologising for existing. He wears glasses in both forms, a poet's habit, and carries the divine axe Rhitta, a weapon so heavy no one else can lift it, which he treats as a parasol. The transformation work in the anime is famous: posture, voice and framing all change with the hour.
Personality
Daytime Escanor is pride itself, courteous and absolutely certain of his supremacy, pitying enemies for the misfortune of facing him. He is not cruel; he simply cannot conceive of losing, and his politeness makes the arrogance funnier and grander. Night Escanor is gentle, anxious and deeply kind, a poet who writes verses for Merlin and apologises to furniture. Both halves share one heart: he loves Merlin utterly, has done for decades, and knows she will never return it the way he hopes. That humility inside the strongest man alive, the knowledge that power is not the thing he actually wants, is why fans adore him rather than merely quoting him.
Background & Story
Escanor was born a prince of the kingdom of Castellio, and from childhood his power marked him as a monster: by day unstoppable, by night feeble, feared by his family and finally driven out, saved from his own brother's men by the wandering Rosa, whose kindness he never forgot. He drifted as a bartender and monster of legend until Merlin and Meliodas recruited him into the Sins, where his Sunshine, later revealed as the grace of the archangel Mael, stolen by the demon Gowther's spell, made him the team's dawn weapon. When the Sins scattered he vanished into a mountain tavern of his own, serving drinks by night and being a rumour by day, exactly as content as a divided man can be, until the Commandments returned and the sun was needed again. The tavern he runs alone in the mountains, stocking bottles by night and terrified of his own daytime reputation, is the series' neatest portrait of him: a man hiding from himself behind a bar. His poetry matters too, slipped to Merlin across the years without any real hope attached.
Powers & Abilities
- Sunshine: His power rises with the sun from midnight weakness to a peak at noon, when for one minute, as The One, he is described as invincible, radiating heat that melts stone and armour by proximity.
- Cruel Sun and Pride Flare: He conjures miniature suns in his hand and hurls them as fireballs that expand on his command, attacks that have incinerated Commandments and lakes alike.
- Rhitta: His Sacred Treasure, a colossal one handed axe that stores the heat he radiates by day and releases it at night, letting even his night form fight above its weight for a while.
Key Relationships
- Merlin: The love of his life in both his forms. Escanor writes her poetry, serves her faithfully and accepts her fascination with his power rather than his heart with more grace than anyone else could manage.
- Meliodas: His captain and the one man whose strength Escanor respects as a peer. Their noon sparring is legendary, and his trust in Meliodas survives even the captain's darkest turns.
- Ban: A bickering double act: the immortal and the invincible, each convinced of his own superiority, drinking together like old soldiers between catastrophes.
- Gowther: The demon Gowther's ancient spell is the reason Sunshine sits in a human at all, which makes the Goat's Sin of the Sins Escanor's unwitting benefactor and a quiet irony of the team.
Quick Answers
Who voices Escanor?
Tomokazu Sugita voices him in Japanese. Kyle Hebert voices him in the English dub.
Why does Escanor change at night?
His power, Sunshine, follows the sun. He grows stronger from dawn to an overwhelming peak at noon, then fades after sunset into a weak and timid night form.
Who is stronger, Escanor or Meliodas?
It depends on the hour, which is the series' own joke. At noon in The One, Escanor stands at the top; Meliodas at his fullest demon power is his only real rival among the Sins.
Where does Escanor's power come from?
Sunshine is the grace of the archangel Mael, displaced by the demon Gowther's spell at the end of the first Holy War and eventually lodged in the human Escanor. The later seasons tell the full story.