The hit anime The Seven Deadly Sins has debuted on Netflix called The Seven Deadly Sins: Cursed by Light, and it’s important to know when, exactly, it takes place in relation to the main series. With the anime recently coming to a close by ending The Seven Deadly Sins: Dragon’s Judgement after its fifth and final season, Cursed by Light is essentially the grand finale of the series, so it's important to understand how it fits in with the rest of the franchise.
First premiering in 2014, The Seven Deadly Sins is an anime adaptation of the manga of the same name by Nakaba Suzuki. The story chronicles the adventures of the titular Seven Deadly Sins, a group of criminals working to rid the kingdom of Liones of the evil that plagues it. The protagonists aim to do so first by defeating the Holy Knights who have corrupted the government, then by defeating a group of powerful demons called the Ten Commandments who serve the all-powerful Demon King, and finally by vanquishing the evil monster Cath Palug. It’s at this point in the story when Cursed by Light begins.
After the defeat of Cath Palug, all of the anime adaption's characters decide to go their separate ways for the time being. Meliodas and Elizabeth decide to get married and become king and queen of Liones, Ban travels with his lover, Elaine, Diane and King prepare to get married, Gowther leaves to find himself, Merlin leaves to help Arthur rebuild Camelot, and Hawk goes to Purgatory to be with his brother, Wild. Eighteen months later, Elizabeth and Elaine are pregnant with Tristan and Lancelot, Meliodas and Ban’s respective children, and the series ends another ten years later with Tristan learning about his father’s past and vowing to become one of the Seven Deadly Sins one day.
Cursed by Light starts in between all the events that culminate in the anime adaption's conclusion. Before Meliodas and Elizabeth got married and became king and queen of Liones, the two decided to go on a trip around the world to visit all of the places Meliodas encountered Elizabeth’s past lives over the past three thousand years. Six months have passed since then, and in that time, Meliodas and Elizabeth have met with Meliodas’ estranged brother Zeldris, Liones is rebuilding after the Holy War, and Diane and King are finally going to be married. At the same time that all of that is happening, Liones suddenly finds itself under siege by an army of fairies and giants being led by Dahlia, the previous Fairy King, and Dubs, a master craftsman of the Giant Clan who created many of the most powerful weapons featured in the series.
The Seven Deadly Sins: Cursed by Light revolves around the characters fighting Dahlia and Dubs and stopping them from destroying the Demon Clan, Liones, and the Seven Deadly Sins and everyone allied with them. With all of this happening before the epilogue of the series, there's no question about whether or not the main characters come out all right, but it’s still an exciting movie to watch, either way.