also known as is a Japanese

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extr ...

and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and drama ...

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is use ...

series written and illustrated by

Nakaba Suzuki is a Japanese manga artist. He is best known for his fantasy series '' The Seven Deadly Sins'' (2012–2020), which has over 37 million copies in circulation. He began a sequel, ''Four Knights of the Apocalypse'', in 2021. Life and career The f ...

. It is a

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the sam ...

to Suzuki's previous series, '' The Seven Deadly Sins''. The manga has been serialized in Kodansha's ''

Weekly Shōnen Magazine is a weekly ''shōnen'' manga anthology published on Wednesdays in Japan by Kodansha, first published on March 17, 1959. The magazine is mainly read by an older audience, with a significant portion of its readership falling under the male hig ...

'' since January 2021, with its chapters collected into nine ''

tankōbon is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or m ...

'' volumes as of November 2022. The manga is digitally published in North America as it is released in Japan, with

Kodansha USA Kodansha USA Publishing, LLC is a publishing company based in New York, USA, and a subsidiary of Japan's largest publishing company Kodansha. Established in July 2008, Kodansha USA publishes books relating to Japan, Japanese culture, and manga ...

licensing the series for publication in English on Crunchyroll Manga,

BookWalker , stylized as Book☆Walker, is a Japanese e-book store that sells manga, light novels, and magazines from various publishers, as well as a few published by themselves. It is based in Chiyoda, Tokyo and was created by Kadokawa Corporation. The ...

ComiXology Iconology Inc., d/b/a ComiXology (styled comiXology), is a cloud-based digital distribution platform for comics owned by Amazon, with over 200 million comic downloads . It offers a selection of more than 100,000 comic books, graphic novels, and ...

and

Amazon Kindle Amazon Kindle is a series of e-readers designed and marketed by Amazon. Amazon Kindle devices enable users to browse, buy, download, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines and other digital media via wireless networking to the Kindle Stor ...

. An

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

television series adaptation has been announced.

Premise

Set years after the disbanding of the Seven Deadly Sins, Britannia's most infamous Holy Knights, the series focuses on the young boy

Percival Percival (, also spelled Perceval, Parzival), alternatively called Peredur (), was one of King Arthur's legendary Knights of the Round Table. First mentioned by the French author Chrétien de Troyes in the tale ''Perceval, the Story of the Gra ...

, who discovers that he is destined to be part of a group of four knights prophesied to destroy the world. Targeted by the forces of Camelot as a result, Percival travels to find the other three members of the Four Knights alongside Lancelot, a Liones knight who is the son of the Seven Sins member Ban.

Production

Development

Following the conclusion of '' The Seven Deadly Sins''

with the release of its 346th chapter, the final chapter of the series, in the 17th issue of ''

'' on March 25, 2020, it was announced by the manga's author,

, that his next series would serve as a

to ''The Seven Deadly Sins''. The

manga artist A is a comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. As of 2006, about 3,000 professional manga artists were working in Japan. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist be ...

also revealed that the new series was tentatively titled ''The Four Knights of the Apocalypse'', which he later changed by removing the word ''The'' at the beginning, giving the manga its current title.

Characters

While planning the storyline for the manga, Suzuki originally desired to use the character of Tristan—who was introduced at the end of ''The Seven Deadly Sins'' as the son of

Meliodas Meliodas is a figure in Arthurian legend in the 12th-century Prose ''Tristan'' and subsequent accounts. In Thomas Malory's ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', he is the second king of Lyonesse, son of Felec of Cornwall and vassal of King Mark. Meliodas' ...

and Elizabeth Liones—to be the

protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a st ...

of ''Four Knights of the Apocalypse''. However, Suzuki eventually changed his mind, not wanting to have a main character so closely related to the cast of his previous series. Instead, he decided to have Percival, a character created specifically for the sequel, as the protagonist. During an interview in April 2021, Suzuki commented that, in regards to Percival's

design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...

, he particularly focuses on the cuteness of the character when drawing him, adding elements that are able to highlight this in Percival, such as his helmet and cloak.

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by

, the manga was announced in November 2020. The series began its serialization in Kodansha's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' on January 27, 2021. Kodansha has collected its chapters into individual ''

'' volumes. The first volume was released on April 16, 2021. As of November 17, 2022, nine volumes have been released. North American publisher

has licensed the series for simulpublication in North America as it is released in Japan. With the first five chapters of the series already available when it started to be published on February 23, 2021 on multiple digital platforms, including Crunchyroll Manga,

and

, with a chapter of the manga translated into English being released weekly. The series is available in English worldwide (except Japan) on the

digital manga Digital Manga is a California-based publishing company that licenses and releases Japanese manga, anime, and related merchandise in the English language. Digital Manga also owns and operates eManga, a digital publishing site for manga and ...

service Azuki, which was launched on June 28, 2021. Additionally,

Kodansha Comics Kodansha USA Publishing, LLC is a publishing company based in New York, USA, and a subsidiary of Japan's largest publishing company Kodansha. Established in July 2008, Kodansha USA publishes books relating to Japan, Japanese culture, and manga ...

started releasing the volumes in print on January 25, 2022.

Volume list

Chapters not yet in ''tankōbon'' format

These chapters have yet to be published in a ''tankōbon'' volume.

Anime

In May 2022, it was announced that the manga would receive an

television series adaptation.

Reception

Popularity

In June 2021, ''Four Knights of the Apocalypse'' was nominated for the seventh

Next Manga Award The is an annual award for manga series presented by Kadokawa Corporation's '' Da Vinci'' magazine and Niconico streaming website. It is divided into two categories: one for print manga, and one for web manga. Overview The award was originally ...

in the Best Printed Manga category.

Critical response

Ever since it began its serialization, the series has received a generally positive reception from fans and critics alike. Junko Kuroda said the manga is "definitely an

that can be enjoyed smoothly", even for fans unfamiliar with ''The Seven Deadly Sins''.

Notes

References

External links

* * {{Weekly Shōnen Magazine - 2020–2029 Adventure anime and manga Fantasy anime and manga Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in popular culture Kodansha manga The Seven Deadly Sins Shōnen manga Upcoming anime television series