Considering just how heralded the manga is, 7Seeds is flying way under the radar. Netflix is doing their usual all-at-once episode dump (though at least this go-around at the same time in the U.S. and Japan), which always make for an awkward fit from a blogging perspective. The biggest problem I see, though, is that they appear to be adapting 35 volumes of manga in 12 episodes. I’m no mathematician but it’s hard to see how that can possibly work – especially when you consider the manga’s structure. It follows multiple casts of characters on several timelines, periodically jumping between them. To say this seems like an odd fit is an understatement.
Still, Tamura Yumi’s manga is widely considered one of shoujo’s best, so I feel as if I have to give 7Seeds a chance. I don’t binge watch anime (or anything else) as a general rule, but I did check out the first two episodes of 7Seeds. And they’re pretty good, though already the effects of the pacing dilemma are making themselves felt. A lot of stuff feels very arbitrary – I find myself wanting explanations and not getting them over and over – and character introductions are non-existent. Still, we are dealing with a cast of characters who themselves are mostly in the dark about what’s happening to them, so some of that may be intentional.
The story starts with a small group of mostly teenagers who wake up on a boat on the verge of sinking, and are guided to an island by the oldest of their group. Another slightly larger group – this time ranging from a small boy to several adults – are already on what I assume to be the same island. Each group has one thoroughly obnoxious character, and the first group (which we’ll soon learn is “Summer B”) contains the closest thing to a protagonist, the bullied Iwashimizu Natsu (whether the name is coincidental I don’t know). The other group is “Spring”, and is apparently led by an SDF veteran with a sandpaper personality.
At first one is put in mind of some sort of survival game – the island is full of giant insects and flesh-eating plants – but eventually Summer B’s leader, Saotome Botan, explains that Earth has been struck by a series of giant asteroids and the people we meet were hand-selected to propagate the species. They’ve been asleep for an indeterminate amount of time, as have the other teams and the teams from other nations (which are presumably not in the Japanese archipelago). The key to survival seems to be in the “Seven Fujis” – a topic about which the young boy in Spring, Momoutaro, appears to have a good deal of knowledge.
These first two episodes are entertaining enough, but there’s so much happening with so little context that it’s a bit difficult to relate to anything beyond a surface level. The premise is an intriguing one, but one which positively cries out for a long, exhaustive treatment – especially if it’s intended to work as a character study of these real-world lab rats fighting to survive. That’s obviously not what we have here, which is unfortunate but on the other hand, there are no cute girls doing cute things and it’s not an isekai. I’ll probably finish watching the series in stages over the course of the next month or so, but whether I do any further write-ups depends on whether 7Seeds exceeds my expectations, and whether the picking for the summer season are as meager as I’m more or less expecting.
Derrick
June 29, 2019 at 9:21 pmwe need cute girls doing cute things in isekai setting.
I’am interested whether it will be so bad it’s good.
Guardian Enzo
June 29, 2019 at 9:38 pmLots of isekai have that already tho.
Roger
June 29, 2019 at 10:54 pm35 Volumes in 12 episodes?! That’s just insane!
Hello Enzo, long time reader, first time commenter. I love 7 seeds, it’s one of my top 10 manga. I have been praying for an anime for close to a decade since I first started reading this amazing story. I haven’t seen the first season yet, but from what I saw on Netflix the 12 episodes should cover about half of the story…which is really, really long. I’m not just speaking about volumes here, there is a lot of content in each chapter. I’m glad we got an anime, just wish they had more episodes for the amount of content they will cover in the 12 we got. I will watch it now, hope is good.
Guardian Enzo
June 29, 2019 at 11:02 pmWelcome, Roger, thanks for de-cloaking. I know some serious 7Seeds fans, and all of them are pretty despairing about this series’ chances of doing the manga any kind of justice. It’s one of those cases where I’m happy to be a non-reader.
Gracie
June 30, 2019 at 1:53 amOff-topic but I can’t binge these Netflix series for the life of me. I think the only ones I “binge-finished” from start to finish were ReLife and B – The Beginning. I still have three eps left from Hero Mask.
elianthos80
June 30, 2019 at 8:13 pmI think not even RC included it in the seasonal preview list so yeah under the radar indeed
Enzo can you do something about that ?:,)That said I am skipping this adaptation. Simply put it feels like an ill-conceived and not really engaging waste of time as a manga reader, and sampling the first episode did precious little to persuade me otherwise. Pity. But if it manages to entice some viewer to check out the source then it’s better than nothing.
Btw there are arguably at least 3 characters being co-protagonists ( but you could easily double that amount) scattered among the teams 🙂
Guardian Enzo
June 30, 2019 at 8:23 pmActually we both included it in the Spring preview because, technically, it’s still Spring season.
Roger
July 1, 2019 at 5:50 amYou might be onto something there, watching the High Score Girl adaptation got me into the manga, same might happen with 7Seeds for other people. The Art is nothing out of the ordinary but it’s plot and characters really shine through. Speaking of characters, I agree that 2-5 take center stage, but overall most of the characters get plenty of development and progression during the story, which is nice since I always hated how most long running series push its ensemble to the side and focus on a few when they could be using its well of characters in interesting ways. Every character in 7Seeds has its own journey and arc…though if I were to guess, we get more focus on Natsu and Arashi (Summer B), Hana (Spring), Aramaki (Winter) and Ango (Summer A).
elianthos
July 1, 2019 at 8:10 pm@Enzo: uhuh, technically. How many people do you think actually remember about that at this time of the year though ^^? And the Netflix dump release again does not help.
@Roger: well, given how underappreciated Tamura’s titles are even a… less than average anime commercial is better than nothing I guess.
( Her long works are simply among the best in the medium dang it, Toraji is no exception. Actually I was expecting Toraji to get the anime treatment. For deceptively easy mass screen appeal it has giant fuzzy talking cats and the early chapters have more of a episodic quality while still loading quality emotional suckerpunches + fantasy setting XP https://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=19538 )
Yeah I agree about the characters but I was trying to keep my fangirling and word count in check there XDD.
Gracie
July 3, 2019 at 12:10 amBy episode three, it starts to feel really rushed and the characters aren’t as appealing as in UQ Holder which to justify keeping up with it.
Guardian Enzo
July 3, 2019 at 6:45 amInteresting. Why the UQ Holder comparison?
romy
July 3, 2019 at 5:54 amoh, how disappointing……………this is really a shame to butcher such a good story……it misses all the intensity of the manga.
Ronbb
July 3, 2019 at 12:12 pmJust finished binge-watching all 12 episodes….hmmm…will there be more to come? I’m asking the question for not because this series is good — B: The Beginning was far, far better. It’s just a natural question to ask.
P.S. As an anime-only view, my expectation is low. I picked it up to fill the void between seasons…I guess the manga version is way better.
Guardian Enzo
July 4, 2019 at 6:40 amI’m not aware of any decision one way or the other. I’m 4 eps in myself, and find it fairly entertaining but of course I have no manga to compare it to.
Ronbb
July 4, 2019 at 10:56 amThanks!
elianthos80
July 5, 2019 at 10:14 pm@Ronbb: 7 Seeds – the manga – is excellent, leisurely paced, layered and emotionally gripping. The anime… eh. I’d suggest checking out the 7 Seeds manga hence skipping the anime and watching Kanata No Astra instead from the current season :,) .