7 Seeds

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Review Summary:
7 Seeds, or 7SEEDS, is a manga written by Yumi Tamara which ran from 2001 to 2017. To avoid spoilers, I will say that the setting is a mysterious world in the near future, after the Earth has been struck by a meteor. The story incorporates a plethora of characters who try to survive in this new world, learn about their surroundings, and attempt to process and overcome their pasts. Overall, the story is well-written, although there is some inconsistent pacing. The characters are phenomenal, and the plot is intriguing. One drawback to 7 Seeds is that it was never (as of 2024) ... published to be printed in English, so many online versions are fan-translated digital copies. If you are interested in sci-fi, then this is likely a great fit for you. Please note that this review is for the manga and not the poorly adapted anime. The manga is far superior to the anime.

Story: 7/10
7 Seeds takes place in a mysterious world (no spoilers) following Earth’s destruction from a meteor strike. Many characters find themselves in groups of strangers and attempt to uncover this new world to survive. Along the way, the characters are challenged in appropriate ways in order to grow and develop, and the plot is quite intriguing and mysterious. Much of the story is based on survival in nature, learning to start fires, survive storms and changes in weather, and explore the unfamiliar terrain. This also leads to some groups fighting with one another over resources and competition. Overall, the storytelling is done in a “show, don’t tell,” way, although there is occasionally some info dumping through dialogue that seems unrealistic. This may be caused by the fan-translated versions since it is not physically published in English. In general, the biggest flaw with the story is that some events are too convenient for the characters, although many do suffer the consequences to a lesser extent. The pacing, particularly at the end, is also a bit disappointing. Ultimately, though, the plot is quite interesting and recommendable. The story handles themes of friendships, connection, survival, trauma, death, and growth.

Art: 7/10
The art in 7 Seeds is adequate for the story and detailed enough to build the world and characters. Because there are no physically published English copies, it is hard to judge the art quality, as some digital versions are not the cleanest. However, that’s not the author’s fault, and the quality of the art is still sufficient. The style works for world-building, some gory or scary scenes, and for depicting landscapes and structures that become key to the plot.

Characters: 8/10
7 Seeds is character-driven which makes the story far more enjoyable and engaging. This story has a variety of characters, and they all grow throughout the story. Many have intriguing, horrifying, and traumatizing pasts, and they learn from each other and their environment to thrive. Although Natsu and Hana start as the main characters, the full cast is fairly represented and valuable by the end, aside from a few minor characters. There are times where nature causes some plot twists and even some plot armor, but the characters are written to be realistic and driven for literal and social survival. Although the story emphasizes some romance between characters, the general focus is really the relationships in general. The characters are forced to rely on strangers for survival, which adds relatable and realistic tension. Many characters are written to be intentionally unlikable while others are more enjoyable to follow, and this adds practicality to the relationships. The characters develop over the course of the story, although some minor characters are a bit forced at the end. Even the seemingly antagonistic characters have their justifications, which makes the story more enjoyable. Yumi Tamara worked some true magic with these characters. One challenge with the ending is that the characters’ resolutions are somewhat rushed in the final volume, and the final arc has some excessive dialogue. Even characters that were expected to have romantic tension were rushed and had conversations in front of others instead of, realistically, connecting after the main final arc. Maybe that’s a positive, though, since the reader wants to have more time with the characters.

Enjoyment: 9/10
7 Seeds is an excellent story and very enjoyable. I wish that the manga were officially and physically published in English so I could collect it and re-read it in the future. I recommend it to anyone interested in sci-fi. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed the romance so much, but the tension between characters was well-done and enjoyable. By the end, I felt compelled to pick sides, but unable to do so because I wanted to root for all of them. Also, this manga was far more enjoyable than the terribly adapted anime.

Overall: 7.75

If you woke up from a cryogenic sleep in a hostile dystopian world with the order to rebuild mankind from the ground up, what would you do? Within that question lies the foundation of 7 Seeds. What would a person do under these circumstances? Even more, what would a person without any survival experience handle a more primitive lifestyle with dangers around every corner?

As questionable as it would be if the government chose inexperienced and traumatized people to save mankind, it’s interesting from a psychological perspective. Because some of these people can barely take care of themselves, and now they have even more weight ... on their shoulders. Every character belongs to a group of seven, hence why it’s called 7 Seeds. With all the existing groups comes a large scale of characters, and it’s handled well. Most if not all of them get some amount of development, with the ones mainly focused on ending up as multilayered and have experienced some sort of growth. Each group is also very diverse with how they tackle survival which I liked. It created conflict between the groups which makes it feel all the more satisfying when they finally put their differences aside to instead work together.

The characters are the center point of 7 Seeds, it’s core. But that’s not to say that a good story becomes insignificant, and here is where the manga stumbles quite a bit in my opinion. It ends up being very formulaic, with a format it continuously uses over and over again. With few exceptions, the whole story of 7 Seeds can be summed up as follows. Find a location, learn something new, overcome some sort of hurdle and then leave to find another location. Any sort of progress towards rebuilding humanity takes a backseat, for most of the manga that is. There are attempts for sure but for one reason or another it never works out in the end. So it’s back to square one which I have to admit that I wasn’t very enthusiastic about. It can also drag on for far longer than it has any right to. Making some parts feel very sluggish and uneventful. The different formulaic arcs have at least world-building and character growth coming with it. So it wasn’t too much of a waste of time. But I personally would’ve loved to see any progress or at least something to spice up the story structure a bit.

Art-wise it was pretty polished with the character designs being pretty consistent (although hard to tell apart sometimes) with some very solid environmental art here and there. It’s not always consistent however. It could often be simplistic with plain white backgrounds and things like hair and clothing lacking detail. However, at its best it is solid, but dips in quality more times than I think it should’ve.

All in all I think 7 Seeds is at least worth a chance. While at first I found it to be extremely mediocre, my opinion has now changed to a more positive side after reflecting on it. Even though I didn’t find all the characters very memorable there’s some genuinely great development for some of them which were definitely a high point. It’s a solid cast overall and made this an alright read. It’s just when the story comes more into focus that it loses that appeal and boredom seeps in. The slow pacing and reused formula definitely didn’t always help either, but that’s a very subjective critique that might not affect you the same way. I can see why so many praise it, but that’s not to say there aren’t flaws to be found. If you don’t like your manga being slow paced or mostly character driven with weak story progression, then look elsewhere. Everyone else, take a dive in.

This Manga was not for me. After the first 20 chapters, I found it exhausting to read.
Why?
- There are way too many characters, the stories are drawn out really long and the characters are not really compelling enough. In fact, every character's story starts to seem a little repetitive - exotic wild animals, near death, sudden saviour, then all is good.
- The world building is too slow and seems a bit...hopeless. Seven teams discover 40 different types of animals, plants, landscapes...but I couldn't find it in me to keep myself interested with no promise of any kind of real character or world development.
- The flashbacks ... are alright in the beginning and then get stuck in the same rut as the main story.

I got bored, exhausted and just couldn't enjoy it beyond 30 or so chapters.