7 Seeds

Manga cover showing a girl with a short bob, gazing at the viewer. It's drawn in a style with large, expressive eyes and soft sparkle effects.

  • the main message is basically
  • even in a post-apocalyptic, hostile environment
  • the world is beautiful and worth living in.

A synopsis of 7 Seeds:

In the near future, scientists have discovered that a huge meteor is heading towards earth and its impact would wipe out almost all life. World leaders met and tested a number of countermeasures. The worst-case countermeasure to be created was the 7 Seeds Project, where each country took young and healthy people and put them into a cryogenic sleep. They would be released once conditions on earth had become safe enough to live in.

The story begins some unknown number of years in the future, when Team Summer awakens and learns that their entire world and old life has been destroyed and evolution has begun anew.

Manga panel showing a lone figure sitting on some rocks by the water. The sky and ocean are dark and the wind is blowing, with a 'ssshhh' sound effect. The panel conveys a sense of deep loneliness.

  • so i first started reading 7 Seeds sometime around ~2013
  • around this time summertime sadness was very popular and I remember listening to it on repeat while reading late at night
  • (there isn’t a thematic connection between the song and the manga, except for the theme of summer and the melancholic vibe)
  • (but even now I still associate them together)
  • since then, I’ve reread it numerous times
  • and dropped off
  • and picked it up again a few more
  • the series finished in 2017, but I didn’t finish reading it until late 2022
  • a lot of details are fuzzy to me now, but i wanted to record some thoughts anyway

Coloured panel of a teenage girl gazing at the viewer, looking concerned.

  • 7 seeds is a survival manga, and i first read it during a time when i was very depressed
  • so the power of survival fiction was especially potent
  • one of the main characters the series first introduces you to is natsu, who i related to deeply
  • she’s timid, insecure, and wants to run away from the whole situation
  • which is like. UNDERSTANDABLE. the whole situation being ‘forced to survive in post-apocalyptic japan with complete strangers and horrible bugs that want to eat her and etc.’
  • but her character arc is finding strength and confidence in herself and it is a long messy journey to get there
  • i used to be the same (well i still sort of am), that timidness is something i feel like i’ve carried around with me my entire life

Two panels. In the first, a small group of people walk upon many large insects. In the second, a girl from the group looks stricken at what they see.

  • anyway. this is a survival manga
  • and boy, do the characters survive
  • one of my favourite things about the series is how it explores the different environments that the characters get dropped into
  • the land, water, animals, plants, etc. that have changed in the years since the apocalypse
  • (we don’t know how long it’s been, but probably at least hundreds of years)
  • there’s a lot of horror elements in nature that the characters encounter
  • like…giant bugs
  • yanno
  • predatory animals
  • mushrooms
  • etc.

Panel closeup of a girl with long flowing hair, standing by the water.

  • some other things i like:
  • the art style (as u can see) is a very beautiful style (though i realize it may not be to everyone’s tastes)
  • the environments are drawn with impeccable detail
  • the tone is always hopeful
  • a lot of horrible shit happens, and a lot of horrible shit happened in the past
  • but ultimately the characters choose to work together, choose to try to survive
  • there’s also an underlying mystery about the whole 7 seeds program
  • a whole lot of trauma
  • BUT. the series addresses it and characters heal, move forward

Panel of a bridge falling apart next to a shipwreck. The water level is right under the bridge.

  • i wish i were able to write a better review
  • but alas, i am unable to at the moment
  • but i figure, better to write some garbage than to not write anything at all
  • i hope to come back to this to revise it lol
  • (sidenote: i don’t recommend the netflix adaptation, i found that the pacing is rushed and the impact of the story is lost)