rec post + content warnings
compiling 7 Seeds chapter-specific content warnings for reccing, i thought they might be useful to others too–they’re under the cut and contain spoilers up to chapter 149. if there are any others you’d warn for, please let me know!
while writing these up, i realized i’ve never actually recced this properly despite it being an all-time favorite, so! 7 Seeds is an action/drama series about five groups of cryogenically frozen people who awaken in a postapocalyptic Japan with access to supply caches of “seeds,” from which point on they deal with survival challenges, inter- and intra-team conflicts, society establishment and governance, dysfunctional murderous schemes, unlikely alliances, farcical rescue escapades, etc.–what makes this one unique, i think, is that it both executes all the standbys perfectly AND understands why so many people hate them and improves upon the entire genre while doing it.
it’s a lovely series to try if you love dystopias/apocalypses/survival adventures/dramatic romances and want to see one firing on all cylinders in spectacular fashion, and it’s also the right one if you hate them and want to see all their issues magnificently skewered and then rectified in a blaze of glory.
josei series by Tamura Yumi, the author of Basara
161 chapters, 149 presently available in English
winner of the Shogakukan Manga Award (2007), in company with series like Fullmetal Alchemist, Nana, and 20th Century Boys
what i love about this series is that THE APOCALYPSE! is a bit of a red herring and Tamura’s central interest is more in the intricate psychology of any type of moving on: transitions, memory, entitlement, heritage, remembrance, the long game of people processing these things in context of a future they can’t have anymore, predicated on a past they loved–a goal, a relationship, an experience, a perception of themselves. in keeping with that, the surviving group is actually a believable cross-section of a futuristic society! and hence debates about class, gender, meritocracy, education, mental illness, etc. all continue to exist and influence the characters–socialized beings without a society. but it’s a middle finger to the idea that survival is about cynicism and violence, and is full of people supporting one another in unconventional ways, inventive acts of kindness and ingenuity– talent competitions! killer ping-pong games! use of a Final Fantasy theme as Morse code! an ocarina made out of a potato! performers, writers, dancers, entrepreneurs–all critical, all necessary.
Tamura doesn’t give up on action thrills and real danger and moral sophistication to create that sense of joy: she makes us thrill to things we’d normally see written as “boring.” it’s all the ridiculous, unglamorous stuff of life told in the idiom of the heroics of an action story and the high drama of a josei serial; the characters’ triumphs are celebrated for being so near to our own.
the series features a true ensemble cast and unusual use of shifting point of view to let each character contribute notes to a story told in huge, sweeping narrative chords. it also allows one of the most diverse and developed female casts around to shine, and makes sure they all get their shot at substantial and exciting material!
there are the nominal heroines and backbones of their respective teams, the hikikomori negotiating her discomfort with ideas of “usefulness” in survival skills with feelings of worthlessness that drove her into seclusion in the first place, and the daredevil freeclimber outdoorswoman who worries about what she’ll be able to contribute after her team is stable and survival skills aren’t as critical. the cheery kogal “beautician-and-slash-and-burn-farmer!” who has Titanic fantasies in the middle of shipboard missions and happily safeguards her own and her teammates’ right to the sunniest teenage girlhood they can scrounge up! the acerbic botanist whose frustration with literally reading the environment for her less capable peers runs up devastatingly against the survivors’ guilt that tears her team of childhood friends apart, the former policewoman/only surviving team guide who wrestles crocodiles barehanded and cultivates a team with no survival experience into the most successful in the series, the courteous, ruthless former architect compartmentalizing spite and bitterness with whoever sent her to the future with an inability to resist providing for the team under her care, and the bored, amoral engineer she nudges into a fond and terrifying partnership by sheer breathtaking accident–and so many others.
it’s absolutely worth a try whatever your usual genre preferences are, just for its quality. although the art is generally a reservation for people, if you treat it like any sumptuous style and get past the first few chapters, it becomes clear that Tamura is an accomplished artist who knows exactly what she is and is not doing with that classic nineties shojo style, and it’s rewarding to read for how she does use it to exacerbate scale, vary focus, induce cognitive dissonance, and lend a sense of drama to things most writers would ignore!
general content warnings to consider, with some specifically disturbing scenes by chapter if you’d like to skip ‘em:
blakekathryn
dailybridgerton
andulkaphoto
yousharknotpass
ellievsbear
prguitarman
theartofmadeline
janainaart
