7Seeds

Another diehard fan of the "7 Seeds" manga here and a diehard fan of Yumi Tamura, who is perhaps the greatest manga artist in the history of this art form. Tamura has outdone herself with 7 Seeds. It is a gem--a deeply complex, compelling shoujo manga that appeals to all genders and ages (though may be inappropriate for children under 13).

Why Netflix would attempt such a half-assed job at animating this manga is beyond me. I suspect it was a decision based purely on avarice and a desire to diversify their TV drama selection. But clearly the decision makers at Netflix are not manga fans or else they would have known better than to half-ass the equivalent of the Lord of the Rings. Yes, that is how awesome 7 Seeds is and even Peter Jackson who directed LOTR prepared to fully pay homage to this great work of fantasy. Alas, there was no Peter Jackson at Netflix, so they hired the crappiest screenwriters and lousiest animators that their stingy budget could afford and ruined the greatest manga of all time.

I can only hope that a better production company one day attempts to animate Tamura's "Basara" manga one day. Someone who understands the delicate emotional sensitivity and complexity of great shoujo works and will endeavor to properly animate this lovely work of art.

Where to begin with this show.

Story : Its muddled to say the least. The writers dont have the competence to give you any motivation to continue watching. By that I mean that its very hacked together. There is no flow to the narrative.

Characters : In the first few episodes there is maybe 2 or 3 likable characters. The rest could be left to die and the show wouldnt suffer in any way. There is a difference between writing a character that conflicts with others, writing a villain, and putting flaws into a blender and calling it a character. It feels as if the writers got to the first dimension of a character, got scared, and pulled it back to about 0.5 character dimension.

Animation/Look : This is where half of my issues come from. The animation is average at best. The 3D is not integrated well, and the 2D is very saccadic. Because the artists didnt match the colors in some places it can feel like you are watching a nice background painting that had paper cutouts of characters put over top with no blending.

The Good : I know it feels like Im ranting. Its purely from the bad taste left in my mouth. The good portion of this show is the overall plot. The episodes individually may be weak, but the plot as a whole isnt terrible. You could say that since that portion is form the Manga that maybe the manga would be a better format for this series. I have always been a fan of plots like Lord of the Flies, Battle Royale, Swiss Family Robinson. Modern people deserted on an island with no information, what do they do.

Overall, I would hard pass this show. If I heard someone mentioning they were going to start it I would probably let them know the same. Its a failed attempt at a good idea.

I'm a HUGE fan of the original manga, so I was excited to hear that Netflix was turning it into anime.

BUT...

1st episode was a TOTAL DISAPPOINTMENT.

I almost stopped watching in the middle but my husband who does not know the original was watching with me so I finished it.

1. They just revealed the whole story in the opening!!! WHY WOULD THEY???????

2. They just skipped through so many details. IT CONFUSED my husband who doesn't know the story.

3. They changed the looks of characters so much. I guess to an extent this can't be helped but... disappointment to a big fan of the original artwork.

But for some odd reason that I don't understand, I kept watching, and it started to grow on me.

Not sure if the story made any sense to people who haven't read the manga, but if you just see it as a "summary of" or "introduction to" the original, this serves the purpose just fine (?).

At least they didn't change the story; they just summarized it.

I have read the manga and was very happy when I heard that the anime was being made. But this seems to be made to ruin the story. The very carefully constructed atmosphere put together by the author on the manga version is a no show due to the fast pacing of the screen adaptation. The order of events is wrong, too many jumps that I couldn't even understand the time passing and the animation itself is very bad, a lot of issues in many areas. It seems that the ones who put together this anime have no idea on how to maintain/ create an ominous atmosphere, put thriller and mystery to the thing which is very sad because the manga had it already they just "edited it out of the plot". As for the people that haven't read the manga, this is a very average anime... almost bad but the plot saves it big time. Everything should have been done in a more explained way and using more of the manga because if taken from there it would come up on the list of best animes of the genre.

I've not read the Manga so keep that in mind.. The story and concept is very fresh and appealing, as is the unusual trope twists, and the characters have promise, but it's not quite there..

Especially as of the second season, the characters are missing that key element that makes you really connect with them and make mistakes that go beyond excusable to the inexcusable, but I don't regret the time spent watching it, yet..