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.

Great premise, but the execution is lacking. It jumps from scene to scene, with sometimes drastic changes in between despite only a second having passed. Time skips abound... Also quite a bit of artistic and metaphoric hubris, which is unnecessary and just drags the plot down. Too many cliches and moments of deus ex machina, too. Overall, a good premise let down by poor writing/direction.

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 don't understand some reviews. This series has some action, is going into mental connection and the fear of individual characters. It is not a spoiler that a meteorite fell on earth as this is kind of in the description. Also seriously? You complain about pastell colours and then full colours or that synchronization is bad? Well, I suggest you watch the original version in Japanese, have some good internet connection and just let yourself sucked into the atmosphere what would you do if you were on a lone island with monsters and you cannot understand.

This series is great to switch off and escape into your fantasy world. Though the episodes are rather short and too less exist, I can warmly recommend this to anyone who likes Japanese language paired with apocalypse and emotionally escaping from the real world.

For all who just like action, thrilling, complicated story and a perfrct picture and picture/language synchronization (that most manags do not have) - stay away and dom't give a one star rating. This is not what such a serie deserves!

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.