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bookblather asked about the thing that should have a fandom MOST and inexplicably doesn't have one, which means: IT'S TIME TO TALK ABOUT 7 SEEDS AGAIN. >:D >:D >:D

So for those of you who don't remember when I fell head over heels a year and a half ago, 7 Seeds is a manga about a bunch of teenagers who have just woken up to find themselves in a bizarre and terrifying post-apocalyptic Japan full of things that want to eat them. These kids -- carefully selected for their skills and arranged to wake up in groups of seven, plus one adult helper -- basically represent the last, most stupid, and most implausible plan of a whole bunch of really stupid and implausible plans developed to save humanity from METEORIC DOOM.

Bear in mind that when I say "carefully selected for their skills," I mean most of them are like "THE BEST TEEN BASEBALL PLAYER IN JAPAN" or "THE BEST PIANIST IN JAPAN" or "KNOWS THE MOST LANGUAGES IN JAPAN." Real useful apocalyptic skills here!

Then of course there is Team Failboat, who were selected for being the most socially maladjusted children in Japan, because our genre-savvy sinister mastermind did not want to gamble against the possibility that the only way to save the future would be to bank on a Wacky Band of Misfits.

7 Seeds has everything. It HAS EVERYTHING. A short list of stuff that fandom SHOULD LOVE that 7 Seeds includes:

- hilariously implausible doomsday scenarios!
- teamwork and friendships!
- kickass female characters!
- assholes who turn out to be surprisingly lovable!
- a ZOMBIE PLOT!
- a HUNGER GAMES PLOT!
- a PLOT about EVIL MUSHROOMS THAT GROW ON CROCODILES!
- infinite numbers of attractive teenagers to smush against each other in infinite combinations!
- plus a lot of CUTE PUPPIES!

In addition, a short list of stuff that I love that 7 Seeds includes:

- an incredibly diverse array of female characters who have really important relationships with each other!
- character development! in spades! for everyone!
- really thoughtful and well-done handling of trauma and abuse and cycles of abuse and the recovery process!
- teenagers who have realistic short-term crushes and then move on without having it be the source for endless angst!

There are a lot of things I love that I wouldn't wish a fandom on, because a fandom would probably do terrible things. But -- maybe optimistically -- I don't feel that way about 7 Seeds! There is just so much POTENTIAL. Like, okay, yes, probably if fandom did ever glom onto 7 Seeds, sixty to seventy percent of the resulting fanworks would be variations on dudeslash starring Awful Angry Ango, because that's just how fandom rolls. But I could ignore that and focus on the remaining 30%, which would be TEAM-BUILDING FIC and backstory fic and "today everyone has to face a new and EVEN MORE RIDICULOUS PERIL!"-fic and ridiculous AU fic and, like, silly crossover fic and some hilariously random pairing fics and at least a FEW amoral architect lesbian fics. AND IT WOULD BE WONDERFUL. I would be so happy!

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YESSS 7 Seeds really needs more of a fandom presence but yeah I know what you mean about the terrible fanworks (personally I have no opinions on angsty Ango dudeslash but I think almost all the fanfic I've come across has been angsty Ango het and there are not enough NOPES in this world!!!!). I need more cute fic/art actually like so much of romances and interactions are pretty romcom and lovely and fun, even in gen stuff, focus on the teaaaaams would be so entertaining, I want it all!!!

I have come to terms with how much of an Ango focus any fandom would inevitably have (UGH), I just want the fandom to be large enough that even with the awful Ango focus there's room for ALL THE OTHER THINGS TOO. Teamfic! Hijinks! I'd be happy to read just about all the cute pairings for PEOPLE WHO AREN'T ANGO!

SIGHING LOUDLY about Ango focus but yes, I agree, if this fandom gets bigger, we can have more things about the characters we actually enjoy! I'm trying to get a few friends into the manga as their tastes will probably align better with mine and we can talk more about the NOT ANGO things in our own corner. :D

- teenagers who have realistic short-term crushes and then move on without having it be the source for endless angst!

Okay, that's pretty cool.

IT'S SO GREAT. Because they all start out in groups of seven, and gradually realize that there are more people in the world! So there are a couple different instances where people develop a crush on someone else in their team, because it's the END OF THE WORLD AND THERE ARE SEVEN PEOPLE LEFT, and then they meet someone else they like better and it's totally fine and normal!

I mean, I also appreciate the teenagers who wake up in a group of three instead of seven and just basically settle into a big puppypile. And I also appreciate the teenagers who institute a ban on reproductive sex, because they don't have any contraceptives in the post-apocalyptic future, so instead they get stoned and have a lot of oral. And I also appreciate the teenagers that everyone thinks are an item who eventually reveal that they tried to have sex once, thought it didn't work at all and decided they'd rather not do it again. It's all so refreshing for shojo manga!

And I also appreciate the teenagers that everyone thinks are an item who eventually reveal that they tried to have sex once, thought it didn't work at all and decided they'd rather not do it again.

HUZZAH THAT DOSE OF REALISM.

Apparently there is a bit of a fandom on tumblr. It hates Hana and talks about how it liked Ango more after he attacked her and explains why it's understandable. (And she's self righteous and every bad thing except the apocalypse itself is her fault.)

I cried and ran away.

BUT TEAM FAILBOAT YES TEAM FAILBOAT IS THE BEST. Especially once the emo duo joins up and struggle to hold onto their emo but fail because team failboat has anti-emo mojo.

Hey, there is also the fandom on tumblr that is . . . me . . . posting earnest screencaps of Chisa . . . um.

I LOVE TEAM FAILBOAT WITH ALL MY HEART AND SOUL. I love their earnest efforts to turn the apocalypse into a wacky comedy. I LOVE THEIR TALENT SHOWS.

Every so often I turn to my old roommate (who I made read the manga) and say "remember when Semimaru was the bad guy?" and we just laugh and laugh. OH, THAT WACKY SEMIMARU AND HIS SOYBEANS. There was a time I thought I would hate him forever!

Oh, Semimaru...

And yeah, given their earlier chapters, who ever would have thought that between Semimaru and Ango, Semimaru is the one who ended up both the nicer character and the more acceptable potential love interest. For anyone. Ever. (I mean, I do get Ango and see how his experiences and trauma led to him doing the things he did but that doesn't make it ok or an understandable reaction because he opted to do them and about 90% of the Summer A/Spring/Autumn Issues were caused by him.)

THE TALENT SHOW. THE LAST STAGE IN THE PLOT TO LURE IN AND DESTROY THE EMO DUO. It worked so well that either they adopted the Emo Duo or the Emo Duo adopted them, I'm not sure which.

Edited 2013-12-18 13:17 (UTC)

RIGHT? Like, I don't particularly ship Semimaru with anyone (Semimaru/soybeans?) but I just spend all my time wanting to pat him on the head now! (To be fair, some of the blame also lies with Ayu and her decision to run medical experiments on a ten-year-old child.

....OH THAT WACKY AYU. <3)

The manga wants me to ship Natsu/Semimaru and...well, i'm getting to where that might be ok. Maybe.

OH AYU. Though, to be fair, I don't think she would have run any experiments that she thought would actually hurt him. Not that that makes it too much better.

I trust Yumi Tamura to bring me around to pretty much ANYTHING, although as I have said before at this point I mostly Natsu/herself, with occasional Natsu/Matsuri. Although the other day I found myself thinking, 'what about Natsu/Ban?' But mostly this is because their ship name would be Batsu. LIKE THE PUPPY.

LOLS. Natsu/Ban would be ETERNAL AWKWARD SILENCES with lots of flustered fidgetting and random cries of delight over puppies.

I vote Natsu/Hana!

Edited 2013-12-20 05:36 (UTC)

*AGGRESSIVELY ADDS 7 SEEDS TO TO-READ LIST*

I think I'd sort of vaguely tossed it on there, but then I forgot about it. BUT NOW I REMEMBER.

YES YES PLEASE

every time I convince someone else to read 7 Seeds an amoral lesbian builds another house

*dead*

omg

Arashi: MY GIRLFRIEND IS DELICATE AND FRAIL AND NEEDS MY PROTECTION
Hana: *dives off a cliff to escape some cannibals, nbd*

Yes good thank you for bringing this to my attention.

HAHAHAHA OMG HANA IS THE BEST ACTION HERO.

Later on some people meet Arashi after meeting Hana and are just like ".....Hana is a formidable woman of iron nerves! This dude is running away from bugs. WE DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS RELATIONSHIP."

SIMON & GARFUNKEL SONGFIC

THEY MADE HIM AN OCARINA

OUT OF A POTATO

I have a lot of questions about the dudes (you know they were dudes) who set this whole thing up.

Why not straight-up tell the guides exactly where they would be emerging from?

Who says, "It may be decades or even centuries before they awaken and discover these precious caches of supplies! Yeah, let's throw some canned food in there, that should work out okay."

Why'd they skimp on hiring someone who would have pointed out that actually, yeah, throwing in some novels and some manga would be a good call, because people need entertainment of some kind to keep from losing their goddamn minds?

Who the fuck thought the misogynist who signed up for war so he could deal some violence would be a good leader???

I don't expect any answers to exist, and if they do, I don't want them now. I'm just excited to have someone already available to flail at as I read something new, because I usually don't and the questions collect in my brain until I risk hitting critical mass.

I have no answers for these questions. But PLEASE KEEP FLINGING QUESTIONS AT ME ANYWAY. >:D

(But yeah, I mean, one thing I kind of love is that it's VERY CLEAR it was dudes who set the whole thing up and the manga is VERY AWARE THAT THAT WAS TERRIBLE.)

Whoops, next time I'll hit refresh before I comment.

But that's awesome, I love reading stuff that's self-aware like that. :D

yessss do I get to critique fictional portrayal of baseball I can't wait

so much baseball

SO MUCH BASEBALL

YAY

BOO I forgot I wouldn't know whether things were stupid or just a cultural difference, so I don't know what to make fun of. :(

I may have to read up on Japanese baseball culture. For now I'll settle happily on side-eyeing the translation, just like I've been doing off and on anyway. :D

Actually, I've decided that chasing a dogwolf away with the power of baseball renders any mangaka immune to critique. It's a rule now.

Still wanna look up Japanese baseball culture, tho.

HEY TRANSLATORS IT IS OKAY TO SAY THAT THE BASES WERE LOADED AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD THEY ARE NOT CALLED POINTS THIS ISN'T FUCKING BASKETBALL

*gets distracted for the next ten minutes from both ranting and crucial juncture in 7S narrative by looking up Japanese baseball terminology* I don't know why fandom thinks sports fans are so different, we're all equally obsessive.

SO YEAH can't find any indication that the idea of a run should be translated as "run" OR "point" so I guess I have a lot of feelings about defaulting to the most recognizable terminology in a translation when there's nothing more specifically accurate?

But then we are talking about people who apparently couldn't look up the spellings of "Clemens" or "Rodriguez," SO WHATEVER oh my god I will try not to spend too many comments going on about baseball minutiae SEE WHAT I MEAN about a fan being a fan regardless of the media type???

~~the bases were "FILLED" fucking fill this~~

noooo i want the stupid baseball words back

i wont complain about them anymore i swear

OH SURE NOW THEY GET IT RIGHT

I KNEW THIS COMMENT WAS COMING. ;___;

The thing is I don't even HAVE any particular feelings about baseball. Or DIDN'T HAVE. And now suddenly I CAN'T NOT BECAUSE IT'S SYMBOLIC OF FEELINGS ABOUT EVERYTHING ELSE

AUGH.

And then just when you think you've escaped that particular story without crying yourself into severe hydration, BAM. Names and pictures of the kids who never even woke up.

Now I'm in the last few chapters of Battle Royale On Steroids, and I have SO MANY questions, but they pretty much all boil down to me being sure that traumatizing the kids who are the hope for humanity's future so badly that the happiest among them turns into a vengeful would-be murderer should work out JUST FINE, I see no problems there.

Look, Team Failboat was one contingency plan, and TEAM TRAUMATIZED MURDERBOTS is another contingency plan! GOTTA PREPARE FOR EVERYTHING er. Koruri will learn to appreciate her good luck in making it to the future ... someday ...

(Koruri :( :( :( MAYU :( :( :()

Ugh, Mayu has the additional sad factor for me of having the same name of another horribly-killed character from another canon (Corpse Party, which is more corpses than parties) who has become one of my favorites. I was instantly attached to this Mayu because of the name and I knew it was a bad idea but I couldn't help myself.

Ugh.

"Gengoro just had to painfully put down his beloved pet, but how do I make this all about me?"

~~taking a bullet to the face would be an acceptable start~~

Guess who my new favorite character isn't. I was on the fence for awhile because I didn't want to be biased by the comments I read here, but this chapter decided me quite nicely.

Edited 2013-12-21 04:32 (UTC)

Oh, good, Hana's cut off all her hair. Because there weren't enough blond(e) characters with short, fluffy hair for me and my hideous memory for faces to keep track of.

(No, really, here's how bad I am at faces: When I first started watching Friends, I couldn't tell Joey and Chandler apart. It's even worse with black and white drawings.)

(Also on the subject of people getting shot in the face: well, it was the wrong dude, and he got shot basically everywhere except the face, but I'll take it. And I can't express how much I loved the stark drawings of all the "winners" as they were being congratulated. I am deeply satisfied with how that arc concluded exactly how it should have.)

Fortunately you can always tell when it's Hana because she's the one being a BIG DAMN HERO at all times!

(yessss omg that image. That one, and the one of Nijiko with the tea and the skeletons in the background, are I think basically the two best panels artistically speaking in the manga.)

"Even as a joke, it's rude to say that to your girlfriend."

Hana is MY big damn hero.

Hana is the GREATEST. Defender and befriender of ladies everywhere!

AND THEN HANA AND HARU HIGH FIVE.

I think there may have been a time when I didn't like Haru very much, but I was young and stupid then. I have since gained wisdom and seen the error of my ways.

To be fair, Haru has also seen the error of many of his ways! I mean, I loved deeply Haru from his incredibly sulky and antisocial beginnings ("IF I CAN'T HAVE A PIANO I WON'T DO ANYTHING >:(") but he has gone through quite a lot of character development since then! Simon and Garfunkel songfic!

This is true! I've sort of lost track of the rate of everyone's development because I'm devouring this thing in big chunks at a time. Smaller bits would be easier to digest, but I'm impatient.

I would like to add that the choice of words here is HILARIOUS when you've maybe read a little more bad yaoi manga (complete with cheesily-innuendoed appeals for help) than anyone really should. *cries*

Boy, I bet you thought it was funny when I was complaining about the stupidity of ignoring the importance of entertainment. XD

>:D >:D >:D

My favorite thing about 7 Seeds is how everything that is terrible about one contingency plan is fixed in another, EVEN MORE TERRIBLE contingency plan!

. . . Okay that's not my FAVORITE thing, but it is a thing I enjoy deeply.

I am starting to suffer from character fatigue.

"Here's this one dude you haven't seen for about a thousand pages and who barely did anything anyway, you totally remember him, right?"

SURE I DO, 7 SEEDS. SURE I DO.

OH RIGHT THE BUDDHIST DUDE

Of course, why wouldn't I remember the guy who prayed at everything?

omg he named his dogs after a bunch of MLB players, that's so cute! "Puppy" gave me pause, but it came right after Manny so I think it's supposed to be Papi, which is the nickname for David Ortiz. Manny and Papi would have still been teammates when this was written, or at least at around the time Aramaki went under.

SO CLEVER. I love little details like that.

And then I sort of accidentally didn't go to bed. Maybe it'll help reset the disaster my sleep cycle has become?

I wrote a poem for Ango. It goes like this.

i hope your hand rots off
and i hope you find birds
and they poo on your head
and then maybe you should die
of something
really
embarrassing

fin

With the following coda in prose:

And don't think you're forgiven just because you and Ryo bearing bewildered witness to this mysterious ritual called "fun" may be the actual funniest thing I will encounter in what has become an extremely long day.

oh my god Ryo's FACE during Semimaru's ecology lesson

help me

OMG THAT ARC. IT MAKES ME SO MAD THAT THAT ARC IS THE BEST AND FUNNIEST ARC

I was so mad at Ryo and Ango and then. AND THEN. AND THEN TEAM SUMMER B!!!!! and then everything was talent shows and hilarity and I was still incredibly mad at Ryo and Ango BUT I COULDN'T BE UPSET THAT THEY WERE IN THE STORY BECAUSE EVERYTHING THAT WAS HAPPENING WAS PURE GOLD

DAMMIT, YUMI TAMURA

I KNOW I KNOW

I'M NOT DONE HATING THEM YET USING THEM TO MAKE ME LAUGH SO HARD IS RUUUUUDE

(Well, I'm not done hating Ryo yet; I can live with fictional characters attempting and/or committing murder, so he might eventually get a pass from me. Ango can explode and die forever, though. There's a line not even people who don't exist get to cross.)

IT'S COMPLETELY UNFAIR. YUMI TAMURA!!! This is pure witchcraft. >:(

(I have come round to where I think the exploration of both Ango and Ryo and their damage is a relevant and interesting part of the story, and I love the way she handles and talks about it . . . and I'll be okay if Ango dies in some kind of redemptive fashion? BUT I STILL WOULD BE QUITE HAPPY FOR HIM TO DIE.)

Oh, it's totally fascinating without a doubt. I love psychological exploration stories, and I love them done well and thoughtfully even more. I don't even eat them up with a spoon, I just use my hands. That's why I probably won't hate Ryo forever - I will forgive a lot when a character is interesting.

All that said, let us remember this: even if Ango never dies in the narrative, he is not immortal. Someday he will die, and that day will be awesome.

Wow, so I'm unexpectedly bored by the nuclear wessels plot? Like, the character stuff is delicious - Natsu getting MILES AND MILES of character development! Ango weaving in and out of reality and desperately resisting character development! Ryo gaining a glimmer of insight into this "fun" thing! Semimaru chastened by his near death for all of five minutes before giving it up to squee over soybeans! - but every time the plot kicks in, my brain checks out. I think I'm almost to the end, though. I CAN DO IT.

"they really threw us a curveball with this one"

and still they don't INSTANTLY GET THE ANSWER OH MY GOD though I wonder if that saying exists in Japan or if the translators are just trying to piss me off.

OH LOOK IT'S BASEBALL WHAT A FUCKING SURPRISE

"Is that science? That's science, right?!" Bless your face, Semimaru.

im so glad that plot is doooooooone I am all ready for Shinigami Kaname, oh yeah.

(I am also counting the pages until I regret saying that.)

ahahaha, here we disagree, I actually SUPER LOVE the ship arc. Semimaru and SOYBEANS!!!! Natsu and FEELINGS ABOUT CATS and being SO EXCITED TO FIND THE TOILET! Like, I agree that the plot itself is ridiculous, but it's so . . . paper-thin . . . to provide an excuse for the character stuff that I can't even care. Natsuuuuu <333333

Plots that insist on artificially complicating themselves when the solution is so obvious that even I can see it coming when I never see ANYTHING coming - they just make me tired. I mean it was totally totally worth it for all that great character stuff, plus bonus points for entirely lacking in vomit-inducing mushroom body horror, it just made my brain turn off whenever it took center stage for more than two panels.

I'm gonna go have nightmares about mushrooms now goodnight.

So how much important shit will I miss if I just skip the mushroom arc? Mushroom-related body horror makes me physically ill (I blame that one episode of Hannibal) and I really really REALLY don't want to deal with it if I don't absolutely have to.

I think you can probably skip the mushroom arc if you have to! It's a shame because it has lots of really good Chisa-Fujiko-Hana friendship stuff, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Read the Aramaki-Ayu field trip if you haven't already, though! (I can't remember if that comes before or in the middle of MUSHROOM PERIL.)

Oh, it sounds like I managed to get all the good stuff, then! I should have been more specific about where I was at - I didn't realize I would have a serious problem until the dogs got infected and my dinner quietly threatened to make a second appearance. Cool, I will skip on to the next arc once I get a chance to start reading again, then. Thanks!

No problem! All you will be missing is sad dead dogs and Hana realizing that the manga has moved on from teasing Hana/Aramaki to shipping Aramaki/Ayu.

I am totally okay with missing sad dead dogs, not gonna lie.

OH ANGO. I mean the ways in which you are awful are thoroughly understandable, but . . . ANGO. >:(

I have nothing to add except everyone should read this and then go on to read 7 Seeds!

IF ENOUGH OF US KEEP TALKING ABOUT IT SURELY . . . SOMEDAY . . .

This sounds like the BEST THING EVER where can I get it? I mean, is Team Failboat actually honestly the ragged band of misfits trope trying to be invoked? Because, well, you know, AWESOME.

It PRETTY MUCH IS. The sinister creators of the post-apocalyptic survival plans ACTUALLY SAY to each other, "but what if all our talented, well-adjusted chosen survivors fail? WE NEED A BACKUP PLAN!"

To be fair, Team Failboat is their second backup plan. Their first backup plan is building a team via intense survival training and trauma. The best part is when these two teams meet and Team Failboat conquers Team Trauma with sheer flailing enthusiasm.

I STILL HAVE TO FINISH 7 SEEDS.

YOU DOOOOOO it just gets better and better all the time!

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