(no subject)

[skygiants]

For the 17th, 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!

Comments

[remindmeofthe]

noooo i want the stupid baseball words back

i wont complain about them anymore i swear

[remindmeofthe]

OH SURE NOW THEY GET IT RIGHT

[skygiants]

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

[remindmeofthe]

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.

[skygiants]

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 :( :( :()

[remindmeofthe]

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.

[remindmeofthe]

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.

[remindmeofthe]

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.)

[skygiants]

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.)

[remindmeofthe]

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

Hana is MY big damn hero.

[skygiants]

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

[remindmeofthe]

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.

[skygiants]

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!

[remindmeofthe]

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*

[remindmeofthe]

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

[skygiants]

>: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.

[remindmeofthe]

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.

[remindmeofthe]

OH RIGHT THE BUDDHIST DUDE

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

[remindmeofthe]

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.

[remindmeofthe]

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

[remindmeofthe]

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.

[remindmeofthe]

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

help me

[skygiants]

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

[remindmeofthe]

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.)

[skygiants]

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