7 Seeds is a fairly new anime that has come out being released on Netflix in June 2019. It was originally adapted from the manga written by Yumi Tamura. I would like to make sure you know that this is a review of 7 Seeds. The anime follows the story of a group of survivors who are part of an earth and humanity project to help ensure the the survival of the human race.
Every country selects a few all part of a collective group who will be the survivors, they are called the 7 seeds and this is why it’s called the 7 Seeds project. The question is Is 7 Seeds worth watching? I’m going to try and go through my reasons without giving too much away just in case you are going to watch 7 seeds.
Overview – Is 7 Seeds worth watching?
7 Seeds had a lot of problems I noted and by the 4th episode they were really starting to stack up. If you can’t be bothered to read through this part and the characters I would suggest you just scroll down to the list where we discuss the reasons why 7 Seeds is worth watching and the reasons 7 Seeds isn’t worth watching, it will save you some of time. The overview will add to this review of 7 Seeds.
Every country has these select group of people who are chosen. They are then put in frozen sleep and left for a set amount of time and then they all wake up. The reason they are frozen in sleep is because an asteroid is about to hit earth and they are going to be the only survivors. There pre assigned goal is to re-populate earth.
Main narrative – Is 7 Seeds worth watching?
The main narrative of 7 Seeds if pretty interesting but it is liner to one particular topic or element. What I mean by this is the way the stories portrayed is very similar to tunnel vision. Let’s start with the overall problem, which appears to be that they have to survive in the wild now on this new island that was Japan. The terrain they once knew as Japan has been altered and it’s revealed that over 3 years has passed since the asteroid it earth. This narrative structure will help us to make a review of 7 Seeds.
The narrative alone plays a large part in wether or not 7 Seeds is worth watching or not. This presents a huge problem for some of the survivors as most of them had family when they woke up so they are all obviously dead now. This makes many of the characters act in an irrational and unlikable way as they are always on edge, thinking they will be next and rallying to keep each other alive.
The narrative then follows closely the actions of each group as they move and progress through the new terrain. During there time doing this they come across other humans who are also part of the 7 Seeds project. These humans also tell them about the project and how long they’ve been there. It seems that the 7 Seeds survivors all wake up at different times.
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So is 7 Seeds worth watching? From a survival point of view you would think that the best way to ensure survival of the human race would be to have them all wake up at the same time right? Well not in 7 Seeds, it’s on of may plot problem I came across when viewing it and we’ll be getting into the problems later but first here are the characters.
Main characters – Is 7 Seeds worth watching?
The characters in 7 Seeds were particularly forgettable and boring in my opinion and not one of them peaked my interest in any way. All of them seem crafted up to fit one specific group or were designed with one singular purpose in mind.
You had the shy quiet girl Natsu Iwashimizu, the overall exaggerated annoying guy who gets on everyone else nerves and who acts in the most illogical way given the situation, Semimaru Asai, the alpha male type character or every man as I would describe him.
Most of the characters in 7 Seeds who were actually of an important notable role were forgotten by me in the first couple of episodes and I really struggled to remember their names or their problems and characteristics.
First off we have Natsu Iwashimizu who’s kind of the main character, however the perspective changes from group to group, so there basically isn’t one. She fits in with the air head ditzy type character and there isn’t really anything significant to note about her or that I could remember.
Other than that she’s pretty kind, nothing out of the ordinary. She is shy, kind and doesn’t get in anyone’s way, only opting to help others and to better assist the summer team B group.
Next we have Arashi Aota the every man semi-alpha male, who got on my nerves from the start. The only notable depth he was given was the fact he used to have a girlfriend before the events of the series. We only get to see her through a series of brief flashbacks and that’s about all we’re given.
It’s supposed to give us, the viewers, something to invest with Aota, but it really didn’t have that effect on me, I hardly gave a toss about his relationship, why they thought that these brief flashbacks would be enough to make us care I don’t know.
Finally we have Semimaru Asai, the annoying, over exaggerated semi antagonist who kicks up a fuss about almost everything in the series. He has a general unlikable character, there is nothing interesting or cool about him.
He has no real depth and any that is given is vaguely gone over, making his character utterly boring and uninteresting. Theres a scene where he talks about his home town but it was so poorly done I hardly cared. They tried to make him lower his voice so it sounds deep but it doesn’t work.
Sub characters – Is 7 Seeds worth watching?
Much like the main characters the sub characters were mostly the same, although they escaped the net as they were pretty forgettable but still sub characters.
None of them were unique, interesting admirable or even original and this made the series even harder to watch, as if the narrative wasn’t bad enough. I really didn’t have time to include them all, there was a lot of them.
Reasons it’s worth watching – Is 7 Seeds worth watching?
Original & unique narrative (kind of) – Is 7 Seeds worth watching?
The story of 7 Seeds is pretty easy to get into and the narrative is not that hard to understand or get your head around. This isn’t really anything ground breaking on its own but this anime offered up something fresh and new that I hadn’t really seen this year and for that I’m partly grateful. I’m aware that the narrative of the whole last humans on earth thing isn’t anything new. However, in the context we’ve been given, and with these new list of characters I think it’s safe to let it slide. It still adds to the questions of Is 7 Seeds worth watching?
Animation style – Is 7 Seeds worth watching?
At the start I didn’t really have any problems with the animation style of 7 Seeds, I did kind of like it but I’m not praising anything either. There was nothing too significant that I can comment on, but nothing so shit that it would be worth my individual comment on it. I think the right 2 words would have been overly satisfied. It was nice to look at, I’ll give it that. So is 7 Seeds worth watching?
Partly likable characters – Is 7 Seeds worth watching?
The characters in 7 Seeds were likable to say the least. There really was hardly anything compelling or interesting about them. They aren’t really much of a problem in the series, there’s just not really a lot to say about them, I really mean that. Each character does what there supposed to do, basically there assigned job. Unfortunately they don’t go any further than that. Also this is common theme throughout the whole series.
Reasons 7 Seeds isn’t worth watching – Is 7 Seeds worth watching?
Distasteful characters – Is 7 Seeds worth watching?
This may contradict what I said above, however it needs to be said. The characters in 7 Seeds are poorly written at best, being boring and uninspiring at worst. There was nothing too exaggerated just nothing making them stand out either. Really the characters in this show are a hit or miss, there will be some viewers who think there crap like me and there’ll be some viewers who think there ok, (majority), what I can tell you is that there won’t be anyone who thinks there good, or worse, great.
Settings – Is 7 Seeds worth watching?
The setting in 7 Seeds is also another factor that will impact weather or not 7 Seeds is worth watching, as it’s pretty hit or miss as well. Being set in a post-apocalyptic Japan after the events of an asteroid hitting earth the terrain of Japan and where the 7 Seeds story takes place is another thing to consider. I liked the setting initially but it became a problem pretty fast in the narrative.
The concept is that over the 300+ years the characters have been in sleep the new world has slowly been developing, we can see this through their encounters in the world, and of course the giant insects and animals they encounter. There are numerous plot holes and continuity errors that all stem from this setting and it is the root of a lot of problems in the series.
Terrible pacing – Is 7 Seeds worth watching?
Another thing to get off my chest regarding 7 Seeds was the pacing, which is very bad. Sometimes it can be super fast, completely skipping over hours and days in a matter of seconds, other times it completely slows down to the point where one day can take up 2 episodes. Take this example, by episode 4 the characters mention to some other group they encounter (that have been there 3 years) that they have been there over 1 month. So we can see how long it’s been just in the space of 3 episodes. They’re all dressed the same and look exactly as they did in the start episode.
Dialogue – Is 7 Seeds worth watching?
Theres a saying that you never really notice good dialogue right? It just flows without you realizing it. Well if that’s the case then 7 Seeds has some of the worst dialogue I’ve come across in anime, let alone an adaption. Granted I watched the English dubbed version and I understand that the dialogue may be subject to a few transition errors and I’ll never be able to understand what the original writer actually meant.
However, I’d kick myself if I didn’t mention this in the list because if you do care about dialogue then 7 Seeds may not be for you, because the dialogue is unrealistic, it frequently breaks the show don’t tell rule, sometimes it’s completely pointless but most of the time it only serves to further the narrative or convey the emotions of the shallow characters that use it in the first place. Without getting into it too much it’s pretty laughable and you can see easily it’s armature.
The writer tries to make it deep (emotional) but it doesn’t work, coupled with the voice actors (that gives it no favors) it just sticks out too much but to be honest I was expecting it as soon as I saw “Netflix Original” in big red letters at the start of Episode 1, I already knew what I was in for when I saw that.
Impractical narrative – Is 7 Seeds worth watching?
I know full well that 7 Seeds is a work of fiction however it’s the sub stories I really had problems with it. For example the fact that the split up groups of Summer Group B are able to navigate with ease the utterly new terrain they as humans have never encountered before in their lives. As well as this they’re somehow able to regroup after searching and exploring this new world without any sort communications using radio or anything, yet they somehow all re group in episode 4 and 5.
They somehow also always have water and food no matter where they are. They do find these underground chambers (all the time) where there is conveniently food and water as well as other essentials. The problem isn’t these issues (and many more) individually it’s the potential all of these issues would have, like this series. I think it could have been written alot better, and therefore the anime would actually stand a chance instead if what we have been given now.
Bad voice acting – Is 7 Seeds worth watching?
Normally I don’t give my opinion on voice acting and I will respect that it would have been hard for the actors to put their themselves in the minds of the actual people that would have been present if this story actually was true and not fiction. I think the writer is trying to experiment on what us, as a human race would act and think in this actual scenario. It’s an interesting concept and this solidifies my point about the potential of 7 Seeds. Because it’s a great idea and one that has been done to a similar extent. There are a lot of survival series like this and they are mostly much better.
I think the writer was going for a different aproach and maybe I cannot see his work from his perspective. The voice acting doesn’t help the series in many respects, it’s incredibly forcfully done and it sounds terrible. Sometimes characters do not sound how they should in other scenes, they say stupid unrealistic lines of dialogue that would never even say in this situation. The dialogue tries to be clever and emotional but it never works. Characters who were noramlly stupid and bashful end up saying something which tries to comes off as emotional and deep.
Basically the voice acting digs the grave for the dialogue. I know it sounds stupid but that’s literally it. They both have similar effects and there both as bad as each other.
Good music which doesn’t go with the theme – Is 7 Seeds worth watching?
I very much liked the music in 7 Seeds, I though it was uplifting, light and even inspirational. The only problem was that it did not go with the theme of the series, which was really disappointing. There were some great tracks which really took my mind off how awful everything else was. The timing and placement of tracks was also pretty good, they just, as I said before, didn’t match up with the theme of the series.
I don’t know why Netflix or the production company couldn’t come up with some tracks that actually fit the survival theme. They had the budget, that’s for sure, just not the effort.
Dull character design – Is 7 Seeds worth watching?
The characters in 7 Seeds are utterly worthless and see though. I found none of them interesting, engaging or inspiriting in any way. There is nothing more I can say about them they were so forgettable. Every character was just designed with some trope in mind and the dialogue the produce just makes them 10x more unbearable. For example, when caught stealing food by a rival team Asai says “Ah na man, I was just looking for some charity” ugh, I pains me to even quote this, it isn’t what you say when your fingers are about to be cut off but I wont spoil anything in case someone actually wants to watch this.
Wasted potential – Is 7 Seeds worth watching?
This is a continuation of a point I made before, but I would like to say again that 7 Seeds has a huge amount of wasted potential. The series could have been a lot better. I cant comment on the manga as I haven’t read it, if Netflix are doing a good job of adapting this manga then it’s not looking good. I probably wont bother. There are so many different sub plots that could have been done better and that could, with a few changes, be watchable and dare I say it, enjoyable.
Random & useless plot devices – Is 7 Seeds worth watching?
The plot devices in 7 Seeds are very useless and never actually achieve what I think the producers or the writer intended. The stupid pointless flashbacks, that really could have been covered in brief conversation without the need and time for this. There are some characters who get about 5 minutes of screen time and then we never hear from them again, we get introduced briefly and then the character is killed off or completely forgotten to about.
This is very frustrating an jarring at the same time, because we spend a little while starting to get invested in that character, and then when they are killed off you get this strange feeling. It would be better to give us (the viewers) more time to adjust to them and then we can get invested, making there death a lot more impactful to us and the story.
Second rate character arcs – Is 7 Seeds worth watching?
The character arcs that I have seen in 7 Seeds are pretty bad, not to mention boring and uninspiring. They just weren’t that good and as usual I didn’t have enough time to adjust and see them in as the episodes and the arcs progressed. Unsurprisingly everything felt rushed and this was a common theme through the series. It was like that were trying to cram everything into those small 22 minute episodes.
Coupled with the awful pacing the rushed feel to 7 Seeds only added to it. In fact I find it interesting that each individual issues helps and benefits from the others, as induvial problems they can be solved easily, but when they all help each other it becomes a problem, this is what happened with 7 Seeds.
Conclusion – Is 7 Seeds worth watching?
As you can se there are lots of problems regarding 7 Seeds and these all have a significant impact on whether or not it’s worth watching or not. The reasons it isn’t worth watching strongly outweigh the reasons it is. Therefore I would not advise you to watch this series based on what I have discussed above. 7 Seeds is a series with a huge amount of potential and it’s a shame it was wasted on this show.
Rating for season 1:
The poor characters, impracticable narrative, bad dialogue, useless plot devices and many more problems all snowball into the series in such a short period of time, with each episode only being 22 minutes long. If you think the good qualities about this movie warrant you watching it then go ahead, you’ve been warned though. If you’re looking for a survival type anime, try Highschool Of The Dead. You can read our article on a season 2 for Highschool Of The Dead here.
I hope this article has helped you in deciding whether or not you want to watch 7 Seeds, if it has please consider liking it and sharing it if you can, that would help us out very much.