I truly wish an epic story like 7seeds was better known. It's one of the hidden gems of manga. Even many of my popular shoujo favorites feel shallow after this one. It first grabbed my interest due to my love and admiration for the mangaka's other work, Basara, but has gripped me further than I believed an end of the world sci-fi plot could do.

I'm becoming addicted to the art style. It has a strong classic shoujo look but also seems grounded in reality. The characters all have a unique look you can recognize and the world is detailed enough to lose yourself in the story.

The mangaka Yumi Tamura has a talent for balancing epic plots and vast number of characters. 7Seeds is more of a thrilling adventure with a flavorful seasoning of horror and romance. It begins in the present as well as sometimes returning to the past to better flesh the characters and story. Any time the story shifted to a different time or cast of characters, I was never disappointed. The story can be down right tragic and depressing at times, but the hope and the strength of the characters that keep going are even more meaningful because of it.

Though they begin in teams, the groups are not set in stone and characters will often split up due to either choice or disaster and interact realistically with each other. It is also very interesting to me that the groups were not released all at once, so you have people adapting to the environment in different stages. There are a lot of great twists and character development and I found it impossible to put down reading this manga. Now at volume 17 I can only look forward to more and encourage any one else to give the series a chance.