Is heaven a place on earth?
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Mitsu Izumi
Translation: Tetsuichiro Miyaki
Adaptation: Annette Roman
What They Say
Awyn Gardner will do anything to protect the beautiful mistress of the equally beautiful estate gardens he lovingly tends—even enslave himself to an also beautiful demon bent on world domination! The high-pitched battle is on between powerful angels, sexy demons and innocent people to dominate a world rife with political intrigue…and to win the heart of one hapless human man!
Awyn strives to be the perfect gardener—and perfect man—to win over his human mistress. But then he unwittingly awakens the demon Vyrde, and his village is attacked by crusader knights! Desperate to protect the apple of his eye, Awyn pledges fealty to Vyrde in exchange for the ability to wield a powerful demonic sword. What he doesn’t know is that his new demon mistress is scheming to slay the six angels who rule the world—so she can. Then more enemies attack, one of them armed with…a particle-ray cannon?!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Every now and then a license pickup goes unnoticed by me until a volume of the series shows up for review. 7th Garden didn’t ring any bells in my mind, and I’m a bit surprised since at the very least I expected to have heard about it from the stylish artwork alone. After having read volume one I hope the reason I haven’t heard about it isn’t because the story is nothing to write home about.
The battle of angels versus demons is a popular subject for comics and manga. There’s a touch of the sacrilegious when dealing with Abrahamic mythology, all of which is sidestepped when you set your story on another planet. That’s where this story begins, in a world where angels are unquestionably real and in the country of Exive nearly everyone is devout. They have to be, as the Roman Catholic analogous governing body demands it on pain of death.
The protagonist Awyn doesn’t much care for the church and its rules. He doesn’t believe in angels or god, he is your tragic backstory hidden behind a smile. All he wants is to make his mistress, a young woman named Mariphiel, happy. To that end, he works as her gardener and fights off random wandering hazards when she decides to venture outside the pastoral village where her noble house resides.
The plot kicks off quickly, with Awyn falling into a sealed-off garden and awakening a sleeping demon, Vyrde. Right from the start it’s clear she’s not exactly a demon in the traditional sense. She can transform into a weapon of unimaginable power and can heal the dead and dying with a kiss. Her formfitting bodysuit screams ‘space,’ and the occasional shots of two moons in the sky cannot be a coincidence. She takes on the form of a demon because it suits her needs for revenge, as does latching on to the ‘gnome’ named Awyn to have her will done.
It’s not long before the church is sending out death squads to take out the village, but their motivation is the true mystery. They didn’t know about Vyrde when they first arrive on the scene and yet still slaughter everyone. I expected a darker tragedy, but all violence is kept temporary. Deaths are undone with a wave of Vyrde’s hand. The sense of tension is swiftly lost.
Some might find the fanservice here distasteful, although is a story featuring a seductress demon it’s expected. The poses are just a little too centerfold to be anything but obvious, and the first angel we’re introduced to has basketball breasts. (Note Vyrde’s mouth hanging open on the cover for no reason other than to look like suggestive.) However, all this fanservice is limited to a small fraction of what’s going on here. The action scenes are swift and while not perfectly clear remain stylish, but a single slash with Vyrde’s sword is all it takes to take down an army of faceless mooks.
It’s the characters themselves that left me cold. Awyn’s internal monologue detailing his tragic past is told more than shown, and Vyrde’s single-minded desire for revenge leaves little room for anything else beyond a devil-may-care attitude. They might have deeper and more nuanced sides, but right now they just feel like pastiche’s of people, like the author was checking off items on a list. Their designs are great but they lack something that makes them interesting.
I’m eager to learn where the story is going. Taking out the six angels ruling the world is all well and good, but Vyrde’s backstory and whatever it is that drove her into exile is the one I’m waiting for. That is where the mystery here lies. How far into the realm of science fiction is the story going to go, I wonder.
Surprisingly, Viz actually included the opening color pages for this edition of the manga. I don’t expect that future volumes will continue to have them included, but considering how pretty that opening illustration is I’m happy they decided to for this volume.
In Summary
7th Garden impresses with it’s detailed and lovely artwork, even if the lead cast and their motivations are a bit thin this early in the story. The story itself isn’t breaking any boundaries with originality, at least not yet. Bad angels versus good demons with splashes of fanservice isn’t exactly risky material anymore. Sure, it’s painfully clear even at this early stage that this is a science-fiction story rather than a fantasy, but what the nature of this war in heaven was will have to wait till later. Hopefully the narrative improves to a level to match the artwork in upcoming volumes because right now it’s just another pretty face in the crowd singing a song we’ve heard before.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: A –
Packaging Grade: B +
Text/Translation Grade: A –
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: July 6th, 2016
MSRP: $9.99
