Seven Days: Monday–Sunday

Shino Yuzuru is a third year high school student who is constantly being judged by his good looks, that are in contrast to his personality. It's not strange that when he hears the story of a junior's weird habit he feels quite curious about it; Seryou Touji is a sophomore that has adopted as a custom accepting any girl, who confesses first on Monday, as his girlfriend during the week. If he doesn't fall in love with them, the relationship ends in that Sunday and, since he is so popular, he is very lucky to get a new girlfriend every Monday, or maybe not solucky. Shino is pondering about all this when, coincidentally, he turns out to be the first person to meet Seryou in that week. His curiosity takes the best of him, so much that he jokingly asks Seryou to be his couple of the week after hearing he would accept anyone. What will happen when Seryou takes his "rule" a bit too seriously...? Seven Days is presented to us as a boy's love manga, but it's certainly much more than that. This is a romance story with a premise that transcends any genre; the nature of falling in love. We all judge based on appearances, at least until we are able to know more, that's why the concept of seven days to fall in love sounds so compelling and very interesting. From that idea, the plot progresses slowly, instantly taking us to our days of innocent dreams, and creating a sort of magical purity between these teenagers, who wouldn't be able to enjoy such details if they weren't completely unexpected. The week promise is the thread that keeps them together and can definitely separate them at the end of that week. This manga would probably become only an endearing story, if it weren't for the breathtakingly beautiful way the game is presented to us. A sort of delicate, disheveled and yet beautiful art-style; a very clever way of placing simple words, playing with panel alignment and flashbacks to empower them; and characters with very interesting and quirky personalities. Tachibana Venio's story, combined with Takarai Rihito's art, worked with these details in a way that made Seven Days a light but brilliant piece. There is definitely a lovely harmony between all the elements, each of them enhancing the beauty of the other, until the point you can feel, for example, the tension and tranquility in Yuzuru's archery performance, just as Seryou would picture it. Character-wise, there is nothing more interesting than realistic, flawed personalities, at least for me. These boys are considered handsome, and they are very popular, but they have a lot of complicated and not so good qualities that people don't like to imagine while looking at them. However, they complement each other nicely, and their bad points can actually become charming once you get to look at them from different angles. Compared to most fast-paced boy's loves, Seven Days turns out to be very simple and original, in a way that strikes me as slice of life. In fact, every time I read this volume a strange sense of peace overcomes me. I can't help but think that I slowly fell in love too, but with the manga, because it artfully caresses any fiber of romanticist you might have. Shino and Seryou remind us what falling in love is about. Not the I love you since I first saw you or you are so hot/strong/powerful that I can't resist you type. It's the this is the real me, I'm getting to know you, and I really like what I see kind of love. Honestly, this is the sort of romantic development that I would like to see in most romantic stories. For now, they are just getting to know each other (makes me wonder about the 16+ rating, this is not yaoi), but we almost can't wait to see what will come on Friday in one of the best weeks of boy's love. Seven Days would serve as a really heartwarming introduction to boy's love with an unusual and well-thought "game" that leaves us thinking about the reasons we fall in love.

What would you do if you could go out with one of the most popular people in school with no catches? What if you found out that you could only go out with them for seven days, would you still be willing to ask that person out? Yuzuru Shino is your average high school student. He has a few friends, belongs to a club and just goes about his life like any other teenage boy. Touji Seryou on the other hand is somewhat strange. Being one of the most attractive and popular guys in the school, all the girls lust for him. Touji is abit unique however as Touji will go out with any girl who asks him to on Monday. But, after seven days he will split up with the other person by saying "I couldn't fall in love with you". One Monday, Yuzuru and Touji end up at the school gates together and out of curiosity, Yuzuru asks him out for the week. With seven days on the clock what will Yuzuru do with his week? Seven days shows us Yuzuru's week with Touji in sixteen beautiful chapters. The art is one of the first things that draws your attention. Takarai is exceptionally talented and from the first few pages the art catches your eye and invites you to read on. People who see the art as something make or break in their manga should have no fear of reading this as it is by far some of the best I have seen. It definitely fits the tone of the story, the characters and backgrounds are highly detailed and no corners seem to have been cut. You can tell that a lot of effort and care was put into this manga. Next to the art, one of the most important things in a manga for me is the characters. While not a lot of them are developed, we do get to see a great deal of development in both Yuzuru and Touji. Throughout the sixteen chapters, we get an insight into both of the teenager's feelings about the other person and their thoughts about what will happen when the seven days are up. The only main issue with the characters is that a few are introduced in the first couple of chapters but we don't get to know a lot about them. They're just there. Sure, they're supporting characters but it would have been nice to know how they feel about Touji's seven day trials. However, you have to give it to Tachibana. She's managed to create wonderful character development in such a short time. Not only that, she's managed to make the character's easy to become quickly interested in. Neither of the two mains are boring or dull. They both have intriguing thoughts that make you question how the story will end. Talking about the ending, it is no letdown. Without giving anything away, prepare to make the ending to Seven Days one of your favourite manga endings. Every single page leads up to the conclusion at a nice speed, without feeling too slow or too fast. The final two chapters are without a doubt the ones that really tug at the heartstrings. These two chapters show us just how powerful a comic can be and just how talented Takari and Tachibana actually are. Prepare to shed some tears. Seven Days is not only a beautiful manga, it's a work of art. Sixteen chapters may not seem like a great deal but every chapter is enjoyable and while there is still a sense of the story being somewhat rushed at a few points, it's not a major problem as the plot is still wonderful. The sixteen chapters were enough to tell this beautiful love story. People who aren't big on yaoi or shounen-ai shouldn't worry as there is no sex and no typical plot of,"I hate you" *practically gets raped* "Wow I love you now". This story is about how love can bloom. It's something so much more moving than your average boys love manga. If you're looking for something to pass an hour or two, read Seven Days. If you're looking for something to make you cry for hours, read Seven Days. If you're looking for the definition of art, read Seven Days.

I think I'm going to be a minority voice here, but I didn't much care for this two volume series. I used to be a pretty big Yaoi fan in my teens, but once I hit twenty, I got kinda tired of the same plot rehashed over and over (which is what every subsequent book DMP released felt like). However, I kept hearing rave reviews for Seven Days, and I had to admit my curiosity was piqued. After reading both books, I found the story to be very par for the course once again. It's cute, but nothing so amazing that it could get meback into the genre. I'd go into the plot, but that small blurb up at the top covers it quite well. Character wise, I didn't find either too likeable as one was more like a doormat (and an admitted Masochist, so I suppose he's in character in that case :/ Meh.) and the other's big reveal is that he has a pissy personality and is an insensitive jerk. These flaws could've been saved in my eyes if it weren't for the biggest offender in this situation: the translation. I am now convinced that DMP had the worse translation team in the market. The dialogue was flat and lacked personality. I also felt like the break up of dialogue between word bubbles were a bit too unnatural. It was offensive enough (to me anyway) to want to go back and smooth the dialogue over more. It felt like an unpolished scanlation, which makes me sad cause I spend about $24 procuring these books. Now, I can understand that there's a very vocal majority who likes their manga as trans-literal as possible and Yaoi is still a niche market and I can see DMP catering to that if that really is the case...but as for me, I'll be passing on any further purchases from that label. I knew they had this problem before when they first started, but I guess I had hoped that they had gotten better. Oh well, ebay here I come...