For a manga with such an epic scale, it receives surprisingly little attention. What fanbase it has is highly loyal; but it deserves to be larger.
In a fantasy-Germanic world, the Imperial Army vies with the Pope for power in the land. Caught in the middle is everyone else: the aristocracy, slaves, soldiers, and priests. Filled with gothic themes, skeletons and scythes, animal-machine hybrid airships, and magical fighting techniques, the great cathedral bears over them all.
Teito Klein has been attending military academy for several years. One of the fighting techniques used there is a natural-born "magical" skill called
...
"zaiphon," cast via written word, of which Teito is very skilled. Teito was a slave before the academy's chairman discovered him and sponsored him as a student there. He had no memories of his childhood before becoming a slave. However, on the eve of his graduation from the academy, his memories of his earliest years suddenly surface, and he remembers his father...and how his father was brutally murdered. He promptly smashes his future as an army officer by attacking senior officer Ayanami, the one who killed his father. The attack lands him in prison. His one and only friend Mikage helps him jailbreak, and Teito is given sanctuary by the Bishops of the great Barsburg Cathedral. But it turns out that the Army wants Teito back, but it's not because of his attack or escape...
Though Teito is a master at fighting techniques, he still has many vulnerabilities and insecurities. His years as a slave killed his emotion and taught him to distrust everyone. Both the social stigma of being a slave and his cold exterior prevented others from making friends with him at the academy. Mikage was the only one who dove in and tried to make friends with him. But Teito still had to learn to appreciate and accept his friendship. And as far as Teito knows, he has no living family. Whenever scraps of his memory surfaces, he tries desperately to learn more about them. When the official history states that his father was dishonorable, Teito is impelled to dig deeper to find the truth.
07 Ghost feels unique in how it treats its strong pseudo-Catholic religious theme. Many, if not most, manga paint religious orders in a negative light; as repressive and totalitarian, turning normal people into brainwashed believers. Priests are shams and hypocrites, and practicers of evil. But this one doesn't. Religion is treated as a central and cherished part of this world. The clergy for the most part are honest, well-meaning people (though like Teito, I find Bishop Frau's interest in porn a bit disturbing).
For much of the main story (so far), Teito lives at the cathedral. An enormous structure, it houses innumerable nuns, bishops and priests, students of the church, and those seeking sanctuary. The three Bishops that become Teito's mentors are the dashing playboy Frau, the glasses-wearing puppet-maker Castor, and the bishie gardener/herbalist, Labrador. These three seem like fairly normal people at first, but it's not long before we discover they are unlike anyone else Teito has encountered before. And that is because the evil they are assigned to battle is greater than Teito could have imagined....
Surrounding the cathedral are seven giant statues shaped as seven grim reapers (the 7 "ghosts" of the title). They portray the seven beings sent from heaven to contain a great evil. And it seems those seven still roam the earth as frightening guardians of good.
Okay, now to more nitty grittys:
The art is gorgeous. The style is well chosen for the gothic themes, and the epic scale of high cathedral vaults. The art is more stylized than realistic. It combines fine lines and energetic style with heavy contrasts and a sort of "shiny" look, like a polished limousine. And the skeletal figures of the ghosts wrapped in funereal cloaks, and Kor wings are frighteningly beautiful. And I love the costumes. The military uniforms are very cool. Teito's costume switch from the white rags to the tidy uniform of a church student almost symbolizes his move from shattered confusion to resolve for the future. And I love the church clothes, particularly the student clothes: flowing, crisp and white, and--dare I say--sexy. And the Bishops' switch from white clerical robes to hot black leather suits when they have to work on their "side job."
One more reason to buy the real printed manga, is that lots of the beautiful subtleties in the art show up much better on paper.
The characters are very likeable. Teito's tragic past is enough to pull at the heartstrings of any female reader (***this manga is definitely geared at a female audience; I'm not sure how much male readers will enjoy it***). Combined with the mystery of his past and present, his awesome battle skill and sassy-cute looks, ya gotta love him. The Bishops are each unique and interesting, though it takes us a lot longer to find out the truth behind their pasts. We get to know a few other characters. Though the entire cast in 07 Ghost is pretty large, we only get intimately involved with a few.
The pacing is good. Even though events happen that make you think "The story is gonna die after this!" things keep picking back up, and stay interesting. Time moves along, and settings change, and some characters we fall in love with, we must later part from. And it hurts. But that's the way life is. And that's why 60+ chapters later, the story stays strong.
Now, there are a few plotlines that are heavy, and hard to understand. It means that you will probably have to read some chapters over, if not the whole series, to keep things straight. But I've actually enjoyed that. It would be worth it just for the art, but ten times more so because the story is interesting enough that you can read it several times without getting bored. I've read the first chapter innumerable times already.
This was probably the most confusing plot point, and I had to read things through several times before I finally figured it out: Teito's earliest memories are of the Father, and also of his father. I couldn't figure out why there were two fathers, and which was which, until I realized that one was his actual father, while the other was a Father (priest). Also the nature of the Seven Ghost, the Kor, and the Warsphile are a bit hard to understand, since you have to read several chapters to get a complete picture of them.
The chapter numbering is a bit odd. It sometimes repeats and sometimes skips numbers. It's intentional, but I'm not sure why.
Note on the anime: I have to say I was pretty disappointed in it. It was decent, but nowhere near as well-crafted as the manga. Most of the storyline was drawn from the manga, but the ending was artificial, and the art and production quality was very poor. So if you've seen the anime already and didn't like it, don't judge the manga by the anime! And if you liked the anime, I hope the manga will blow you away.
I've only just lightly touched on the content in 07 Ghost. So if you like what you've read, take a peek, and enjoy!
 Alternative TitlesSynonyms: 7 Ghosts, Seven Ghosts Japanese: 07-GHOST More titlesInformationType: Manga
Volumes: 17
Chapters: 100
Status: Finished
Published: Apr 28, 2005 to Aug 28, 2013
Demographic:
Josei
Serialization:
Comic ZERO-SUM Statistics Ranked: #9672 2 based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded. Popularity: #523
Members: 33,788
Favorites: 1,453 Resources | Reviews
Filtered Results: 11 / 13
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Jul 31, 2010
For a manga with such an epic scale, it receives surprisingly little attention. What fanbase it has is highly loyal; but it deserves to be larger.
In a fantasy-Germanic world, the Imperial Army vies with the Pope for power in the land. Caught in the middle is everyone else: the aristocracy, slaves, soldiers, and priests. Filled with gothic themes, skeletons and scythes, animal-machine hybrid airships, and magical fighting techniques, the great cathedral bears over them all. Teito Klein has been attending military academy for several years. One of the fighting techniques used there is a natural-born "magical" skill called ... 
Aug 6, 2009
Great! It will get confusing at times, but just read over those pages again. Trust me, once you get it, this manga is worth it! The story sucks you right in, the art makes everyone look good ^_^, the characters are.... deep? That sounds right. The characters are deep, and I got so much enjoyment my eyes hurt. Read it now!
Jul 11, 2016
3 years after its completion, I still find myself inexplicably mesmerized by the epic tale that is 07 Ghost.
It's a tale about the rise and fall of kingdoms - about power struggles and political squabbles. But while the military backdrop and history of the land are beautifully carved, 07 Ghost is not a warstory at all. Rather, at it's core, 07 Ghost is a story about accepting all that life has to offer. It's about having the heart to appreciate another's act of kindness. It's about having the strength to move on when bad things happen. The battle mechanics in the story reinforce this. Characters use ... 
Mar 27, 2014
Alt Names: 7 Ghosts | Siete Fantasmas |07-Fantasmas |セブンゴースト| 神幻拍挡07
Genres: Action | Adventure | Comedy |Drama | Fantasy | Josei | Manga |Supernatural Author: Amemiya Yuki | Ichihara Yukino Status: Completed Rating: 4/5 Set in a fantasy world the story revolves around Teito Klein, the orphaned slave boy who became a top student of the rival empire’s military academy. With the unexpected turn of events, Teito is an escaping convict who is being pursued by the military of Barsburg Empire. He receives refuge in the church at District 7. This church according to the legends is protected by 7 Ghosts. As long as Teito stays within ... 
Oct 5, 2014
This is a wonderful manga that I think has enough action to appeal to some shounen fans as well as those (like me!) who love anything supernatural with a complex storyline and gorgeous pretty men. It’s not explicitly shounen ai I don’t think but there’s plenty there for the boys-love fans to read into. I get majorly excited whenever there’s a cool beautiful baddie and we get one entering the frame pretty much straightaway - and then the plot thickens with a sometimes quite bewildering complex array of characters, with multiple motivations and alliances. I really enjoyed the fantasy world
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Jun 11, 2012
This manga is really my type. I love it when the main chara have a great enemy that wanted him. Same like Teito.
The art is so great too. Much bishies. But there's one thing that bother me a lot. The fighting scene is so complicated. I had a hard time to understand it. But overall, I really love it so much. I just hope that everyone who read/watching this anime/manga didn't belive so hard that "Seven Ghost" is the real God in our real world. There's no way God looks like that. It's fantasy after all. Most of all, I love Frau and Teito. This pair is really romantic ... 
May 21, 2014
I usually don't review unless I really enjoyed it enough that I have to get the rest of the world to watch it as well. This was my first manga I ever finished. I finished the anime first, since I'm more of a anime person, then went to the manga and read it all. Now, I'll just say that I've tried that with MANY animes, saw them, then tried to read their mangas. Most of them didn't draw me in. I know, I'm missing out. It's like comparing a movie to a book, but still.
Anyways, my point is, this was AMAZING! I literally pulled ... 
Nov 22, 2019
(just for the record, this is a slight alteration of my anime review)
I’m not homophobic nor I see women only as sex toys and anything you read here is pure sarcasm. I just can’t help myself not making fun of an obviously poorly written series that appeals mostly through erotic aesthetics, rather than good directing and character emersion. ART SECTION: 7/10 [Don’t I look hot in this robe?] General Artwork & Backgrounds 4/4: A blend of medieval fantasy and science fiction, the artwork is both catchy and interesting. There was much work and detail given into making surfaces and textures to look fairy tale-ish so the series ...
Mar 6, 2016
I loved the characters in the manga, they were all unique and had interesting. As for the plot it was good throughout the begining and middle but I felt that the end was a bit rushed and confusing, with random info kinda just thrown at you, and while that was a theme with the flashbacks throughout the manga it wasn't as rushed and while some of the early flashbacks didn't make scense in some parts at first it did still work since the readers were learning with teito as he gained his memories, and with the info later continued in the story. But because the
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Apr 25, 2018
Wow. It seems like it was only yesterday that I was still in high school, obsessing over this obscure anime/manga that hardly anyone knew about. In 2009, I watched an anime called 07-Ghost, and let me tell you, I was OBSESSED with it. Almost as obsessed with it as I was with Shounen Onmyouji. I even made AMVs for it, and nothing else ever made me try to attempt that before. One of my best friends even got me volume 3 of the manga as a present once, back when Go! Comi still had the license for it. Of course, those three volumes were all
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Mar 29, 2019
Story: There are a few plot holes but keep into consideration that the only work before this that they have done have been BL doushinji, so for a first manga (and one of its length), I think plot holes are forgivable. It is a very multi-layered plot and I like the whole military vs religion vs society vs ------ it goes on. A lot of stuff happening basically. I really like the way it incorporated it's own religion and world building. It didn't throw it at you all at once and allowed you to gently learn about it as it was necessary to the plot.
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