Nov 20, 2021
Shichiha Gojuuroku pulls an interesting spin on the mystery genre by incorporating the supernatural somewhat 'return from death' style shenanigans. It follows the main character, Gorou who attempts to uncover the mystery of his own death. This statement clearly does not make much sense: how does he solve a mystery when he, himself is the victim? Here is where the supernatural stuff comes in, as it turns out this girl, Shichiha can replace his death, and make herself the victim instead, giving the MC a chance at uncovering the mystery of his own death. Once the main character finds out who is the perpetrator of
...
the murder, supernatural things happen and the perpetrator becomes the victim of his/her crime and all things seem to be good again.
If you thought that this premise was convoluted, you are certainly not wrong. I thought that when I first read it, and 13 chapters in, I still feel the same. The premise here is certainly intriguing. There is the supernatural, mystery, cheesy romance that definitely entertains. Yet, what holds this story back is its unimaginative characters and poor sense of pace.
Firstly, this manga seems to take some inspiration from the Bakemonogatari series, the beginning in particular. Boy meets girl, girl turns out to have/be some kind of supernatural entity. While I could be wrong about the author's inspiration as to be fair, this is quite a basic premise, perhaps what separates Shichiha Gojuuroku from the more competent execution of Bakemonogatari is the weak characters. While the MC Gorou is pretty decently defined, able to banter with his childhood friend, has some personality and is equipped with the ability to react rather believably to the traumatic deaths that occur around him and to him, Gorou seems to have little characterisation beyond those points. While he does have the book of things he wants to do before he dies, due to its blatant implementation and disconnect from his character as a whole, it comes off as less like a thing the character had actually written, and more like a plot point inserted by the writer to give him motivation and depth. This leads him to appear less of an actual person within the world of the story, but more of a 'character' written to solve the narrative mysteries. While early characterisations of Bakemonogatari's Araragi can be seen as following such a trend, the mystery behind Araragi's history as a vampire and his chaotically energetic thoughts and interactions give him a humanity that is unreplicated here. Furthermore, the side characters are as generic as side characters can be, and while the female lead, Shichiha with her mysterious history and supernatural capabilities is certainly intriguing, her lack of agency in the story and in her relationship with the MC diminishes her humanity.
Now, regarding the pace of this manga. For such a complex premise, you would think that the story would slow down to perhaps allow the complexity of the premise to sink into the readers. As it turns out, this manga continues and follows through with its roller-coaster suddenness. It seems that maximum impact is the philosophy of this manga, and while the premise and deaths hit readers like a speeding bullet, it leaves no time for readers to contemplate what happens in the story and the story's heavy themes and ideas.
When the story is not developing its off the walls story, the dynamics and interactions between the characters remain superficial and rather unrealistically rendered, focusing on depicting your typical manga/anime cliches instead. Perhaps for a supernatural story like this one, giving some leeway on how 'realistic' the characters are is okay. While I would usually not question this sort of thing in some of the other mangas I've read (particularly rom-coms), the problem here is that Shichiha Gojuuroku is clearly attempting to realistically depict the human psyche and human trauma. When you have a rather devastating rendering of death and the effects it may have on the human condition, characterising your characters as cliches and semi-cliches not only feels incredibly odd in juxtaposition, it exacerbates the underbaked and poor quality of the characters.
Anyways, I've written way too much for this. I am only 13 chapters in, so perhaps more depth might be unveiled in later chapters. But judging from the limited number of chapters as noted on this site, I would assume that this manga did not particularly live long. Still, just based on the chapters I've read, Shichiha Gojuuroku has not only a very intriguing premise but also a great deal of emotional sensitivity, particularly on the subject of death and trauma. Still, for me, the pros do not outweigh the cons. Its weak characters and poor structure and pacing leave much to be desired.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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