7th
Seventh

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Sevens is a battle harem with politics, empire building, and underdog's revenge. Some of its aspects deserve praise.

The harem, for one, isn't exactly happy to share their man. Factions form and compete and distrust each other. And since some of the women are royalty, their squabbles could involve entire countries, so our poor protagonist has to balance his attentions carefully. What's more, there's an interesting justification to building a harem in the first place.

The adventure part also has unexpectedly realistic parts. Weapons break, guns require ammunition, people need food. As a result, the party has to prepare a lot of spare weapons and provisions, and ... then come up with a way to transport them. This is not one of those stories where the protagonist uses the same unbreakable magical sword throughout. Well, he *does* have an unbreakable weapon, but...

The ancestors' voices accompanying the protagonist are a mixed bag. While they offer interesting perspectives, when you just want to get on with the story already, their constant comments can get tiring.

Leaving the worst for last: Sevens has an infuriating habit of having a character say their lines, and the narrator immediately explain them. Consider this excerpt:

***
"It’s quite a surprise that there are still countries trying to watch and wait."
I was surprised there were still countries who decided to wait it out.
***

Yes, we know the protagonist was surprised. He literally just said that.

This pattern continues through all 18 volumes. I don't know if that's a translation artifact or a quirk of Japanese writing, but it made reading Sevens more of a chore than it had to be.

This is a review of the Web Novel, which is completed at 343 chapters. While there are some differences between it and the Light Novel (such as some new characters and differing arcs), the core content remains the same. Of course, this review will be spoiler free.

Funnily enough, 7th (or Sevens) was a novel I picked up solely for its length. Not only was did it have over 300 chapters, it was also completed, which was exactly what I wanted. From the summary, I expected something a little above average, with a possibly decent set of characters. Boy, was I in for a surprise. As ... I kept reading, 7th slowly but surely climbed up to become one of the best novels I have read. Now, I’ll be going into the details of why it stood out so much.

Story (9/10):
Honestly, 7th can’t be said to have a strong start by any means. The main character, Lyle Walt, gets chased out of his house for reasons that sound absolutely absurd, and what follows just seems to throw up plot hole after plot hole. There are often times when various events just seem to stretch logic a little too far, and just ends up feeling far-fetched. Yet, as the plot moves on, you begin to understand that a lot, if not all these ‘holes’ are intentional. Not only are they addressed later on, they are even suitably explained. From this, it’s clear that either the author is really good at planning ahead, or that he knows exactly how to fill up holes that he accidentally made.
Generally, when one sees that the story is set in a fantasy world and that there is a harem involved, they’d assume that the story is purely wish fulfillment and not much else. In this case, the author has managed to turn that on its head. While the world falls into the fantasy world category, it is surprisingly well built, with a good amount of attention to detail. We get a detailed picture of the politics, trade and even social structure of the world. As for the harem aspect, it shows what could be called the dark side of harems, including infighting, faction formation and the politics that would invariably be involved.
One thing about 7th that I really appreciate is how it actually goes into detail about various aspects that are often avoided in such media. One example of this would be the harem factions, as I mentioned above. Another important aspect is how they go in depth regarding what they would do *after* winning, instead of solely focusing on victory itself as the goal. Overall, the story is very well rounded, and steadily improves as you keep reading. It has healthy doses of comedy, action, and even heartrending moments.

Art (8/10):
The Web Novel lacks illustrations, so this score is based on the illustrations in the Light Novel. I have no complaints regarding the artwork. It manages to match quite closely to the images one would conjure up while reading the novel.

Character (7/10):
7th has a rather large cast of characters, which can be called both a strength and a weakness. Initially, the author spends a good deal of time fleshing out each and every character, but as the story goes on and the cast gets larger, it becomes obvious that the author is having trouble keeping up. The characters that are introduced later in the series often seem flat, and may have been better off not being introduced at all. That being said, the author has done a great job with the core characters, which explains my score.

Enjoyment (10/10):
All said and done, 7th was an extremely enjoyable series. While it took some time to pick up, it steadily improved, and had me captivated till the very end.

Overall (8.5 ~ 9/10):
Put together, 7th was a great novel, which was well worth the time spent on it. It explored many themes that one wouldn’t usually see in such a story, and was all the better for it. As long as harem elements aren’t too much of a problem, I would highly recommend this novel.

BIG REMINDER: THE ANCESTORS IN THE PICTURE NUMBERING:
From Left to Right (clock wise) : 5th Generation - 3rd Generation - 1st Generation - 6th Generation - 4th Generation - 2nd Generation- 7th Generation

Here's my question and answer About the Story:

How was the story told? Did the chapters fit together neatly into a continuous story, were they told from different times/characters in the story, or were they essentially stand-alone (episodic) ? Could it have been done better? (Val)

Sevens was written in Light Novel Format Structure, Sevens novel is structured neatly with good organization of chapters by clustering them into Volumes. Oh a reminder, there's a lot ... of re-introduction in prologue, so better keep it in your mind or you might find Sevens repetitive. The chapters have fit together, it's written on standard continuous like One Piece style, actually it's thoroughly planned which makes it better to most popular novels I you can easily find. If there's anything that could have done better, it would be the implied writing style which is quite disadvantageous to casual readers who were not exposed to these kind of writing style, well it's understandable since Syosetu has a limiter when it comes to number of characters in each chapter. But I do think the author could have done a better job by writing Sevens in Graphic Form while not removing it's Implied form like "Kumo Desu Ga", well it becomes a demand if I say it like that, anyway I think you'll have no problem since you're used to Kingdom Novel. (Tsugumomo)

Oh so it's in implied writing, so a lot of details will be left out to the readers to think up to themselves, hmm... that's fine for me but I have to take it slow when I'll read it. (Val)

Another question:
Was the story overly simplistic or complex? Did that appeal to you or was it too boring/confusing? (Val)

This is hard, If you're going to take Sevens as a whole, then it's quite simplistic like "One Piece" and "Naruto". But if you're going to talk about its intricate details, world building, reasoning, logic, and kingdom elements, then Sevens is clearly superior to the popular series. If you're going to compare Sevens to other Legit Political Novels, then it falls short than the other. Basically, Sevens is in the Center of Standard Teenager Stories to Complex Political and Logical Intrigue Psychological Stories. In fact, Sevens is one of the most believable story from the beginning till the end, while it has some of the traditional writing style, the decent details of Sevens makes it exceptional to others. If you're going to ask me if it's boring, then it is, I won't deny that, but it's not confusing either. Sevens was written in which you have to read it slowly, while I admit that I did't care about it before because I was only concerned in the Music that I was playing to synchronize Sevens, it felt confusing after reading it for the first time. Its implied realistic details combined with few detailed content what makes Sevens boring if you're not used to it, well it's still pretty entertain when it comes to Character Department? (Tsugumomo)

Very Reasonable. I like Sevens Simplicity and complexity. Hmm... It has 345 Chapters plus side epilogues, I guess I'll take your word as an advise, since it's grouped into Volume, I'll limit it to 1 Volume per day pacing. (Val)

Another question:
Is the story unique? If it was predictable, did you enjoy it anyway because you like this genre/set-up? (Val)

Yes it was predictable, but I love the genre and its set-up. I admit that it's still in the realm of predictable plot, but I love the progress of the plot, from the beginning till the end, its predictability was cast off out of the window since the story itself didn't mind from the start. It focused more on the foundation and sensibility of the story rather than making crazy plot twist and hidden out of the box surprise plot. Plot wise it's predictable, but it didn't abuse any repetitive element like Naruto did to many flashbacks fillers to make the enemies empathizing or One Piece repetitive plot Go to another country and save it. Sevens is easily predictable due to its consistent plot, but it's complex plot foundation and logic compensated to its predictability. To make it simple, the Process was complex while the Result was Easy. (Tsugumomo)

I still have some questions about the story:
How was the pacing? Were there filler episodes or places that were rushed? (Val)

Actually Sevens is fast paced, I've already told you that it was written in Implied form. Well Sevens Volumes make every arc slow, but if you're going to take a look take it on a bigger picture, it's faster than most novels with a lot of chapters. Well I do get people why they complain about how slow it is, the plausible reason was it is still being translated by Yorai, even Yorai's fast translation can't keep up with Wai's fast paced released that Sevens before was treated as a slow novel last year. There's no Filler, but there's a question corner and some special chapters, but I can't call them filler. Sevens is not rushed, but to be frank it is quite rushed in the later chapters, too many implied writings and low on details, but at least it's still consistent till the end. (Tsugumomo)

Here's a crucial question:
Were the individual elements of the story done well? Was the comedy funny, the mystery enthralling, the ecchi/fanservice desireable, (action, romance, suspense,...) etc. ? (Val)

The Elements of Sevens (Genres and Tags) were done well, from the beginning to the end, it's sensible and logical.
Even though I've said it was predictable, Sevens didn't resort to cheap writing like the popular Kingdom Novels did. Resorting to introduction of advance technology and showing it to people just to see their repetitive reaction while showing the author's unrealistic naivety when it comes to policies and ideology which would not work in reality. The author of Sevens showed its superiority when it comes to knowledge, she showed the complexity of Nobility, Common People and Royalty, the author showed how hard it is to actualized what most popular Kingdom Novels is trying to achieve, Ironically Sevens is more rationale to to other popular Kingdom Novels out there. The Author also knows how to limit her knowledge in writing her content by making the novel quite convenient, making it in a premise after apocalypse or else the Dreaming side of Japanese readers will not appreciate too much historical reality which should be left unknown to readers. Fantasy set in medieval makes Realistic approach irrelevant, that's what Wai said to her question and answer portion, which is reasonable. (Tsugumomo)

The Top 5 Cores of Sevens are: The Realistic Adventurer Lifestyle which showed the world building and game elements; the Schemes and Manipulative Characteristics of Walt House which is the staple food of this novel, and amazingly which is the overly done in many stories, the Harem, which is the most exceptional harem I've ever read, it's very complex, realistic with a lot of logical reasoning on it, one of those stories that shows friendship can be fragile which turns into rivalry, also another thing about harem was their rationale behind it, it's not your typical Boy gets girls, it's the Boy needs to get Girls plot style: The Kingdom Elements set in medieval era, or set in future fantasy apocalypse was thoroughly researched, a lot of complex discussion about them, and a lot of logical aspects and reasoning that you'll only find to legit kingdom novel: And lastly the Mysterious Element, which was shown in the early volumes, one of the most sensible plot foundation from the beginning until the end. (Tsugumomo)

Oh Nice!! I want to read it right now, but here's another crucial question:
Were there any deus ex machina or other literary techniques/tropes that were overdone, or conversely, done well? please no spoilers (Val)
This is hard to answer because you're not asking for specific technique and trope. Oh well, Sevens is quite standard when it comes to Literary Technique which made it predictable, but when it comes to Plot Structure and Foundation, Sevens excels in making its story solid. If you're asking about deus ex machina, then there's some, but it has a secured plot armor, thus the lack of intensity, still it doesn't matter. For Perspective Narration like Multiple POV, I admit that Sevens excels on it, Sevens is quite good when it comes to highlighting its cast, and it never used Multiple POV as its reaction pieces unlike RTW which is quite repetitive. For Style, the use of Imagery was good, it's easy to imagine in Sevens. The Theme was the Distributing recurrent thematic concepts and moralistic motifs among various incidents and frames of Sevens. Skillfully crafted tale, thematic patterning may emphasize the unifying argument or salient idea disparate events and disparate frames have in common. (Tsugumomo)

This is the simplified version of tropes I know: Zero to Hero saves the world, Womanizer who gets a lot of girls, Conqueror Hero who took the Steps to become an Emperor. (Tsugumomo)

I'm smiling right now, ok for the Last Question about the Story:
Was the ending satisfying? Did they explain everything or were there plot holes? Did it have an open ending or an abrupt forced ending? Again, no spoilers please. (Val)

I'm quite satisfied with the Ending, or not. I mean it was literally good that Sevens Ended in a good way without going downhill, from the beginning it started going in upward slope when it comes to story. I won't say there aren't plot holes, but they were insignificant if you're going to compare it to the majority of web novels and popular works revered as masterpieces. It's not a forced ending, it's planned from the start. It's quite remarkable that the story have focused on what's beyond the Ending, a also shown it's balance side by showing what's to fall and what's to rise, a lot of Philosophies has been said. Sevens is one of the best series you can use as an inspiration to write, A lot of stories has been left and can be easily use as a starter, even I wanted to make a fan fiction of Sevens because there's a lot material that can be use. Overall Sevens is a great novel and the ending was good, I hope that the author will make a sequel of Sevens. (Tsugumomo)
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EDITED: Youseiki's Output, the review above was written after I've re-read Sevens for 100th Time, this one is a review after reading Sevens for 200th Time

I'm gonna add a lot of things which the two people have missed.

Sevens a combination of:
"Art of War by Sun Tzu"
"The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli
"Histoire de ma vie" by Giacomo Cassanova
"The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire" by Leslie Pierce ...

A story War, Politics, Adventurous Romance and Relevance of Women.

A story that uses a lot of deep connection and foreshadowing, using complex web of intricate details of plot that solidifies the story from the beginning till the end. The Author: Wai, uses a lot of elements and formulas of literature technique crafting Sevens into a beautifully woven web novel. That said, it's also enjoyable with its unique flavor of humor and exceptional construction of harem which is rare to find. Sevens focuses on Realism and Logical Practicality, there's not even once that Wai made this a story of cringe fest of moral story, this one is takes it another level by emphasizing the importance of Logical Decisions than letting moral dilemma takes over. This is also a story of Proxy Wars of Philosophy which is on another level of literature technique, using mysterious elements to question the existence of the characters and to question the purpose of each characters. This one is truly beautiful by also showing a a lot of satirical elements as well as the strong irony of the story which I found amusing than any other novels. Sevens is truly a story which can be read by both beginners as well as veterans, but all in all, Sevens stands out by practicing sensibility than preaching philosophies, a story that was abound by Logic.