7th Garden, Vol. 1

7th Garden #1

by Mitsu Izumi

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?!

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Horror, Fiction, Action, Demons

228 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 4, 2014

About the author

泉光

Reviews

[Pixie 🍜 · Rating 1 out of 5]

A confusingly paced story that is highly religious but also makes no sense
Our main character is a gardener who was taken in and works for a rich family. He is in love with his mistress
He stupidly released a demon with an aversion to clothes and makes a pact with her when his whole village is murdered. She resurrects them

Angels also exist
And bishops
But it seems to be like the matrix instead or something - they don’t seem to be real at all so it doesn’t make much sense. Lots of fan service

[Nic · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this more than I expected! The world is interesting, and I like the characters.

My full review is posted at No Flying No Tights.

[Holly Letson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An average read. I was not overly impressed. I do like the female demon much more than the male lead character.

[Kenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Demons, angels and the bond between servant and mistress in a fantasy world equals a heady mix of action and romance. Worth picking up.

[CharlyyGentlePhoenix · Rating 4 out of 5]

7th Garden T1 – Mitsu Izumi (Japon, 89) – 2017 – Delcourt
Un « ange » tombe du ciel, constate une jeune fille, on lui intime de faire ses prières… Un jardinier/chasseur (le célèbre Awyn) découvre quelque chose qu'il n'aurait pas dû. Un être à soif de vengeance…
En réveillant l'inconnue qui semble dormir depuis des lustres dans une grotte, Awyn se fait embrasser sans même un bonjour. Celle qui se dit « démone » affirme être là depuis mille ans.
Cette histoire est amusante car elle met les anges à la place des démons et vice-versa. Awyn ne se laisse pas impressionner, il n'est pas tellement sensible au charme de la démone, qui est pourtant bien jolie… Celle-ci cherche à attirer son attention, force est de constater que ça ne marche pas très bien…
De plus, Awyn a des Flashbacks de ses parents qui lui disent de ne pas faire confiance aux démons…
Là où on commence à voir le vrai visages des camps, c'est quand les « gentils » font ce qu'ils appellent des « Purges » …
Les chorégraphies des combats sont bien.
J'entendais presque la musique traditionnelle animée.
On apprend enfin le nom du démon, c'est Vyrde.
« Je récupérerais mon monde ! »
« Maîtresse » Vyrde est plutôt cool comme boss, super jolie, rebelle, et Vyrde se retrouve nu au lit avec elle au réveil…
J'ai été tenté de partager sur IG le screen de Vyrde et Awyn nu au lit mais comme ça sorti de son contexte « Fun » ça voulait pas dire grand-chose…
« Où sont tes vêtements ? »
« Tu arrives à dormir habille toi ? »
(Perso j'y arrive !)
« Je connais cette odeur… C'est celle de la vengeance qui gronde… »
Ensembles, Vyrde et Awyn peuvent invoquer le « demon bélion » qui les rend très balèzes, ils se régénèrent plus vite que Wolverine, aussi. Les anges et les apôtres veulent toujours purifier le village de d'Arwyn. Ils ont étés repoussés deux fois mais reviennent toujours plus nombreux… Cela dit le pouvoir de Vyrde ne parait pas avoir de limites non-plus. Les Evêques semblent pourtant si doux… Apparence…
Sur quels critères les anges choisissent leur associés ? …. Les plus manipulables…
Phoenix
++

[Adam Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sure where I heard about this manga, but I'm glad I'm reading it. The story is simple to grasp, though as it continues, I'm sure the lore will become drastically more complicated.
Awyn is a gardener with a tragic past. He tends a garden for a manor, and loves (though not directly admitting) Marie, the daughter of the manor lord. She is about as sweet as can be. One day, Awyn finds a woman in the woods, who introduces herself as Vyrde, a demon who's mission is to kill the 7 angels that protect the world. She gains Awyn as a servant when some corrupted knights attack the village, and he is able to use a huge sword to defend his garden and Marie.
During the course of the story, an angel named Leviath shows up. Bonded to a Bishop named Serras, it looks like we might see our first angel death, but Leviath abandons Serras, knowing she needs to escape to evade Vyrde's sword. At the end, another angel shows up, Vulpes, who addresses the demon Vyrde as Maria... which makes her very angry, leading to whatever happens in Volume 2.
This manga is very much ecchi and fan service. The angels and the demons are all very chesty and barely wearing anything, in fact several times, Vyrde is only wearing strategically placed hair.
I get the feeling that something crazy is going to happen in the next Volume, and look forward to seeing it.
Plus, it's only 8 Volumes and the author also wrote Magus of the LIbrary, which I have loved so far.
Recommend, though keep the content in mind.

[Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

Huh. Well. Much like how I got Fire Force, I got this from Manga Spice Cafe, (which is a good monthly gift box to get for any anime/manga/snacking/japan fan, full of manga and stuff) and, uh… I don’t really know what to think.
The book is set in a stereo-typical medieval manga setting, I.E. villages, Corrupt castles, insane gods, etc.. The catch was that a farmer gets “possessed”(they call is possession, even though his soul seems to be free) by a demon, who ends up giving him powers to fight the church.
I personally mostly like the book, except it suffers from “Shounen-Manga-ism,” which is a serious virus that affects a large percentage of manga, with well known symptoms including increased amount of fanservice, (demon and first angel spend most of their time on the page in impractical armor) edgy main character backstory, (unspecified bad stuff kills parents, goes and lives w/ best friend, hides it behind smile, etc.) and sometimes a confusing story all together. Other than that, I like the book.

[Elinor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un début très sympa ! Il n'y a que le fan service qui me dérange un peu, et les scènes d'action au début je ne les comprenait pas bien. Mais sinon l'histoire est très prometteuse même si j'ai déjà une petite idée de ce dont il peut retourner, les choses sont tournées de façon intéressante. Les questions que posent le démon puis l'ange à leur futur serviteur, par exemple... on a d'abord les questions du démon, qui en soit peuvent en effet être tournées du mauvais côté, mais une fois qu'on lit celles posées par l'ange, celles du démon prennent un tout autre sens... c'est le genre de chose qui me semble très prometteur pour la suite ! Notre héros n'est pas exceptionnel, mais la démone elle est plus intrigante. Le dessin est franchement beau, le découpage est bon. Et j'ai hâte de lire la suite !

[Arnela · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art is rally good [we're getting a lot of fanservice with the demon and angel outfits and body types and I'm not here for that].

The story is really good too, it does a good job representing the duality of church views and actions, as well as faith and and having that shaken or questioned because the clergy is human and their actions susceptible to greed and pride and other "sins".

I feel that it handles a physical representation of the journey of someone accounting those who are abusing their powers in the church. And while I love stories like this, and I'm very glad my friend recommended it to me I just can't get into it for some reason. It's really good, but I'm just not feeling it.

You might have to be in the mood for this kind of story.

[AJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard to say if it is good or bad yet. There is a lot of things that is left in mystery, but the fanservice . . . IS CLASS S material. The fanservice will hard carry you to the end.

All we know so far is that the church is killing villages. A Gardener decides to become a Demon Minion in order to slay God's Angel and save his village. But we have a turn of events near the end of this book . . .

Art is nice and Action for a shonen is meh. Hopefully it gets better.

[Yuiko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Firstly if you don't like partial nudity I advise you to stay away from this series there will be things such as a naked girl with barely enough hair to cover the nipple.that was a real turn off for me in this vol,but at least it was only a couple times.the actions is really cool.the art is lovely.the story is sort of meh but I think I mite go another cool if not I'm going to stop.

[BB · Rating 3 out of 5]

Underneath some fairly significant flaws (basic and cliched character designs, somewhat hard-to-follow action), there is a satisfying story worth pursuing. Izumi really excels with her worldbuilding, character motivations/dynamics, and overall aesthetic. If you liked the Netflix Castlevania, this may scratch the same itch.

[Barbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

In a far off fantasy land,there is a gardener who makes a deal with a demon to cleanse the kingdom of the corrupt religious authority that seems to rule it.

Quite a few battle scenes but nothing extraordinary.

[Birte · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
Interesting world and characters, although the male main character is quite generic. The female devil is funny and more likeable to me

[Tori - Novel Life · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 - Manga

[Bamboozled Bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, this beginner manga was better than I had anticipated with the plot of God versus Demons. Will continue and see if worthwhile.

[Rebekah · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5** I enjoyed it, and I have volume 2 and am excited to see how the story changes continues. Loved the art style and the characters.

[Lindsay · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. This was a little too religious. For some reason it also felt like it was trying too hard.

[Katie Rowe]

I didn’t get very far into this but the story line isn’t for me.

[z3r0 c00l]

03/24/23

[Joshua Martin · Rating 1 out of 5]

The art is amazing. But the pacing and storytelling are highly lacking.

Too much fan-service.

[ash !]

dnf @ 30%

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

The first volume gives a glimpse of where this story will go - I expect the next volume to make or break the story for me. I am admittedly rather bored with 'generic European peasant' settings as well as heaven vs. hell manga story lines with lots of fanservice artwork. This looks to have a clever twist (perhaps the angels aren't good and the demons aren't evil!) with some interesting battle scenes, though. So I am looking forward to the next volume to see where this goes.

Story: Awyn has a tragic past and now hides himself by tending the gardens on a lonely estate. His one solace is the young daughter of the estate owner - the kind and gentle Maria. When he accidentally awakens a demon hiding in a secret location, he is offered power but at the price of his soul. He promptly refuses - but will be forced to enter into the contract when the estate/village are attacked and beloved Maria is murdered by the church's zealous soldiers. The demon resurrects Maria and fixes the village - and transforms into a sword-like weapon to be used to take down her enemies, a group of angels. As Awyn is drawn into fighting the angels, he soon realizes that his demon is not the evil in the world - it might just be the church itself.

The artwork is fine - clean and easy to follow. The fanservice is a bit much and somehow takes away from the gravitas of the story. The demon spends most of her time naked, on her hands and knees, or other titillating poses. The angels are...er...busty. So I am sure there is a better audience for this who might appreciate the art more than I did.

The last chapter especially showed that there is a lot more to come than battling angels. The demon's past plays an integral part and will come back to haunt both Awyn and his village/Maria. Will he be able to save his tsundere demon and defeat the angels? Most likely as he learns to use his demonic blade better. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

[Judyth · Rating 3 out of 5]

~3.5/5
(Contains light spoilers.)

First of all: color pages! They’re gorgeous. The artwork is very pretty in this book, reminds me a little bit of 07-Ghost. Though with quite a bit more ecchi shots.

Awyn has a lot of held in rage from his past, wanting revenge for what happened to him and his family. But he’s holding onto residing happily in this small village, and his relationship with Marie. Marie is his mistress, younger than him and going to be married off soon. He’s merely her gardener, and that’s what he wants. But then he makes a contract with a demon, Vyrde, in order to save everything.

I’m immediately intrigued by Awyn. He wants to live a peaceful life, protecting Marie and gardening, always smiling in front of everyone, but he’s not afraid to kill when something is threatening him or what he holds dear. I’m interested to see where his character goes from here.

Vyrde is an interesting character, very manipulative and with her own agenda, though I like how she gets enjoyment out of mischief, and her careless attitude around people and personal space. I’m already a huge fan of Marie, and hope that she gets to stay a main character. I want to see more of her and how she grows.

This was an enjoyable volume. I’m intrigued and want to read more.


A review copy was provided by the publisher, VIZ Media, for an honest review. Thank you so, so much!

[Read more at my blog, Geeky Reading!]

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was much more interesting than I had expected, largely due to the fact that it reminds me strongly of Sharon Shinn's Archangel series. It takes a bit to get going, but there's a lot of promise here.


Full review eventually appearing on ANN.

[アレツクス コツト · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting story. I liked the different view of religion vs the people. I like when religion gets tested and when its often portrayed showing its fault and how it tends to corrupt people and those who follow blindly.

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first Manga I've read that I did not watch the corresponding anime first. The plot isn't overly complicated and I like it that way. I'm now infatuated with this series and will also be selling MY soul to a demon so that I may go purchase Volume 2.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good start to the series, interested to see where this goes. Art is gorgeous, especially the detail of the flowers in the colour pages. Character art is also quite attractive.

[Ashley Rixon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know what to make of this yet.

I do feel as though it repeats itself a little too much as if they didn't think we would absorb a lot of information so reexplained a few pages later.

[Jessica D.]

This manga starts off with a demon and an 'innocent' gardener. It explores the stories of the angels, other worlds, and the corruption of hierarchies. It shows that the past does not define you and that no matter who you are, you can make a difference. The farther you get into the series, the darker it gets, but nonetheless it is a great read. There is nudity, so I would not recommend it to those that are not 'mature.' This is an action, a comedy, and a fantasy all with a touch of romance. The characters are all subject to change no matter how blessed they are.