Summary:
In volume 2 we meet the rest of the survivors: Matsuri (16), a drop out party girl; Chimaki, a first year art student; Hotaru (12); and a mysterious man named Mozu. Natsu notices that many of there names have 'summery' names. Once they are all finally together, Botan reveals the truth about the 7seeds project, why it was implemented, how they were selected, and that she is their support and guide. There are 5 teams, each named after a season: Spring, Autumn, Winter, and Summer A and Summer B. They are team Summer B. Arashi is especially upset by the revelation and that he may never see his girlfriend, Hana, again and refuses to believe it without further evidence. Later Natsu realizes that they are not in the middle of the ocean and the team decides that they need to take the risk and leave the island.
Enter Hana (17), we find out that she is part of Team Spring. Hana is the polar opposite of Natsu, she is outgoing, athletic and fiercely independent. Her team consists of child genius Nobimomo Taro (12), sullen Haru (16), confident Fujiko (17), younger than he looks Mansaku (18), mature and gentle Chisa (18), and their guide Yanagi. The seventh member of their group is still asleep. She is Hibari looks a lot like Hotaru.
The group travels by a raft, only landing to gather food and resources. Each place they go is filled with dangerous monster insects and the group has to fight hard for everything. Hana is especially useful, she does it all - she wants to keep herself busy so she doesn't have time to miss Arashi. Things start getting worse when their guide Yanagi is injured and starts abusing his authority over the group, especially Hana.
Review:
The second volume basically continues introducing the characters, their personalities and explaining the situation they all find themselves in. Hana is a strong personality, she seems to be a polarizing personality, the characters will love or hate her depending on their positions in the group. The rest of her group is interesting as well, Fujiko, Chisa and Mansaku seem capable and sensible. Taro is filled with lots of book knowledge, like the constellations and types of bugs, so a useful source for text-book info. Only Haru seems as useless and uncooperative much like Semi, so potential for growth. Compared to team Summer B, I think Hana got it both better and worse. Better, more competent and knowledgeable individual team members, but a much worse guide, how did that guy get selected for this program, surly there were better choices!
**** Recommended
Well written, interesting plot and/or characters. A stand-out book in its genre. Recommend to anyone who loves the genre or are interested in trying the genre.