Seven Days - Blog Posts
I get what this person is saying but I don’t agree.
I read Seven Days the manga and watched the films years before I read Date Me Bryson Keller, and while they are similar with the whole ‘date for a week thing’ it’s different. I can see how the author of the book drew inspiration or took Seven days as a writing prompt. But the character’s are completely different. The whole dating for a week is a dare and is well explained. In the manga it is passed off as the guy breaking it off with girls because they don’t click. In Bryson Keller, it’s a dare and a game.
So no. I wouldn’t say that it is plagiarising. He only copied the ‘date for a week’ concept which I have read in other books as well. It’s a pretty common prompt. The book is so much more than that. The plot is about having the confidence to be yourself and how the main character develops his courage and bravery. It’s also about him confronting his family and finding the will to fight for himself.
The book also explores what it means to me mixed race and LGBT. It puts to words the complexity with being mixed and growing up, while also dealing with the difficulties of coming out.
While I loved Seven days the manga, it was all about the romance.
I will repeat myself. The book is far more complex and deserves not to be judged by the manga. Just as the manga should not be judged by the book. Both deal with their own cultures and characters. The writing prompt maybe the same. But they are also so different.
Please give them both a try. They are amazing.
It’s 2020 and people are still out here westernizing non-Western works and selling it as their own I’m so tired. Please go read Tachibana Venio & Takarai Rihito’s Seven Days instead.
