Review for Sekirei: The Complete Series

Introduction

Once upon a time, Manga Entertainment, or rather Manga Video as they were then known, meant three things, sex, violence, and profanity. If all three could be combined in some way, all the better to appeal to the teen male demographic, and to appal the blue-rinse Daily Mail reading brigade. That was then, and this is now, where Manga Entertainment is a fair bit more wholesome, delivering anime of all sorts to as wide an audience as possible. They offer cute and cuddly now, alongside the gory and offensive, they can make little kids smile with delights like Panda Go Panda, and Tamagotchi, yet still make the strongest of stomachs quiver with something like Shigurui: Death Frenzy. But in case you always skip the logos on DVDs, this is Manga Entertainment's 20th anniversary dealing out anime to the masses, and how better to mark that moment by indulging in the sort of anime that established them on the world stage in the first place. Sekirei doesn't have the profanity of those early Manga Video titles, which given the state of those early dubs we can only be profoundly grateful. But Sekirei does have the sex and the violence. It's almost a shame that the tabloids are too busy navel gazing to properly advertise this show with the suitable moral outrage. Won't someone think of the children!


Minato Sahashi is your typical, everyday, wimpy teen anime male, unsuccessful in life, and especially unsuccessful in love. His current status is that he has failed for the second year running to get into university, and consequently, no girl would fall at the feet of a loser like that. Except for Musubi, who literally does fall out of the sky, straight onto his head. Hot on her tail are a pair of dark-haired twins, Hikari and Hibiki, who look intent on zapping her with the electricity they wield. For some odd reason, Musubi grabs hold of Minato when she makes her escape. The reason becomes clear when it is revealed that Minato has the potential to be an Ashikabi, one of the rare individuals that can cause a Sekirei's powers to emerge.


It's 2020 in the new capital of Japan, Shintou Teito. The city is the venue for the Sekirei battles. The Sekirei are 108 mystical and powerful individuals who have awakened to do battle. Their powers are activated when they find Ashikabi, those people who can cause them to emerge by means of a kiss. The one Sekirei who survives at the end of the tournament will win the ultimate prize, and be able to stay with their Ashikabi forever. The Ashikabi are competing too, trying to collect as many Sekirei as possible to increase their chances of winning. Behind it all is the all-powerful MBI Corporation, who practically own the city. Soon, Minato is living with Musubi in the Maison Izumo guesthouse, which has its own connection to the Sekirei battles. Slowly, Minato's harem of combat girls begins to grow. And in these battles, clothing is optional; indeed it's liable to disintegrate anyway. Who will succumb first, Musubi to constant battles, or Minato to constant nosebleeds?


This complete series of Sekirei presents all 12 episodes plus the OVA episode across 2 discs. As is often the way, the complete series turns out not to be all that complete, when the creators earn enough success to warrant a follow up. A second series, Sekirei - Pure Engagement exists, and has been licensed by Funimation, although it is yet to see a physical media release in the West, let alone a dub.

Disc 1

1. Sekirei
2. The Door to the New Residence
3. The Green Girl
4. The Strange Tale of Maison Izumo
5. The Water Sekirei
6. Maison Izumo Flower War
7. The Black Sekirei


Disc 2

8. The Closed Capital
9. The Veil and the Wind
10. The Night Before The Escape
11. The Sekirei Symbol Disappears
12. The Sekirei of Fate

Picture

Sekirei gets a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer via Madman's Region 4 release, which unfortunately is one of the older NTSC-PAL conversions. Fortunately though, being a bright, shiny and vivid anime, it's not one where signs of ghosting and lower resolution significantly afflict the image. Pause at an inopportune moment, and you might spot a blended frame or two, but far more prevalent, particularly during the opening sequence, is a strange strobe effect during scene changes. A moderately thin, striping effect appears across the screen for a frame, and I'm hard pressed to understand just why. I have recently seen it in Manga's release of Birdy the Mighty Decode, and I hope it doesn't now become a common feature of their DVDs.


Sekirei itself is a pleasant enough anime, bright and colourful, with appealing character designs, especially in the mammary department, and while the animation isn't exactly cutting edge, it does get the story across, and it doesn't shirk during the action sequences. There is a level of quality and consistency maintained through the series, and it becomes enjoyable to watch as a result. However, there is an annoyance in the form of a black bar obscuring the credits in episodes 1 and 12, so that Funimation can overlay their own credits. It also obscures the action that's occurring in the background. It's an amateurish and egotistical decision, and one that could have been avoided by having a separate English language credits scroll after the Japanese credits sequence.

Sound

You have a choice between DD 5.1 English and the original DD 2.0 Stereo Japanese, with optional translated subtitles and a signs only track. I went with the original language track, and was mostly satisfied. There were a couple of US colloquialisms that went over my head. At no point should subtitles force a viewer to Google… PDA indeed! Another annoyance is the decision to translate Tsukiumi's formal Japanese into Olde English. All those 'thees' and 'thous' and sticking -est and -eth at the end of random verbs makes for a messy reading. It sounds even worse in the English dub. The dub is pretty much standard for a show like this, and the 5.1 upmix remains fairly front-focussed for the most part, although it does come to life for the action sequences.

Extras

It's business as usual with this anime release, with the discs getting static menus, and jacket pictures, while all the extras are on disc two, beginning with the ubiquitous textless credit sequences, only the main opening and ending though.

The sole substantial extra is the Kusano's First Shopping Trip OVA, clocking in at 11 minutes. It's an inconsequential bit of fun, as little Kusano tries to be one of the big girls, by engaging in their shopping trip battle.

Conclusion

I've been here before. Let's face it, the combat girls anime genre isn't exactly an under-subscribed one, but it's rare indeed for me to find anything of value in anatomically ridiculous girls beating the clothes off each other, with a perverted cameraman finding the most embarrassing angles to shoot from. Ikki Tousen was just nasty and exploitative, Tenjho Tenge was tiresome, while Master of Martial Hearts, released a few months ago by Manga Entertainment replaced the textbook definition of rubbish. I wasn't expecting good things from Sekirei. This one time, I am glad to be proved wrong.


Sekirei is what you would get if you crossed Ah My Goddess! with Mortal Kombat, and got Russ Meyer to direct. A wimpy teenaged male gathers a harem of super-powered buxom beauties, all of whom fall for his wimpy charms, and they do battle with other super-powered buxom beauties, in which clothing is optional. Even if clothing is chosen, a strong enough blow can cause said clothing to disintegrate, and refreshingly, Sekirei is up front about what it's trying to achieve. It's designed to appeal to a young male demographic, and it isn't too bothered with abiding by broadcast restrictions. If it means to show you boobies, then by God it will show you boobies, political correctness be damned!


Sekirei succeeds in more than one way. For one thing, the animation is excellent for a show of its genre. The character models are consistent, the animation is of high quality, especially during the action sequences, and the character designs are appealing, and not quite as exaggerated in their physical attributes as some shows are liable to do. Musubi is the most endowed of the girls in this show, and she's only two or maybe three times greater in the chest area than would be realistic. For an anime, that's practically normal.


Another thing is that Sekirei isn't intentionally nasty. Shows like Ikki Tousen, Master of Martial Hearts, and to a lesser degree Tenjho Tenge would skirt controversy by linking the sex and violence. The nastier characters would do nasty things, and daft and silly though the shows may be, there was always an uncomfortable edge to them. Not with Sekirei, which mostly keeps its sex and violence separate. The various Sekirei do battle with each other, to take the other side out of the game, erase the symbol on their bodies, break the bond with their Ashikabi, it basically means beating the other side to a pulp, but there's nothing exploitative about it. No villainous characters suggestively lick blades here. The sex side of it, which rarely goes beyond seeing the girls in a state of undress, boils down to the relationship antics that develop between the Sekirei and their Ashikabi, and that is your typical harem comedy nonsense, hardly exploitative at all.


Minato collects quite the harem in these episodes, beginning with Musubi, who literally falls into his lap at the start of the story. She's the eager ditz, likeable and naïve, that quickly falls for Minato and bonds with him. A kiss awakens a Sekirei's powers and causes them to emerge, making them stronger in the battles. Later on, Minato also bonds with Kusano, perhaps the youngest of the Sekirei, who quickly looks up to Minato as a big brother, and longs to grow up to be his wife. She's there to evoke the moe feelings in the audience. For the otaku crowd, there is Matsu, a cute girl hidden behind glasses, commenting on the various relationship issues that Minato suffers, and a dab hand with computers and surveillance. Finally there is the tsundere Tsukiumi, a proud and outspoken Sekirei, who refuses to demean herself by bonding with an Ashikabi, but who melts into a gooey mess when she meets Minato, thereafter proudly proclaiming that of his entire harem, she will be his primary wife. You can guess just which audience demographic this show is aimed at.


There are the other Sekirei and Ashikabi as well, with Kaoru Seo having bonded with lightning casting twins Hibiki and Hikari, filling another audience fantasy, although more often than not, he's at the receiving end of the lightning bolts. The female demographic isn't un-catered for either as there are a few male Sekirei out there too, handsome and elegant, or doll-like and cute. It lets Minato's sister Yukari get in on the act when she meets the childlike and cute Shiina, a Sekirei that is looking for his sister, and on the run from another Ashikabi collecting fighters. How better for Yukari to hide him than to dress him up like a girl. It quickly becomes clear that nosebleeds run in Minato's family.


The comedy, silliness, and random acts of nudity play a big part in Sekirei, while the story of the Sekirei Game unfolds in the background. It's almost a secondary consideration, that really only becomes more serious towards the end of the series run. Little hints about what the Sekirei Game is, the MBI Corporation and the characters behind it, and the implications of what it all means to normal people are just touched on in this series, aside from a rather dark and ominous prologue that isn't really paid off until the final episode. Things do get serious and interesting when it becomes clear that there are some Sekirei that don't even want to play the game, would be much happier just left to stay with their Ashikabi without battling each other for some ephemeral prize, and it's at this point that the questions surrounding the Sekirei Game take on greater import, not that they are answered meaningfully. And just when things look as if they may be getting a little too serious, Sekirei always pulls it back with another hit of silliness or sauciness.


Sekirei is fun, which is the last thing that I was expecting. It's saucy, and it's silly, but it's never nasty, and it certainly isn't exploitative. It's fan service in the purest sense of the word, a series that knows just what its audience wants, and one that delivers it with warmth and a sense of humour that makes it very enjoyable to watch. Hopefully Funimation, and subsequently Manga can bring Season 2 to DVD as well.