Sekirei

Jun 16, 2008

Master10K

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (202/213 chp)

One guy, several girls and a heap of mishaps are the base ingredients to what make a harem however Sekirei does things a little differently. Rather than focusing on being a typical Harem, Ecchi, Rom/Com; here we have a sort of battle royale, with a "gotta catch 'em all" feel to it. But instead if catching cute Pokemon, these trainers gotta catch cute girls, not with a ball but with a kiss. Oh, and occasionally their clothes explode.

The "Sekirei Plan" is a super duper secret project where hot girls & guys of unknown origin have to fight, fight and fight some more. Why? Who knows. ... What's the point of it all? Probably for the enjoyment of a deranged multi-billionaire, who spends most of his time ranting and raving atop his ivory tower. And no, that is not a joke.

Down on the street-level, Minato Sahashi is the young man who’s thrown into this startling, unfamiliar situation, where he becomes the Ashikabi (partner) of one of the 108 Poke- Sekirei. A cute girl who goes by the name Musubi, with her augemented abilities and augemented physique. Her goal is simply to fight for her master. Why? I dunno... I guess to be the last one standing and win... Something. The main plot of the story is established by the first 3 chapters, yet it just isn't explained well. It's usually through the multi-billionaire game master’s eccentric monologues, or through some other character imparting some exposition they've been withholding. Honestly a lot of the dialogue just feels unnatural and the battle royale itself feels uninspired and becomes rather convoluted, as it tries to shoehorn in some depth. But inbetween the fights and exposition dumps, Minato is just a guy, going with the flow and trying to make the most out of the situation he's found himself in, which is fairly enjoyable. Especially as he gradually increases his roster.

Which is weird to say, because these aren't animal-like creatures, one sends into battle to slaughter one another. These Sekirei are basically like augemented humans, with a variety of personalities and desires... That one sends into battle to slaughter one another. Although there are meant to be 108 Sekirei, the story spends the bulk of its time focusing on the ones Minato claims and the Sekirei they intereact with. So there's a good 2 or 3 dozen for fans to pic their favourites from and make doujins on. As for Minato himself. He is quite frankly a self-identified useless NEET, who manages to luck out of his stagnant life, somewhat from ident of birth. Nevertheless he is one of those protagonist who attains some character growth as the story progresses but not enough, as he remains weak-willed throughout and one can easily tell this by the demenear he is drawn (usually on his hands and knees).

Well sure Minato is not much to look at but for an ecchi harem manga, featuring a boat-load of cute girls, the mangaka can just unleash their creative juices on the page and carry even a subpar story with their art alone. Which is why, it is with a heavy heart, I must say that those hoping for a bit more creativity would find the artwork for Sekirei rather lacking. Simplistic character designs, with wonky features and exposed-lopsided breasts are just some of the issues I personally had. Let alone the background environments which are all rather basic; lacking a sense of detail and shading, to elevate it to greatness. All in all, it art looks incredibly simplistic and usually the simplicity in the art would make action sequences really easy to follow (take World Trigger for example), but even there the mangaka for Sekirei fails.

Overall Sekirei is a Battle manga, with mediocre battles that one can only follow by reading the attack moves. An Ecchi manga that fails to arouse, due to the lacklustre artwork. But a Harem that holds some interesting character dynamics and relationships. I wish it just had more of those fun character interations and less of the clusterfuck it had towards the end. Sekirei is really the kind of manga I enjoyed many years ago, but re-reading it now (2017), after reading a 100+ superior manga, it makes it very difficult to ignore the flaws.

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Dec 26, 2011

Hexnaka

Recommended

Preliminary (61/213 chp)

Sekirei described in a sentence would be ahem... highlander with boobies. but don't let that put you off now I say i've read 61 chapters but that is a bit of a guess it's around 61 but i lost my place
so now for the reveiw (oh and please forgive my bad spelling and gramer)

Story: as mentiond it's basicly highlander with hot chiks in revealing outfits oh and if you haven't seen highlander got to a dvd rental shop and rent it I'm not describing it for you but basicly it's a good plot taken from a 1980's action movie so it losses points masivly ...

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Apr 15, 2013

Jayex

Recommended

Preliminary (87/213 chp)

Ah, Ecchi manga. Typically I stay away from these, but I wandered upon this one
and just decided to read it.

Story - 8
The story isn't that bad. Not much plot though, too much boobies. Stick to the main plot more and this would've gotten a higher score.
Gags (old man gags at that) were pretty funny though, I would be laughing all the time. Sometimes I laughed that my parents would come in--exactly when I press Alt + Tab.

Art - 7
Again, too much boobies. Aside from that I like the Author's style of art.
Also, I think I could handle one, two, ...

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Jun 12, 2017

Biogundam

Mixed Feelings

Warring this review may contain spoilers.

First impressions, so my first impressions is.
That this is about a bunch of supper powered human looking aliens fighting it out in a city wide battle torment in order to reach paradise with there master.
Sounds fucking cool and I want to see what they do with it.

Story, 6/10

One day while two time college entrance exam failure minato is walking in depression from his lastest failure of try's to get into college of his dreams.
While in dispear an extra thick shrine maiden falls from the sky and lands on top of him ...

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Aug 22, 2020

hexashadow13

Recommended

tl;dr: A manga that although somewhat disconnected and random in a lot of aspects is still pretty interesting and enjoyable all the way through.

This manga had a lot of interesting elements, but it largely didn’t do much with them, so it didn’t really feel like things progressed in the ways and to the degree that they should, which also resulted in them feeling kind of disconnected. The cast of main characters at least at a base level have personalities and backgrounds that make them worth getting invested in, but it felt like their stories themselves were kind of weak. Other than the protagonist, the character ... development in pretty much everyone stops after they get winged. The relationship development after that point is also incredibly slow. The end result of this is that while each character may seem kind of interesting on their own, the cast overall feels kind of flat. These portions aren’t completely devoid of good character stories, as the latter portions after all the Sekirei had been winged seem to focus more heavily on groups of side characters who have pretty solid character and relationship development of their own, but these don’t really end up tying much into the overall narrative or with the main cast at all, so they feel like stories good in their own right but not ones that enhance the narrative holistically.

In terms of plot, it was interesting moment to moment, but it was incredibly random without giving much for the reader to really have any idea of where the plot would go next, but also still being incredibly safe. What I mean by that is that it was incredibly clear where things would get to eventually, but the path to get there involved going in a bunch of abrupt directions. This results in things being more interesting moment to moment, but making it harder for the reader to get invested in the overarching narrative. This wasn’t due to twists mainly, by which I mean new information revealed that changes what you thought about already present plot elements, but rather by the plot essentially being dictated by the guy running the whole Sekirei project who was just deciding things on the fly and didn’t really know what he was doing, which didn't really flow all that well. There certainly were twists relating to where the Sekirei come from and how Minato related to them, but they were foreshadowed so heavily that when they were revealed properly said reveals had little to no impact, especially as the consequences of said twists were ultimately often pretty minimal.

All of this leads up to an ending that one should have seen coming as the safest most generic obvious ending that could be given, but still it’s the type of ending I like so I was quite satisfied with it. The epilogue I should note was quite fantastic, in that it had more of a slice of life feel to it that worked much better for showing off character and relationship development, so even if it didn’t feel like much was happening over the course of the manga it did feel like growth was achieved in the epilogue. The comedy throughout was pretty solid, but as it went on it felt like there was less and less of it. Overall, I think the manga would have felt much better paced if it had leaned more heavily on its slice of life and comedy aspects instead of how focused on the overarching plot it was. The battles had interesting aspects, like Norito. The powers and abilities felt kind of overtly simplistic though, and never properly explained, so battles were really random without being particularly amazing. Power growth was also pretty much nonexistent for most of the manga but it never really felt needed either, and hence battles almost never had much tension as other than one instance it never really felt like there was much risk of the main cast actually losing. Still despite that, the individual battles in and of themselves were pretty cool. The art was incredibly good for pretty much all aspects and interesting in that the character designs despite being pretty plain for the most part still felt pretty varied and nice to look at.

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Feb 10, 2022

RedPark

Not Recommended

*some spoilers*

Knowing that a story will revolve around a battle royale, I bet we’d at least expect something thrilling, entertaining, and action-packed, full of exhilarating clashes. We may even expect a bit of poignancy, as after all, by structure, not all fighters are meant to make it to the end. Sekirei is very much a battle royale manga that anticipates these expectations, but utterly fails to fulfill any of them. Instead, all that its delivers is cloying light-heartedness, muddled storytelling, and constant cop-outs making for a bland series with surprisingly low entertainment value.

We start the story when down on his luck loser (and typical harem ... milquetoast) Minato Sahashi miraculously meets Musubi. He unknowingly establishes a master-servant relationship with her and is subsequently embroiled in an oncoming battle royale in which over 100 "battle maidens" like Musubi will battle to the last until one pair remains. However, an Ashikabi can have more than one Sekirei, and soon Minato amasses a harem, emerging as a strong contender in the game.

The series certainly sets the stage up well for an exciting contest, and by hinting at bigger mysteries early on, the game is set to be an interesting one too. However, as Sekirei progresses, it becomes clear that the series will not deliver on its promises. By setting a story as a battle royale, one would clearly anticipate the eponymous clashes. While battles are abundant in this series, they are not very entertaining. The most common reason for this is due to most battles being one-sided clashes where the victors are already certain; somehow, Minato manages to gain some of the most powerful Sekirei on his side very early on in the story, and probably too early. Minato’s deck is so clearly stacked against others that the outcomes of battles are clear before they even start. It quite effectively kills surprise which is part of what makes battle manga fun and entertaining. Even so, when the battles manage to escape the trapping of predictability, they are still disappointing. Either the clashes end up becoming a volley of flashy powers before someone ultimately gets a last-minute power-up and wins, or the battle abruptly ends with an anticlimactic cop-out. This actually happens both times our heroes face off against a particularly powerful enemy team, which killed the genuine excitement that these battles were imbued with at the start.

We may also expect battle royales to be somewhat tragic or dark, depending on the specific circumstances that they are established in. With numerous Sekirei battling until one remains, the series clearly sets up rules wherein we expect tragic developments to occur (and at times the series explicitly forecasts that this will occur). However, Sekirei is much too light-hearted in nature that it tends to shy away from these moments as much as possible. Though that is not an inherent fault, when the series reaches points where tragedy should be unavoidable, it cop-outs and gives a cheap answer to the particular dilemma. This light-heartedness feeling that permeates throughout the manga is probably the biggest drawback Sekirei has towards crafting an exciting battle manga, as the series is much too afraid to veer beyond this silly-happy territory. That said, the series does at times entertain tragedy, but these moments are rather unsurprising, cliched, and often feel like cheap ways to evoke emotional moments, which the series thereafter mines upon for cloying sentimentality.

While the storytelling of the series is okay in the first half, it is very light. This makes for a more breezy read in the beginning, but one lacking in substance, which is expected to follow later. However when it comes time for explanations, the series begins its descent into incoherent nonsense. Most of the reveals are vague, muddled, or just not that necessary for the story. This is at its worst in the last few volumes of the main story, where what should be the climatic finale is instead a mess of convoluted babble and developments that are ultimately not interesting or actually important. Instead of the finale that was being built towards, the series abruptly shirks this direction in favour of a messy final battle with faceless enemies, making for a wholly disappointing and jarring conclusion. This is a shame given how much author Sakurako Gokurakuin built up various plot-lines and drummed up excitement for them, only to utterly fail on their delivery. This lack does not only apply to explanations however. For instance, one extremely disappointing plot-line of the series was the sister subplot, wherein Minato’s sister becomes involved in the battle, creating an interesting dynamic in the story. However, this subplot is poorly developed, stretched out, and ultimately ends with an unfulfilling cop-out. It seems like all Sekirei does is cop-out.

Sekirei does not have much to offer on the characters side of things either. Our main "hero" Minato is wimpy and unconfident but has a heart of gold (of course). He does undergo minor change (which is usually explicitly expressed by other characters), but he never becomes an interesting lead character and is often swept along by the plot throughout the series instead of taking an active role. Author Gokurakuin creates most other characters as if they are made in a factory assembly line: a single characteristic (usually comedic) is slapped onto a character design and they call it a day. As a result, most characters tend to be nothing more than walking traits without much depth (and given how stale the humour is, they get old fast). Nearly all the Sekirei are like this, and with so many of them, the amount of one-note personalities to contend with becomes tiring. It doesn’t help how the Sekirei become utterly devoted and dependant on their Ashikabi, which feels like it strips them of their character depth and decency by assigning nearly all of them the seedy characteristic of dependency. Rather it just feels like subservient wish fulfillment, but perhaps I was expecting too much from a harem series. This all extends to Minato’s team of Sekirei as well. On his team, Tsukiumi is probably the most entertaining character out of the bunch, and while she is a one-note tsundere relegated to the deprecating role of jealous housewife, she is at least entertaining. Furthermore, the attraction that some of them have to Minato is not very evident or believable, which again makes his over-powered team questionable. While there are some decent characters, they are few in number and are outside the main cast. Despite the hundreds of characters in this series, I can count on one hand the number of them which are defined by more than one trait.

Gokurakuin’s art is probably one of the few plus sides of this series. The character designs are well done, detailed, and varied, making the series at least pleasant to look at. While backgrounds are fine, they at times are relinquished to give way to the spectacle of battle. Unfortunately, Gokurakuin is less effective on depicting these flashy clashes. While there are some noteworthy moments in battle art-wise, they are other times just bland. This lacking is likely what makes part of the action not very engaging. This being an ecchi series, gratuitous nudity is to be found in nearly every chapter. To give a quite sleazy view, I often didn’t find Gokurakuin’s nudity to be very salacious, which is part of the attraction of an ecchi series.

I think the main issue here with Sekirei was that author Sakurako Gokurakuin was not really suited to depicting an action-packed battle manga; Gokurakuin feels more like an author who would make the super cheerful gakuen spin-off of a series rather than an action-packed one. They clearly wanted to depict this kind of manga, but couldn’t follow through. Instead, the focus on light-hearted, lovey-dovey shlock, as well as muddled storytelling and constant cop-outs, brought down whatever potential this series had.

(originally written in 2019)

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