Sekirei

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Wagtail

Japanese: セキレイ

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Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 12

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Jul 2, 2008 to Sep 17, 2008

Premiered: Summer 2008

Broadcast: Wednesdays at 23:30 (JST)

Producers: Aniplex, Movic

Licensors: Funimation

Studios: Seven Arcs

Source: Manga

Genres: Action, Comedy, Ecchi

Themes: Harem, Super Power

Demographic: Seinen

Duration: 23 min. per ep.

Rating: R+ - Mild Nudity

Statistics

Score: 7.04¹ (scored by 203,393 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #3966²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #551

Members: 403,739

Favorites: 1,706

Available At

Official Site

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AniDB

ANN

Synopsis

Struggling yet brilliant 19-year-old Minato Sahashi has failed his college entrance exams for the second time, resulting in him being regarded as worthless by those around him. However, the course of his seemingly bleak future is altered dramatically when a beautiful, supernatural woman falls from the sky and into his life. That woman, Musubi, is a unique being known as a "Sekirei," a humanoid extraterrestrial with extraordinary abilities. These aliens are known for kissing humans carrying the Ashikabi gene in order to awaken additional latent powers deep within.

Recognizing the potential within the seemingly insignificant youth, Musubi kisses the bewildered Minato, initiating a bond between the two of them. This drags him into the high-stakes world of the Sekirei, where he and his new partner must compete against others in a battle for survival called the "Sekirei Plan." However, unbeknownst to the contestants, there is far more at risk that what the competition initially entailed.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Sekirei's English adaptation was done by FUNimation in 2010, two years after its initial Japanese release. The series covers approximately the first fifty chapters of the manga on which it is based.

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Sekirei
Sequel:	Sekirei: Pure Engagement
Side story:	Sekirei: Hajimete no Otsukai

Itou, Shizuka
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Cook, Justin

Producer

Kananiwa, Kozue

Producer

Saitou, Shunsuke

Assistant Producer

Kusakawa, Keizou

Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

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Opening Theme

"Sekirei (セキレイ)" by Saori Hayami, Marina Inoue, Kana Hanazawa, and Aya Endo

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Ending Theme

	1: "Dear sweet heart" by Saori Hayami, Marina Inoue, Kana Hanazawa, and Aya Endo (eps 1-10)
	2: "Kimi wo Omou Toki (きみを想うとき)" by Saori Hayami (eps 11)

Reviews

Aug 31, 2008

KaminaKai

Recommended

Sekirei is targeted at male audience, viewers who dislike ecchi/harem anime should look elsewhere. Likewise, those who love fan service should give Sekirei a try. It contains all the "ripped up clothes" scenes, "censored panty" shots, "semi-bare breasts", etc. You will not be disappointed.

It should be noted that while the show does follow the manga quite closely for the most part, the ending of the anime does deviate from the manga a bit.

Story:
Are you familiar with Fate/stay Night? If you are please continue reading this paragraph, if not skip to the next. Upon reading the synopsis, you may find Sekirei's plot to be very similar. ...

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Nov 15, 2012

WhiteBakemono

Mixed Feelings

Anime: Sekirei

Title: Meh..... That is all.

About the Anime: Minato Sahashi was living a normal life; he had just failed his college entrance exam for a second year in a row, and lived a quiet life in a single's apartment. That is, until the busty Musubi fell from the sky on top of him! She is a Sekirei, one of 108 that are destined to fight each other until only one remains; and he or she will ascend to heaven with his or her chosen one known as an Ashikabi. Minato soon finds himself in the embrace of Musubi, becoming her Ashibaki - but his life ... will only become more complicated. Musubi isn't the last to claim Minato as her Ashibaki, and what's worse, plenty of other Sekirei and opponents stand in his way!

Story 4.5/10: If I had to choose a moniker for Sekirei, it would probably be, "The Little Anime that Couldn't". It offers ecchi fan-service without being racy, peddles action while failing to be engaging, and sports an interesting setup that the show never puts to effective use. While it's possible to read the series as making fun of itself, the harem genre, and tournament-focused shounen shows, a second look reveals that the show means everything it says--much to my dismay.
A quick summary of the series reads like Pokemon, but with tits. The first installment follows the hapless protagonist as he bumbles and sweet talks his way into acquiring of an increasingly powerful and scantily-clad team of humanoid aliens called Sekirei in preparation for a tournament sometime in the near future (read: second season). Thankfully, the parade of buxom woman in various states of undress meshes well with the show's simplistic focus on escalating confrontations. When two Sekirei meet for the first time, they fight. When Minato encounters new potential teammate, there's a fight. When MBI (the evil corporation behind the whole thing) seals off Neo Tokyo, the gang finds an excuse to fight. These high-energy smackdowns, which increase in frequency, participants, and outrageous displays of power as the story progresses, take a good deal of the pressure off the flagging narrative.
The show does demonstrate on occasion that there might be a decent yarn hiding behind all the cheesecake, but then refuses to follow up on any of these more interesting tidbits. For example, the first episode introduces the Sekireis' extra-terrestrial origins, but the subject gets dropped once MBI enters the picture. The dealings between Ashikabis (this world's trainers) also receive cursory treatment due to the series' singular focus on Minato, squandering an opportunity to provide him some character depth by comparison; and glossing over subplots that could have held the viewers' interest between battles. In the Kuu-chan mini-arc, the presence of another girl-wrangler and his cohort add tension and conflict to what would have been a boring meet-and-greet. But where the anime could have used the greedy antagonist to draw out the hero's underlying character traits, the remainder of the series chooses to leave this antagonist as a shadowy figure.

Animation 6/10: Sekirei's visuals sport modern coloring and finishing techniques, but lack the consistency of more polished anime. For every excellent water, fire, or lightning effect associated with the fighters' powers, there's a scene where the animation turns blocky or the characters look odd. Additionally, combat sequences cut a lot of corners; the chase scenes or jumping receive the lion's share of screen time that should have gone to the use of the Sekireis' impressive powers or dramatic hand-to-hand fighting. The show also hamstrings its own dramatic buildups by dropping into an unattractive deformed style during important interpersonal moments in a weak attempt to add levity where none is needed.
Additionally, the artists spent their limited imaginations early in the design process, leading to a plethora of derivative cuties. The lead's harem consists of four over-developed beauties in each of the four normal hair colors (blonde, brunette, redhead, raven-haired) and an adorable loli-girl who barely talks. While one character's interesting kimono and another's attractive black dress certainly provide some good eye-candy, two of Minato's girlies basically wear bedsheets, and a third wears an equally-unimaginative purple frock. The remaining cast coughs up such original creations as an outfit cribbed from Kill Bill, a guy dressed up like Neo from The Matrix Reloaded, and a set of twins in matching two-piece zippered cat suits (use the non-furry definition of cat-suit). Since the characters' costumes don't reflect their powers, each design merely allows the viewer to tell Sekirei apart at a glance and nothing more.

Sound 5/10: Starting with the bland OP, the series' soundtrack does not disappoint, but also never surprises. Most of the incidental music follows in the grand synth tradition of middling anime, sounding familiar and hitting all of the "right" notes at the expected times. Accompanying an unapologetic fan-service slide show, the bubbly ED ends each episode on a sonic high note--assuming listeners ignore the coyly submissive lyrics ("The truth is I want you to hold only me / I'm feeling turned on / Is it ok to show signs?"). Sadly, the voice acting doesn't deviate from the standard set by the score. None of the characters miss their cues or offend the ears, but the readings add no nuance to the broadly drawn character stereotypes. The only memorable performance comes from Seki Toshihiko as the MBI Chairman; his over the top mannerisms and showman's shouts add much needed camp, but receive tragically little time in the limelight. Be warned, this series also includes a mewling youngster in the form of Kuu-chan. The little girl's cooing would have rapidly gotten annoying save for the fact that her seiyuu makes some entertaining non-speaking sounds.

Characters 4/10: Sekirei combines a stereotypical cast with pathetic characterization to fall flat on its face where it could have shined. Given the show's ecchi pedigree, a hollow male lead comes as no surprise, but where other shows provide an interesting harem to make up for a lackluster main protagonist, this series coughs up a laughably generic group for Minato. As the female lead, Musubi's naivete brings in a few good chuckles as she wrestles with modesty, but her eagerness to please and penchant for violence quickly grow stale when she does not develop at all during the first season. The rest of his Sekirei come straight out of central casting: Tsukiumi fell of the truck on the way from the tsundere factory, Kusano follows the textbook definition of imouto to a "T", and Kazehana presents like Shakugan no Shana's Margery Daw with all of the interesting parts removed (but all of her lady-parts intact). Furthermore, the series substitutes mystery in the place of complexity at every opportunity, purposefully obscuring characters' histories so that they can act in unpredictable ways. Luckily, the low episode count both provides a convenient excuse and mitigates the characters' lack of development and unoriginality.

Overall 5/10: Far from being painfully average, Sekirei entertains so long as it remains on the screen, but doesn't rise above the low bar it sets for itself. Watching the show for the first time, the viewer can applaud himself on recognizing moe archetypes and marvel at the nifty super powers on display, but the unoriginal premise and middling execution means the show hardly warrants a second viewing. Bouncing along like the chests of its female leads, this anime shoves to the side any and all plot threads that don't directly concern Minato and his coven of comely combatants. Straightjacketed by the supposed demands of its target demographic, the series remains unfailingly true to its setup and modest goals, and in so doing loses a shot at being something memorable.
~WhiteBakemono

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Jul 18, 2015

literaturenerd

Not Recommended

Overview:

Sekirei is an anime that has never been a critical darling! However, my good buddy convinced me to ignore all the critics and give this series a shot. Unfortunately...I kind of have to agree with the popular consensus on this one. Sekirei has enough problems to make it very hard for me to recommend.

Plot and characters:

The plot of Sekirei is that some hot alien chicks crash landed on Earth and an evil corporation is forcing them to pair up with bland males to act as their “masters” and fight each other to the death in a Battle Royale tournament with the winners getting to ascend ... into Godhood. If only I hadn’t seen so many highly similar plots in other shitty anime like: Akikan, Kampfer, Future Diary, etc. It must be said that Sekirei is not exactly going to win any awards for its creativity. Each of these alien girls called “Sekirei” have different “types” that determine which techniques they can learn and how well they match up against other types based on elemental strengths and weaknesses. Funny, this seems AWFULLY familiar from somewhere! The main character is Minato, who is supposed to be a lovable loser kind of guy that has failed twice getting into Tokyo University and is now studying hard to finally succeed. Seriously! That’s just how little this series tries in terms of creativity. Although I wouldn’t say he is a complete Keitaro from Love Hina ripoff because Keitaro didn’t keep a harem of female slaves that he fought to the death in gladiator matches. I guess Minato is more like Keitaro mixed with Calvin Candie from Django Unchained?! The first Sekirei that Minato gains mastery over is a “fighting type” Sekirei named Musubi. Predictably, Musubi is an airheaded bimbo that lacks any interesting character traits. She loves to eat, flash her tits, and punch other Sekirei in the face. That’s really about as far as her character development goes. My favorite character is the mad scientist leader of the corporation controlling the Sekirei. He is so bombastic and over the top that he actually made me laugh on several occasions, especially in the English dub where he is played by Chuck Huber.

Art:

The animation in Sekirei is decent and some of the fight scenes look pretty good relative to its year of release. However, I wasn’t a fan of the character designs. The tits are so absurdly large that it just looks fucking stupid! Sekirei’s idea of human anatomy clashed hard with my personal aesthetics.

Enjoyment:

Sekirei actually did have a few moments that were genuinely funny, or at least so incredibly stupid that I laughed. In one scene, Musubi randomly starts flying and takes Minato into the air to spoof the romance scene from the 1978 Superman film…then she announces that she has no idea how to land and they fall hundreds of feet before crashing into a tree. The fight scenes as mentioned above in the art section are fairly decent and if you simply want to watch some entertaining garbage, this series is passable.

Overall:

Sekirei is not what I would consider a good anime by any stretch. However, it never annoyed me to the degree that Akikan and Kampfer did or infuriate me by being horribly written, yet taking itself dead seriously like Future Diary or Code Geass. Basically, Sekirei is a bad anime, but there are a LOT of anime I hate WAY more than Sekirei! Still, I would avoid this one unless you really want to see some mindless entertainment featuring impossibly busty Pokemon women fighting each other for the sake of a highly cliche' and contrived plot.

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