Bishounen and huge-breasted females with magic powers?! Color me... incredibly skeptical.

Episode Summary

In some sort of military compound, a whole lot of soldiers are slaughtered as some stronger beings retrieve a young child from inside.

In the normal world, a boy named Minato has failed his college entrance exams for the second time. When he gets off the train, he’s run into (literally) by a girl with large breasts who’s in the middle of a fight with a couple other women. So naturally he gets dragged along by her. He wakes up later next to her, and she undresses in front of him. Her name is Musubi, and she asks to live with him because she has no place else to go. He lives in an apartment meant for singles, so he has to keep her a secret from the landlord. While out walking, he spots the enemies that Musubi was fighting earlier, and they continue the battle.

When Musubi gets blasted, the meek Minato carries her into an alley to rescue her. For some inexplicable reason, the two begin to get hot and heavy. It seems that when Musubi kisses the right person, she undergoes a transformation and gets stronger powers, driving off the two . In an alley, they come up against another man, who threatens them and then walks off. At home, a man named “The Professor” talks to Mibato through the TV and explains that he’s now a Sekirei partner. The Sekirei battle as part of a top-secret project, and Minato is there to help Musubi. Sadly he gets kicked out of house and home by his landlord, who discovers Musubi’s presence. No other apartment will take them, and they go to mope in the park. Musubi cheers him up with her words, and her kiss, and they fly into the sky.

Thoughts

While it’s no secret that I’m not a fan of fanservice anime, I can stomach it in certain situations. If both men and women are in compromising situations, then it doesn’t bother me so much. Ditto if the show is a comedy and the ludicrous fanservice situations contribute to that (and aren’t too gratuitous). This show, however, isn’t quite funny enough to be a comedy, and falls into that stupid formula of “hapless guy is cornered by beautiful, voluptuous and magical female and taken on as his partner”. Barf. I’ll never understand when a women with so much fighting or magical power decides to couple with some guy who’s a useless loser. Oh wait, it’s wish-fulfillment for all the losers who can’t get a real girlfriend and need to get their jollies from a show like this. Also, this show promised bishounen as well, but didn’t deliver. The only men who show up in this episode are fully-clothed. It’s nice that the men are able to keep their clothes on while fighting; maybe they should teach the ladies how to wear a whole shirt sometime.

As I mentioned, this show really tries to have some comedic moments, but they generally fall kind of flat. The parts where Musubi thoughtlessly undresses in front of Minato are probably supposed to be very funny, but I was left rolling my eyes most of the time. Seen it, been there, move on please. When Minato gets kicked out of his place, it’s just depressing. If a fanservice show can’t even do comedy properly, and the sex appeal is just ludicrous, what else is there? In this case, not much, since the story is just about as cliché as they come. 108 Sekirei battling each-other. Woo. I think I’d rather just watch Pokémon.

I think, actually, that this show is just trying to be too many things. The opening harkens back somewhat to Elfen Lied, what with the piles of dead bodies inside a compound and all, but then we’re dealt action, ecchi, and substandard comedy all within less than a half an hour, and nothing is done very well. Least of all the animation, which in keeping with the standards set by the rest of the show, is middling at best. It’s actually quite funny how it seems that most of the budget was spent getting Musubi’s breasts to bounce unnaturally when she moves.

All-in-all, this show is bland and doesn’t even accomplish what it sets out to do. It’s not funny, not very sexy, and the action just isn’t very exciting. I’d suggest just going back and renting Tenjou Tenge instead.

Pros

• Isn’t quite as offensive as it certainly could have been

Cons

• Tries to be too many things at once, and everything falls flat
• Promises bishounen and then doesn’t deliver

By Jessi – 09/01/08