Post by crowhats on Jan 29, 2012 20:32:16 GMT -5
It is probably a well known fact to those who read my reviews that I hate harem works. The work Sekirei is not a except to this loathing, and in fact I found this show to actually be an extremely heinous example of a harem work. When I saw a commercial for this work while streaming anime on the Funimation youtube channel, I was appalled that the commercial based upon almost entirely on the use of sexual imagery to sell the show. When I complained about this advertisement online, a few people decided to claim that although this show contain a lot of echii (sexually implicit elements and/or nudity), the ads misrepresented the complexity of this title. These people claimed that after viewing this anime that it wasn’t nearly as bad as offensive as the ads would lead one to believe, and that it contained more action then the ads actually showed. I’m not sure what show they were watching, but after having watched some of this show it actually exceeded my expectations as to how offensive, and lousy it was going to be based upon the advertisements I had seen. Sadly I do feel that Funimation did accurately portray this work as mostly a echii comedy, rather then an action show. Thus this ad did reach the works target audience, which caused it to sell out on it’s initial printing (a rarity for anime). This show is so bad that I couldn’t even stand to watch more than the English dubs that were available on the Anime News Network, which was still a torturous experience for me (thankfully I didn’t pay to view this series legally).
The animation for Sekirei switches between moderately poor, to simply unwatchable. The designs used for most the cast is gross, and anatomically absurd (more on this later), which makes even the better animated scenes feel unpleasant to watch. The better animation (and I use this term loosely) is typically used for the fight scenes, and is at least slightly more interesting to see then the average quality of animation for this show. In other parts, however the animation becomes so poor that it would rival the first Negima series for some of the worst animation used in a more modern work. For the most part though, the quality of animation is pretty consistently bland and moderately poor, in certain sections the shows animation improves, where as in others in becomes downright dismal.
The best way to sum up the sound quality of this show is that it is terrible. While the dub isn’t poorly done, the overall script of the show (including the sub) is terrible, the credit sequences range from okay to horrible, and the music is forgettable and boring. Oddly enough the reason why the dub is terrible, is because it does such a great job of capturing the essence of the show. The dub does exactly what it’s suppose to do, which is to capture the sexist male targeted fantasy feel of the series. The only voice actor I liked in the least was Chuck Huber who plays a eccentric MBI CEO. I hated this dub, mostly because of the nature of the show, rather then the quality of Funimation the voice acting.
The music can safely be categorized as dull and forgettable. Nothing about the soundtrack really stands out as interesting, or worth while talking much about. Honestly I can’t recall much of anything about it except that it was underwhelming. While it wasn’t terrible in the way the first Negimi series was, it was still some of the least appealing music in a anime I’ve heard for awhile. While I can’t really count the music against this show, it doesn’t really add anything to the show either or merit a discussion.
While the closing for this anime is bearable, the opening for it is especially poor in quality. The opening is a classic example of a generic anime opening. The camera that moves more then the characters actually do to give a sense of motion, while the animation is actually rather static. This would be fine if this camera motion really had a creative purpose, but in this opening it is merely a cheap trick employed to reduce the animation budget. The song for this opening is another example of a syrupy sweet, and pretty dull J-pop song that doesn’t hold any real appeal. The ending is better then the opening, despite still being skip-able. What really sucks about the ending is once again how offensive the content is, but a least it is a lot more interesting on a technical level than the opening. The song for the closing is much more memorable, and energetic then the opening. Though the ending is much better then the opening it still has major quality issues, and still has a very unappealing subject matter. While the ending is much better than the opening, both are less then impressive, and didn’t really leave a major impression on me. The sound of this work isn’t really anything special, and at best can be described as forgettable.
Now I finally have the chance to really express why I loath this work. The story for Sekirei can best be described as a painfully cliched tale, and is set within one of the most demeaning of the non-hentai anime genera’s the echii harem show. The loser kid Minato Sahashi begins the series finding out that he has once again failed the entrance exam for college (even I who loath, and avoid harem works knows that this is a rather weak cliche). On his way back to his apartment while moping he runs into the incredibly stacked Sekirei (a superpower young woman) Musubi who is running from two other girls who have lightning powers. He finds out that Musubi is looking for her destined lover (who she calls her master), known as an Ashikabi. Ashikabi males with the power to unlock a Sekirei maximum powers with a kiss (I’m sure by now most people know where this is going *groan*). Later Minato ends up accidentally kissing Musubi after once again flee from the two lightning girls. This kiss causes her body heats up (gee this is so subtle) and it releases her ability to fly. Minato soon finds that he most fight with Musubi in competition to determine the ultimate love which is run by a eccentric CEO, who is using the city as a battle ground for the cute and/or buxom Sekirei to battle. He also is forced to move into a boarding house inhabited almost entirely by women (it has one effeminate looking man who is often absent), some of which are also Sekirei (like this never happens in harem works).
O boy where do I even begin to explain my problems with this show. This show has at least three major problems which are that it is extremely cliched, I found it entirely boring, and worst of all it is extremely offensive even for harem work with lots of echii content. To start with this work hasn’t got an original idea in it. It combines the cliches of a bad shonen work with the typical weakly written harem plot. This is not the first work to do this sort of lazy story before, and in fact this sort of plot was extremely stale in the 1990’s when it most commonly used. Like most works of this sort this title focuses mostly on the echii, and (supposedly) romantic aspects of the work, rather then having good or interesting action or humor. The superpowers and comedy were obviously thrown in as a after thought to meet the requirement of a plot.
This moves me into the next problem of the series, which is that it is extremely tedious. Not only are the concepts used in this series un-original, but the way things progress in the story are painfully obvious. This is another instance where the humor just isn’t funny, and is in fact insulting to the viewers intelligence (for example the land lady has a scary mask in the background when she is mad or that Musubi eats a lot). The action is dull as repetitive consisting of Musubi either training, having her opponents surrendering (or running away), or winning, and usually involve her clothes coming off. It is clear that she won’t lose the battle, and that she isn’t in any danger of ever being permanently defeated. The romance is just plain dumb with the main characters forming a so called perfect love within a few episodes at most, despite there being a surplus of other women around (including some who will later be interested in Minato). This is another sort of show where the two leads fall in love after knowing each other for like a day. Like in many harems the lead couple don’t seem to need to get to know each other, or to develop any sort of a relationship or attraction to one another. These weak elements make each episode tedious, and make them lack any sort of surprise.
Of all the problems this series has one clearly stands out above all others, I am of course talking about disturbingly sexist nature of this show. While it isn’t surprising that a harem echii show is sexist, I was shocked by just how pathetically objectifying this show is toward women. To start with this show has Musubi acting like a submissive doll who is only interested in serving Minato. She is always cheerfully willing to embrace domesticity by cooking for him, sleeping beside him, will get naked in front of him without embarrassment, and her only real goal is to please him. Many of the other Sekirei, and the land lady also often behave in this submissive supposedly effeminate way (I have yet to find a real woman or girl that behaves like most female characters do in harem shows). Sekirei will do anything their Ashikabi tells them to do including fight, and the Sekirei usually call their Ashikabi master (because this is something lovers supposedly do according to harem works). This show features some of the saddest instances of wish-fulliment fantasy I have ever had to watched.
Now to the elephant in the room which is the echii elements of this show. These elements are so exploitative that I would say that this work borders on pornographic (only it’s actual lack of sex really prevents it from being outright porn). This show will use almost any possible excuse to include sexual female imagery. It’s very obvious that the creators real purpose, and selling point for this series was the exhibiting of these images, and that a story was merely added as filler content. The character designs chosen for this work for the most part make the cast look like fetish dolls (especially Musubi), usually with a absurdly large chests, and overly cute style faces. The Sekirei characters (besides the one child character) are used strictly for either fighting (where their clothes are often ripped off), and/or as sexual imagery. It’s pathetically obvious that the whole purpose of this show is to titillate the audience with exploitative female imagery. The comedy, action, and plot are clearly just after thoughts, and are mostly filler in between the various echii and wish-fulfilment elements of the show.
It’s almost not really even worth mentioning the cast in this work, because most the cast in work’s of this genera are pretty much the same. Minato is the typical harem lead, a slightly below average guy who for some reason has a bunch of sexy women around him. He is designed like most harem leads to be a stand in for the viewer, but at the same time is not competent enough to a major sexual threat, or distinct enough that a viewer can’t place themselves in his shoes. Musubi literally has only three roles in this show to serve Minato, to be eye candy, and to fight other Sekirei. Uzume sleeps most of the time, and is again mainly used as eye candy, and the works sexist themes. Minato eventually rescues, and becomes the Ashikabi of a young Sekirei Kuu, who treats him like a older brother. The last kind of important character is the CEO of the MBI corporation Kagari, who dresses like the universal count Dracula if he decided to wear entirely white. He is the only character I was remotely interested in, because of his voice, and his odd style of dressing, which I found so absurd that it was funny. (Seriously what CEO dresses up in all white with a cape?) He also might be plotting something of interest by running the Sekirei game (then again I’m not holding my breath). Other important characters include a lazy freeloader Ashikabi known as Kaoru who control two lighting sisters that first attack Musubi, the land lady Miya who trains Musubi and provides the leads a home, and the mysterious man Kagari/Homura who has flame powers and protects lost Sekirei. These characters are hardly worth mentioning though, since it is clear that the purpose for this work wasn’t to have an interesting plot.
The Sekirei anime is just as bad as it’s Funimation advertisements suggest. It’s entire purpose for creation was to create a anime purely based upon eye candy. The plot is cookie cutter, and just as bad (or even worse possibly) then you’d expect from an anime like this one. None of the other elements of the show are very impressive, and in fact some of the animation is almost insufferably bad. Nothing about this offensive piece of junk is deserving of any praise from me. While I didn’t see the entire season, I think I can safely say that this show is not worth watching. This is one of those shows where unless your a pervert (in which case you’d be better off just watching hentai instead) I’d advise avoiding it at all costs.