Boobs.
Sorry, just had to get that out of the way. The next Anime show that I'm going to be reviewing is Sekirei.
How does one describe the show? It's the epitome of a number of Anime conventions. You have the big-boobed temptress cliche. You have the women with superpowers cliche (in full force). You have a number of other cliches including *sigh* this one...
Yeah, that one. Here's the gist of the show for you...
* A city in Japan is controlled by this generically-evil Anime man.
* He unleashes the Sekirei Plan. This involves unleashing 108 mutant ladies to fight each other.
* Each Sekirei must bond to their mate (or Ashikabi) & unleash their full potential.
Naturally, being an Anime, our hero gets four of them. Yes, it's a Harem Anime too...just with no implied sex.
- Musubi is the lead girl (#3 girl in the above shot). She's feisty and fights hand to hand.
- Kusano (#2) is a tiny girl. She's usually crying/wearing costumes and makes giant plants grow.
- Matsu (#4) is a horny bitch in glasses. She's a hacker...which is apparently a power.
- Tsukiumi (#1) talks and acts like a female Thor. She has water powers.
Of course, this show has about 600 sub-plots running at any point and time. Pacing is the big issue, as the show only has twelve episodes. By Episode 6, Minato- our lead- has all of his Sekirei. Great- the show's half-over now! Speaking of pacing, they finally explain what Sekirei are and how they came to be...in Episodes 8 and 9. No hurry, guys!
As a whole, the show is good. It kept a good enough pace to make me- a non-Anime watcher- stay interested. My biggest problem is the scale-to-pacing ratio. 12 Episodes to set up a battle between 108 super-powered women, plus a romance plot, six other sub-plots of interest, three different villains (with their own motivations) and a plot involving two people escaping the city (which fills up the last four). Yeah, that works out well, right?
To be fair, there is a second series and two OVAs. Here's the thing: Netflix doesn't carry them. Maybe they will eventually, but they don't right now. Until then, I'm left with one season, a lot of empty promises and, well, boobs.
Next up, I'll watch something that Bob wants me to. I won't tell him (or you) what that is...but it will be something. Stay tuned...
Sorry, just had to get that out of the way. The next Anime show that I'm going to be reviewing is Sekirei.
* A city in Japan is controlled by this generically-evil Anime man.
* He unleashes the Sekirei Plan. This involves unleashing 108 mutant ladies to fight each other.
* Each Sekirei must bond to their mate (or Ashikabi) & unleash their full potential.
Naturally, being an Anime, our hero gets four of them. Yes, it's a Harem Anime too...just with no implied sex.
- Kusano (#2) is a tiny girl. She's usually crying/wearing costumes and makes giant plants grow.
- Matsu (#4) is a horny bitch in glasses. She's a hacker...which is apparently a power.
- Tsukiumi (#1) talks and acts like a female Thor. She has water powers.
Of course, this show has about 600 sub-plots running at any point and time. Pacing is the big issue, as the show only has twelve episodes. By Episode 6, Minato- our lead- has all of his Sekirei. Great- the show's half-over now! Speaking of pacing, they finally explain what Sekirei are and how they came to be...in Episodes 8 and 9. No hurry, guys!
To be fair, there is a second series and two OVAs. Here's the thing: Netflix doesn't carry them. Maybe they will eventually, but they don't right now. Until then, I'm left with one season, a lot of empty promises and, well, boobs.
I wait in suspense. :-P
ReplyDeleteRegarding the little girl, at least it wasn't a little girl with gigantic boobs. O_O Yeah, that happens in some of these. :-P I don't have a problem with kid characters being in a romantic anime as long as they are clearly not a potential romantic subject. It's okay even if you do it where the kid has a crush on the lead or something, so long as it is 100% clear that he doesn't reciprocate. Do it that way, and it's just a cute element of the kid character. Do it with the lead reciprocating, and it's creepy.
Sounds like this one may or may not feel more complete if you have the second season. Some shows have a pretty clear "season plot" that wraps at the end and just continue with the same characters into a second season, while others continue the same plot season by season. But yeah...if the whole show isn't brought over you tend to lose stuff, and that can really hurt the show. It sounds like this one at least kind of gives you a resolution to the season plot but clearly has more to go, too, so it isn't the worst that way.
Worst case I've seen is "When They Cry," which leaves off at one heck of a depressing point (in an already depressing show) since to my knowledge the second season hasn't been brought over yet, and that's where the plot actually resolves. O_O That show's an easy (if rather gory) recommendation if you like a good creepout and psychological horror...if it were only complete. As it is...wait until it actually is complete or you'll be really depressed when you're done.