Sekirei, Sekirei Box Set Review

By: KaylaTheRiveraWell, this Sekirei box set is certainly interesting. Yeah--interesting is a good word.SummaryIn Tokyo known as Shinto Teito in the year 2020, 19-year-old Minato meets a girl named Musubi, who literally falls from the sky. Minato soon learns that she is a "Sekirei" who's chosen him as her "Ashikabi," a human who has unique genetic traits. Ashikabi can kiss Sekirei to create contracts with them. This binds the Sekirei to him and allows them to use their full power in elimination battles with other Sekirei. Made up of 108 cute girls, the Sekirei fight in a competition organized by Hiroto Minaka, the chairman and founder of the mysterious and powerful MBI Corporation.Minato soon learns being a Sekirei's partner is not all fun and games, especially when several other Sekirei choose him as their Ashikabi. Now, Minato must find a way to survive both the life-threatening battles of the Sekirei Plan and his partners' fierce competition for him.Box SetWith an entire disc dedicated to OVAs and special features, this blu-ray box set is a joy. It has great art on the back, strong construction, and excellent organization. Even the disc art is beautiful. I'm happy to see FUNimation upping the quality!AnimationSekirei's animation quality is so-so. It's not bad, but its technique lacks where Black Butler and Carnival succeed. Maybe modern series have spoiled me, but Sekirei's overuse of still frames is disappointing in comparison. Still, it's not bad, as the boob-bouncing animation clearly proves. Yeesh.Voice ActingI probably shouldn't haven been surprised this anime has great voice-acting, but I was. A nice surprise to be sure! The female voice actors do a wonderful job, and the English actors especially strike a great balance between performance-ready natural.I was excited to find Homer's English voice actor handles his gender-fluid role well. The voice fluctuates and adjusts to his/her feminization process. Great work on the actors' part! I almost wish I could listen to this series as an audiobook instead of an anime.CharactersThis story relies on character interaction, and that's something I usually reward in reviews, but not this time.I know it comes with the territory of a very hentai-focused manga and anime, but do they have to take every opportunity to show Musubi's nipples? I mean, seriously. If I say "oh please" during a show, it's a bad sign, and I did that while watching this. A lot.Some of the nipple-reveals inconvenience the plot and the characterization so much, it's a miracle anything of interest happens. Which leads into yet another problem. The attention on the girls' bodies in the show is so bombarding, you barely get to know them beyond the fact that they're "cute" or "sweet" or "a tsundere." Except the land lady. She's a genius hot-and-cold character that I wish had more scenes.There is at least one bright spot in this show. Minato, the main character, is multi-faceted and interesting. While it annoys me that he's only character getting decent characterization, I am glad to enjoy the protagonist. He's an admirable amalgamation of respectful and perverted, shy and courageous, intelligent and idiotic. Plus, the fact that he could easily take advantage of Musubi and the other Sekireis but doesn't pleases me.OverallIf you like hentai, you'll love this Sekirei box set. If you're into great storytelling and delicious animation, you may find it lackluster. It's up to you, but personally, I wouldn't spend money on this. Though the special features are great![yasr_multiset setid=9]