The Birds and the Bees - Sekirei review

It's been a long time. I shouldn't have left you... without a dope beat to step to.

Minato Sahashi is extremely intelligent, yet due to his inability to cope under pressure has failed the college entrance exam twice. As a result he has been branded an idiot and loser by many. One day after talking to his yet again disappointed mother he comes into contact with a girl named Musubi who was under attack. The girl runs but takes him with her and soon finds that Minato, while unknown to him, is an Ashikabi, one of the mysterious set of masters that have the genetic trait that can become partners with some of the 108 cute girls, buxom women, and bishōnen called "Sekirei". The reason for the partnership allows the Sekirei to use all their power to win in the competition held by the mysterious MBI corporation. - MyAnimeList

Okay, yeah, it's been some time. How have you been? I hope the five of you who read these are doing okay.

There are some things that anime tends to do that really bug me. Incidentally, this series does most of those things. So I'll be using Sekirei as my target for some very heavy nitpicking.

The first thing that Anime tends to do is to make the male lead a total pussy pansy with no social skills and a really crappy life. In this series, the male lead, Sahashi Minato is one such instance. He's stupid, weak, wishy-washy and and otherwise lacks testicular fortitude (read "has no balls"). He failed to get into university a couple of times and goes back for more. In this series, apparently being a total loser makes you a prime target for droves of super-powered babes. Did I mention he lacks balls? Any REAL man would have taken full advantage of the naive young Musubi getting naked in front of them and boned her silly played lots of... uh, Uno with her.

Looks to me like the artists pulled a draw two.

The second thing series in the Harem category tend to do is boob humor. Don't get me wrong, here. I have no aversion to bouncing breasts. it's just that the old "whoops I fell and landed face first into your G-cups" joke gets kinda old when you use it four times an episode. Random boobs aren't necessarily a good punch line. I guess they have to give some folks something to beat off to use their shake-weights for.

Series like this love to put their men in sexually awkward situations. There are lots of times when our hero is sitting in the bath trying to relax and one of his concubines comes in and says "can i wash your back?" We all know how these situations end. The male lead never turns to her and says "no, but you can wash the front. ;)" or something like that. They always puss out and panic.

  I'm no Chris Brown... but I'd hit that.

For all the things this series does wrong, it does a few things right. The relationship between Minato, Musubi, Tsukuimi, and everyone else is amusing and surprisingly genuine. The fights are nice to watch. Partly because the powers are interesting and partly because every punch results in exploding tops and perky nips. Not that I'm a pervert or anything (I am). The story works out well enough. The characters can be entertaining at times.  The MBI president is usually good for some laughs and has proven himself to be a total ass hat.

Verdict: Yes.

Sekirei's not for everyone. But if you can stand the cheese and boobs, there's actually a bit to be liked here.