is a Japanese

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

series by Sakurako Gokurakuin. The manga was serialized in

Square Enix is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, video game publisher and entertainment conglomerate. It releases role-playing video game, role-playing game franchises, such as ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', and '' ...

's manga magazine '' Young Gangan'' between December 2004 and August 2015. A special epilogue volume to the manga was serialized in the same magazine from May 2017 to March 2018. An

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

adaptation produced by

Seven Arcs is a Japanese anime production company and former studio, established on May 31, 2002, by former Pierrot and Studio Kikan-affiliated staff who had established studio Arcturus prior in 2000 with the intent of making animated series. The studio m ...

and directed by Keizō Kusakawa aired in Japan between July and September 2008, and a second season aired between July and September 2010. Both seasons were licensed in North America by

Funimation Funimation was an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming service. Launched in 2016, the service was one of the leading distributors of anime ...

, until their license expired in 2017. The central character of the series is Minato Sahashi, a who has failed his college entrance examinations two years in a row. His life changes, however, when he meets several women with special powers called "Sekirei" and is dragged into a battle to possibly decide the fate of the world.

Plot

In Tokyo, known as , in 2020, 19-year-old Minato Sahashi is extremely intelligent, yet due to his major lack of self-confidence has failed the college entrance exam twice. The same day of his second failure, Minato meets a girl named Musubi, who literally falls out of the sky on top of him. Minato soon learns that she is a member of an extraterrestrial race known as the "Sekirei", and she chooses him as her "Ashikabi", one of the mysterious set of humans that have the genetic trait and can make a contract by kissing the Sekirei; this binds the Sekirei to the Ashikabi and allows them to use their full power in elimination battles with other Sekirei. Made up of 108 cute girls, attractive buxom women and , the Sekirei battle in a competition known as the "Sekirei Plan" organized by Hiroto Minaka, the

chairman The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the gro ...

and founder of the mysterious and powerful MBI Corporation. Minato quickly learns that being the partner of a Sekirei is not all fun and games, especially when five other Sekirei choose him as their Ashikabi, each also forming a contract/bond with him. Now Minato must find a way to survive both the life-threatening battles of the Sekirei Plan and his partners' fierce competition for him.

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by Sakurako Gokurakuin, ''Sekirei'' was serialized in

's manga

manga magazine are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics an ...

'' Young Gangan'' between December 3, 2004, and August 21, 2015. Square Enix published 18 volumes between June 25, 2005, and October 24, 2015. A sequel to the manga, titled began serialization in ''Young Gangan'' on May 2, 2017, and finished on March 16, 2018. Its chapters were collected in a single volume (numbered 19th) on April 25, 2018.

Yen Press Yen Press is an American manga, graphic novel and light novel publisher co-owned by Kadokawa Corporation and Hachette Book Group. It published '' Yen Plus'', a monthly comic anthology, between 2008 and 2013. In addition to translated material, ...

licensed the series in North America and released the volumes digitally (including ''365 Days Without Her'') from November 24, 2015, to November 27, 2018. The publisher later released the volumes in ten 2-in-1 omnibus volumes from July 18, 2017, to November 12, 2019.

Drama CD

A drama CD entitled ''Sekirei Original Drama CD'' was released on July 25, 2007 by Frontier Works.

Anime

The first 12-episode

series adaptation produced by the animation studio

and directed by Keizō Kusakawa aired in Japan between July 2 and September 17, 2008. The anime is licensed by

Aniplex Aniplex, Inc. (株式会社アニプレックス, ''Kabushiki-gaisha Anipurekkusu'') is a Japanese entertainment company and a subsidiary of Sony, Sony Group Corporation, founded in September 1995 by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. The company fo ...

in Japan. The first season is mostly faithful to the overall story structure of the manga series, covering roughly the first fifty-one chapters of the series. The opening theme is and the main ending theme is "Dear sweet heart"; both songs are performed by

Saori Hayami is a Japanese voice actress and singer affiliated with I'm Enterprise. As a singer, she is signed to Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. Hayami won the 10th Seiyu Awards for Best Supporting Actress. Biography Hayami became interested in voice ...

(#88 Musubi),

Marina Inoue is a Japanese voice actress and narrator from Tokyo, Japan. She is affiliated with Aoni Production. She was signed into Aniplex until 2007. She was chosen out of 2,000 people from the "Gonna be a star" auditions (hosted by Sony Music Entertain ...

(#9 Tsukiumi),

Kana Hanazawa is a Japanese actress and singer. A prolific voice performer in anime, she has amassed several film and television credits since her debut in 2003. She won the Seiyu Awards, Seiyu Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2015, and won the Newtype A ...

(#108 Kusano) and Aya Endo (#2 Matsu). The ending theme used in episode eleven is by Hayami. Six DVDs of the first season were released between October 22, 2008 and March 25, 2009. The sixth DVD volume was supplemented with an

original video animation , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and special episodes of a series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the ...

(OVA) episode, , featuring Kusano participating in the shopping race with Musubi and Tsukiumi. A

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

box set of the first season was released on June 30, 2010 with three Blu-ray discs and one additional CD. At Anime USA 2009,

announced that the anime's first season was licensed and a DVD box set was released on November 23, 2010. A second season entitled began airing on July 4, 2010 on

Tokyo MX JOMX-DTV (channel 9), branded as Tokyo MX (officially stylized as TOKYO MX), is an independent station, independent television station in Tokyo, Japan, owned by the . It is the only television station that exclusively serves the city and parts ...

and on July 6, 2010 on some other Japanese networks. The first episode of ''Sekirei: Pure Engagement'' was pre-aired on June 13, 2010. The opening theme is and the ending theme is ; both songs are performed by Hayami, Inoue, Hanazawa and Endo, as in the first season. The ending theme for episode 10 is by Hayami. A single containing both songs was released on July 21, 2010. The limited edition of the single came bundled with a special three-minute OVA, classified as episode 0, titled . The full 28-minute version of the OVA was released with the first BD/DVD volume of the second season on August 25, 2010. As with the first season, ''Pure Engagement'' is licensed in North America by

, and released the series on January 3, 2012. Funimation's licenses for both seasons expired on February 9, 2017. Manga Entertainment released ''Pure Engagement'' in the United Kingdom on November 19, 2012.

Video game

A video game for PlayStation 2 entitled was released on October 29, 2009 by

Alchemist Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

in limited and regular editions. Two music pieces implemented for the game's music consist of and "Survive Baby Survive!", both of them performed by

and Aya Endo. The limited edition version was bundled with figures of Musubi and Tsukiumi with Kusano in a panda suit, a 40-minute drama CD, and an illustration of Matsu. While Musubi, Tsukiumi, Matsu, Kusano, Miya, Homura, Uzume and Minato reprise their roles from the anime and manga, four new characters were created by Alchemist consisting of two Sekirei, one Ashikabi and a baby as video game-only characters. The game is a

visual novel A visual novel (VN) is a form of digital interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with static or animated illustratio ...

. Minato and the Sekirei of Izumo Inn encounter new characters consisting of Sekirei No. 54, (

Haruka Tomatsu is a Japanese actress and singer, employed by Music Ray'n. She received the Rookie of the Year award at the 3rd Seiyu Awards and the Synergy Award at the 9th Seiyu Awards. Tomatsu is known for voicing main heroines as Asuna Yuuki in ''Sword A ...

), Sekirei No. 57, (

Ayahi Takagaki is a Japanese actress and singer. She had her first major voice acting roles in 2007, voicing Jasmine in ''Deltora Quest (anime), Deltora Quest'' and Lucia Nahashi in ''Venus Versus Virus''. Her career as a musician began with her performance o ...

), Ashikabi ( Yuichi Nakamura) and a baby referred to as (

). The plot centers around the discovery of said baby, who is being pursued by unknown persons after Minato and the Sekirei find her abandoned in the city.

Reception

Volume eight of the ''Sekirei'' manga made the top 30 manga sold in Japan, holding third place with 103,811 copies sold from February 24 to March 2, 2009. Volume nine placed 17th out of 30 with 65,732 copies sold from December 21–27, 2009. From June 28 to July 4, 2010, volume ten sold 47,019 copies for a total amount of 120,991 in 20th out of 30.

References

External links

Manga official website

Anime official website

* {{Seven Arcs Aniplex Extraterrestrials in anime and manga Harem anime and manga Fiction set in 2020 Funimation Gangan Comics manga Romantic comedy anime and manga Seinen manga Seven Arcs Square Enix franchises Supernatural anime and manga Yen Press titles