Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Sekirei Pure Engagement: Complete Series Blu-ray Movie Review

Is this show only for boobs?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 25, 2011

Someone at FUNimation Entertainment must have had an enjoyable time squeezing every double entendre and pun they could think of into the press sheet accompanying this new release of Sekirei 2: Pure Engagement, The Complete Series on Blu-ray. The series is alternately referred to as “full figured,” “the breast action harem anime of all time,” “busty.” “curvaceous,” and “titillating.” And just for good measure, we’re told that “only one amazing pair will be left standing” by series’ end and that “the booby traps abound and the measurements are mesmerizing” in the second season of this show. So anyone who is out for thought provoking, incisive, complexly written fare will probably want to—ahem—cleave themselves from Sekirei, yet another adolescent masturbatory fantasy about a young man and the coterie of extraterrestrial superpowered (and super-bosomed) women who surround him. It might just be the effect of wading through so many similarly themed animes of late (Sekirei bears more than a passing resemblance to Heaven's Lost Property, which may in fact be more of a commentary on Sekirei’s popularity, since it predates the other property by at least a couple of years. But once again we have a kind of nerdy young male, in this case, Minato, who in the first season of Sekirei found himself the chosen “Ashikabi” for “Sekirei” Musubi. Musubi was just the first of several magically powered Sekirei who ended up partnering with Minato, and the second season of the series picks up with a sort of Three’s Company (actually more than three, but that’s beside the point) sort of setup where Minato is surrounded by various Sekirei in various stages of—er—development.

Part, if frankly even all, of Sekirei’s allure is its positing of a nerdy, socially awkward young male who is set upon by a gaggle of gorgeous women. That general plot setup no doubt appeals to the fanboys in the audience who spend their lives sequestered away in dank basements playing videogames and watching harem animes like Sekirei as they dream of realities that are probably forever out of their reach. Watching Minato repeatedly get literally entangled with any number of these women, usually with some female’s pulchritude thrust into the hapless boy’s face, is like a fantasy come true for a certain audience segment. But can the show appeal to anyone outside of this demographic? Perhaps in small doses, and then only for those with a tolerance for silly, sexually based humor and a decidedly politically incorrect view of womankind (something this show most definitely shares with Heaven’s Lost Property).

Sekirei Pure Engagement at least has the benefit of a sort of conspiracy theory wending its way through the second season’s plot machinations that may convince the less demanding or undiscriminating viewer that there’s more to this show than meets the eye. The MBI (the organization the Minato is the putative head of and which supposedly is behind the whole Sekirei phenomenon) becomes a bit more monolithic in this second season, and a lot of the overall plot arc deals with various shenanigans the MBI is up to. Part of the real problem with Sekirei Pure Engagement is that it sets up the various Sekirei as female gladiators of a sort, with (as that breathless PR sheet advertised), only “one pair” standing at the end, and so any audience connection to secondary characters is about as deep as with the iconic “Red Shirts,” those hapless extras who were fated to die by the end of the first commercial, of the original Star Trek series.

There are plenty of harem animes and plenty of shounen animes as well, and that’s going to be the biggest obstacle that Sekirei: Pure Engagement has to overcome. With the sheer glut of anime product at consumers’ and viewers’ fingertips (digital or otherwise) these days, setting yourself apart is getting harder and harder to do, and that’s something that Sekirei never really attempts to make happen with any conviction. Those ample bosoms provide a little distance if nothing else between Sekirei, its audience, and its competitors, but it’s a distance that allows for some objective perspective, which only helps to point up this series’ lack of offering anything new.

Sekirei Pure Engagement: Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sekirei: Pure Engagement, The Complete Series is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of FUNimation Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. While the transfer of this middling series is perfectly all right on its technical merits, the show itself from a visual standpoint is about as standard as the actual content. Character designs are a dime a dozen, the rampant use of chibi as the characters become emotionally distraught or overwrought is by the numbers, and even the show's palette is surprisingly bland, with very few really bright colors dotting the landscape. All of that said, this high definition presentation offers excellent line detail and overall generally very good sharpness and clarity, but there's such a feeling of "same old, same old" here that many probably won't care one way or the other. It kind of seems like the animators themselves didn't.

Sekirei Pure Engagement: Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As has been standard operating practice with most if not all FUNimation Entertainment Blu-ray releases lately, two lossless audio options are offered, an English dub delivered via a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix, and the original Japanese language track delivered via a Dolby TrueHD 2.0 stereo mix. Both of these tracks sport similar mixes in terms of levels, but once again even purists may want to at least sample the English track, which features the usual assortment of FUNimation voice artists doing their typically good, if almost always hyperbolic, work. Sekirei: Pure Engagement, The Complete Series has a few less opportunities to really exploit the surround mix medium as it doesn't depend entirely on battles or effects laden sequences, and so what some listeners may notice most is the expanded spaciousness of the underscore and songs in the show on the 5.1 mix. That said, when effects sequences are happening, good directionality is often the order of the day, and several episodes also offer abundant if not overwhelming LFE. Fidelity on both of these tracks is excellent, though on the whole the soundtrack of Sekirei: Pure Engagement is actually kind of surprisingly reserved and restrained, considering the silliness of the overall enterprise.

Sekirei Pure Engagement: Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Episode 5 Commentary features Scott Sager (ADR Director), Joel McDonald (Minato) and Leah Clark (Kagari). In typical FUNimation fashion, there's a lot of semi-raucous kidding back and forth, though Sager keeps things at least a bit more on track on this commentary, getting into everything from auditioning to the Sekirei universe, including Season 1, and how various voices are arrived at.
• OVA: "Two Gossip Topics" (HD; 28:37) is the "bonus episode" that was labeled as Episode 0 before the actual second season's Episode 1 picked up the story. This is a standalone episode which deals with Sekirei Diagnosis Day.
• Episode 10 Commentary features Scott Sager, Alexis Tipton (Musubi) and Jamie Marchi (Uzume). This is a little bit more in keeping with the standard FUNimation commentaries on several other releases, meaning in-jokey, banter-filled discussions that are probably better enjoyed as "getting to know the cast" outings than for any putative information they may (or may not) impart.
• Textless Opening Song: "White Winged Vow Pure Engagement" (HD; 1:32)
• Textless Closing Song: "The Same Feelings" (HD; 1:32)
• Textless Closing Song: "I Remember, After All" (HD; 1:32)
• Trailers for other FUNimation Releases

Sekirei Pure Engagement: Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Adolescent males are probably going to wonder what my problem is in not enjoying a series this full (to bursting, even—pun definitely intended) with breasts, breasts and even more breasts. I'm certainly not one to shirk from the allure of ample bosoms, but when there's nothing else in the mix (or at least next to nothing), even nonstop cleavage can only go so far. Sekirei: Pure Engagement tries fitfully to introduce a few non-bosomy elements into the mix in this second season, but it's kind of like padding an already overstuffed bra. What's the point? This is a series for oogling teenage boys for the most part (or those with arrested development), and for that demographic, I guess there are worse vices. The problem is there are so many really excellent animes—including, frankly, many with pulchritudinous babes in abundance—that Sekirei does indeed seem like simply a show for boobs.