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6 thoughts on “Three Year Celebration: Sekirei Fanfic!”
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Sekirei is the show that really hooked me on anime, a rollicking story with great feelings and characters. On rewatches and with some evolution in thinking, I’m not as big a fan of some of the messages and attitudes baked into the concept, but it’s still a fun show to watch.
The story was pretty good, I like the focus on Matsu, and I think you got her voice right, and her conversations with Minato. I’m not as sure about Miya’s, it seemed a little bit out of character for both her and Minato in their conversation. But overall good job. 🙂
I’d love to know which messages and attitudes have begun to wear thin!
Thanks for the feedback on Matsu. Honestly, I’m most comfortable with her, as she’s my favorite character and my image of her is the most complete.
It’s interesting — I was less comfortable with Miya, and it seems to have showed in the story! I just read the manga (volume 12, available from Amazon), and it also looks like I was way out of canon!
I’ll give it some thought to see if I can write a better interpretation of her.
Thanks a lot for taking the time to read it and provide feedback!
The main one that bothers me is the virginal aspect of it, the implication that the girls are ‘ruined’ for other people once they get with a man. The second one is the “ownership” and that they are beholden to that first man with no regard to anything else, be it physical or mental abuse, neglect, or any other mistreatment. And finally, the lack of agency and ability to resist shown by the unwinged sekirei when confronted by an ashikabi, with little regard to their wishes.
In some ways it’s a good show of women’s empowerment, but in other ways it’s very much “men call all the shots”. I like the show overall, but some things get pretty cringey.
Those are good points. Reminds me of the ashikabi/Sekirei pair that Minato encountered before his sister and Shiina fought them. That guy was despicable…
Since you brought it up, I find that the virginal aspect is a hard thing to explain, too. I think it’s hard (okay, impossible!) to believe that Seo, Hibiki, and Hikari remained chaste. On the other hand, it’s clear that Benitsubasa never had quality time with her ashikabi — despite her wanting it! Which state was “normal?” Why did Mia so often intervene when any of the Sekirei tried to get close to Minato?
There were women who were ashikabi, too, like Chiho Hidaka and Yukari Sahashi. Yet, the idea of a woman ashikabi didn’t feel well-developed. I never got a sense if there was any real difference between male or female ashikabi.
Good point about the unwinged Sekirei and their lack of choice. Thinking about what could have happened to Kusano is chilling! The same thing could have happened to any of them…
Despite all that, I think the narrative asserts that Minato’s approach — winning them over with kindness and affection — it the preferred/natural state for an ashikabi and Sekirei. Viewed from that perspective, I almost see the other examples as dramatic reinforcements for the core theme. And yet, I still feel terrible for the less fortunate Sekirei…
I’m still reading the manga. I’m half way through #12 and have up to #15 in my library. Still wish we’d get a season three!
Thanks for giving me so much to think about!
I was thinking more of Tsukiumi when it was kind of between Seo and Minato, how Tsukiumi couldn’t resist Seo, even though she loathed him.
The female ashikabi thing I thought was a good thing thrown in there, and they half set it up with Homura / Kagari and half with Shiina – Yukari. They ran out of narrative time, and maybe didn’t want to really go into it, about what happened with Homura after Minato told him that he should be who he wants to be.
I’d have loved more of the series the way it was, but what I heard was that the manga kind of just devolved into a battle fighting manga, which I would totally not be interested in. I heard that it finished a year-ish ago, so I don’t know what the end was, but I’d kind of like to just get to the end, without having to go through a lot of fighting and “dying”.
Yeah, “loathed” is the right word Tsukiumi’s feelings for Seo!
I also think “devolved” is the right word if it turns out to be a fighting only manga. There was such huge promise with the idea of setting the little birds free. I still think Minato trying to break the game might have been a good direction to go!
Thinking about the last couple of manga I read (volumes 11 and half of 12), they did focus mostly on fighting. All discussion of how Homura and Minato would relate to each other was gone. The who emergence/post-emergence cycles feel really incomplete, especially when compared to something like the riders and green dragons in Anne Mccaffrey’s Dragonrider series…
Thanks for sharing you thoughts — you gave me a lot to think about!