It's exceedingly likely that I will not stay with Sekirei in the long run (I'll write later about it), but so far I'm enjoying it for all it's worth. And since it's a doomed show anyway, I may be spoiling a little, to share the fun and excitement better.

First of all, I got over the face design problem, and started watching better parts. Also, faces are not all that bad, you just look about the eyes. And it always could be worse. At least we've got well defined noses in Sekirei.

By the way, the ED includes almost a design sheet. Remember all those Azumanga eyes that ADV publicised as a bonus for American fans? Sekirei has them in-show. Sadly, they are not as varying as those in Azumanga, so one must rely on color.

They also show the same line-up for butts and chests. Speaking of which, although I have not watched Kanokon, coming from Strike Witches, Sekirei offers extremely soft and polite fanservice by comparison. In Strike Witches, the key idea is to pound into viewers' minds that no matter what is shown on the screen, it's completely natural and acceptabe in the other world... so, tough it out, suckers! But Sekirei returns to standards of fanservice seen, for instance, in Ranma (actually, it is milder in the early Sekirei, but I heard it turns the nipple knob up later quite a bit).

Another thing, the creators did not use a whole lot of easily removable censoring. I only saw one strategically positioned tree branch. Strike Witches is just chock full branches, grass, steam, and sun glare. It's lame, and Sekirei wins by a kilometer.

Just about the only complaint I have is that chests of several girls are simply too big. Sadly this includes Musubi.

A lot of it is played for laughs and mixes well with the rest of the entertainment palette. For example, I thought Minato's fantasies with Nico-nico style comments were hilarious, and the censorship strips were beautiful. They even make the modesty a point when Musubi has to fight with one hand because she covers her breasts with the other. This simply was funnier than what Strike Witches offered.

It has to be noted though, while humor always helps, and can even save the show, Sekirei is not comedy overloaded. It concentrates on the story of capturing initial pokegirls by Ash... er, their master. It's not in any way unconventional. Already I see hints of Minato being a kind and good master, whereas other bad masters abuse their pokegirls. So, the story is not as good as the story of Miyafuji personal growth. The upshot is, the main lead cannot be a total loss, since he has to face other [bad] masters (like Emiya in F/SN).

One thing I noticed, capturing Sekirei wasn't very challenging so far. The first in Minato's collection, Musubi, literally dropped into his hands. He had to work a little bit more for the loli, Kuu, but didn't quite strain his gut [1]. As it turns out, being a master (Ashikabi), is a genetic predisposition, so Sekirei just fall for their Ashikabi. In addition, "bad" masters capture their Sekirei by force — pretty much raping them. Well, I guess three cheers for the happy chance meeting between Minato and Kuu then.

I don't know that I'm quite comfortable with the idea of sending Kuu into combat. She's too young for that (younger than Tsubasa of Figure 17, by the looks). But oh well. Creators may yet come up with some trick to skirt around this problem.

There were several other elements I noticed especially. For instance, I'm getting more interested in older women with age... You know where I'm going with this, right? Miya Asama. Hoo boy. She's a widow, too. Another thing, OP and ED are made of win. But regardless of the small things, Sekirei is a fun show at its core... until it runs out of manga.

[1] In the Pokegirl universe, capturing is a hard job and typically includes violence. And once a master take one in the custody, he has to "tame" her (for example, with hunger and skillful application of Stockholm syndrome). I was a little surprised that Sekirei does not dwell on that. Just one small kiss, wings sprout, and everyone is happy.