Wakaranai

Setsuna Sakurazaki    aka … Secchan

And May brings a new flavour in the beautiful form of the charismatic guardian-angel, Setsuna Sakurazaki. Setsuna is a recurring character in the popular and expansive Negima franchise, which includes two TV anime, two OVA series and the original ongoing manga: Mahou Sensei Negima!. Unlike Biri-biri, she isn’t on the tip of everyone’s tongue, and many other people have their own preferred characters from this franchise, but Setsuna has a special place in my heart and is undoubtedly my most loved character from Negima. Funnily enough, many of the reasons I love her are similar to the reasons behind my infatuation with Biri-biri. Like Railgun, she’s tough and has moments of genuine badassery, but she also has a cute feminine flipside that tugs your heart whenever she’s embarrassed (which happens often in a Ken Akumatsu series). She’s also a cute junior high school student with a totally awesome character design. She even has the same style of hair - drawn in thin, relatively straight strands rather than the blob-like hairstyles of most anime characters. And the comparison doesn’t end there -she’s also caught in an ambiguous yuri friendship with the just as adorable Konoka. She even wears shorts too! I guess Setsuna was the precursor to my adoration of Railgun.

A confident and practised kendo expert, the sword-wielding Setsuna is a powerful member of Negi’s harem squadron with a tragic past and a Konoka complex. Kept secret until recently, Setsuna is a human-demon hanyo: the daughter of a human and a Crow Demon. She has long been ashamed of this fact, but after she was forced to reveal it to rescue Konoka she was surprised and joyed to find that Konoka and the rest of the Negi gang were not repelled. The only sign of her demonic half are her magnificent wings which she dons when she taps into her demon power. Their stunning white colour was seen as a bad omen by her kin led her to be driven out of her tribe as a young child only to be picked up by a relative of Konoka’s and subsequently introduced to her. This lead to a yuri-subtext-topped friendship that shaped her young life. She resolved to put her training under the Shinmei kendo school to use as a protector of Konoka, her “ojou-sama”. Initially introduced as an aloof and mysterious character, she has quickly opened up since fighting alongside Negi and friends in the Kyoto arc, shedding some of her seriousness for a happier and more amiable personality. She has become friends with much of the class since then, particularly Asuna, who is a fighting partner of sorts. Although she is more sociable and relaxed than she had been, Setsuna is still reliable in crisis, switching to a sharp and serious battle persona when the time calls. She retains both her dedication and affection for Kono-chan (oft mistaken for yuri symptoms), as well as her warrior demeanour.

Setsuna’s character design stands out from the many other girls Ken Akamatsu created for Negima because of her sharply cut hair and unique hair style, which has half of her fringe exposed with the hair tied out to the side. I’m not actually that big a fan of her distinctive hair style, but she’s far and above (contested only by Yue) my favourite design from Negima. I can’t really describe it but she seems imbued with a great mixture of cuteness and sternness. She has a perfect figure - the petite junior high-school look, but not to the level of Nodoka and Yue. Her breasts, like Biri-biri’s, are not too big and not too small. Being a Ken Akamatsu manga, we get to experience her sexiness very often. What I can’t really explain, but is unequivaclly true, is that nekomimi suit this girl better than the rest of the cast (and they’ve all had them at some stage). Really, it’s hard to get any cuter than Setsuna with cat-ears, and I guess that’s why they’re a component of her official battle outfit.

Befitting of her status as the best Negima character, Ken Akumatsu granted her the best costume. It’s maid fused with fighting kimono, with added nekomimi, and cute bows. And, most, importantly, it’s pure moe. I admit it belittles her status as a strict sword master, but it transforms her into the cutest girl that ever walked the Earth or the Magical World. I also like the underwear that came with it since back in the school festival arc when the costume first appeared. It’s something different from pantsu and is kinda feminine with the decorative touch, without straying from the ‘shorts’ ethos of the character.

Setsuna is largely defined as a character by her longstanding relationship with Konoka. They’ve known each other from childhood and formed a strong bond then, Setsuna being one of the first real friends an otherwise lonely, rich-girl Konoka had. She often refers to Konoka as “ojou-sama”. As a student of the elite shinmei sword school, Setsuna vowed to protect Konoka, and essentially built her life around this goal, even going so far as to distance herself from her much-loved friend to strengthen her position as a body-guard after she failed to save her from nearly drowning. They’re among the only girls in the class to have a real shared backstory, and I really love their pseudo-yuri relationship. Their intimacy varies from anime to manga, from the very restrained hints at attraction and love that stretches beyond friendship (usually but not always in the form of a joke of some kind), to the outright yuri lust Setsuna appears to be containing in the Negima!? TV anime and OVA series. Their relationship was mostly dealt with in volume 6 of the manga, and since then they have maintained a stable and close friendship. They are often shown to be deeply concerned for each other, and there are a few moments of embarrassment for Setsuna as a largely oblivious (either oblivious or highly devious) Konoka teases her. But there’s nothing clear to suggest any sexual longing between them, only the notion that they cherish each other and have a have a private association or connection that is hard to decode. I would really love for there to be some romantic development between them, as they make such a cute couple even without any explicit yuri.

Setsuna really stole the show in volume 6 for a number of reasons. It was her big introduction piece - she kicked some ogre ass, had a few flashbacks, and saved the captured princess. But she couldn’t do all this without using the full extent of her preternatural powers. She had to expose her inherited demon side, by transforming into winged mode. It’s just another piece of background story that helps make Setsuna one of the most layered characters in the franchise, and her sense of shame over her hanyo lineage definitely made me feel for her. Even amid the nopan jokes and general action-comedy fracas of Negima, her reluctantly revealing her wings only to be greeted from admiring comments by Asuna, and, more potently, Konoka managed to be genuinely touching. Truly sad that she hid such pretty wings for such time.

A common feature of anime and manga, Setsuna has her very own psycho lesbian stalker. A fellow student of the shinmei school, Tsukuyomi has crossed paths with her multiple times now as an ally of Fate’s and an enemy of Negi’s group, ALA ALBA. But this division apparently doesn’t stop her lusting after poor innocent Setsuna-chan! Every time they meet, her salivation over Secchan grows, and so does Setsuna’s revulsion towards her. A formidable opponent, the last time they crossed swords resulted in Setsuna being victimised in traditional Negima fashion: stripped down to her underwear and beyond. Her perverse obsession with Setsuna has been one of the racier aspects of Negima, and, since chapter 227, has produced some of the best fanservice. Cutting open Secchan’s bandage’s was so sexy~