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We get our first peep at Seiri-chan, the Japanese movie all about a menstrual flow mascot

Katy Kelly Sep 7, 2019
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“She comes once a month,” promises the new trailer’s ominous opening line.

Here at SoraNews24, we’ve been scrunching our stomachs, angrily downing pints of chocolate ice cream and rolling around disconsolately on our bedspreads waiting for news on our favorite web manga mascot Seiri-chan. A star of the web manga circuit, Seiri differs from a lot of cutesy mascots meant to draw in tourists or showcase wares. How so?

Well, Seiri is getting her own movie.

All right, all right. There’s another key thing that sets Seiri-chan apart from the fluffy, dewy-eyed mascot crop – she represents the menstrual cycle. Her antics in her native web manga, written and illustrated by Ken Koyama, include draining women of blood with a big syringe and punching men in the stomach. Her name also means menstruation! The secondary characters in her manga are understandably dismayed whenever she arrives (unless in the midst of a pregnancy scare.)

Seiri’s jump from comic panel to big screen was announced in February and its staff kept tight-lipped about its details, refusing to confirm anything besides a live-action adaptation. A curious choice, considering Seiri’s sloppy heart shape, staring eyes and white cross nose, but Japanese directors would know how to translate that into a live-action movie better than most.

The movie will focus on International Rising Star recipient Fumi Nikaido, who plays a work-driven fashion editor constantly dreading each time Seiri raises her unnerving fluffy head. The cleaning lady for the fashion office, played by Sairi Ito, laments her father’s enthusiastic sex life with his new girlfriend and resorts to trolling people online to keep her demons at bay.

As the manga has been praised for its sensitive depiction of the difficulties that can come with menstruation, the movie is being billed as a sensitive way to understand reproductive health – while offering a serious helping of laughs along the way. As Nikaido herself mutters in the trailer, “the period’s bad enough, but what really sucks is how nobody understands how bad it is.”

▼ “I wish men had to go through this pain even it was only once a year,” the protagonist grumbles, and Seiri is happy to oblige

Despite the harrowing contexts in which Seiri appears in the movie, she ultimately seems to serve as a kind of life coach for the two protagonists. Both women are struggling with meaty life problems only exacerbated by their periods, and Seiri’s gentle counsel helps to get both of them back on the right track. But there’s a new mascot in town, as well..

▼ Meet Libido-kun.

The trailer seems to be doing well on YouTube, where comments range from users’ own trials and tribulations with Aunt Flo to excitement for the movie and its star-studded cast list.

“I’m a guy, but I wanna check this out. I haven’t experienced it, and no one taught me about it at school, so I have no idea how hard it is to deal with. I’m glad they’re making a movie so we can learn about it in a fun, easy way.”
“I wish we could watch this in health class.”
“Fumi Nikaido looks amazing in this role.”
“My period hit right as I was watching this trailer.”

The movie releases its punchy period pandemonium on September 8, so until then tide yourself over with a comfy blanket, some gentle exercise and maybe this cheery comic about the whole sordid ordeal.

Source, images: YouTube/oricon
Related: Seiri-chan Official Website
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