Sekokan! / セコカン！, Volume One Manga Review

Being a woman in a male-dominated field isn’t all that easy, but Umi won’t let anyone get in the way of achieving her dreams—not even the handsome architect she just can’t seem to get away from.

You can check out a sample of this series for yourself below!

Japanese (Palcy)

Japanese (Kodansha)

What is this series about?

Umi grew up watching her father work in construction and quickly fell in love with the field. The idea of helping take concepts and drawings and turning them into actual buildings called out to her, and she quickly decided that she wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps. As an adult, she’s made her dreams a reality, and is currently in her fifth year of working as a construction manager.

While things certainly aren’t easy—some of the workers don’t want to take advice from a young woman, and others are a little too lax on safety—she comes home everyday knowing that she did her best. It seems like her managers have also noticed her work ethic, as she is soon granted her very first solo project! She is given the opportunity to team up with the up-and-coming architect, Kanon.

While Umi came into her first meeting with Kanon starry-eyed and ready to work, she left with a feeling of defeat. Sure he may be a godly architect, and sure his eyelashes may be longer than hers and his face is just a little too handsome to look at up close, none of that matters when he’s so difficult to work with! He is every bit as strict as he is handsome, and his work ethic even gives Umi a run for her money. Thankfully their time together will stop once the building plans finish and the actual construction begins…right?

My thoughts on this volume (Slight Spoilers!)

This was certainly a change of pace for me, as I think this was my first manga that largely took place on a construction site! I found the story to be around 30% romance, with the remaining 70% focusing on introducing Umi and her struggles. I actually didn’t mind this ratio at all, as I quite enjoyed Umi’s character.

It’s not long after the story starts that we see one of her biggest challenges working as a construction manager: the older male workers don’t always listen to their young female manager. This irked me the second it was introduced, as I had my own fair share of difficulties in a managerial role straight out of high school. Being so much younger than the people you are meant to guide can be a huge hurdle, so my heart broke for Umi as she tried time and time again to get the workers to listen to her.

Thankfully Umi seems to have rather thick skin and a support system to get her through even the toughest of days, as she always bounces back ready to conquer just about anything. The men that treat her poorly are slowly fleshed out as the story goes on (not that I forgive them, but still), so none of them are depicted as one-note malicious characters. Rather, many of them seem to just be stubborn and stuck in their ways.

Now, on to the romance! I knew I was going to enjoy the romance in this series just by reading the synopsis, and I was right! Kanon is a mixture of playful and sneaky-romantic at times, and overly-serious and strict at others. You never know which side of him you’re going to get, making those romantic scenes feel like a treat!

One of my absolute favourite scenes in this volume came in the form of a both sneaky-romantic and strict Kanon! The two of them set up a time and place to meet for dinner after work, and he grabs a table at a cafe nearby to wait for Umi to finish work. Umi however, suddenly gets swamped with an important task, and is not only unable to contact Kanon, but is also quite late to their date. She is able to meet him before he gives up and leaves, but she apologizes profusely for being late. Kanon however, stops her from apologizing, and actually compliments her on her work ethic! He has seen first-hand how hard she’s been working on the project, so he’s proud of how much effort she’s putting in.

I find normally in such scenarios, the male lead would get a little upset, the female lead would apologize, and the male lead would then playfully let it go. Kanon however insists that there’s absolutely nothing to apologize for in the first place, hopefully putting a stop to any negative emotions or doubts Umi may have been feeling. His reaction just felt so mature and confident that I could feel myself falling for him a little bit! While sure, maybe Umi could have spared a second to give him a phone call, it’s not as though she purposefully avoided contacting him to be malicious.

Both of them are completely serious about their jobs, so it’s nice to see Kanon give Umi the support and confidence she needs to keep doing her best!

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