Saigami comes from Saturday AM, which has been publishing webcomics online for ten years and recently moved into publishing physical copies of their most popular titles. I like Saturday AM's efforts to build up a diverse portfolio of artists from all over the world, but don't love their marketing of being the world's most diverse manga company. Yes, most manga isn't diverse because it is literally Japanese comics. But manga has been influencing creators around the world for decades now, so I think there is room for OEM (Original English-language Manga). However, I can't recommend Saturday AM as a publisher because there has been controversy about them paying artists.
Saigami starts in our world, where Ayami is a high-school girl with an absent father, a mother who is usually at work or drinking, and a house full of trash. She's struggling, and even her old refuge in books is starting to fail. Then, she gets a mysterious letter from her father, goes to meet him, and falls into a fantasy world where people called 'saigami' have elemental powers (and some even have dragons!). It's a pretty standard isekai setup delivered without much flair. There's a lot of exposition, both before and after Ayami ends up in another world, and certain things get brushed over without a thought. (If Ayami's father is a big mystery to her, why does she instantly know the letter is from him? Why isn't she curious about why her father's letter led her to a mysterious land?)
Once in another land, Ayami quickly meets two boys about her age: the friendly and well-connected Sean and the hostile outcast Reyji. They're both broad types with little sense of an inner life. Ayami gets to go on an important journey with them, even though she's utterly unqualified, as Reyji points out. Of course, as is obvious, Ayami turns out to be a saigami.
The story is fairly predictable and I wasn't drawn in my the characters. The art is okay. The backgrounds are quite nice, there is decent flow between panels, and I can understand what is happening easily. The character designs are consistent, but plain and somewhat amateur, with little variation in faces. Saigami reads like what it is: an OEM by someone who likes manga. Its inspirations are clear, but it doesn't really have a spark to make it stand out, despite its heroine's fiery powers.
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