Ikki Tousen: V.1 Legendary Fighter (ep.1-4)

Ikki Tousen is based on Yuji Shiozaki's over the top fighting manga of the same name.(In America its title is "Battle Vixens" published by Tokyo Pop.).To be completely honest with you the original manga is way better than it's anime counterpart, but that's not to say it isn't worth a look or two!
Loosely based on the "Romance of the three kingdoms" Ikki Tousen is primarily a fighting story.During the three kingdoms era several heroes tired to unite China and failed.Their spirits came to rest inside of jewels called magatama.Whoever inheirits these "sacred beads" has their own natural fighting ability increased many fold.The down side however is that they must fight to become "Ikki Tousen", one warrior with the stength of one thousand.Along with becoming ikki tousen the must live out the destiny of the warrior inside the magatama until they die.Unfortunately for Hakufu she loves to fight, so will she be able to overcome her destiny as the "Shou Hao of Koutou"?
Only time and the next few volumes will tell.All-in-all Ikki Tousen has a pretty decent storyline thats not too philishophically heavy with questions of morality or anything like that, it's straight forward and to the point.The animation quality is good, the character designs are awesome, and the music is pretty cool too.Defenitely not for the kiddies, it has a ton of panty shots, graphic fights scenes, and later on some more controversial and questionable content. The final verdict is if your into fanservicey fights between girls in school uniforms then Ikki Tousen is right up your alley, if not then your missing out, and before I forget don't forget to check out the origial story in "Battle Vixens" from Tokyo Pop.Also avalible now at Amazon.com.

Make no mistake: this series is all about fanservice. Highly detailed panties, cleavage, etc. This series can best be described as "style over substance." There's a story here somewhere, but it's best not think about it too hard. They don't give a lot of background on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms (on which this series is loosely based) so it's easy to lose the details in all the panties. I mean, how is a guy supposed to keep track of people who died 1800 years ago and of what's going on in the present while not being distracted by the fanservice?

My theory on the excessive fanservice is that it must be there for comedic effect, though it often misses the mark. But make no mistake, this show would be a very heavy series without the fanservice to remind you "hey, don't take this show so seriously." The panties go a long way toward distracting you from not only the incomprehensible backstory, but also from everybody getting the crap kicked out of them.

For those who are looking for a point of reference, I can't help you much. This series is very hard to classify. It's not quite like a fighting show, a comedy, or a drama. It does take elements from various series and meshes them as well as can be expected. The main character, Hakufu, is somewhat like a female Goku from Dragonball: loves a fight, but not very intelligent. In a suprise move, there's even a lecher. Ok, it's not really a suprise as there's a sterotypical lecher in nearly every anime. Dragonball had master Roshi, Burn Up had Yuji, Inuyasha had Miroku. The suprise is who the lecher is: Hakufu's mom! Very funny.

If you're looking for a good story, keep looking. If you're looking for social commentary, keep looking. If you don't mind fanservice and love action, then this might be for you. The series is extremely well animated, and the story, such as it is, is told fairly well. Luckily, the backstory is largely irrelevant. The Romance of the Three Kingdom stuff is good to know, but if you don't know it already don't worry about it on your first viewing of this series.

7 schools are at war with each other. These schools have male and female fighters that battle for supremacy. Hakufu Sonsaku is new in town. Her cousin and herself are fighting to protect their friends and keep their school on top. More importantly they fight to make their own destiny.

This anime is a lot of fun. It has great action, comedy, and some really great characters. It's more focused on chicks fighting and getting it on than the actual story. The plot is a bit thin and kinda out there, but interesting. You can easily get into the characters, and want them to be okay in the end. I guess that is what makes an anime good. Ikki Tousen is a very entertaining anime to watch, but as I said it's main purpose is fan service.