IKKI TOUSEN
(Battle Vixens)
4 series of animes taken from the long running manga, now in its 12th year. The anime series themselves span over 7 years, the first being released in 2003 and the last (so far) in 2010.
OVERVIEW - A high School/Fighting anime, the basic plot and concept is based on the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" from chinese history. The characters are essentially re-incarnations of the major figues of this period, destined to re-inact the historic struggles in this time. Featuring a large female cast, most of whom have breasts the size of their own heads, there is a large "hentai" aspect to the show, with endless pantyshots, nudity and graphic depictions of sexual acts. The anime has 4 series, Ikki Tousen (2003), Dragon Destiny (2007), Great Guardians (2008) and Xtreme Xecutor (2010).
REVIEW - While the basic premise of this series is appealing, epic even, due to its basis in the "three kingdoms" saga, the majority of the storyline is based on people trying to avoid their "destiny" as laid out by their namesakes and the "souls" in the beads or "magatama" they call carry. Anyone expecting a modern-setting retelling of the epic may very well be disappointed in what they find in this anime.
The concept that the war of the three kingdoms is being re-inacted by high school students, with each of the schools in the Kanto region of Japan representing one of the small kingdoms is for starters, odd. People get injured, hospitalised and even killed and no-one ever seems to do anything about it, not the schools, not the police or even the parents of the children which strikes me as utterly bizarre. As the series progress, the adult presence in this world almost vanishes completely, save for Hakafu's mother who plays more of a comic relief role. This lack of realism saps some of the depth from the show, which isnt exactly deep to begin with.
The first season see's the arrival of Sonsaku Hakafu, fated to be the "little lord of lords" and ruler of Nanyo Academy (based on the Wu Kingdom), and follows her rise to power in the school. Made in 2003, the series suffers from poor character design, awful animation, bland backdrops, boring "action" sequences and massive plot holes and sections that just simpy make no sense what so ever. My initial thoughts about the series once I'd watched it was "what was the point?" because it really didnt seem like it had one. Given the 4 years seperating the first and second series it would seem that a second season of the first series was never considered, yet the story plays out in such a way that its like one big set-up for an ongoing tale that was never going to be told. The first series also sets the tone for all four in terms of severe over-use of "Fan Service" in the shape of endless panty-shots, pretty much one every scene, breasts of impossible size, so large i'm surprised the female characters didnt topple over trying to stand up, let alone walk and clothing that appears to be made of paper, sorry, exploding paper that goes off with but a single touch to constantly expose midrif and underboob. The female characters seem to spend more time in ripped clothing than in undamaged clothes. There is referance to the bizarre Japanese fetish regarding women wetting themselves on several occasions, along with some near-blatent explicit scenes, though in this series most of the "action" occurs off-screen, with the situation before, normally a helpless female character being perved/letched at by another character-followed by a cut- then helpless female character appearing covered in sweat, her breasts exposed, face flushed and her panties round her ankles. If not for the setting up of the backstories of Hakafu and the top four of Nanyo I would suggest everyone avoid this awful, awful piece of embarrasing anime.
The second season, Dragon Destiny, has its focus on Seito Academy, (based on the Shu kingdom) and its head, Gentoku Ryubi. Gentoku is presented as a klutz, more intelligent than Hakafu but just as clumsy and unaware. Her strongest and closest companions are Unchou Kanu and Ekitoku Chouhi. Kanu was seen briefly in the first series in the tournament, beating her "destined killer" Ryomou and then Hakafu before withdrawing. Regarded as "unbeatable" her powerful fighting skills and status have basically allowed Chouhi to skate by being an average fighter and Gentoku being so completely unskilled that she seems barely able to walk without falling over. The story unfolds as being mostly about "The Dragons" present inside each of the 3 heads of the main schools, Hakafu's was glimpsed in the first series as a sadistic, violent brute that turned her from a average fighter into an unstopable beast, Gentoku's is shown to completely consume the normal girl, becoming a raging power that cannot be contained. We're also introduced more to the head of the third power, The Kyosho Academy (based on the Wei Kingdom) who's head is Motoku Sousou, who's dragon is refered to as "The Demon King" and is shown to slowly be taking more control over Motoku, forcing him into cruel and vicious actions to sate its bloodlust. The three powers clash over something called "The dragon jade", an artifact born from "the wishes of the common folk killed and displaced during the fighting" in the three kingdoms period and is said to be able to change the fate of any of the three heads. Behind the scenes at Kyosho is another player, Chutatsu Shibai, who seems to have an ulterior motive to bringing out Motoku's dragon and forcing the three heads to clash.
Its in this series that things start to get a little more "supernatural", with chi/ki blasts starting to appear, as well as visable energy aura's appearing around the more powerful fighters, mostly the heads when using/being used by their dragons. Its also shown here that Ryomou harbours a dragon in her constantly eye-patched left eye, but why, how and for what reason is left as a complete mystery. As the story progresses we learn a little more about the way the fighters and the few characters from behind the scenes are trying to defeat their own fates, and the climax, meant to be a re-inactment of the epic battle at the red cliffs from the three kingdoms but is a six-on-six fight where very little actual combat is seen takes place in what appears to be a refinery of some kind. At the end Shibai is killed, consumed by a borrowed power from Motoku's dragon, who teleports in, triggering Gentoku's dragon to come out. Just when it seems like Gentoku will die, the previous-thought-dead but actually "revived" Hakafu appears out of no-where, now in full control of her dragon-given powers, and the three fly about for a bit, sometimes looking like dragons, sometimes like themselves before Gentoku and Hakafu combine their attack to defeat the completely possesed Motoku. The dragon jade that everyone had been fighting over has something to do with this, i think, its really not made clear at all. At the end, everyone is free of their fates, taking jobs and having a jolly old high school life....
Again, the endless panty shots, nudity and exploding clothing are present in this series, more often than not the shot is deliberately framed just to produce a panty shot, however this series is more open with its sex scenes, often close to softcore porn levels. The fighting is a little better, with actual combat appearing to be like combat rather than dust clouds and panning still frames but still lacks any real feel to them, most of them appear to simply be an excuse to strip the women and produce countless panty shots. Production is a little better, with characters being a bit more consistant in appearance between scenes and looking less like pop-eyed fish/grey alien hybrids than the first series did. However, the backgrounds are still mostly bland, the characters can only really be told apart by their hair styles/colours and the whole story feels like it was crammed into the last 3 episodes, with everything before simply to produce, yup you guessed it, endless panty shots. Better than the first series, but still a fairly awful anime who's main claim to fame is its "almost porn but not quite" aspect.
Series Three, Great Guardians, introduces two new characters around whom the whole series revolves. The first is the "mysterious" little sister of Hakafu, Chubou Sonken, who appears out of no-where, looks and acts nothing like her sister and cant/wont explain why no-one, even Hakafu's mother, was even aware of her existance before. Carrying a distinct "Mary Sue" feeling, she's quickly accepted and integrated into both the family and school of Hakafu, who in all honesty is so stupid she would forget she may have had a sister. Around this time we're also re-introduced to a character called Housen Ryofu, who died in the first series taking out its "big bad" who's back from the dead with no memories. This aspect is where the large contradictions and inconsistancies of the four series begins. In the flashbacks the various characters have of Ryofu many things are inconsitant with her appearances from the first series. Her death for one, taking place in a greenhouse using a technique called "the suicide chi bomb/blast" is replaced with images of her jumping off a cliff with series one's bad guy, the fact that she paralysed and raped Ryomou is forgotten by all, especially Ryomou who suddenly has this sisterly/love rival history with her, while everyone else who'd met her, apart from "Saji/Ouin", seems to have pretty much forgotten her untill they hear her name.
As someone stirs up troubles between the 3 Academies, we learn that "Saji/Ouin" is working with the actual Saji Genpou, a young girl with "magical powers" or genjitsu who not only managed to partially resurect Ryofu to force "Saji/Ouin" to work with her, but later uses some kind of possesion technique on Ryofu to get her close to Gentoku, posses her (via sexual assualt, involving wires in a "tentacle rape" manner) and then use Gentoku to posses all her close friends to gang up on Kanu. Of course, the method of possesing someone involves kissing-like-a-porn-star amongst teenage schoolgirls. This is eventually broken by the "power of friendship" and all the possesed Seito students go back to normal. Meanwhile Ryomou is trying to work out what caused her former-now-forgotten-about-rapist now BFF and roomie Ryofu to come back to life, gets caught by the two Saji's and vanishes. Hakafu manages to stop being an utter idiot for just long enough to notice Ryomou has vanished, goes looking for her and ends up under girl-saji's possession. When Hakafu meets up with Koukin, her long-suffering cousin and Chubuo its suddenly the weak, non-combatant Chubou who realises Hakafu isnt herself, probably because she strung together more than a sentance without calling herself or someone else stupid. She then steps in once Koukin forfills his "get his ass kicked easily" quota for the episode and talks Hakafu back into being brainless, breaking the possesion once again with the "power of friendship" (like the care-bear stare really) the three then have a moment of bonding, in which Chubou admits to being completely unrelated to Hakafu and is in fact Koukin's "Destined Wife" then declines the role, stating "someone more suited is already by his side" prompting Hakafu to jump up going "eh? where? where? where is she?" (personally i think she gave up on the idea because, A-Koukin gets his ass kicked every 25 seconds, normally by a strong breeze and B-she'd have to put up with Hakafu daily for life). The three then decide to storm the place where the Saji's are holed up.
In the final few episodes (again) we learn that Young girl Saji was bullied for having "Special powers" as a kid, and as a result hates any friendship and is trying to ruin everyones relationships via possesion, that she wanted Ryomou so she could pull out the dragon in her eye as she believes its power can allow her to ruin the friendships, bonds and lives of every "fighter" with a magatama in existance, that "Saji/Ouin" only helped her because he wanted to seal her powers and maybe bring back his former fuckbuddy Ryofu properly and that Ryofu couldnt really exist properly again in the first place, and is little more than a spirit completely under girl-saji's control. In an almost endless parade of "Go on without me" moments extended by the unexplained simultanious arrival of several other people, Hakafu reaches Ryomou just in time for girl-saji to pull the dragon from her eye, resulting in a power-up moment and general evil-exposition-monaloguing as well as insta-markings and a dark aura for girl-saji. With sudden reversals, more "Go on without me" moments and the final confrontation on the roof its once again new girl Chubou's heroic actions of "talking sense" that save the day, convincing girl-saji to give up, while Ryofu battles the possesed Ryomou, while going on about "beating fate" and "living for me and saji/oiun" and so on before flitting away into little green lights, somehow also magically sealing the dragon back into Ryomou's eye and then it all ends with happiness, Chubou going back to the mountains where she apparently came from, taking the now-powerless girl-saji who's been "adopted" like Chubou by Hakafu with her.
This series takes the sexual context to a new high/low, with almost continual sexual attacks taking place in one way or another. With more panty shots than ever (no, i didnt think it was possible after Dragon Destiny but they manged it) and even more exploding clothing, bath/hot spring scenes and with all the female characters spending more time in some level of undress than being fully clothed, the whole series feels like a vehicle for introducing, then removing the two characters of girl-saji and Chubou while ramping up the "perverted" level of the anime. With no real notable battles to speak of outside of the ending sequence which plays out more like an episode of power rangers anyway the only points of note are A-Motoku's return at the very end as he was assumed dead after Dragon Destiny, B-the massive change in the relationship between Ryofu and Ryomou from one of abuse and contempt into an odd sisterly one, but by way of massive ret-con in flashbacks rather than natural means and C-the growth of friendship between Seito and Nanyo. Frankly if not for those points, which could have been done with a 30 second narration, there IS no point to "Great Guardians" outside of endless panty shots.
The fourth and so far Final series, Xtreme Xecutors, sort of actually makes some sense. The world in which the series are set is now firmly a "magical/supernatural" one, so very far removed from its "high school fighting" style that the first series had, in which everyone and their mother can fire off chi-blasts at will and with ease, and ghosts and spirits are natural every things, or so you would believe from the way people act. Kicking off with the introduction of yet another powerful fighting idiot, we meet Bachou Mouki, who storms Kyosho demanding to fight Motoka, managing to beat up or evade almost all the schools fighters before encountering Chukou Kyocho on the roof, who saves her life after Bachou falls over the railings. Picked up by Gentoku in the rain (because every dizty teenage girl with raging dragons inside them pick up half-naked younger girls in the rain and brings them home... right?) Bachou ends up at Seito Academy, where her name is apparently expected as being one of the "five tiger generals" of legend. After coaxing Gentoku out into the city, the two girls are attacked by a large mob of fighters that Bachou cannot handle. EnterBakafu Hakafu, who, in 4 hits (going by sound effects), defeats the huge mob and damages a building. This instantly impresses Bachou who asks Hakafu to be her master and train her. The combination of two of the most idiotic people in this anime's universe creates some kind of inverse stupidity field whereby Hakafu actually manages to help Bachou become stronger through the most ridiculous means possible.
Meanwhile, in a shocking turn of events for this terrible anime's series so far, actual plot development happens as a mysterious ghost-like figure convinces two never-before-seen characters who apparently head a never-before-seen school in a never-before-mentioned part of "south kanto", never-before-mentioned. The ghost takes the name of "Kentai" meaning "Emporer" and releases an official decree (via scroll this time, not text message like all previous series) calling for all heads to send their strongest fighters to the never-before-seen school known as Nanban, situated on a far-off island. Dispite ALL the heads thinking it was a trap, a scam and a bad idea, they ALL send off fighters, Nanyo's head, Hakafu wanting to go herself, the only head to think so, but manges to miss the boat because she woke up early all excited then slept on the train all day, as it went round and round its line. Bachou appears on the boat, having snuck aboard to follow her master and beat up strong people too. As the boat approaches the island the next day, it turns out to be a trap. All the fighters are captured, with only Bachou's awful escape attempt/pee break resulting in Bachou and Kyocho managing to escape. The captured fighters are taken to a school that looks like a cross between a chinese fort and dracula's castle (i shit you not) and thrown in cells. Kanu and Chouhi who had jumped/fallen off the boat during the ambush are also captured when Chouhi's training regime of throwing Gentoku about a few times a week then pigging on snacks (and apparently midnight burger runs) pays off in a crushing defeat in seconds. Kanu is brought before Kentai who "brings out the darkness" in Kanu's Magatama's soul, overwhelming the nearly naked Kanu with evil.
While this is happening Hakafu decides to goof off and goes to the mountains to play with Chubou and Girl-Saji. She's then contacted by a never-before-seen and never explained form of what I can only call "Dragon telepathy" from Motoka, who is avoiding fighting so as not to bring back his evil dragon. He warns Hakafu that everyone is in danger so she goes back home. At the same time Seito is under attack from one of the heads of the Nanban, acting under Kentai's orders to kill both Gentoku and then Hakafu. After a pressumed epic battle that happens offscreen between Gentoku's remaining guardian and this head, Gentoku uses her dragon-powers to save the life of the Nanban head, changing a lifetime of hatred and betrayal of others into loyalty to Gentoku somehow. Then shadow-wolves/dogs attack, lead by a "beastman" apparently. Gentoku and her followers run to avoid the wolves/dogs only to be cornered by the beastman, the Nanban head fights him but loses, and it ends up with Gentoku starting to use her dragon powers before collapsing a cliff, seemingly plunging her and her adviser to their deaths. or not, as Hakafu, now apparently able to manipulate water saves them, puts down the bad guy and helps wake up Gentoku, who's dragon powers knocked her out. However the beastman isnt done, gaining new powers from a shadow of kentai only to be instantly done in by Gentoku's dragon. This causes Gentoku to slip into some kinda vein-popping coma and Hakafu and some others decide to go to Nanban island to rescue everyone.
We're then "treated" to several episodes of pretty much comedy as the various groups meet up, split up, meet again and work out the grand scheme. Kentai is using the "destiny" of the Magatama's and the fighters with them to force them to fight, spill blood and power a resurection spell to revive all the people who died in the three kingdoms battles. For this purpose both Kanu and Ryomou, who's destinies are to be the cause of each other deaths, Ryomou killing Kanu and Kanu's "spirit" haunting and cursing Ryomou to an early grave, have been forced to battle each other this whole time (yeah, the time aspect of it all makes no sense unless Kanu and Ryomou had been fighting for days). Underground a few of the group have found the "roots" of a "tree of life" filled with pods of glowing liquid in which new bodies for the restless spirits are growing, Shiryu Choun from Seito interupts the battle between Ryomou and Kanu, and is attacked by the evil-possesed Kanu, Hakafu, Bachou and the rest of the formerly captured fighters face off against 100 or so Nanban students/guards/jungle tribesmen while Chouhi tries to reach Kanu, only to be stopped by the other Nanban head, still working for Kentai.
It all ends with Ryomou realising the dragon in her eye is the curse of Kanu's magatama spirit, which she "returns" in the form of a megakamahamaha energy blast and finally free's Kanu from the rage of her magatama's spirit. Kentai then steps up and beats the crap out of Ryomou. Above this the battle against the 100 guards ends, but Koukin and Hakafu are buried under rubble caused by an explosive arrow. Bachou goes after the assasin who'd fired it while the rest dig out Koukin and Hakafu. In another shocking turn of events, Koukin isnt injured, but Hakafu appears dead. We're then shown a Narrated point of view from Koukin remembering that in the three kingdoms era, Sonsaku Hakafu died young from being hit by a poison arrow (in direct contrast to the history told in the first two series, in which the historic Hakafu was killed by someone called Ukita, who's modern day persona had died to revive Hakafu in dragon destiny, supposedly allowing Hakafu to become one who can break a fighter's fate) conveniently a Nanyo student who'd accompanied Hakafu's group to the island and had been carrying a "legendary sword" lent by Motoka then arrives, Koukin takes the sword saying he'll end Kentai himself only to suddenly be hit by a light breeze damaged by the "evil souls" the blade had trapped in the past. At this point Hakafu's "dragon chi" fired off, breaking the ground around her and dropping her, sword suddenly in hand, right into the middle of the battle arena with Kentai, Kanu and Ryomou in.
We're given some exposition into who/what Kentai is, in so much as he's a form created by all the hatred and pain of the wandering souls in hell who died because of the three kingdoms battles and all the other battles caused by the magatama that house the spirits of the heroes of that period. Beaten in about 20 seconds by Hakafu, he demands Hakafu finish him and become the crazed despot her destiny demands. Hakafu responds by saying she doesnt fight to kill, only to fight for the sake of it, as it "excites" her Kentai then turns into mist, stating that as long as any magatama exist anywhere, he'll be back, before vanishing. By now everyone is nearby and we get a group shot of everyone's smiling faces.. aaww. The final episode carries a story that could have been another arc or series by itself, with Bachou finishing her training with Hakafu, Gentoku recovering and Kanu trying to get Gentoku to fall in love with her still, and Kyosho's fighters being attacked by what appears to be a nun, later appearing as a nun with a mask like Kentai's. Spotted and tracked by Bachou, the nun attacks Gentoku, who is saved by Bachou. Bachou carries on holding off the nun, realising its actually the assasin she fought on the island and thought was dead while Gentoku falls over a lot before finding Kanu. Bachou's fight reveals that the nun WAS the assasin Teni, is now possesed by Kentai and vows to carry on the vengance against all fighters, before being knocked out (and stripped to just her panties) in one hit by Motoka, whom Bachou doesnt try and fight, seemingly understanding why her desire for revenge against him will bring nothing but pain. Bachou wakes up in Seito again, is accepted into their school then returns to Nanyo to carry out her vow to fight once again with her former master, Hakafu. The series ends with their violent but happy clash of fists.
Of the four series, this is probably the best. While the plot is still lame, its actually foreshadowed and executed across the series, unlike the other three who seem to push all the story aspect into the final few episodes. The animation is vastly improved, as is the production, with lifelike and realistic backgrounds finally making an appearance. Sadly as the backgrounds now need to be detailed, this causes several previously seen areas to be completely re-imagined. Continuity is once again a pitiful victim of severe neglect in this series too, with areas apparently able to change size, shape and colour almost at will, along with little things like someone being covered in blood then once bandaged all blood on clothing is gone, bandages appearing from no-where, people having what appears to be 2-300 gallons of blood, and previously exploded clothing re-appearing, vanishing and re-appearing in the same fight.. Still at least the fighting is mostly shown, and is pretty well done for the most part.
For all you "Echii" fans out there, some bad news, while the endless panty shots, nudity and exploding clothing scenes that so personify this group of animes is present in what would be considered by any other anime's standards as "gratuitous", compared to the previous series its actually reduced. I would say it may even have less of these kinds of scenes than any of the others. There is even one character who NEVER loses any part of her clothing. Quite the shocker there, animation team.. could it be that perhaps, like myself who has endured so many panty-shots, exploding clothing and blatently stupidly sized breasts, you people are also sick of it?
nope, didnt think you would be...
In short, a nice idea on paper, This whole 4 anime group of series suffers from
REVIEW - While the basic premise of this series is appealing, epic even, due to its basis in the "three kingdoms" saga, the majority of the storyline is based on people trying to avoid their "destiny" as laid out by their namesakes and the "souls" in the beads or "magatama" they call carry. Anyone expecting a modern-setting retelling of the epic may very well be disappointed in what they find in this anime.
The concept that the war of the three kingdoms is being re-inacted by high school students, with each of the schools in the Kanto region of Japan representing one of the small kingdoms is for starters, odd. People get injured, hospitalised and even killed and no-one ever seems to do anything about it, not the schools, not the police or even the parents of the children which strikes me as utterly bizarre. As the series progress, the adult presence in this world almost vanishes completely, save for Hakafu's mother who plays more of a comic relief role. This lack of realism saps some of the depth from the show, which isnt exactly deep to begin with.
The first season see's the arrival of Sonsaku Hakafu, fated to be the "little lord of lords" and ruler of Nanyo Academy (based on the Wu Kingdom), and follows her rise to power in the school. Made in 2003, the series suffers from poor character design, awful animation, bland backdrops, boring "action" sequences and massive plot holes and sections that just simpy make no sense what so ever. My initial thoughts about the series once I'd watched it was "what was the point?" because it really didnt seem like it had one. Given the 4 years seperating the first and second series it would seem that a second season of the first series was never considered, yet the story plays out in such a way that its like one big set-up for an ongoing tale that was never going to be told. The first series also sets the tone for all four in terms of severe over-use of "Fan Service" in the shape of endless panty-shots, pretty much one every scene, breasts of impossible size, so large i'm surprised the female characters didnt topple over trying to stand up, let alone walk and clothing that appears to be made of paper, sorry, exploding paper that goes off with but a single touch to constantly expose midrif and underboob. The female characters seem to spend more time in ripped clothing than in undamaged clothes. There is referance to the bizarre Japanese fetish regarding women wetting themselves on several occasions, along with some near-blatent explicit scenes, though in this series most of the "action" occurs off-screen, with the situation before, normally a helpless female character being perved/letched at by another character-followed by a cut- then helpless female character appearing covered in sweat, her breasts exposed, face flushed and her panties round her ankles. If not for the setting up of the backstories of Hakafu and the top four of Nanyo I would suggest everyone avoid this awful, awful piece of embarrasing anime.
The second season, Dragon Destiny, has its focus on Seito Academy, (based on the Shu kingdom) and its head, Gentoku Ryubi. Gentoku is presented as a klutz, more intelligent than Hakafu but just as clumsy and unaware. Her strongest and closest companions are Unchou Kanu and Ekitoku Chouhi. Kanu was seen briefly in the first series in the tournament, beating her "destined killer" Ryomou and then Hakafu before withdrawing. Regarded as "unbeatable" her powerful fighting skills and status have basically allowed Chouhi to skate by being an average fighter and Gentoku being so completely unskilled that she seems barely able to walk without falling over. The story unfolds as being mostly about "The Dragons" present inside each of the 3 heads of the main schools, Hakafu's was glimpsed in the first series as a sadistic, violent brute that turned her from a average fighter into an unstopable beast, Gentoku's is shown to completely consume the normal girl, becoming a raging power that cannot be contained. We're also introduced more to the head of the third power, The Kyosho Academy (based on the Wei Kingdom) who's head is Motoku Sousou, who's dragon is refered to as "The Demon King" and is shown to slowly be taking more control over Motoku, forcing him into cruel and vicious actions to sate its bloodlust. The three powers clash over something called "The dragon jade", an artifact born from "the wishes of the common folk killed and displaced during the fighting" in the three kingdoms period and is said to be able to change the fate of any of the three heads. Behind the scenes at Kyosho is another player, Chutatsu Shibai, who seems to have an ulterior motive to bringing out Motoku's dragon and forcing the three heads to clash.
Its in this series that things start to get a little more "supernatural", with chi/ki blasts starting to appear, as well as visable energy aura's appearing around the more powerful fighters, mostly the heads when using/being used by their dragons. Its also shown here that Ryomou harbours a dragon in her constantly eye-patched left eye, but why, how and for what reason is left as a complete mystery. As the story progresses we learn a little more about the way the fighters and the few characters from behind the scenes are trying to defeat their own fates, and the climax, meant to be a re-inactment of the epic battle at the red cliffs from the three kingdoms but is a six-on-six fight where very little actual combat is seen takes place in what appears to be a refinery of some kind. At the end Shibai is killed, consumed by a borrowed power from Motoku's dragon, who teleports in, triggering Gentoku's dragon to come out. Just when it seems like Gentoku will die, the previous-thought-dead but actually "revived" Hakafu appears out of no-where, now in full control of her dragon-given powers, and the three fly about for a bit, sometimes looking like dragons, sometimes like themselves before Gentoku and Hakafu combine their attack to defeat the completely possesed Motoku. The dragon jade that everyone had been fighting over has something to do with this, i think, its really not made clear at all. At the end, everyone is free of their fates, taking jobs and having a jolly old high school life....
Again, the endless panty shots, nudity and exploding clothing are present in this series, more often than not the shot is deliberately framed just to produce a panty shot, however this series is more open with its sex scenes, often close to softcore porn levels. The fighting is a little better, with actual combat appearing to be like combat rather than dust clouds and panning still frames but still lacks any real feel to them, most of them appear to simply be an excuse to strip the women and produce countless panty shots. Production is a little better, with characters being a bit more consistant in appearance between scenes and looking less like pop-eyed fish/grey alien hybrids than the first series did. However, the backgrounds are still mostly bland, the characters can only really be told apart by their hair styles/colours and the whole story feels like it was crammed into the last 3 episodes, with everything before simply to produce, yup you guessed it, endless panty shots. Better than the first series, but still a fairly awful anime who's main claim to fame is its "almost porn but not quite" aspect.
Series Three, Great Guardians, introduces two new characters around whom the whole series revolves. The first is the "mysterious" little sister of Hakafu, Chubou Sonken, who appears out of no-where, looks and acts nothing like her sister and cant/wont explain why no-one, even Hakafu's mother, was even aware of her existance before. Carrying a distinct "Mary Sue" feeling, she's quickly accepted and integrated into both the family and school of Hakafu, who in all honesty is so stupid she would forget she may have had a sister. Around this time we're also re-introduced to a character called Housen Ryofu, who died in the first series taking out its "big bad" who's back from the dead with no memories. This aspect is where the large contradictions and inconsistancies of the four series begins. In the flashbacks the various characters have of Ryofu many things are inconsitant with her appearances from the first series. Her death for one, taking place in a greenhouse using a technique called "the suicide chi bomb/blast" is replaced with images of her jumping off a cliff with series one's bad guy, the fact that she paralysed and raped Ryomou is forgotten by all, especially Ryomou who suddenly has this sisterly/love rival history with her, while everyone else who'd met her, apart from "Saji/Ouin", seems to have pretty much forgotten her untill they hear her name.
As someone stirs up troubles between the 3 Academies, we learn that "Saji/Ouin" is working with the actual Saji Genpou, a young girl with "magical powers" or genjitsu who not only managed to partially resurect Ryofu to force "Saji/Ouin" to work with her, but later uses some kind of possesion technique on Ryofu to get her close to Gentoku, posses her (via sexual assualt, involving wires in a "tentacle rape" manner) and then use Gentoku to posses all her close friends to gang up on Kanu. Of course, the method of possesing someone involves kissing-like-a-porn-star amongst teenage schoolgirls. This is eventually broken by the "power of friendship" and all the possesed Seito students go back to normal. Meanwhile Ryomou is trying to work out what caused her former-now-forgotten-about-rapist now BFF and roomie Ryofu to come back to life, gets caught by the two Saji's and vanishes. Hakafu manages to stop being an utter idiot for just long enough to notice Ryomou has vanished, goes looking for her and ends up under girl-saji's possession. When Hakafu meets up with Koukin, her long-suffering cousin and Chubuo its suddenly the weak, non-combatant Chubou who realises Hakafu isnt herself, probably because she strung together more than a sentance without calling herself or someone else stupid. She then steps in once Koukin forfills his "get his ass kicked easily" quota for the episode and talks Hakafu back into being brainless, breaking the possesion once again with the "power of friendship" (like the care-bear stare really) the three then have a moment of bonding, in which Chubou admits to being completely unrelated to Hakafu and is in fact Koukin's "Destined Wife" then declines the role, stating "someone more suited is already by his side" prompting Hakafu to jump up going "eh? where? where? where is she?" (personally i think she gave up on the idea because, A-Koukin gets his ass kicked every 25 seconds, normally by a strong breeze and B-she'd have to put up with Hakafu daily for life). The three then decide to storm the place where the Saji's are holed up.
In the final few episodes (again) we learn that Young girl Saji was bullied for having "Special powers" as a kid, and as a result hates any friendship and is trying to ruin everyones relationships via possesion, that she wanted Ryomou so she could pull out the dragon in her eye as she believes its power can allow her to ruin the friendships, bonds and lives of every "fighter" with a magatama in existance, that "Saji/Ouin" only helped her because he wanted to seal her powers and maybe bring back his former fuckbuddy Ryofu properly and that Ryofu couldnt really exist properly again in the first place, and is little more than a spirit completely under girl-saji's control. In an almost endless parade of "Go on without me" moments extended by the unexplained simultanious arrival of several other people, Hakafu reaches Ryomou just in time for girl-saji to pull the dragon from her eye, resulting in a power-up moment and general evil-exposition-monaloguing as well as insta-markings and a dark aura for girl-saji. With sudden reversals, more "Go on without me" moments and the final confrontation on the roof its once again new girl Chubou's heroic actions of "talking sense" that save the day, convincing girl-saji to give up, while Ryofu battles the possesed Ryomou, while going on about "beating fate" and "living for me and saji/oiun" and so on before flitting away into little green lights, somehow also magically sealing the dragon back into Ryomou's eye and then it all ends with happiness, Chubou going back to the mountains where she apparently came from, taking the now-powerless girl-saji who's been "adopted" like Chubou by Hakafu with her.
This series takes the sexual context to a new high/low, with almost continual sexual attacks taking place in one way or another. With more panty shots than ever (no, i didnt think it was possible after Dragon Destiny but they manged it) and even more exploding clothing, bath/hot spring scenes and with all the female characters spending more time in some level of undress than being fully clothed, the whole series feels like a vehicle for introducing, then removing the two characters of girl-saji and Chubou while ramping up the "perverted" level of the anime. With no real notable battles to speak of outside of the ending sequence which plays out more like an episode of power rangers anyway the only points of note are A-Motoku's return at the very end as he was assumed dead after Dragon Destiny, B-the massive change in the relationship between Ryofu and Ryomou from one of abuse and contempt into an odd sisterly one, but by way of massive ret-con in flashbacks rather than natural means and C-the growth of friendship between Seito and Nanyo. Frankly if not for those points, which could have been done with a 30 second narration, there IS no point to "Great Guardians" outside of endless panty shots.
The fourth and so far Final series, Xtreme Xecutors, sort of actually makes some sense. The world in which the series are set is now firmly a "magical/supernatural" one, so very far removed from its "high school fighting" style that the first series had, in which everyone and their mother can fire off chi-blasts at will and with ease, and ghosts and spirits are natural every things, or so you would believe from the way people act. Kicking off with the introduction of yet another powerful fighting idiot, we meet Bachou Mouki, who storms Kyosho demanding to fight Motoka, managing to beat up or evade almost all the schools fighters before encountering Chukou Kyocho on the roof, who saves her life after Bachou falls over the railings. Picked up by Gentoku in the rain (because every dizty teenage girl with raging dragons inside them pick up half-naked younger girls in the rain and brings them home... right?) Bachou ends up at Seito Academy, where her name is apparently expected as being one of the "five tiger generals" of legend. After coaxing Gentoku out into the city, the two girls are attacked by a large mob of fighters that Bachou cannot handle. Enter
Meanwhile, in a shocking turn of events for this terrible anime's series so far, actual plot development happens as a mysterious ghost-like figure convinces two never-before-seen characters who apparently head a never-before-seen school in a never-before-mentioned part of "south kanto", never-before-mentioned. The ghost takes the name of "Kentai" meaning "Emporer" and releases an official decree (via scroll this time, not text message like all previous series) calling for all heads to send their strongest fighters to the never-before-seen school known as Nanban, situated on a far-off island. Dispite ALL the heads thinking it was a trap, a scam and a bad idea, they ALL send off fighters, Nanyo's head, Hakafu wanting to go herself, the only head to think so, but manges to miss the boat because she woke up early all excited then slept on the train all day, as it went round and round its line. Bachou appears on the boat, having snuck aboard to follow her master and beat up strong people too. As the boat approaches the island the next day, it turns out to be a trap. All the fighters are captured, with only Bachou's awful escape attempt/pee break resulting in Bachou and Kyocho managing to escape. The captured fighters are taken to a school that looks like a cross between a chinese fort and dracula's castle (i shit you not) and thrown in cells. Kanu and Chouhi who had jumped/fallen off the boat during the ambush are also captured when Chouhi's training regime of throwing Gentoku about a few times a week then pigging on snacks (and apparently midnight burger runs) pays off in a crushing defeat in seconds. Kanu is brought before Kentai who "brings out the darkness" in Kanu's Magatama's soul, overwhelming the nearly naked Kanu with evil.
While this is happening Hakafu decides to goof off and goes to the mountains to play with Chubou and Girl-Saji. She's then contacted by a never-before-seen and never explained form of what I can only call "Dragon telepathy" from Motoka, who is avoiding fighting so as not to bring back his evil dragon. He warns Hakafu that everyone is in danger so she goes back home. At the same time Seito is under attack from one of the heads of the Nanban, acting under Kentai's orders to kill both Gentoku and then Hakafu. After a pressumed epic battle that happens offscreen between Gentoku's remaining guardian and this head, Gentoku uses her dragon-powers to save the life of the Nanban head, changing a lifetime of hatred and betrayal of others into loyalty to Gentoku somehow. Then shadow-wolves/dogs attack, lead by a "beastman" apparently. Gentoku and her followers run to avoid the wolves/dogs only to be cornered by the beastman, the Nanban head fights him but loses, and it ends up with Gentoku starting to use her dragon powers before collapsing a cliff, seemingly plunging her and her adviser to their deaths. or not, as Hakafu, now apparently able to manipulate water saves them, puts down the bad guy and helps wake up Gentoku, who's dragon powers knocked her out. However the beastman isnt done, gaining new powers from a shadow of kentai only to be instantly done in by Gentoku's dragon. This causes Gentoku to slip into some kinda vein-popping coma and Hakafu and some others decide to go to Nanban island to rescue everyone.
We're then "treated" to several episodes of pretty much comedy as the various groups meet up, split up, meet again and work out the grand scheme. Kentai is using the "destiny" of the Magatama's and the fighters with them to force them to fight, spill blood and power a resurection spell to revive all the people who died in the three kingdoms battles. For this purpose both Kanu and Ryomou, who's destinies are to be the cause of each other deaths, Ryomou killing Kanu and Kanu's "spirit" haunting and cursing Ryomou to an early grave, have been forced to battle each other this whole time (yeah, the time aspect of it all makes no sense unless Kanu and Ryomou had been fighting for days). Underground a few of the group have found the "roots" of a "tree of life" filled with pods of glowing liquid in which new bodies for the restless spirits are growing, Shiryu Choun from Seito interupts the battle between Ryomou and Kanu, and is attacked by the evil-possesed Kanu, Hakafu, Bachou and the rest of the formerly captured fighters face off against 100 or so Nanban students/guards/jungle tribesmen while Chouhi tries to reach Kanu, only to be stopped by the other Nanban head, still working for Kentai.
It all ends with Ryomou realising the dragon in her eye is the curse of Kanu's magatama spirit, which she "returns" in the form of a mega
We're given some exposition into who/what Kentai is, in so much as he's a form created by all the hatred and pain of the wandering souls in hell who died because of the three kingdoms battles and all the other battles caused by the magatama that house the spirits of the heroes of that period. Beaten in about 20 seconds by Hakafu, he demands Hakafu finish him and become the crazed despot her destiny demands. Hakafu responds by saying she doesnt fight to kill, only to fight for the sake of it, as it "excites" her Kentai then turns into mist, stating that as long as any magatama exist anywhere, he'll be back, before vanishing. By now everyone is nearby and we get a group shot of everyone's smiling faces.. aaww. The final episode carries a story that could have been another arc or series by itself, with Bachou finishing her training with Hakafu, Gentoku recovering and Kanu trying to get Gentoku to fall in love with her still, and Kyosho's fighters being attacked by what appears to be a nun, later appearing as a nun with a mask like Kentai's. Spotted and tracked by Bachou, the nun attacks Gentoku, who is saved by Bachou. Bachou carries on holding off the nun, realising its actually the assasin she fought on the island and thought was dead while Gentoku falls over a lot before finding Kanu. Bachou's fight reveals that the nun WAS the assasin Teni, is now possesed by Kentai and vows to carry on the vengance against all fighters, before being knocked out (and stripped to just her panties) in one hit by Motoka, whom Bachou doesnt try and fight, seemingly understanding why her desire for revenge against him will bring nothing but pain. Bachou wakes up in Seito again, is accepted into their school then returns to Nanyo to carry out her vow to fight once again with her former master, Hakafu. The series ends with their violent but happy clash of fists.
Of the four series, this is probably the best. While the plot is still lame, its actually foreshadowed and executed across the series, unlike the other three who seem to push all the story aspect into the final few episodes. The animation is vastly improved, as is the production, with lifelike and realistic backgrounds finally making an appearance. Sadly as the backgrounds now need to be detailed, this causes several previously seen areas to be completely re-imagined. Continuity is once again a pitiful victim of severe neglect in this series too, with areas apparently able to change size, shape and colour almost at will, along with little things like someone being covered in blood then once bandaged all blood on clothing is gone, bandages appearing from no-where, people having what appears to be 2-300 gallons of blood, and previously exploded clothing re-appearing, vanishing and re-appearing in the same fight.. Still at least the fighting is mostly shown, and is pretty well done for the most part.
For all you "Echii" fans out there, some bad news, while the endless panty shots, nudity and exploding clothing scenes that so personify this group of animes is present in what would be considered by any other anime's standards as "gratuitous", compared to the previous series its actually reduced. I would say it may even have less of these kinds of scenes than any of the others. There is even one character who NEVER loses any part of her clothing. Quite the shocker there, animation team.. could it be that perhaps, like myself who has endured so many panty-shots, exploding clothing and blatently stupidly sized breasts, you people are also sick of it?
nope, didnt think you would be...
In short, a nice idea on paper, This whole 4 anime group of series suffers from
- piss poor production till the 4th series
- lack of cohesive plot in each series, let alone among them
- Ridiculous amounts of panty shots
- contradictory information, massive changes to established events for no reason
- action sequences that have no action
- Ridiculous amounts of panty shots
- pointless nudity that serves no purpose other than to appeal to teens with no access to actual porn
- terrible writing across all series, poor timing in first three
- Ridiculous amounts of panty shots
- Ridiculous amounts of panty shots
Did i mention the ridiculous amount of panty shots? seriously, whats so appealing about it when its flashed onscreen every 20 seconds?
SUMMARY -
Story - So much wasted potential, I watched all four series in the hope they'd actually get round to making a real point but they never quite managed it. terrible conclusions, clichéd moments at every turn, character growth that could only be measured in how much quicker they could explode an opponants clothing and always rushing to a poor ending in the last few episodes only. The story is clearly secondary to the fan service sadly. 1/10
Production -While production values get better as the series progress, by the standards of the times they were released they are seriously lacking. The first series, released in 2003, looks like it was made in the 70's. We're talking original series gundam here.. 2007's and 2008's offerings are at the point the 2003 series should have been and 2010's series makes no use of any of the advancements every other anime i've seen from the time uses. While the voice acting is good, the utter cheese they had to perform may well have left them gagging. Continuity doesnt exist for the most part, with scenes and story alike simply re-inventing themselves to suit whatever the director wanted to portray. 1/10
Music - I listened to the starting themes and ending themes for each series once. I could not bear to listen to them more they were so bad. with the exception of the first series' opener, almost all the works are trite, bland psuedo-pop crap that doesnt stand out. The first series opener is so awful the people behind it should be banned from ever having anything to do with music ever again. I cant bear to listen to them again to give you individual reviews, but i'm sure they'll be on youtube if you search for Ikki Tousen.. sadly the score is also as diabolical.. So please excuse me while i wash my abused eardrums with bleach now. 1/10
Accessability - The concept is as follows "Chinese history recreated in Japanese high schools" and because of that, it would be extremely hard for a westerner to understand a lot of the referances and points made. Even the endless panty shots are a part of "Otaku" culture, which started in Japan and is spreading to the west. I know next to nothing about the three kingdoms period so had to endlessly use wikipedia to gain any kind of context for a lot of the major aspects of the series. 1/10
Overall Impression - Ok, i've been sarcastic, i've been negative but this group of series REALLY could have had something. So many of the "right" elements are assembled, epic historic saga, inter-school conflict, likable heroes/heroines.. yet none of it really comes together properly, it doesnt "gel" like it should and sadly i think the focus on the "perverted" (Hentai or Echii in japanese) aspects is the cause. I think this must be what it'd be like to see a classic film remade into soft porn.. you know the story should be good, but its been ripped apart so much to make space for the sex aspect that its no longer what it should be, could have been. I'm giving a better mark here out of respect for the potential the story had, for what it should have, could have been. /Salute 4/10
Final Score - 08/50
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