Ikkitousen: Great Guardians

I enjoyed this season a bit more than the previous one. I liked that for the most part, the story felt a lot more grounded and simple and it embraced a lot of a goofiness afforded by the setting. I hate when shows with such a clearly stupid premise start trying to take themselves too seriously, so it was nice that the first half was pretty lighthearted and focused on slice of life character stuff. That said the second half did start to drag a bit as more and more characters fell prey to the same mind control shtick, they probably just did it one ... or two too many times.

Overall for a show that usually just prides itself on fight scenes that exist solely for the purpose of ripping the clothes off the female cast, I think this season did a pretty alright job telling a cohesive story and being engaging enough to not put me to sleep. 7/10

Most of the Ikkitousen series is a nightmare. But since season 3 feels like it completely abandons its old dry plot, there's almost a whole new story that is actually bearable and decent. With a much better story line, the fanservice now becomes worth it. That being said, Ikkitousen does a great job upholding the ecchi tag. So if you're a titty-hatin' queer, go ahead and move on. Additionally, this season features a ton of god's gift to anime, Ryofu. Season 3 has a few good battles to offer as well. All in all, this is the best Ikkitousen has to offer.

Great Guardians is apparently the third in the Ikkitosen series. However, I'm reviewing this one fresh to the franchise.

First off, I have no idea how these girls move around as they must have an incredibly huge burden on their shoulders. Other than that, expect unusually weak clothing that must be made out of thin paper. In any case, if you're at all sensitive to ecchi series, high levels of fan-service, or full frontal nudity I'd recommend you steer clear of this.

It you are able to handle these, then Great Guardians offers you a modest story line with some interesting characters. The series is focused around ... fan service and battles. Character development and romance are far from the standouts in the series.

Animation:
The animation is good though female characters are a bit over proportioned in areas already noted above. Battle sequences are well done but abnormally high levels of "battle damage" in certain areas probably detracts some from the enjoyment.

Sound:
The OP/ED aren't that great, way too fast in any case for any Karaoke usage. The BGM is decent though not outstanding. A few tracks are pretty good but the overall thing isn't that memorable. VAs are good, esp. the lively Hakufu.

Story:
People with special earrings are modern reincarnations of warriors during the three Kingdoms period in Chinese history. They have great strength, high stamina, and special attacks (which are never explained... probably already done in preceding series).

This particular series is a bit of a toss up as the under workings of the plot are hidden up until the very last episode. The series will keep viewers guessing what's happening and who is "good".

Though it is somewhat of a slice of life, it definitely goes beyond the boundaries of that genre. In all, the battles are a bit repetitive but the ending redeems the series somewhat with a final grand battle.

The series has a fair resolution with the possibility of further continuations (series four?).

Character:
With a high female to male ratio, it is typically the case that the main male gets a lot of attention. This isn't really the case here as Kokin is pretty much shelved for the significant battles (and obviously no "attractive" battle damage for him). The main delight here is the hilarious and lively Hakufu who helps bridge the gap between battles with comedic humor and fun idiocy.Overall, there could have been more development but the focus is obviously on the girls engaging in clothing-tearing battles.

Value:
This is definitely not a show to take with to work. In any case, it's a decent watch if you have time to kill, though I can't really find the point to it; likewise I can't comment on how important it is in the entire series franchise. That said, it is definitely filled with an overabundance of fan service and dribbles of humor and action. There's also a 6-part OVA which is pretty much just additional fan-service with no real further value.