Ikkitousen

Ikkitousen is by no means a good anime. Though, that's not to say that it wasn't rather enjoyable, and I must admit that I was surprised that I was able to finish it, and still feel a sliver of satisfaction after watching it. There were many things that could have been done much better-- that would have made this a better series-- but if you leave your expectations and occasionally your sense of decency behind, this is not a terrible watch.

Story: A good concept gone to waste most of the time, and slightly silly to boot. A plot lightly touching on pre-destination and the ... inevitability of fate is often overshadowed by minor squabbles or situations clearly designed to pander to more base tastes. That said, there are some moments of inspired story-telling, but these are very, very few and far between. After watching the entire story through to the finish, I must admit that I am left a little confused as to the point of the whole thing. Is destiny inescapable, or can it be overcome with sheer willpower? Even though this should be a thought-provoking ending, I found it felt rather lazy and incomplete.

Art: Some nice character designs, restricted by outdated animation and again pandering to lusty teens. Big-breasted characters, multitudes of up-skirt shots, and clothes apparently the consistency of tissue-paper tell you exactly the demographic this series is aimed at. The background art is so-so, and the fighting sequences are nicely executed-- have seen better though.

Sound: Again, there is nothing particularly outstanding about the OP or ED for this series. In fact, the lyrics have absolutely nothing to do with the series as a whole, and feel decidedly out of place. Seiyuu performances aren't terrible, and despite being a rather annoying character, Asano Masumi's performance as Hakufu fits with the feel of the character. Other characters of note are Kaida Yuko as Ryoumou and Watanabe Akeno as Ryoufu.

Character: With a slew of characters from different schools all introduced in thirteen episodes, it can get very difficult to place who is from what school, what their relationships are to one another, and what their motives are for fighting. Often inconsistent characters (see Ryoumou from the first few episodes to the rest of the season), at times shallow personalities and changeable alliances, make it somewhat difficult to empathise with particular characters. Some of the female characters are fleshed out a bit -- not a lot -- but significantly more so than the male characters, who all seem to be suffering from two-dimensional personalities. That's not to say the female characters fare much better. Some moments of character growth shine like diamonds in this series, but again they are very few and far between.

Enjoyment: As a female watching this series, I probably can't rate it as highly as some might, as I found the fan service a little too distracting, and the situations a little too laughable to rate this a 'good' series. Despite multiple 'roll-eyes' scenarios, this series was rather enjoyable. The fights were interesting enough, the characters dilemmas were occasionally interesting and while it wasn't expanded on nearly enough, the whole pre-destination/pre-determination concept was really what kept me hooked throughout the thirteen episodes. Enjoyable in parts, and rather cringe-worthy in parts, I still found myself smiling by the time it was all over.

Overall: Could have been much better than it was. Perhaps toning down some of the fan service and focussing on building a more substantial plot may have made me rate this series a little higher. If story and character development don't matter much to you, and you're looking for a little fan service, this will probably be your thing. If you can't handle a hefty serve of the aforementioned, I think it might be better to give this series a miss. I enjoyed it, but I didn't like it, though I was never expecting it to be a particularly deep or thought-provoking series. So if you are able to lower your expectations and enjoy it for what it is you might find yourself enjoying this series.

Ikkitousen's story is just too confusing and mixed up if you have vague knowledge of Chinese History, which was my case. Even so, I watched the whole anime since it is decently drawn and animated. The soundtrack is decent, nothing too astonishing nor boring. The development of the characters was lacking; a lot of characters were introduced too quickly and you lost track who he/she was, why he/she appeared, or what were his/her intentions. This was probably due to the attempt of condensing a lot of Chinese history in 13 episodes.

The anime is alright overall. It entertains the viewer while watching it, with a lot ... of eyecandy for those who like ecchi and fan service. I would actually recommend it.

This is my first review ever, so I would appreciate some if possible.

The first thing I wanted to point out (that mostly everyone did already) is that the creators really likes boobs, panties and buttocks that it's ridicolous, even in Highschool of the Dead it wasn't this ridicolous IMO.
The girls flashed their panties when they were kicking someone so many times that I lost count (or maybe I just suck at keeping count)
Now, enough of me babbling about pointless stuff and on with the review

Story - 4, Oooohhh, that gotta hurt. The story is basically based on/ripped straight from the Chinese novel "Romance of ... the Three Kingdoms" (which I haven't read), I can't say anything else about it.
Every "fighter" has like this wierd earring crap containing the "soul" of some ancient figher, the earrings actually doesn't serve any purpose for anyone, the only thing the earring does is "forcing" the fighters to fight each other like a f*cking "gang from da hood". It's stupid.

Art - 7, Yeah :D. Ikkitousen has good artwork, no doubt, but it's not perfect, like the backgrounds for example, there's isn't much more I can complain about when it comes to the art, maybe it was the eye candy here and there that made me not to complain too much.

Sound - 6, Good. I really liked the intro (and no, it wasn't the embarrassing shots of Hakufu that made me like the intro), I would also say that the sound is pretty decent for an anime this old but god, the VAs didn't impress me one bit (the english dub, CURSE ME!), the sound part would get a 7 if the VA wasn't so bad.

Character - 4, Meh. We got a feminine-looking guy, a blonde bimbo, some half-emo chick who appeared to (at least to me) being saddistic, but apparently not.
Then we got minor characters who's stupid, like the rest of the cast.

Enjoyment - 5, Ok. I would be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy Ikkitousen, but what made me keep watching it was not the girls getting their clothes got ripped apart, not the panty shots either, it was for one, and one thing only: So I can understand WTF is happening in the later Ikkitousen series.

Overall - 6, Bottom line: Watchable, but not re-watchable.
It isn't a good anime, I'm sorry fanboys, the only thing I can say about it is that it's decent, nothing more.


Feel free to give me some advice on how I can improve my review-writing. :)

If you're looking for an action anime with lots of drama and intense storylines, then move along to the next anime.
Ikkitousen is fanservice. Lots of panties, lots of boobies, lots of ripped of clothes, oh, and did I mention panties yet?

Story: 2
What story? Ikkitousen is a chain of events, loosely based on a novel, to which they often refer within the anime. If there is a story it would be that everyone just has to act according to the novel because: it's their destiny.

Art: 9
I must say I really liked the art. Maybe too polished for some of us but ... to me it was eye-candy. Characters are very neatly drawn, easy to recognize (unlike their names) and very colorful. That's what attracted me to Ikkitousen to begin with.
There are a HUGE amount of panties-shots throughout the entire series. Same goes for the breasts. Without hesitation I can say that every girl's clothes are ripped of in every battle, just to show some boobies. So if you're just looking for some good-old ecchi, you're at the right address.

Sound: 4
I don't exactly remember any of it so I guess it wasn't good nor bad. The intro was alright, I always skipped the ending. I just doesn't fit Ikkitousen at all.

Character: 4
Ikkitousen are very typical and stereotype. There's the courageous but dumb main character (Sonsaku), the quiet "I have feelings but I won't show them to you"-girl (Ryomou) and the protective but useless friend of the main character (Koukin). Same predictability goes for all of the other characters, so no surprises here.

Enjoyment: 5
I can't say I really enjoyed it. I just felt bored and braindead and wanted to watch something that didn't require hard thinking, so Ikkitousen was the first thing that came to mind.

Overall: 5
Ikkitousen isn't exactly a good anime. It has no story, the characters are plain and there isn't much to relate too (I find that an important aspect in anime).
What Ikkitousen does have is good fanservice and a few good action scenes.

First of all, I'm a girl that enjoys shounen and ecchi series but this was way TOO much -.-"
This is not really a good anime but I enjoyed some parts watching it.
I really liked the story, most characters are well developed and the art is such a classic but... BOOBS. PANTIES. BUTTS. That's everything about this anime, it's like they take advantage of every silly opportunity they can use to see girls' underwear or their boobs :/
At the end, I just got tired of too much exhibitionism.

Boobs and punching. That's what this show has to offer. Also history nerds might notice some similarities with the 3 kingdoms period of China or something, I wouldn't know, I'm not a history nerd. As an American my only knowledge of eastern militarily history comes from the game Sengoku Basara 3. Yes specifically just the 3rd one only, it was the only one that got a western release on the Wii, which was the only console I had at the time. So I have a very limited knowledge of just the Sengoku period of Japan, and that's about it. I have no idea who any ... of the historical figures mentioned in this show are, and don't really care.

That said, if you have no idea who any of the historical figures are you are probably not going to have much emotional investment in this show. None of the homages to historical events land and it's basically just a bunch of disconnected fights, panty flashes and clothes being ripped off to reveal the legally allowed number of frames of nipple for Japanese late night broadcast. They seemed to have saved most of those up for the hot spring episode anyway, so if you're just watching for the tiddies skip ahead to that one.

The show is pretty boring as anything beyond horny bait, and even as that it doesn't do a great job. Barely a 6/10

Based in the Chinese of heroes of the legend of the Three Kingdoms but set in the present days in Japan, instead of Kingdoms we have seven different schools fighting for the supremacy. Each school has a hierarchy and depending of the position of every student inside them, they wear a gem of different color.

A girl called Hakufu Sonsaku, who has lived isolated with her mother, arrives to Nanyou academy to take her place as leader and fight against other schools, however the leaders of the school won’t make things easy for her to take the lead. She’s not alone because she has the ... help Kokin Shuuyu, her cousin and a warrior or Level D, who has practiced marital arts since they were kids.

Ikkitousen has a lot of doses of violence where girls finish with their clothes ripped-off, moments of humor and a lot of fanservice during most of the episodes. Maybe they abuse of the fanservice more than other animes and sometimes violence is unnecessary used.

The truth is that the plot isn’t complicated to understand: they just fight to become the most powerful school, and they fight inside their own schools to become leaders. Fight, fight, fight. And we don’t have fights we have fanservice. The only reason for many people to watch this it’s because of the eye candy ladies we see and their scantily suits that leave little to the imagination.

I think Ikittousen had the potential to be more than an anime with a lot of fanservice to be one of the most memorable action animes of all time.

Story: more like a lack of story but this was to be seen on the premise, i still admit having some fun with this season's first part, however it does make incredible dull moments be a common of the show, still is way better than the following up seasons of it

Art: was good, nothing spectacular but overally good

Sound: was decent and fitting

Characters: some characters were just ''bleh at finest'' and others were actually interesting, i do think the ones that are more developed and interesting are the antagonists than rather the main bunch

Enjoyment: if you're into a lot of ecchi and random fights it will ... make it for you, if not then look somewhere else

Overall: i did enjoyed this first season unlike the repetitive one following this one in the trendy fashion, yes i also enjoyed the fanservice is this one but largely being objective there was a bit too much of it sometimes to cover up the lack of plot the same happened with random fight throws, but are up to the style you wanna see it for, so for the sake of entertainment i give this one a fair rating and only summed up by this very first season, Final Score: 5/10