"When these Girls Fight, the clothes always lose"

Centuries pass and the same events have taken place many times before. A young girl, Sonsaku Hakufu, comes to town and wants to fight everyone. One little issue, she is not that good and is rather stupid, but there is something else. Sonsaku is the possessor of the Dragon Bead that contains the chi of Sun Ce-Bofu, one of the most powerful fighters that ever lived. Once the secret is out, the battles really begin and the story takes on an interesting turn.

Ikki Tousen: The Complete Series comes in a 2 disc set and contains 13 episodes. It was originally know as Ikki Tousen: Battle Vixens and aired July through October 2003. There was a second series produced titled Ikki Tousen: Dragon Destiny that ran from February through May 2007. The Manga series has been running since 1998 and is authored by Yuji Shiozaki.

Episodes

Disc One: 1. The Champions, 2. A Confrontation with the Big Four at Nanyou, 3. My Virtue is in Danger, 4. A Duel! Taishiji vs, Sonsaku, 5. Get Angry, Hakufu! The School Wide Counterattack, 6. The Bloody Big Fighters Tournament and 7. The Fatal Confrontation!

Disc Two: 8. Goei's Betrayal! Why?, 9. Viva La Hot Springs, 10. The Sho Haou Encounters the Devil!, 11. Ryofu, Her Love and Death!, 12. Summer Comes to a Watermelon Field and 12. Good-bye Hakufu! The Battle Days!

Overall

Ikki Tousen is a series with great potential to have an interesting take on fate. The idea that a persons soul can reside in a bead and be transmitted into another person just by contact is unusual. The premise is profound but the execution was lacking and the emphasis is much more on the Ecchi, or should I say the hot almost clothed teenaged girls.

I found the humor to be light enough to bring out several laughs and it tended to help the story line progress. But, it did not help me from wanting more of the back story and the real reason why these high school students destiny is tied to the beads they wear and why they must be fighters. The action scenes were reasonable and above average.

The market for Ikki Tousen is the 14 to 24 year old male audience. The animation was solid and well produced. I found the last 4 episodes to be the best and they began to give a deeper understanding of the story and gave the characters a life that I really wanted to see from the beginning. Ikki Tousen does provide a full array of young women who loose their cloths at the slightest punch. I was under the opinion that the women's clothes were made of paper and that they were to explode at the slightest contact. It became on of my little jokes to time the amount of time it would take to take out a girls cloths once a fight began. I had a best time of 10 seconds.

Ikki Tousen: The Complete Series is an entertaining ride of fast fights and sexy girls with a interesting story buried deep inside.

ComicsOnline gives Ikki Tousen: The Complete Series , 3.5 out of 5 Bouncing D Cups.