Ikkitousen is still as softcore as ever, but nevertheless, I´m enjoying this new series.
Kanu were quite a lesbian for Ryuubi at Dragon Destiny, but in Great Guardians, she´s burning lesbian for her. First episode´s used to show how she lusts Ryuubi and how she wants to do common lover things with her, like going to date and kissing.
Besides yuri fanservice, there doesn´t happen much else notable in episode 1. Hakufu´s little sister, Sonken Chuubou, was introduced but that´s it. Episode 2 doesn´t reveal anything new about her origins. It just shows how she adjusts to Hakufu and co´s life and proves that her character type is damsel in distress. She immediately gets kidnapped and almost raped… Reason behind this mess was a guy named Eien, he tried to takeover Hakufu. He failed miserably, screamed like a girl and was beaten up by everyone so that´s the end of his story for now.
Only reason why you could call me a fan of Ikkitousen franchise is well played yuri. I love how this series contains so much girl love. It might be for fanservice factor but, even if this sounds ridiculous when we are talking about Ikkitousen, some of the relationships actually have depth. Dragon Destiny made it clear that Kanu have really deep feelings towards Ryuubi, but it wasn´t yet sure if she felt more than friendly love towards her. She was over-protective and ready to sacrifice herself for Ryuubi´s sake. This might have been just a sign of deep friendship between them. But then comes the first episode of Great Guardians denying the last idea of them being just friends and confirms that Kanu´s gay for Ryuubi and wants to be more than friends with her. Even if it´s just one-sided love, it´s always nice to have more true lesbians in anime.
Btw. In the end of episode 2, Ryomou finds unconscious Ryofu at the park. She was raped by Ryofu way back in season one, so I can´t wait to see how she will react to the Queen of Lesbians after she awakes in the next episode.
RATE: +
Ikkitousen is fanservice show, but still very interesting because of it´s Romance of the Three Kingdoms theme and yuri.
This seems like it would be good. I liked the first two Ikkitousen series so I should like it.
By: scottfrye on June 21, 2008
at 3:16 am
scottfrye: Go for it, it´s good even if it´s not as great as two previous seasons.
By: myu on June 21, 2008
at 3:26 am
I’m still trying to figure the main gist of Ikkitousen Great Guardians; who are the antagonists and what exactly are the girls doing? XD Nevertheless, I will follow it to the end since I’m an Ikkitousen fan. (:
By: Hynavian on July 7, 2008
at 10:25 am
Hynavian: I agree with you 100% XD
By: myu on July 7, 2008
at 4:52 pm
At first I thought this was going to be soft-core fan service like the OVAs since the plotline was already off the reservation in respects to the comics.
After watching the first 7 however, there seems to be some thought at work.
I’ll admit that it has the hamhanded “filler” feel to it, but it’s nice to see Saji/Ouin go back to scheming (as opposed to the comics where he sacrifices himself for Hakufu’s training).
The one thing bugging me is that they have not even hinted about who the villain is and why the hell Ryofu is alive.
It’s nice to see the TnA back in force, the 2nd series was severely lacking and was trying to be respectable or something. (that being said, I loved Dragon Destiny).
I do miss the interraction from the original story between Ryubi and Kanu. In the comics, Ryubi was convinced that both Ekitou and Kanu were lesbians (Kanu really is) and were hot for her. Despite being homophobic, Ryubi had thoughts in that direction herself. I would have loved to see that character wrinkle inserted into the series and I’m disappointed that they didn’t use this opportunity to have some fun with it.
I did like the intro of chuubou, since knowing the 3 kingdoms story I knew that the character Sonsaku was based on had siblings. One of which married Ryubi’s inspiration and they should have had some fun with that!
BTW keep in mind that this series is in the same continuum as the 2nd, but the 2nd and this one are not in sync with the 1st one.
By: duders79 on July 29, 2008
at 10:36 am
duders79: I, too, miss Ryubi´s phobia. Though, I´ve heard that it was just added to english version, original japanese didn´t have it.
By: myu on July 29, 2008
at 4:16 pm