| Battle Vixens (Ikki Tousen) #1: Legendary Fighter |
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| Saturday, 01 April 2006 | |
 The are two type of anime that can be particularly effective at pulling in the male audience, especially the teenage portion of it: fighting shows, preferably with as much mindless action as possible; and fanservice spectaculars, where it's almost impossible to keep count of of amount of underwear on display. Battle Vixens (also known as Ikki Tousen) tries to take the two-for-one approach by providing both - but while I'm as much a sucker for fanservice as the next guy, there's also such a thing as too much of a good thing...1 - The Champions In the Kanto region of Japan, seven high schools fight for supremacy in a battle over 1,800 years old. To one of these schools, Nanyo Academy, comes Hakufu Sonsaku - young, beautiful, prone to flashing her underwear at all & sundry - and able to beat the crap out of anyone who crosses her path without even breaking a sweat. Well, most people - school champion Gakushu soon puts her in her place, but not before she's left a trail of victims behind her. Legend tells of a fighter from the west & who would rule over the region - could Hakufu be the one? Given her mother's last instruction to her before sending her to Nanyo was to "counquer the country", she just may be...   2 - A Confrontation at Nanyou In the battle between the schools, Rakuyo High School currently reigns supreme - mainly because of the fighting skills of one of their students, Totaku. He's enough of a problem that the other schools are putting their differences aside to try and deal with him, and someone like that is just the sort of person Hakufu would like to have a battle with. She may not get the chance, though - the Big Four at Nanyo are worried about her appearance (or rather, Haou's appearance), and one of them - complete psycho and wannabe lizard-man Kannei - has been ordered to dispose of her...   3 - My Chastity is in Danger! Hakufu got thoroughly medieval on Ryoumou, defeating her in no time at all - except that she doesn't remember doing it, and thinks she was the one who lost the battle. Koukin's not inclined to tell her the truth, either - but Hakufu takes her "defeat" badly and runs away, to "heal her broken heart", as her note to Koukin puts it. That's not the only thing that's going to be broken by the time she returns home. Meanwhile, Saji, having kept an eye on proceedings, decides that Hakufu's beyond their power to control - but just what was he planning to use her for, anyway..?   4 - A Duel! Taishiji Vs Sonsaku Gakushu summons Koukin for a little chat, and carries a warning that Hakufu's fight with Ton-chan has brought to the attention of another school, and they're planning on sending a fighter to deal with her. While he's on his way back home to keep an eye on Hakufu, Koukin himself is attacked - and when Hakufu finds out, she's quick to come to his rescue. Unfortunately, that's just what Koukin's assailants were hoping for...   The last series I saw with this much underwear on display was Najica Blitz Tactics, and a great show it was, too - and in sheer acreage of white cotton, it probably has Battle Vixens beaten. There's a danger with this much fanservice in that you soon become numb to it, so there needs to be a decent story behind all the fun stuff otherwise you're going to lose the audience's attention pretty quickly. Najica pulled off that side of the combination well, but Battle Vixens sadly seems to be coming up lacking. Let's take the characters, for a start. Hakufu's enough of an airhead that it's hard to believe she could possibly have the fighting nous to beat up her own shadow, and yet here she is cleaning the clock of all and sundry. Fine, she's the reincarnation of the legendary Haou, but that little corner of her personality only emerges when she's under serious threat, so I can't really find it in myself to believe she can be as good as she is. Add in all the other fighters - and there are a lot of them, most of them with paper-thin characterisations and motivations - and you begin to wonder why this inter-school rivalry exists and why all these people have been drawn into it, other than some vague notion of historical destiny. The show certainly doesn't tell us, at least not yet. Then there's the execution, which so far has been as simple as sending a string of high-powered fighters after Hakufu in an attempt to take her down. By one way or another, Hakufu wins, leading to another, more powerful fighter appearing to make their attempt. Rinse, repeat, and possibly fall asleep - it's nothing that hasn't been done a thousand times before. There are some indications that the pattern will be broken soon - Kaji's got some connections that could mix things up a little if the potential is used, and there are a few more characters who look set to take a leading role once the series really gets into its stride - but whether that'll improve the overall feel of the series remains to be seen. As far as this volume goes, though, Battle Vixens looks eminently forgettable. Here's hoping volume two is an improvement.  |
