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R2 DVD Reviews
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Monday, 21 November 2011 00:00 |
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Page 1 of 2
 It's been a full six years since the first season of Ikki Tousen arrived in the UK, and now the second season's here to graces us with its violent and revealing charms. Which may be enough to make some people run for cover...
The story of Ikki Tousen is easily done in a sentence or two: in the schools of the Kanto region of Japan, the top fighters are all reincarnations of the great fighters of Japan's past who, hundreds of years on from their first encounters, are still battling for supremacy. In the first season, Nanyo Academy's Hakufu Sonsaku rose to the top of the pile and, helped by the power of the dragon that sleeps inside her, toppled the then-leader of the fighters. Now, driven by a desire to help Hakufu control the dragon within her, Ryoumou has obtained the Dragon Crystal. But there are two other fighters who have dragons sleeping within them: the mild-mannered leader of Seito High School's fighters, Gentoku Ryuubi; and the bloodthirsty leader of Kyousho Academy, Moutoku Sousou. And with the Dragon Crystal having the power to amplify a dragon's power as well as control it, it's not long before Ryoumou's discovery becomes the focus for a new and bloody round of fighting...
With the first season having killed off most of its characters in the course of its battles, we get introduced to a whole new slew of them this time around. While Hakufu and the boys & girls from Nanyo will be familiar, the other two main schools are new to the show's focus, and we helpfully get name-checks with the introduction of each new character - and there are a lot of them. Koihime+Muso has fewer characters to deal with, and that's the previous winner in the "oh my god there are too many characters in this series" stakes. (Coincidentally, they're both based on the same historical root, so you'll find a lot of names cropping up in both shows.)
There are two main selling points to Ikki Tousen: the violence, which is brutal and bloody; and the fanservice, which is in-your-face and occasionally crosses the line into tasteless. In particular, there are too many scenes where we get close-ups of the girls wetting themselves, and that's territory I could frankly do without going anywhere near. Away from that, though, if you take the show purely on the merits of the battles it shows, it's not really that bad - I wouldn't call it a classic, by any means, but there is some fun to be had with the characters and their battles - each fighter has their own particular styles and techniques, which helps keep things fresh, and with the series only running 12 episodes it's rare for a fight scene to last more than a few minutes. Sharp and to the point, often with sharp and pointy implements.
On the other hand, the best of the recurring characters were either killed off last season (Ryofu) or get criminally sidelined this time around (most notably Hafuku's mother, Goei, who even comments on this in-show; while Hakufu herself doesn't even appear until mid-season). There are one or two new characters introduced which show promise of being equally good / twisted - gothic lolita archer Ten'i being a prime example - but they without fail make brief appearances and then disappear again. The ones that do get significant screentime are all the ones that have the least interesting personalities - and it's the interesting personalities that you need to see to give fighting shows some sort of appeal beyond the core fight fans.
Ikki Tousen is clearly doing something right, as they keep making more of it. A testament to the lure of over-the-top fanservice, perhaps, although as mentioned Dragon Destiny doesn't even manage to get that quite right. It does what it does well enough, but with the personalities not being as good as the first season's, it's missing that little extra bit of appeal that for me made the first season enjoyable. This time around, the characters have little about them to make you care what they're doing or whether they'll still be around next episode, and that's not a good thing. It's clearly playing to a particular niche audience, who will (and do) love what it's doing, but it's got very limited appeal outside that niche. Only recommended for those who know what they're letting themselves in for.
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