Mixed Feelings
In this, the third Ikkitousen anime, it seems as if the makers simply didn't care anymore and threw all the pretence of a story out of the window. Instead of yet another thirteen episodes connected by some sub-par plot on ancient warriors reborn and duking it out, we get a plot device that is mostly there to have good girls do bad deeds in a ridiculous and consciously self-mocking fashion. It's actually a rather fun ride - if you don't mind the occasional badly animated bared breast. As Ikkitousen: Great Guardians follows on two earlier anime the show assumes that the main characters and their generalsituations are known. In this review, I will assume the same. This means that there will be spoilers for those unfamiliar with the previous two series.
Ostensibly, the plot of Ikkitousen: Great Guardians (hereinafter, Guardians) focuses on the character of Saji/Zuo Ci, who has been out of the limelight for most of the two previous seasons. Set shortly after the defeat of Sousou/Cao Cao, with Nanyou/Nanyang and Seito/Chengdu still at peace, Guardians involves far less actual serious combat than the previous two seasons. Instead, about half of the show catches the characters in the trappings of a standard romantic comedy series, portraying them having a picnic, going to the beach, etc.
Early on, yet more characters are introduced, among which the long-lost sister of Sonsaku/Sun Ce, though more important than any of these is the return of an old fan-favourite, Ryofu/Lü Bu. Her mysterious re-appearance is only the prelude to a story that focuses more heavily on toying with the characters than having once more some high-powered enemy appear.
As said, though, any pretence of an actual story is discarded very quickly. Only a few references are made to the ‘warrior’ nature that was so prevalent in the previous two seasons and the connections between the characters and their 3rd century Chinese counterparts. Instead, the story toys with the characters, having them act against their usual natures and setting the stage for quite a few scenes wherein all the protagonists can appear at once. In doing so the story is to be able to pit the entire female cast against each other, showing us what would happen if Ryuubi/Liu Bei went against Kan’u/Guan Yu, for instance. Of course, the entire reason for any of this is to have well-endowed girls in various states of undress duke it out in as overblown and ridiculous a manner as possible. Far more so than the two previous seasons, Guardians wholly embraces that premise, in the process consciously making complete clowns out of most of the characters, thereby declaring that none of it should be taken seriously.
Those characters remain as simplistic as ever and, as always, their defining traits, such as Sonsaku’s lack of brains and Kan’u’s shyness in expressing herself, are used for crude jokes. To the already rather large cast of characters a few new names are added, but as always it isn’t by their names or characterisations that one remembers them, but by their gadgets, so to glasses-and-books and eye-patch are now added quoting-Sunzi and traumatic-past. Did the previous two seasons here and there pretend to have some real character development, Guardians blatantly throws the concept out and works with these distinctive traits, mostly for comic effect.
It is also quite apparent that the makers of the show have opted to include as many elements favoured by the fans as possible. Kan’u’s romantic fondness for Ryuubi is used more often and openly, and a few more liaisons between the girls are thrown in to make more of it. Having Ryofu return is, in itself, a fan pleaser, and she is used quite openly to spice up the goings-on.
As a result, the actions of all characters are, by and large, highly predictable, but as the show doesn’t aim for them developing and surprising us, this can be forgiven.
The art is most likely the worst aspect of the show. Whereas the story and characters lack any real plot or development by choice, much would depend on the art to make up for it. The animation almost seems rather dated, however. Backgrounds lack details, with people added that do not seem to be alive or really doing anything. Little use is made of different shades of colours, setting the different elements of the landscape even more strongly apart from each other, while the characters, far more brightly coloured, often seem strongly superimposed on the background. More damning is that, for a fighting series, the animation is somewhat sloppy. Character movement is at times somewhat stilted, while quite a few fighting moves appear as stills on empty backgrounds.
Character designs haven’t changed since the last season, nor is there any more detail added to these generally rather bland designs. Intriguingly, only the ending sequence shows a new graphical take on the characters, and a very interesting one at that.
And then, there is the fanservice. As with the story, in the art as well the creators of Guardians have dropped any pretence. Much of the previous two seasons were all about showing as much skin as possible, with the DVD extras receiving an R+ rating as they showed the bared breasts of many of the girls. Realising full well that this seemed to be what the audience wanted more of, the makers of Guardians have few qualms with showing full frontal nudity even in the main show. The result, though, is ridiculous, defying both gravity and human anatomy, with the plainly drawn bared breasts having a life of their own.
However, the Ikkitousen series form one of the best examples of a franchise that uses fanservice in its more narrow sense (showing as much skin as can be allowed) in the way it was originally intended. No matter that almost every second shot is constructed in such a way that underwear or skin is showing: compared to the hundreds of other shows that try to captivate an audience by exposing their leads, there are very few shots indeed that are added for no reason but pleasing the fans. In Ikkitousen, the shot itself remains an integral part of the ongoing action and would have remained fully functional if the fanservice were to be removed, making it truly an extra service.
There is nothing about Guardians that can be critically acclaimed. But then, it does not opt to be considered highbrow. It knows its fans and what they want to see, plainly giving it to them. What the show lacks in substance it also lacks in juvenile humour: in openly displaying what it is about it is essentially self-aware and does not even try to hide its clownesque antics behind a plot. The entirety of Ikkitousen should be approached as the light-hearted diversion it is and savoured, not with wine and blue cheese, but with salted peanuts and a beer cap. In its self-mocking ridiculousness it is a fun ride and truly a guilty pleasure.
