As the big tournament approaches the rival schools send their best fighters into battle. The old conflicts of legend are played out as the fighters question their destinies and push for their own agendas. Hakufu, determined to improve her skills after being defeated by Taishigi, steps forward to take part in the tournament but not before trying to take on an entire rival school single-handedly to avenge Taishiji’s injuries.

I’m willing to give pretty much anything a second chance — even if a show doesn’t have a decent storyline it can still provide some laughs or mindless entertainment, be it cool mecha, deranged comedy or, in this case, martial arts action. Unfortunately, while Ikki Tousen is undoubtedly pretty mindless I still have my doubts as to its ability to be entertaining beyond being amusing for all the wrong reasons.

On the plus side there are plenty of fight scenes and a definite plot is emerging through the gratuitous panty and cleavage shots as those in authority use the fighters as pawns in their own power games. The background concept of the tournament being a re-enactment of ancient battles and the intrigue that goes with it proves to be the series one saving grace: it falls below par in just about every other department.

These three episodes give us some more insight into the main cast of characters, and underline how they are all connected. Sadly none of them are even likeable, with the possible exception of Kanu, a student from another school with an intimidating reputation. She seems to be more concerned with the challenge of meeting her rivals than actually winning, and the line ‘A fighter’s honour is more important than one broken arm!’� pretty much sums her up.

In contrast Hakufu is still dense and annoying, Koukin has precious little opportunity to show off his own fighting skills and Totaku, the evil-minded bishounen type who is in charge of it all, is more concerned with sitting in a greenhouse sniffing flowers and surrounding himself with busty ladies instead of doing anything exciting. We get to see Ryomo get into a nasty spat with Ryofu (one of Totaku’s aforementioned well-endowed subordinates) but in truth it has as much to do with the fan service as it does with the story at large.

Because the panty shots and disintegrating clothing are repeated ad nauseam it’s pretty easy to ignore them and get on with following the story, such as it is. For a show that is clearly plot designed around fan service and set pieces it is surprisingly hard to keep up with all the forgettable faces coming and going; at times I was unsure as to who was doing what and why but quite frankly by the end of this volume I didn’t really care.

In Summary

If you enjoyed the first volume of Ikki Tousen you will no doubt enjoy this one too. There are more fights, more fan service and the story is beginning to move along. Sadly it is merely more of the same so those of us unimpressed with the first outing will find little here to change our minds.