Ikkitousen Vol-1: Legendary Fighter (2003)
Animation Production: Ikki Tousen Partners
Released by: Geneon Entertainment
Running Time: 100 Minutes
Official Website: Ikkitousen
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

The staff here at JH Labs loves martial arts anime such as the legendary Fist of the North Star and Dragonball Z series. Unfortunately shows of this caliber and pure martial art orientation are not as plentiful as they were at one point, with most production companies opting to go with content they feel is more easily promoted and sold in a marketplace that is becoming increasingly global and more conservative in some respects.

That’s why I was shocked by Ikkitousen. At first it seemed like nothing more than a fan-service oriented series that strived only please a large contingent of fanboys across the globe, but upon closer inspection this one actually turned out to have more to it than mosts shows of this nature tend to.

Story

"1800 years ago in China, many warriors perished in a battle attempting to conquer an entire nation.  Their powerful spirits were confined in divine comma-shaped beads known as "magatama" which had drifted over to Japan.  The inheritors of these magatama also inherited the strength and power of the ancient warriors embodied therein.  These young warriors now relive the past as they battle each other in an attempt to conquer all the high schools in the area.  This is the story of these young fighters who have been forced to relive the drama of the past.  Of their struggles to satisfy the vows of the ancient warriors while still trying to live their lives as high school students who still have a lot to learn about life and love." Geneon's Ikkitousen page

Review

The first volume in Geneon’s release of Ikkitousen features the first four episodes in the series, which include:

Episode 1
Kanto Japan, several schools are currently engaged in battles with each other for supreme domination and control. These are not simple school battles though, through their heritage and the spirit that lays dormant within the sacred beads worn by each school or academy’s fighters, the combatants are in fact fighting the same battles that were waged centuries ago in Japan and China.

Entering this brutal stage is a young girl by the name of Sonsaku Hakufu. She appears to have no clue as to what is going on and seems to be an amateur in combat despite being able to dispatch of 30 guys upon entering her new school, but in her may reside the strongest warrior spirit of them all..!?

Episode 2
Stories about Sonsaku Hakufu’s abilities are beginning to spread like wildfires. Fearing that she may have inherited the spirit and power of the legendary warrior an attack is prepared to measure our young heroine’s power, but will this battle backfire and instead re-awaken something very dangerous deep within Sonsaku?!

Episode 3
Saddened by her first real loss in battle Sonsaku goes on a heart mending trip. During her travels she meets two other mysterious combatants that begin teaching her about other aspects of battle she never took into consideration before. However will this be enough to bring our young heroine back into a fiery fighting mode?

Episode 4
Having recovered her fighting spirit its time for Sonsaku to restart her training once more and learn to combine her innate skills with basic movement and techniques. Unfortunately for our heroine even more groups want to take her down now and her protective cousin Koukin is kidnapped. Will she be able to apply her newly learned techniques to save the day!?

If I were to sum up my initial impressions of Ikkitousen in one word after having watched the first four episodes in the series I would have to go with the word "deceptive". Why this word? Well to be honest when I saw the box for this release and the opening theme I thought I was going to be in for some really stupid fan service anime series that would bore me to tears. It turned out that this show actually had an engaging storyline and wasn’t all about fan service, in fact this element although plentiful, in the end is not really what grabs your attention, but rather the plot and overall theme of schools in conflict around Japan is.

What appears on the surface to be a simple story is in reality a very complicated setup with layer upon layer of plots, subplots, and historical references. In fact at points the story even becomes hard to follow if you’re not paying attention due to all the different things that are going on and the linguistics of what is being talked about whenever mentions of the ancient warrior spirits or fighting factions pop up.

What I enjoyed the most was seeing how most of the fighters we meet throughout each episode are in fact part of bigger groups that are fighting against the other schools and all of them are ruled by mysterious leaders whose powers are said to be awesome and beyond belief (which we get to see hints of by the end of the disc). So what you end up with is essentially a large scale war with many factions jockeying for the top position through not only melees, but also political action and influence.

Plot aside the characters also proved to be vastly interesting and another strength of Ikkitousen as a martial arts/fighting anime. Sonsaku, the main protagonist here, is too much on the light-headed end of things most of the time, but when she does concentrate and focuses herself on what she's doing she becomes worthy of her position as the lead for the series. I just wish she understood the things that happen around her more than she does in these stories. The supporting cast is where much of the magic of Ikkitousen happens as they bring in a veil of mystery, gritiness and conflict to the story that it would otherwise fail without.

One thing about Ikkitousen that should be pointed out is just how raw it is. This show’s battles and sexual innuendo are fused for maximum effect and provide an experience that is brutal and somewhat gory at times as people trade deadly blows and use attacks as a form of sexual-energy/tension release. The fights never reach the level of gore seen in a typical Fist of the North Star episode, but they definitely are not something you would want your kids to watch.

Production-wise Ikkitousen is as beautifully produced as they come nowadays. With a vintage of 2003 this series benefits from all the latest techniques being used in the anime world. The animation, specially during action scenes, has a nice dynamic feel that bursts through with a lot of energy. The colors used to paint the world of Ikkitousen tend to gravitate towards brightly colored pastel tones, with some slight hints of dark colors sprinkled about.

The audio unlike the animation was a little more of a mixed bag. The opening and ending themes were fun and a good fit for the series, but the BGM for some reason seemed to float between good and flat, with many numbers reminding me of the kind of generic music that is composed for a lot of North American cartoon shows. I was somewhat surprised by that with this being a martial arts anime and all. Still, there are some good pieces that still manage to save the day.

So how’s the DVD package? Ikkitousen continues Geneon’s excellent work in the area of product packaging and production. The outer case features some great artwork of our lead character in front of some traditional art with the back cover featuring some screenshots and information on what the DVD is all about and extras included. This cover is also reversible with the other side featuring more fan service oriented art.

Extras within the DVD include a full color art gallery, hidden outtakes, a clean version of the opening theme and previews of other Geneon releases. In addition inside the DVD case there is a small insert that’s included that features more character artwork. Nothing spectacular, but a nice touch.

The transfer of the original source material is as has been the case with most of the company’s releases, is extremely good. The video enjoys a vibrant transfer that comes across very brightly and looks sharp across the board. The audio is encoded in Dolby 2.0 Digital which makes for a nice audible soundtrack that sounds crystal clear and has no noticeable issues.

Final Thoughts

In a million years I would have never imagined that I would end up liking a show made in this style, but there you go. I guess that if the right elements come together as they do here you can make magic happen regardless of any fan service inclinations.

I highly recommend this one to all martial arts and action-oriented anime fans. Ikkitousen is a lot of fun to watch if you're into those areas of anime.

Jeffrey Couto