Admit it. You’re watching Ikkitousen:GG, but feel as if it’s missing something. What you really want in your anime reinterpetations the warriors of the Chinese classic The Romance of the Three Kingdoms as cute girls with large breasts, is something more…whimsical. All that doom and gloom and mind control and dragons that must not be released is too depressing. It would be so much cooler if the warriors in question wore colorful fantasy-inspired outfits, fought with polearms and, oh yeah, had some Yuri.
Well lucky you, because the fine folks at BaseSon had the same thought and helpfully created a PC game upon which this finely crafted anime was based.
Koihime Musou takes the large-breasted female reincarnations of ancient Chinese warriors to a whole new level of insipidity.
This very moe version of the Three Kingdoms is set in a fantastical China, where the clothes are unreal, women are rulers and warriors and no one wears a bra.
In this version of the Three Kingdoms story, Kanu wanders the world and in the course of her wanderings, picks up a number of other female warriors as companions and allies, as well as encountering other female warriors with whom they fight. There is a vague (reaalllly vague) attempt to kind of sort of, if you squint, maintain some of the relationships of the original story, but if you’re trying to make that work, then clearly you are *not* the intended audience for this anime.
Because the intended audience for this anime is delighted by the fact that, although all the characters have their Chinese names, they also have much “cuter”-sounding names that they use to refer to each other. So while “Kanu Unchou” is our lead, her companions refer to her (as they scream loudly while she’s almost-dead or almost falling off a cliff or almost sleeping with Sousou) as Aisha. Chouhi is likewise hideously named “Rin-Rin” and Chouun is named Sei, of course, because she is the resident lesbian perv.
Yes, there is Yuri. The aforementioned Sei is blatantly lesbian, and Aisha appears to be the gay-magnet for the series, because Sousou hits on her, then fakes a threat to one of her companions so Aisha will have to sleep with her. Of course, she doesn’t. Aisha will never actually be made to “do lesbian” – to quote Rica’s father in “More Rica ‘tte Kanji!?” – she will just be the Yuri-service we can all enjoy.
Ratings:
Art – troublesome
Story – a shadow of its former self
Characters – they sure are
Yuri – some of that, too
Service – not as bad as Ikkitousen
Overall – It’s not as bad as Ikkitousen, but it’s not as good, either. 7
Sousou, rather than Toutako, was the one who tried to bed Aisha.
Toutako’s a little timid girl in the series.
From what I’ve heard, you shouldn’t credit the makers of the game itself with Jack Shit. You may possibly have noticed that our main characters are all the biggest players of Shu (Kanu = Guan Yu, Chouhi = Zhang Fei, Bachou = Ma Chao, etc). The only one missing is the leader Liu Bei, and those experienced with this kind of stuff probably already know where I’m going.
In the original game, Liu Bei was the only male character, and also the lead / player character who got to run around banging all the hot Three Kingdom babes (he was removed when it was turned into an anime). Pretty shameful, isn’t it? Unfortunately, that’s why there are no actual Yuri relationships among the main cast, just titilation and service, as the original characters were only allowed to form “love” relationships with the lead.
..Three Kingdoms is set in a fantastical China, where the clothes are unreal,..
This is understandably a western point of view. Which I have to say you are a bit mistaken on. In fact, the general attire (of course this doesn’t apply to every single character in the show) in Koihime Musou is actually the same as real-life chinese period drama series shown in asia.
These dramas are made and only shown within East Asia, China(They usually have more of their own and theirs are a lot more soap-operish) , South-east asia for TV viewers.
They are not the same as the made-for -hollywood Set in china movies and not shown or marketed outside Asia,unfortunately.
In fact, aside from some liberties taken, I’m quite impressed with the background setting/scenery/design/event mannerisms. It’s quite realistic (for a japanese non-serious anime) at least to real-life chinese entertainment.
Koihime Musou is actually one of my favorites, aside from Strike Witches, for this season. This series might have gotten its idea from the Romance of the Three Kingdom period with characters adopting names of historical figures but it’s interesting and hilarious enough to make me not care about whether its accurately portraying history.
I just hope that it doesn’t turn out to be like Ikkitousen GG, which is a totally disappointing series. Did I forget to mention, the chibi forms of the various characters in Koihime are so cute, especially the ED. ~<3
Not really a Yuri show, in fact the VN and mobile games center around a male MC and the rest is his harem.
There was a very Yuri storyline in it. Back in 2008 when the post was written, it was the kind of Yuri we had accessible. It’s nice to come in a decade later and sneer, but this was about as as good as it got.