Archive for the Ikkitousen Category


Battle Club Manga, Volume 6 (English)

September 18th, 2008

While Battle Club is in no way a “Yuri” manga, Volume 6, the last of the translated volumes, has a pretty big chunk of Yuri.

Ostensibly, the story is still about Tamako’s quest to gain strength and skill through wrestling, but since the book starts with their teacher Tondemon disappearing, we pretty much abandon that quest to wallow in cosplay, lesbianism, tragic tales of the past, trap-infested obstacle courses into mansions of the rich, ghosts and other completely real things.

For those of you who read Battle Club for the plot, you’ll be pleased to note that for all that these stories are pretty much unrelated to the wrestling club, in their own way they have *more* plot than the entire story up to this point.

The rest of you, which is to say, all of you, will be pleased to learn that there’s plenty of service in both quantity and variety. For the purposes of this blog post we’ll stick to the Yuri.

After Mukoda is defeated by Tondemon-sensei and Tondemon disappears, we turn our attention to Shiba, ex of the Karate club and supposed lesbian. She starts the chapter off by an extended fantasy about sex with Tamako, followed by a string of circumstantial circumstances that, lo and behold! are exactly like her dream. Only she doesn’t get to have sex with Tamako.

Later, as Wrestling Club Captain Taiki reflects on his past and how he became a cross-dresser (although not as to the origin of his large rack of lamb) we get a glimpse of the (of course) lesbian feelings heaped upon the (of course) receptive captain of the Black Cat High wrestling club.

I’m fascinated at the eroticization of wrestling. Although I don’t find it half as appealing for myself as someone just seriously putting the beatdown on someone, I can kind of see where people are going with it. And this manga takes it to such utter bizarre extremes that it ultimately would have to be read as a comedy, even if it weren’t also full of ridiculous gags, puns and purely comedic scenes. I wonder if that makes Battle Club the first erotic wrestling comedy in manga? Probably not, what was I thinking?

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 2
Characters – 3
Yuri – 6
Service – a zillion

Overall – 4

I don’t have anything left to say about this manga except my thanks to Everett L. for his sponsorship of today’s review!

…oh wait, yes I do. When Shiba joins the wrestling club, they spell her name wrong on the name plaque in the dojo. D’oh!





Yuri Anime: Ikkitousen GG

August 31st, 2008

Erica is away on vacation this week. She will have sporadic computer access at best and frankly, isn’t really worried too much about checking in. So please be prepared for comment approval to be delayed, and for your thoughtful comments to go unanswered for some days, as Erica focuses on more important things like fish-shaped churches and orgone cannons.

When Ikkitousen: Great Guardians was announced I was cautiously hopeful that this series would contain the same kind of absurdly service-y Yuri that made the first series so entertaining. As of the time I am writing this review, it has been nearly everything I had hoped.

One of the significant problems with the original Ikkitousen series was that it attempted to have a plot. It is with great relief that that has been set aside form much of GG. Instead, we’re treated to Kanu’s sexual fantasies about Ryuubi – and watching Kanu follow in the footsteps of Kuga Natsuki as all her coolness is turned into nothing more than a wall of stoicism to be cracked repeatedly by stupid sexual gags.

More importantly Ryoufu is brought back from the dead, and set up in a situation that is one death away from being the perfect Yuri couple for this series. I know for a fact that I am not the only one who would like Saji/Ouin to die painfully and release Ryomou to find her true partner. Of course, Ryoufu being Ryoufu, there’s plenty of nasty Yuri-service to amuse us as well.

There’s a pretty good chance that the series will be over by the time this review posts, but as of the time I am writing, I expect Ryomou to throw the feelings that fetter her to Saji aside to save Ryofu, who will die nobly, yet again. Hopefully with at least one kiss between them. But I’m not holding my breath.

If you like Ikkitousen for the fighting or, god help you, the plot, (or if you insist on being deranged about the series and comparing it to previous series and expecting continuity and consistency) you may not like GG. If you’re more sensible and are watching it for the large breasts and service, then you’re welcome to join Serge and myself as we pronounce it the best of the Ikkitousen series. Especially if Saji dies. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 5
Series – 10

Overall – 8

I find it highly amusing that Ryomou has somehow become the tragic heroine of the series.





Battle Club Manga, Volume 4 and 5 (English)

August 20th, 2008

Battle Club is one of those manga that I read, then immediately think “Why am I reading this?” I’m not desperate for the sight of breasts or crotch shots, and I’m not enamored of bathroom humor. So after asking myself “why?” pretty much every single time I finish a volume of this, I can only come up with two possible answers: 1) I’ll read just about anything and, 2) I’m taking one for *you,* my loyal readers, so you don’t have to. ^_^; You’re welcome.

To be blunt, there’s nothing good about Battle Club. It scrapes the bottom of the gutter with every issue. In a bizarro way, it’s still sort of entertaining, if only to watch the author flail as he has to come up with new set-ups for the same three gags (“accidental” breast nudi

Volume 4 is pretty much Yuri-free, but has lots of the usual service as the members of the Swan HS wrestling club take on the nefarious – and rather irritating – members of the absurdly named N.O.B. organization. Tamako loses, which crushes her ego for a whole *chapter,* before eating a lot of curry and beating a bunch of guys up, which cheers her up right away. I can sort of sympathize with this. Beating people up makes me happy too. :-)ty, crotch shots, hard-on/pee jokes.) I love the pointless attempt to include something like a plot in the middle of these three things over and over. Very amusing.

Volume 5 continues the N.O.B. arc, and implies that there’s a real plot behind this all, but in reality the important scene is when the “lesbian” Vice Manager of the club, Higuchi, fake-kisses bathing-suit wearing loli Koumoku for mouth-to-mouth, then precedes to strip her and assumably do something naughty, or something. We are archly reminded that the VP is a lesbian, because we might have forgotten – or more likely thought that she was really a bottom-feeding guy. She is also seen later with a gaggle of female attendants giving her a tongue bath. Lesbians always do that, too. Mukoda almost fake-kisses Tamako, but doesn’t. The rest of the volume is cluttered up with wrestling and revenge and other uninteresting plot stuff.

Hey – did you know that girls wear underpants? But not bras, apparently.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 1
Characters – 3
Yuri – 2
Service – a million

Overall – 4

Thanks to today’s heroes, Dan P. and Everett L. for sponsoring yet another Okazu review. Your kindness is greatly appreciated. Now can you get me something *not* scuzzy to read? ^_^





New Season Summer 2008 Anime: Ikkitousen: Great Guardians

June 24th, 2008

Ikkitousen returns, with bigger breasts and less sense than ever before. Moving on from merely double D size, Ikkitousen is now a hefty GG (ostensibly for Great Guardians, but duh, we’re not so stupid as to have missed the point. )

Ikkitousen:GG is a slightly alternate universe for Ikkitousen, which basically means nothing to us at all except that Ryoufu is no longer dead and her hale and hearty heart, which beats once again in a hefty chest, is set against Ryomou as her rival. Not a rival *for* anything particular (yet!) just someone to slam around in as many fights as possible.

My beloved Ryomou, sadly, is made to obsess over Saji, instead of following Goei with her eyes the way she did in the original series. I don’t mind, since we already know that as anime goes, Saji’s a reasonable lover. Nonetheless, I don’t expect a happy ending for them.

Since Ryoufu was resurrected – so far, anyway – without Chinkyuu, and Ryomou spends her time running after her erstwhile boyfriend, we turn our Yuri-hungry eyes upon our last, best hope and we are relieved, since not only does Kanu still have a raging crush on Ryuubi, she is in fact, turned completely, hopelessly, absurdly gay for her. Kanu Unchou, who once was nobility and power embodied, is now a comedic gimmick of raging lesbian hormones. Works for me. ^_^

Story? Oh, I imagine there will be something that can masquerade as a plot. For now, we are introduced to a new character who adds a whole new fetish to the lineup and, to be honest, it’s a fetish that really needed to be added. We *finally* have a character who will get captured, undressed and almost raped at least once a show and not fight back (yet!). As an added bonus, she will scream “Oniisama!” and “Oneesama!” annoyingly, so the segment of the population that finds that appealing will finally have someone to care about. Phew for them.

Never high art, if you go into Ikkitousen with anything other than resignation and amused tolerance, you are bound to be disappointed. If you were worried that Ryomou may no longer be wearing underwear or that Ryofu’s breasts are somehow not as large as before she died, then you will be mightly pleased at the new series.

Ratings:

Art – Hah!
Story – Snort
Characters – LOL
Yuri – That too
Service – Are you kidding me?

Overall – Not too bad, considering it’s utter crap

I’m almost relieved that this series drops the Romance of the Three Kingdoms tie-in since, in a lot of ways, it just got in the way of the panty shots.

…





Battle Club Manga, Volume 3 (English)

June 11th, 2008

 I want to review something today about which there is little to say. There is very little to say about Battle Club, Volume 4. There is this to say, at least – thanks to Dan again for sponsoring this review!

In this volume Tamako continues to battle enemies both external and internal, with progressively less and less clothing, until she faces her greatest enemy, herself. The coach continues his exceedingly long piss, so we get a chance to do a bunch of flashbacks to Tamako’s mother and learn the secrets, such as they are, of the guilt Tamako carries. But no one cares, which is good, because it’s not really very interesting. Like the men in the series, most of the readership is looking at Tama’s tits and crotch. All very fascinating.

Shiba arrives just in time to get a nosebleed at the sight of Tama’s breasts, which is about all the Yuri you get. Higuchi also shows up, to heal her wounds and fear of fighting, but she continues to be lesbian in name only.

And that’s basically it. The translation still plays fast and loose with the original text – so much so that even though I have not actually read the original text in Japanese , I can guess that they didn’t say the things that are on the page. It’s okay, like the “plot,” the “dialogue” is really not interesting and definitely not why one reads this book.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 1
Characters – 4
Yuri – 2
Service – 10

Overall – 5

Mokichi gets stronger too.

Thanks to Dan P. for providing this piece of “entertainment” and distraction!