7.2

Ikki Tousen Dragon Destiny Volume 1

Okay, so I didn't know what I was in for when I unwrapped this even though it was staring me in the face. A scantily clad school girl in a fighting pose. That kind of sums the whole series up. The series is a sequel to Ikkitosen - Battle Vixens, which apparently upset more people than it pleased. Well, the naysayers will not be appeased by the release of Dragon Destiny.

The plot, which is really secondary to the fan service unfortunately, continues on 4 years after the original and is rather convoluted for the people who haven't seen the first series. There is no recap, no introduction to the characters and the viewer is thrown straight into the thick of things. It doesn't help that there seem to 20+ different characters.

Three warring schools are vying for superiority. The three student leaders of the school have links to people in feudal China and they are destined to relive the fates of their predecessor. Dragons are contained within the leaders and as events unfurl, there is ample violence, blood, killing and of course a lot of disrobing (the number of ways that a person's outfit can be torn off are thoroughly explored).

The anime is actually rather well drawn and voice acted, shame about the actual story. Every scene has either clothes falling off, about to fall off or already fallen off (sorry for being so blunt). I know there is a huge market for this, but it's all rather distracting as the plot seems like a flimsy excuse for otaku to gawk. The DVD has an English and also a Japanese soundtrack but does not have many features.

Only recommended for fan service devotees.