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The third season of Ikkitousen took the formula for the first two seasons and I can safely say camped it up to the extreme. At times I have to admit the content of the episodes was beyond silly but, of course, being Ikkitousen we all expect that anyway. This show is pretty much complete ecchi fan service and this time we had even less of the ‘Romance Of the Three Kingdoms’ farce, as almost the whole show felt like filler.

Here’s a quick recap of the ‘plot’ outline for the Ikkitousen franchise; There are several schools constantly at war with each other. Within these schools are male and female students who all aspire to be ‘toshi’ or warriors of legend. Each student possess a jewel which contains the spirit of one of the fabled Chinese warriors from ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’. The lives of the students and those jewels are intertwined with similar fates, fortunes and loyalties. The great battles from ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’ are played out in modern surroundings, with each school fighting to be victorious.

What apparently, I believe, was meant to be the main plot revolves around a witch whose magic Saji Genpou is using to control the warriors, causing confusion, heartache and quite a few casualties. Saji Genpou hoped that by using this power he would be able to destroy the warriors by harnessing the power of Ryomou’s inner dragon. Besides this there were quite a few side stories, mainly revolving around Seito and the ‘relationship’ between Kanu and Ryuubi. Or how much yuri fan service can we put in a series without there actually being a single yuri based couple.

Great Guardians, as a season, felt more like DVD extra filler than an actual season in it’s own right. I can only describe it as; imagine all the filler episodes between the battles in Dragon Destiny and you pretty much get this season. The studio really upped the ecchi this time around, much like they advertised they were going to. Ikkitousen has always been a show renowned for appealing to a ‘certain’ audience who often choose to sacrifice plot development over fan service and clothes-shredding battle scenes, so I doubt the loyal fans will be disappointed with this instalment.

I always found the whole franchise to be very silly but enjoyable filler nonetheless, so if you are looking for something that looks pretty enough, hasn’t got much plot depth, and lots of fan service, Ikkitousen could be a series for you. I will add though, Great Guardians is definitely not a stand alone season. If you haven’t seen the previous two seasons you will really struggle to follow or understand anything of the plot. I also personally dislike quite how badly they butchered the character of Kanu Unchou in this season; her usual cool demeanour was sacrificed for psycho-lesbian laughs. It’s cute to see her blush once or twice but at times this season she acted so out of character I was wondering if they had wiped her mind of everything besides her burning desire for Ryuubi. It was nice to see Ryofu back even if she did spend most of the season being controlled and running around after Saji to make Ryomou jealous, and Chuubou turned out to be an interesting new addition to the cast.

A fun ecchi watch which really pushed the bar as far as it could without quite being classed as Hentai. I have to admit I was left feeling incredibly confused by the end of episode 12 but I somehow expect we’ll end up with a fourth season as long as those Ikkitousen figures keep selling like hotcakes. Much the same as always but really lacked in the battles this time around. Personally I preferred Dragon Destiny.

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