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Title:
  Battle Vixens (Ikki Tousen) vol 4 - Fighting Fate!

UK Distributor:  MVM (DVD Only)

BBFC Certificate:  15

Suggested Retail Price (SRP):  £19.99

Episodes:  11-13 (of 13)

Audio Options:  English 2.0 ;Japanese 2.0

Subtitles:  English

Reviewer:  Rich (Webmaster)

 

Battle Vixens has been a bit of a disappointment for me, with what could have been good pervy fun ruined by some really unpleasant moments in the last couple of volumes.

This is the final volume of the series, and as you would expect the threads of fate are dragging the fighters towards their destinies.  The evil Totaku made a move at the end of the last volume, using a deadly technique on the airheaded Sonsaku Hakufu in order to setup his grand plan to avoid his fated death.  To avoid her death Hakufu needs to go to Totaku's lair and force him to reverse the technique, but in doing so is she just falling into Totaku's trap?  Meanwhile Koukin disappears after being sent to see the mysterious leader of Nanyo Acadamy, Totaku is not the only one with a nefarious scheme and a manipulative new adversary is also starting to make their move.  If this all wasn't bad enough, Hakufu's fate is catching up with her in the shape of Ukitsu, the warrior who killed her fighter Shou Hao in China's turbulent past.  Despite everyone's best efforts fate is not easy to deny, can any of them survive the violent deaths that are in store for them?

Now this was a surprise.  The plot so far has been little more than an excuse for partial nudity and lots of fighting, but in this volume it actually goes somewhere.  This volume is more violent than any of the previous ones and also chucks in a hell of a lot of drama as the story actually throws up some interesting twists.  This time round things take a pretty serious turn, with less fanservice nudity than you may be used to and far more action.  The three episodes on this disc take a very dark turn, but thankfully avoid any more of the unsavoury rape scenes that earned volumes 2 & 3 an 18 certificate.  Fighting is the order of the day, but there are some deaths this time round, and I must admit there were a couple that surprised me.

As well as the action there is also a fair bit of emotion and tension in this volume, particularly involving Hakufu's mother Goei.  She knows that her daughter is fated to die and has been trying everything to help her avoid it, with events escalating though she my have run out of time - when Hakufu's leaves next will she be coming back?  Totaku's attack also puts a new element of tension into it too, it will kill Hakufu in three days unless she can get Totaku to remove it, but what chance does the completely clueless Hakufu have against her psychotic attacker?  Everyone knows their fate and as one event leads to another they know their time is running out, and this sense of urgency and fear actually makes it far more gripping than any of the previous volumes.

This said, it still suffers from a lot of the problems that the series as a whole has.  Foremost amongst these is the fact that all of the Chinese history is completely alien to most western viewers.  Until the handy voice over guy explains who the characters are at the end of the episode you will pretty much be sitting there nonplussed.  There are a few flashbacks this time too, as well as some cheesiness, but the big problem is the shocking simplicity of what Hakufu and Ukitsu do when they face each other.  I won't say what it is, but it's unbelievable that no-one else thought of doing it...

Battle Vixens does go out on a high with some interesting plotting and a few unexpected twists breaking up the near endless action.  Although very dark the more unpleasant aspects of the last two volumes don't make a return, although there is quite a high body count instead.  The ending is a bit predictable and Hakufu is still a pretty crap character, but this volume manages to squeeze in plenty of story and inject some intrigue and emotion into what has been a completely throwaway series.  Battle Vixens vol 4 may be average, but it's miles better than the last couple of volumes and fans of the series will find plenty more meat to back up the scantily clad characters.  If schoolgirls scrapping with a hefty side order of perviness is your bag then you'll probably like it, but you are probably better off looking at the superior Tenjo Tenge.

Extras

As with the last volume you get the usual trailers, art galleries and the surprisingly funny English dub 'outtakes'.  However, on top of this there is also a video taken from the photoshoot featured in the extras on vol 2, in which you get to see a Japanese woman doing high kicks in a variety of revealing outfits.  You do feel like a bit of a perv after watching her do another head-high roundhouse kick and exposing her strangely colourful knickers for the 15th time, but you'll probably watch it to the end anyway...

Ratings

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