The war between the seven high schools in the Kanto region of Japan continues in the second volume of Ikki Tosen.  More fights, a very little plot development, and a lot of gratuitous fan service fill up the three episodes on this DVD.   If you enjoyed the first disc, this one continues more of the same.

The creatively named "Big Fighters Tournament" starts off in this volume, with the schools fighting each other in a semi-organized fashion.  There really isn't much plot in these three shows, just one fight after another.  In this show Hakufu declaring that she's decided to train really hard to become a fighter is what passes as plot development. With new fighters introduced, each supposedly more powerful than the next, our plucky heroine and her school mates have their work cut out for them.

While I got some enjoyment out of the first volume, I really found this one rather dull.  There isn't anything to keep your interest in the characters.  None of them have any personalities and the plot doesn't flow logically from one point to the next, it just meanders around aimlessly.  The machinations of the school leaders which are supposed to be sinister and complex come across as random and nonsensical.

Another thing that I didn't like about this series is that the fan service is taken to extremes, and really effects the story in a negative fashion.  Whenever Hakufu, or any other girl fights, her clothes get  kicked off her body so she ends up fighting in little more than a bra and panties.  It is comically bad.  Then there's the scene where Hakufu bends over and spanks her bottom to get her opponent's attention.  Am I supposed to be turned on by that?  Maybe it's because I've seen an actual real-live naked lady before, but cartoon half-naked women just don't do anything for me.  I could possibly look past this, but all the fan service gets in the way of the story.  The story is arranged so that Hakufu can be bathing or changing clothes while plot points are revealed.

With the fights being more about ripping girls clothes off rather than interesting action sequences, I wasn't impressed by them either.  They didn't actually last that long, especially for a fighting show, and they just never held my interest.  After watching this volume, I predict that the others in this series will be almost identical.

Audio:

This DVD has stereo soundtracks in both Japanese and English.  I watched the disc with both audio tracks and I enjoyed them equally.  Voice is a little higher in pitch in the English dub than I'd prefer, but it wasn't irritating.  Both audio tracks were clean and crisp with no distortion or hiss present.  There was good range and both the quiet sections and the louder areas sounding nice.  A good sounding DVD.

Video:

The video quality for this DVD was good, but not great.  There is a fair amount of aliasing in the background and some of the fine lines shimmer.  It seemed to be worse here than in the previous volume.  The colors are bright and the lines are tight.  A very nice DVD.

Extras:

Extras on this disc include a non-credit ending, an art gallery, and previews for ROD the TV, Dokkoida, and Popotan.  There is also a short interview with the director where he talks about why he talks about the story of the show and some of the costumes that are used.

Final Thoughts:

There isn't really a lot to this series besides fan service and endless fights.  After the first volume, I thought that the series had a little potential, but it just isn't developed.  It appears all the plot we are going to get was given out in the previous set of episodes, and this DVD doesn't advance the story any further.  Unless you're really into fan service, it's best to skip this disc.