Anime: Ikkitousen: Great Guardians

Great Guardians is apparently the third in the Ikkitosen series. However, I'm reviewing this one not having watched the first two.

First off, I have no idea how these girls move around as they must have an incredibly huge burden on their shoulders. Other than that, expect unusually weak clothing that must be made out of thin paper. In any case, if you're at all sensitive to ecchi series, high levels of fan-service, or full frontal nudity I'd recommend you steer clear of this.

It you are able to handle these, then Great Guardians offers you a modest storyline with some interesting characters. The series is focused around fan service and battles. Character development and romance are far from the standouts in the series.

Animation:
The animation is good though female characters are a bit over proportioned in areas already noted above. Battle sequences are well done but abnormally high levels of "battle damage" in certain areas probably detracts some from the enjoyment.

Sound:
The OP/ED aren't that great, way too fast in any case for any Karaoke usage. The BGM is decent though not outstanding. A few tracks are pretty good but the overall thing isn't that memorable. VAs are good, esp. the lively Hakufu.

Music: 3/5, VA: 4/5.

Story:
People with special earrings are modern reincarnations of warriors during the three Kingdoms period in Chinese history. They have great strength, high stamina, and special attacks (which are never explained... probably already done in preceding series).

This particular series is a bit of a toss up as the under workings of the plot are hidden up until the very last episode. The series will keep viewers guessing what's happening and who is "good".

Though it is somewhat of a slice of life, it definitely goes beyond the boundaries of that genre. In all, the battles are a bit repetitive but the ending redeems the series somewhat with a final grand battle.

The series has a fair resolution with the possibility of further continuations (series four?).

Character:
With a high female to male ratio, it is typically the case that the main male gets a lot of attention. This isn't really the case here as Kokin is pretty much shelved for the significant battles (and obviously no "attractive" battle damage for him).

Hakufu is hilarious and lively, bridging the gap between battles with comedic humor and fun idiocy.

There could have been more development but the focus is obviously on the girls/battles.

Value:
This is definitely NSFW. In any case, it's a decent watch if you have time to kill. I can't comment on how important it is in the entire series franchise but it is definitely filled with an overabundance of fan service and dribbles of humor and action. There's also a 6-part OVA which is pretty much just additional fan-service with no real further value.

Obviously only a filler-season – and much less interesting.

Where the original tv-series followed a particular storyline and the sequel to it tried to proceed along that same line, this series is merely the filler before the next arc starts. The series therefore doesn't get anywhere interesting, despite a new enemy. In fact, the series goes practically nowhere, only displaying more ecchi and even less plot.

Animation: Less creative, but more ecchi.

The first thing which comes to mind is that there are a few episodes mainly focused on erotic stances and ecchi content. Add the fact that we now see nipples and we know it will please the ecchi-lovers. But what about the animation?
Technically there hasn't been much difference between this and its prequel, but due to the plain plot which offers even less content than previous series, you tend to look for more animation details. To me, it looked like there were a few scenes which could have used a bit more time, a bit more budget in order to look proper, but generally it's a fairly crappy show – animationwise. Mouth movements without any dialogues are the most common one.

Sound: Still okay.

I didn't notice anything badly done; the voice actors were doing their jobs and the music was fairly okay. I didn't like the OP/ED as much as previous versions, but there's nothing really worth mentioning. Not if you've seen the previous two series already – and honestly, you should.

Story: As if the original creators were on vacation and nobody got paid for thinking up a storyline.

Storywise, the show lacks a lot. The series isn't known for its deep plot, but when a shallow show has to deal with fillers like this season, the series really goes bad. A quick-fixed new enemy, which seems like it was thought up on a whim, is the main focus of the show, which involves all the characters introduced up 'till now. Sounds fancy, doesn't it? Except that the series never manages to trigger any interest.
The result is that, despite a few new characters whose names will obviously make some people perk up, the series never gets going. Fights are uninteresting, unlike season 1 where anything could happen; plot-twists don't feel like plot-twists; hell – even the enemy doesn't feel much like an enemy.
Where the previous series managed to involve a particular ‘something's going on, but we don't know what’-feeling, this series never even bothers and simply tells it from the villain's point of view at times. If there was any tensity, they left it behind in its prequel.

So, without any decent plot, what does the series have to offer in terms of episode-wise stories? Again, nothing much. If only they'd focused on the ecchi then, instead of a half-baked plot, but even then they try to focus on that, which means that none of the episodes have anything to offer individually.

Characters: What can we do with existing characters without intervening with their development?

Looking at the above tagline, we can only answer with: nothing. And that's exactly what happens. There is pretty much next to none character development. There are, however, a couple of revelations concerning side-characters, but since there is so little happening, even that is easily overlooked.

Value & Enjoyment: Fillers are usually a waste of time. This one meets that standard too.

This series is pretty much not worth watching. While I liked its predecessors for being brainless ecchi with a fairly interesting underlying plot, they simply discarded the ‘interesting’ part. And while I can appreciate some brainless ecchi at times as well, this one simply isn't up to the task for that.
Final verdict: filler-season.