Finishing out this series with a few more unreal tales of bouncy girls fighting disorder in ancient China. Oh, and Bachou likes magic mushrooms.
What They Say
The kingdom of Wu under Queen Sonsaku has been rapidly expanding through warfare. However her younger sister has been warning her that the battles will exhaust her people and supplies. And subsequently on that day, they all learn of a pending assassination plot from an unknown stranger...
…
While Rinrin and Shuri are still sleeping at their camp, Kan'u wakes up and immediately finds herself in the middle of a battle between bandits and militias. They decide to team up with Ryuubi's army to defeat the bandits; and with Rinrin fighting skills, Shuri's strategies and Kan'u strength they will help Ryuubi get back in the good graces of his lord.
…
Ryuubi, with the help of Kan'u and her group, has quelled the rebellion, but there is more to Ryuubi that meets Kan'u eyes. With his chance to make his claim to fame, Ryuubi abandons Touka and decides to focus on the fighting the rebels and tries to encourage Aisha to join him…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
We start with the Son Family and the Kingdom of Wu (the Bellybutton Kingdom), where Sonken, the middle sister of the family, is worried about the future of their family's power, as the constant wars are exhausting the people. Sonsaku, the Queen, has an ambition: to conquer the entire country. Stopping her, however, is the ambitions of others within her kingdom, who hope to stop the warring and fighting that is draining the kingdom.
Into this walks Kan'u and friends, who still have Shoukou, the youngest daughter of the Son Family, in tow. Shoukou is scolded by her family for running around without servants, but Kan'u, Chouhi and Koumei are treated as honored guests. That is, until an assassination attempt is made on Sonsaku. Kan'u is accused of trying to kill the Queen, but the real culprit is hiding in plain sight.
In the next episode, Kan'u wakes up from another bad dream, but when she leaves her cave, she comes out into the middle of a battle. One of the fighters has the bad sense to try to attack Kan'u, and so Kan'u and Chouhi fight the bandits and beat them off. Thus, Kan'u wins the victory for the seemingly hapless Liu Bei…I mean Ryuubi Gentoku. Wait, Liu Bei is a guy? Not a girl? Something can't be right.
No, history seems to triumph or gender swapping this one time, as Ryuubi is a guy, a fairly dashing one and a sweet talker too. In another engagement, Koumei's strategizing helps Ryuubi win another victory against the local bandits. Ryuubi is so impressed, that he wants Kan'u to stay with him forever…as his subordinate, as he tries to build his reputation by defeating bandits and recruiting more soldiers for his Volunteer Army, which is based at Touka village.
But something isn't quite right. Chouhi doesn't like Ryuubi for some reason, as something just doesn't seem right about him. Bachou, who has joined the group again, reasonably explains away Chouhi's unease, however, since the problem seems to be that Ryuubi has what looks like to Chouhi a more than professional interest in her elder sister.
In the final episode of the season, it appears that the Volunteer Army's successes have come to the attention of the Government, who asks for their help in putting down a local rebellion. Ryuubi is excited at the prospect of winning fame and recognition by the Government. Of course, things go awry when the bandits attack Touka Village while the Volunteer Army is away with the Government force. Ryuubi won't go back to save the village, as he is too intent on winning fame and a chance to become an officer in the Government Army.
Of course, Kan'u and Bachou go back to save the village, with a little help from Sou Sou. When Ryuubi comes back (after having been defeated, as he did not have Kan'u and Bachou to do the real fighting for him), it happens that Kouchuu is there, and her daughter Riri recognizes "Ryuubi," who is not all that he seemed. So much for Ryuubi. And there pretty much ends our tale of bouncing boobs and rebels in an alternate retelling of the Three Kingdoms story.
Series Retrospective:
The final episode is titled "Kan'u accomplishes her goal," and I would say that, to a large extent, this series accomplishes its goal as well. The situations and stories have nothing to do with the real Three Kingdoms, whether historical or fictional, but the creators have managed to take facets of the fictional characters from the Chinese novel and put them into variously hot or cute female wrappers. There is plenty of fanservice, and these last three episodes had quite a bit of steam that probably disappeared from the DVD versions. In terms of action, it is not particularly an interesting series, as the fights are quite brief and unimaginative. But then that was probably never a major goal of the show to begin with. It's about sitting back and watching a bunch of cute girls doing funny and cute things, while giving them the names and some character traits of the historical characters they are named after.
On that level, as mindless entertainment, it works fairly well. But I can't give it a higher grade than I have, because it is little more than that. The animation is nothing to get excited about. The designs, though they are not repetitive even with so many girls, are attractive but not outstanding, really. Overall, the execution is more competent than impressive. If you have time to waste, you like jiggling and panty shots, and some slapstick comedy, then this show will be a pleasant way to pass the time. If you are not into any of that, by all means try an episode or two, but be aware that this is probably not the show for you.
Features
Japanese 2.0 Language, English Subtitles
Review Equipment
Apple Mac Mini with 1GB RAM, Mac OS 10.5 Leopard
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