Ikkitousen: Western Wolves

A continuation of the previous OVAs, Western Wolves continues the same trends of higher quality animation and a deeper dive into this serious story and the whole ranking system thing. One of my pet peeves with anime that have a clearly ridiculous premise is when they start trying so hard to take themselves seriously. Like, you do remember what this show is, right? It's high school girls beating each other up until their clothes fall off, I don't know how you make that boring but they did. Maybe I'm not a big enough pervert to really understand the subtle nuances at play, Ikkitousen is just ... too deep for me I guess.

Few things worth mentioning that I actually liked: The leotard loli who tries really hard to talk like a cat and hides behind multiple masks was pretty funny, striking that perfect balance between cute stupid and annoying stupid that I believe the kids are calling gap moe or something. I liked the twins whose only role was to repeat the last thing they heard twice, a gimmick that should have gotten annoying real quick but was used just sparingly enough to be charming. And I liked that they were trying to give a spotlight to a character that up until now has just sort of been there while other more important characters did all the fighting. Seriously in one previous season Ekitoku was held up by some weak side character while the real fight was going on probably because they didn't know what else to do with her.

That's about it, other than that it's business as usual for this show. Way too many characters to keep track of already and they just keep introducing more. Do yourself a favor and don't try and watch this for the plot. 6/10

This is a direct continuation of the Extravaganza Epoch OVA, which had an abrupt start, and ended without a proper resolution. Unfortunately, this doesn't do much to remedy those problems.

Western Wolves does have everything that one would come to expect from Ikkitousen though: a somewhat coherent story, good art, lovable characters, enjoyable fights and top notch fanservice.

Some new characters are introduced without much of background, which can be jarring. There is a decent attempt to bring some development for a few of the girls we already know and love. The power/ranking system seems to get more broken in some cases.

There are some interesting set-ups which ... potentially can open up the chance for good pay-offs in the sequel(s) to come.

Overall, a decent watch for fans of the Ikkitousen series.