Manga in the Mail: 13

Fan service, we guys love it. It's pleasing to see once in a while, however, if it's the backbone of any story, then it loses it's value. I'm happy to see fan service when they put it at the right place. This mangaka though, he seems to rely on his fan servicing skills to give him content.

Battle Vixens Volumes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 & 13

Back in October, a famous reviewer on a video sharing site really hated the anime Ikkitousen. An anime where girls with big boobs fighting with as little clothes as they can wear without breaking the rules about clothing. I was curious enough to google it and I saw a wiki page that was titled "Battle Vixens."

Me: What?! All this time I've been ignoring this title and it was made into an anime!?

Why did I order this if it turned into a crappy anime? Well, there are two things I like, fan service and action (I'm not a BIG fan of action, I recently got into it because of Tenjo Tenge). Fortunately, I got 9 volumes out of 15 for cheap. Awesome!

The story is based on a historical novel from China which dates back 500-600 years ago. The foundation was that novel but it doesn't really have anything to do with it. It borrowed some ideas from history but aside from the "souls" that are inside their earrings, everything is the usual fighting to get stronger type of title.

Like Tenjo Tenge (Tenjho Tenge if you acknowledge that spelling), this is a battle manga that uses "ki" (I think it means life force) where you see hits that land on a person without the attacker's contact. It doesn't base the story on Ki though, it focuses on the Magetama gems (the earring's each Toushi (warrior?) wears) that have the power of the previous fighters who owned it. Some of those Magetama gems actually hold the power of a thousand people (hence the name in Japanese: Ikkitousen - a warrior with the power of a thousand).

If you're looking for a story, I'm sorry but you're on the wrong title. If you are reading this, then you are either a battle manga fan or a male who likes some eye candy. I'm not saying it's a bad manga, it's just not for everyone.

I'm gonna post a review about volume 1 to elaborate more on this series. Sorry if this is too short but I hope you bear with me. Thanks!