Ryoufu Housen, by Scott Van Aken

E2046 1/7 Ryoufu Housen
(Innocent Pose)

KIT #:	FG 2359
PRICE:	About $37.00 including shipping from Hong Kong
DECALS:	None
REVIEWER:	Scott Van Aken
NOTES:	Resin Figure

Battle Vixens (一騎当千Ikkitōsen, literally "a lone rider with the strength to withstand a thousand") is manga by Yuji Shiozaki loosely based on the classic Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The series is known for being full of fan service, featuring a very large cast of attractive young girls, who fight in short skirts and dresses which get constantly ripped off, in addition to numerous other ecchi situations.

An anime TV series ran on AT-X from July 30, 2003 to October 22, 2003, and its license is held by Enoki Films. The whole series has been licensed by Geneon Entertainment (USA) Inc. for the North America market, and is available on four separate DVDs. The manga is released in English by TOKYOPOP under the title Battle Vixens. The official German title is Dragon Girls, while in France and Spain it is called Ikkitousen.

As with numerous other Geneon series, the anime is distributed in the United Kingdom by MVM Films. But unlike Geneon, MVM seem to have some ties with TOKYOPOP, as their releases use both "Ikki Tousen" and "Battle Vixens" as titles, using the title graphic from TOKYOPOP's manga for the latter of these. The DVD covers are reversible, for those who prefer the original title, and a limited edition of the first DVD came in a box set with the first volume of the manga.

A second season of Ikki Tousen was picked up, titled Ikki Tousen: Dragon Destiny, which began airing in February 2007. An accompanying radio series named "Ikki Tousen Dragon Destiny Radio" was hosted on Media Factory. A DVD for chapter 0 was released on Comic Market 71 for 1000 yen, featuring an unedited Dragon Destiny promotional video, voice actor interviews, and DVD for Ikki Tousen Dragon Destiny Radio, recently Ikki Tousen: Destiny was licensed by Media Blasters.

A third season, called Ikki Tousen: Great Guardians, began airing in the summer of 2008, involving a brand-new storyline and added characters. One of the new characters introduced is Sonken Chuubou, based on Sun Quan. There has since been a fourth season.

Like all anime kits I've bought from E2046, this one is superbly cast is a solid white resin. There were no molding glitches and most of the sprue stubs and seams had been removed. This does not totally eliminate the need to do work on the parts, but greatly reduces the effort. The first thing I did on this one was to glue the lower body/legs together and fill in the seam. For the most part, I used a-poxie sculpt for this as it is perfect for somewhat large seams. It doesn't work worth a hoot on very shallow ones and for that standard filler seems to be the ticket.

Once the lower body was done, I tried to fit the hands and the blouse in place. Unfortunately, it seems that the hands have to be fit in between the legs prior to gluing those bits together. Typical of these kits, there is often little more than a diagram of the parts and no assembly instructions. This meant that I had to paint the arms, then pry open the legs and insert them. This was VERY difficult as the glue for the lower body refused to break free. In the end, I shaved the back of the hands until they would fit in place. Unless one turns the figure upside down (which would be tacky) you won't see the sanding that was done. It was at this point that I lost interest in the kit (and hey, it happens). It then sat in a box gathering dust for several years before I regained interest in finishing it.

When I returned to work on the kit, I had learned a few techniques that made the rest of the build pretty trouble-free. I found that though a bit time consuming as I tend to let paint dry a long time, construction of the rest was pretty straight forward, with each part being trimmed, test fitted and the steps repeated until a good match was made. Even then, I needed some filler to smooth out the seams on the upper body. The large areas were airbrushed with some pieces masked off (like the white). I did brush paint things like the shoes and other detail bits. Vallejo paint has the benefit of drying pretty much the same color whether hand or air-brushed on. Air-brushing just lessens the problems one often has with streaking when doing large areas.

I decided I wanted a pink top on this one with a white color. For most of the colors I used Vallejo or Badger acrylics. All the skin-tones are Badger. For the white, I used Model Master Gloss White. I did primer the figure with Tamiya extra fine white primer. As much as I like the primer, the odor of it lingers for hours after use.

The main colors are Pink and Emerald. Once the Vallejo paints are sprayed on, I gave them a clear gloss to seal them in as they cannot tolerate much handling without rubbing off. Since this character tends to wear open tops, I used a darker skin shade on the upper torso and face than I did on the legs. Though it would be out of character, I also added some blushing to the face. I did dry brush the had and for that and the shoes I used basic skin tone. It seems to have worked rather well.

Aside from the legs situation with the hands, there were no real difficulties in construction. The sections of hair all fit quite well and I did have to remind myself not to trim off the little tabs for the hair ribbons. The kit has holes drilled to accept these. Once the figure was done and the paint cured, I sprayed on a matte clear then went back and added gloss clear to the eyes. For those who are wondering, despite being without pants, the figure has no detailing in that area, being left blank.

Though it may be a bit risqué for some, it makes into a very interesting figure and while you may not want to stick it in the living room for your house guests, it makes a nice addition to one's anime figure collection if one is so inclined.