The third season of “Koihime Musou” features more characters, more fan service, perverted storylines and boobage galore! If you enjoyed the previous two seasons, there is no doubt that you may enjoy this third season!  Just bare in mind, this season is much more perverted and is less-plot driven than the previous seasons.
Image courtesy of © BaseSon – Koihime Musou Partnership 2008. All Rights Reserved.
DVD TITLE: Shin Koihime Musou ~Otome Tairan~
DURATION: 12 Episodes + 1 OAV (325 Minutes)
DVD INFORMATION: 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen, Japanese 2.0, Subtitles: English
COMPANY: Sentai Filmworks
RATED: TV MA VSD
Release Date: May 24, 2011
Director: Nobuaki Nakanishi
Series Composition/Script: Go Zappa
Music: Akifumi Tada
Character Design: Tomoya Hiratsuka
Art Director: Shinji Takasuga
Anime Production by Dogakobo
Featuring the following voice talent:
Erika Narumi as ShokatsuryÅ (Zhuge Liang)/KÅmei/Shuri
Hiroka Nishizawa as ChÅhi (Zhang Fei) / Yokutoku / Rin Rin
Mai Goto as RyÅ«bi (Liu Bei) / Gentoku / TÅka
Nami Kurokawa as Kan’u (Guan Yu) / UnchÅ / Aisha
Emi Motoi as ChÅun (Zhao Yun) / ShiryÅ« / Sei
Hiromi Hirata as Gien (Wei Yan) / BunchÅ / Enya
Maki Kobayashi as BachÅ (Ma Chao) / MÅki / Sui
Ringo Aoba as Batai (Ma Dai) / Tanpopo
Ai Orikasa as Kashin (He Jin)
Aiko ÅŒkubo as ShÅ«tai (Zhou Tai) / YÅhei / Minmei
Airi Yoshida as KakÅen (Xiahou Yuan) / MyÅsai / ShÅ«ra
Akane Tomonaga as Kaku (Jia Xu) / Bunwa / Ei
When there’s trouble afoot in ancient China, it’s up to the Sisterhood of Steel to set things right once again. So, when a spell is cast on the beautiful Han official Kashin that begins to slowly turn her into a cat, it’s up to Ryubi and the others to go forth and find the exotic ingredients to undo the enchantment before the felinization is finalized. And there’ll be no time for pussyfooting around; at least Kashin certainly hopes there won’t be, because this is just the beginning of an even greater plot launched by a band of evil eunuchs!
In 2007, a Japanese adult visual novel and strategy game titled “Koihime Musou: Doki Otome Darake no Sangoushi Engi” was developed by BaseSon and released for the PC back in Jan. 2007 and a PlayStation 2 video game followed the following year, as with a new PC game.
Needless to say, the video game has caught the attention of many Japanese visual novel fans.
This led to a manga adaptation and an anime adaptation by Dogakobo (“Pokemon the Movie 2000”, “Pikachu’s Pikaboo”, “Saikano”) and two seasons of the series have aired on television. The first and second season of “Koihime Musou” has now been released on DVD courtesy of Sentai Filmworks and now the third season titled, “Shin Koihime Musou ~Otome Tairan~” (which aired in Japan in April-June 2010) will be released on DVD from Sentai Filmworks in May 2011.
The “Koihime Musou” anime series is loosely based on the Chinese novel “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” differs from the video games as it focuses on the character Kan’u Uncho (Aisha), young woman who travels all over China to help people defeat bandits which have been killing innocent people throughout the country. When Aisha was younger, her brother hid her under the bed and she watched as her parents and her brother were killed by bandits. Since that day, she has vowed to never let this happen again to anyone and will slay bandits who gets in her way.
While the first and second season of “Koihime Musou” focused on Aisha’s travels as she befriends others who join her on her quest. The third season focuses on the Sisterhood of Steel (Aisha and friends) as a spell is cast on Kashin and turns her to a cat. Ryubi and others must find the exotic ingredients to undo the enchantment before the felinization is complete. Featuring a more fan-service driven storyline, “Shin Koihime Musou ~Otome Tairan~”
“Koihime Musou – Complete First Season” is presented on two DVD’s. Here is a basic spoiler-less summary of each episode:
DISC 1
- EPISODE 1 – Ryubi: Going on a Journey Once More – Chojo has turned Kashin into a cat for treason. Meanwhile, everyone thinks Touka is pregnant.
- EPISODE 2 – Hoto Hides Something – The group try to help Kashin’s problem by looking for the ingredients.
- EPISODE 3 – Ryomo Tries Academics – Ryomo is asked to guard Sonken-sama but when she is asked to study, she learns her weakness.
- EPISODE 4 – Gien Falls in Love at First Sight– When Gien the warrior accidentally knocks Batai, the two then get into a fight.
- EPISODE 5 – Sonshoko Attemps to Fulfill Her Destiny – Introducing Rikuson and Shuutai, Sonshoukou’s strategist and bodyguard.
- EPISODE 6 – Gien’s Life Is In Danger – Gotsutotsukotsu wants revenge on Gien who supposedly has killed her sister.
DISC 2
- EPISODE 7 – Kogai Makes a Plan to Deceive Her Enemies -Â A story of two women who have strong bond.
- EPISODE 8 – Mokaku is Captured & Released Many Times – The girls wonder what an elephant looks like and next thing you know, RinRin finds a new friend with a small pink elephant and she gets into a fight with the original owner of the mini pink elephant.
- EPISODE 9 – Gunyu Attemos to Defeat Totaku – Choujou is up to no good and there is unrest in the empire.
- EPISODE 10 – Amane Hiroshi Can Sneak Into the Palace – Toutaku is being held captive and now the group tries to find her.
- EPISODE 11 – Choryo Faces Off with Kan’u – The group comes together to take on Ukitsu and try to stop her from using the “Crucial Keys”. Choryo vs. Kan’u!
- EPISODE 12 – The Allied Forces Strike at Ukitsu – The final battle vs. Ukitsu.
- OAV – It’s A School Festival! Everyone Assemble! – An alternate universe story as Aisha and friends are students at S. Francesca Academy and the group puts on a school play.
VIDEO :
“Shin Koihime Musou ~Otome Tairan~” was a bit surprise because typically when it comes to video games receive adaptation to anime, they tend to receive so-so animation treatment for the adaptation. But for “Koihime Musou”, Dogakobo has done a magnificent job on the anime production. For one, because this is an adventure anime series with action but plenty of comedy, you expect to see humorous depictions of the characters and often see them in super deformed versions. But what I was impressed with was the actual artistic backgrounds and the amount of detail and shading that went into the characters especially during the fighting sequences.
Typically, this is the advantage of smaller anime production studios is that they get to focus on one anime series and not having to stress on dealing with many anime series all at once. So, you can see a lot of detail that went into the series and its art backgrounds. Granted, this is a series that takes place in the past and what you are mostly seeing are trees, bushes, grass and dirt, but still the overall look and feel of this anime series was more than I expected. Great job by Dogakobo!
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“Shin Koihime Musou ~Otome Tairan~” is presented in Japanese 2.0. For a more immersive soundtrack, I opted to set my receiver for stereo on all channels. Overall, voice acting was well-done for this series. It’s important to note that there is no English dub track with this DVD release.
Subtitles are in English.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Shin Koihime Musou ~Otome Tairan~” comes with the opening and ending themes and Sentai Filmworks trailers.
“Shin Koihime Musou ~Otome Tairan~” is a fan-service driven anime series that is kinkier than any of the previous seasons.
When I firest reviewed “Kohime Musou”, I wrote the following:
I figured that it would be a perverted anime series because it was based on an adult visual novel PC game and although you do get the usual fan service at times, the series does not have an abundance of it. More focus is placed on the story, character development anime production and so, this series goes beyond typical anime adaptations from video games.
Yes, the series does have its share of well-endowed characters but unlike other series that tends to emphasize that, the focus of the series are the adventures of these young women as they try to protect others from bandits.
Somehow, this third season has changed a lot since its first season where the first season had more of a plot, this time around, the series focuses on storylines relating to different characters. And because “Shin Koihime Musou ~Otome Tairan~” features so many characters this time around, it doesn’t surprise me that the anime series has continued as “Shin Koihime Musou ~Otome Tairan~” has morphed into one heck of a perverted anime series. It was something you saw in the OVA’s but for a TV series, from countless panty shots, well-endowed women, more nudity, I would have to say that this series is targeted towards those hardcore fans who want to see all female characters nude.
While the final three episodes of the series tends to get a bit more serious in plot, “Shin Koihime Musou ~Otome Tairan~” is more or less a series in which writers took the characters and put them in situations that would try to titilate otaku who are into lesbian sequences or into putting characters in situations where they are literally nude or in not much clothing. It’s not hentai (adult anime) but still, compared to the previous other two seasons, “Shin Koihime Musou ~Otome Tairan~” is much more perverted and will no doubt excite those who are into anime fan service.
While the first season was easier to recommend for its focus on characters and an actual plot, I look at “Shin Koihime Musou ~Otome Tairan~” more of a series that tries to bring back the fans who were used to seeing these characters in a more mature nature like the video game.  This series is definitely not for everyone.
While I am not into anime series that is created for the benefit of fan service rather than having a storyline that tries to captivate you (like the first season of the series), there is no doubt that there is an audience who want anime series with plenty of panty shots and major boobage and if you are that type of fan, then there is no doubt, “Shin Koihime Musou ~Otome Tairan~” is for you.
