Romance Of The Three Kingdoms with Panty Shots.
Ikki Tousen (2003): 8 out of 10: The term fan service is thrown around a lot when people discuss Anime. Ikki Tousen is the greatest (or worst) example of blatant fan service I have seen outside of a pornographic Hentai.
One could easily watch the first few episodes and could think the blatant and somewhat creepy fan service is all Ikki Tousen offers, but something funny happened. I got drawn into the story.
In an alternate universe, High School exists for fighting tournaments. The students wear teardrop shaped earrings that contain the essence of warriors from the Three Kingdoms period in China (also known as called the Six Dynasties) that followed the loss of de facto power by the Han Dynasty emperors. Each character in Ikki Tousen is predestined to the fate of their respective warrior.
So a history lesson is mixed in between the shots of leave nothing to the imagination white panties. Does that really excuse a grown man watching topless high school girls beat each other up?… Probably not no.
The animation is rudimentary and the episodes can be a touch repetitive. There is also that guy blushing sex humor I despise. As soon as I get bored with an episode, something dramatic happens that breaks the pattern (The lesbian rape in Episode 6 Roku is a particular game changer.) So if you enjoy a good anime and do not appear on any sex offender registry, I can highly recommend Ikki Tousen. Give it a few episodes it may draw you into the history and characterization. Alternatively, you might just be interested in the fan service… different strokes and all that.