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Ikki Tousen Franchise Gets New Anime (Updated)

This year's November issue of Shonengahosha's Young King Ours magazine reported on Saturday that a new anime in the Ikki Tousen franchise is in the works.

Yuji Shiozaki's original Ikki Tousen (Battle Vixens) manga centers around Hakufu Sonsaku, a high school student who possesses a magatama that allows her to channel the spirit of the warrior Sun Ce from China's Three Kingdoms era. She fights students from other high schools, each bearing their own magatama and embodying a different hero from the era.

Shiozaki launched the manga in Wani Books' Monthly Comic Gum magazine in 2000, and serialized it in the magazine until it suspended publication in May 2015. Shiozaki then continued to serialize the manga on the Monthly Comic Gum website, which was renamed WEB Comic Gum, until August 2015.

Shiozaki launched Shin Ikki Tousen in Shonengahosha's Young King Ours magazine in 2015, and the third compiled book volume shipped on April 23.

Tokyopop held the license to Yuji Shiozaki's original manga in North America under the name Battle Vixens until the company closed its North American publishing branch in 2011. A spinoff, Ikki Tousen Gaiden, launched in Shonengahosha's new Young King BULL magazine this year.

Geneon Entertainment once released the first Ikki Tousen anime series in North America, and Funimation then picked up the license. Media Blasters had licensed both the second Ikki Tousen anime series, Ikki Tousen: Dragon Destiny, and the third series, Ikki Tousen: Great Guardians, but Funimation picked up the license for Ikki Tousen: Great Guardians.

The last anime entry in the franchise, Ikki Tousen: Extravaganza Epoch, debuted in December 2014 with two episodes. Funimation licensed the 2010 Ikki Tousen: Xtreme Xecutor anime series, along with the 2011 Ikki Tousen: Shūgaku Tōshi Keppu-roku original video anime and shipped the DVD in 2014.

Update: While the announcement in Young King Ours had indicated the new anime was an adaptation of Shin Ikki Tousen, the anime's staff have stated that the project is a sequel to the Ikki Tousen: Extravaganza Epoch OAV, and have not specifically stated yet if it will adapt Shin Ikki Tousen.

Source: Young King Ours November issue