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Ikki Tousen Western Wolves Anime Reveals Staff, Cast, Visual

The official website for the new anime entry in the Ikki Tousen franchise revealed the anime's staff, cast, and teaser visual on Saturday. The anime is titled Ikki Tousen: Western Wolves.

While the announcement earlier on Saturday in Young King Ours magazine had indicated that the new work would be an adaptation of the Shin Ikki Tousen manga, staff have stated the anime is a sequel to the 2014 OVA Ikki Tousen: Extravaganza Epoch, and have not specifically stated the anime is an adaptation of Shin Ikki Tousen. The OVA aired on TV in December 2014 and shipped in Japan in February 2015.

Takashi Watanabe, who directed the original Ikki Tousen television anime, is returning as chief director at studio Arms (Ikki Tousen: Dragon Destiny, Ikki Tousen: Great Guardians, Ikki Tousen: Xtreme Xecutor). Mitsutoshi Satō (episode director for Venus Versus Virus, all three series of Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma) is directing the anime. Masaya Honda (Ikki Tousen: Xtreme Xecutor, Soul Buster) is in charge of series scripts, and Rin-Sin is returning from Dragon Destiny, Great Guardians, and Xtreme Xecutor as character designer. GENCO is producing the series.

The cast includes:

• Masumi Asano as Hakufu Sonsaku
• Kei Shindō as Gentoku Ryūbi
• Hitomi Nabatame as Unchou Kan'u
• Minori Chihara as Ekitoku Chōhi
• Chiaki Takahashi as Himiko
• Ami Koshimizu as Shin-men Takezō

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 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.

The manga has inspired four previous television anime and four previous OVAs.

Sources: Ikki Tousen: Western Wolves anime's website, Comic Natalie