MASTER OF MARTIAL HEARTS - **

Directed by Yoshitaka Fujimoto. Anime. Cert 15
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Released in UK on DVD by Manga Entertainment on 4th April, £19.99.

Boiled down, MASTER OF MARTIAL HEARTS is a show where hot chicks fight each other until their clothes rip in unlikely but aesthetically pleasing ways. Sure there’s a magical MacGuffin called the ‘Platonic Heart’ that the girls are meant to be scrapping over, but the five episode OVA series essentially exists so that anime babes in a variety of fetish-worthy costumes – schoolgirl, air stewardess, shrine maiden, teacher, etc. – can show us their boobs. The plot, such as there is one, revolves around Aya, a tough schoolgirl who unwittingly becomes involved in an all-girl fighting tournament for control of the said MacGuffin. On the plus side, the story has a number of surprising twists near the end; on the minus side, I didn’t really care. To be fair, I don’t believe animation studio ARMS cared much either; it set out to make an fan service heavy, IKKI TOUSEN style chick fight anime, so it’s hardly a surprise that storyline and dialogue take a back seat to the tits and panties. The problem is that there are already series with the same fan service shtick as MASTER OF MARTIAL HEARTS that simply do it better. ARMS’s own QUEEN’S BLADE is a prime example, especially in its second season, while STRIKE WITCHES with its superb character design, high quality animation and clever WWII references is far, far superior in almost every respect. I’m as shallow as the next chap, but MASTER OF MARTIAL HEARTS shows that man cannot live by breasts alone..

David Axbey.