Queen's Blade

Written by project28 on August 8, 2010 at 5:10 AM

Ok so from August to September we were given Queen’s Blade Rorou no Senshi. The first season of the Queen’s Blade anime. At first I didn’t know what to expect from reading the title and the story outline, “The gods have decided once every 4 years…blah blah girls over age of 12 blah blah queen of the world.” Now I’m sure many of you were wondering why someone under 12 would want to participate anyway. With a fairly unfavourable image in mind to begin with I DL’d the first episode just to “dip my toes in” and I’m greeted with Melona firing explosive acid out of her large and bouncy boobies…surprised? …Yes actually. I was expecting subtle boob jiggles and underwear at best but full blown nudity? Well ok we don’t so their vagina but it’s still rather gratuitous. So I decide that, judging the ratio of action:boobs this series would balance out. At first I was a bit confused with keeping up with who’s who. There’s still 1 or 2 character’s who’s names escape me from time to time, mainly Cattleya and Irma.

After watching episode 2 I found myself wondering what made me download the whole series 2 episodes at a time and watch it all in the space of 1 day in between my University work. Conveniently enough I do film studies as one of my subjects and I’m currently studying animated worlds. That’s to say Cartoons from all over the world (yes this is a real subject). While the jiggles and giggles of the series were a definite bonus (pun intended? Maybe?) I found my attraction to the series ran deeper than that. While I was watching season 1 I didn’t actually realise how much I liked it. Now we’ve been gifted with season 2 and I’ve just finished watching episode 4, 1/3 of the way through season 2 already? (sad face). I first noted my attraction after Queen Aldra used her mysterious right eye and petrified the summoned Lamia giant. Before I saw that the ClaudetteXReina fight was the highlight for me but to see her demonstrate such power was amazing. She didn’t even break a sweat. (I realise other anime have far stronger characters but you’ve got to remain in context) I noted on both these occasions a similarity. Not Reina’s development being shown in progress after her fight with [s]Sexy Pantyless[/s] Rogue Elf Echidna but a certain tension or gut feeling” heightened by that awesome music, you know the one I mean. As I watched in awe of how a fight could take place wearing nothing but metal underwear and both combatants get nothing more than a scratch (guess the old Fantasy rule applies here, “The more revealing and less covering the armour, the greater our defence value if you’re a female”) I realised I was actually impatient during the scenes that looked away from the battle.

While the story was, as I mentioned before, somewhat like a rip off of the Olympics the plot itself intrigued me. As I have learned in film studies and kindly pass the knowledge onto you the reader. The story is what happens off screen, the history of the world, the background information with side characters, the governments movements etc. That’s all story. The plot is what the main characters drive forward; when Reina takes her mother’s armour and fights in the queen’s blade, that’s plot, when Claudette fights Reina, that’s plot, when Cattleya reveals Thunderclap was a gift to her and Owen, that’s plo-fooled you, that’s story – it didn’t happen on screen but in the past. The GAR feeling I felt during these fights (I know right?) was strange. I started Kendo a year ago and then was reluctant to start up again after the summer holidays…it hurts y head >.<, after watching Queen’s Blade enough times I pushed myself to join up again. The fighting isn’t the strongest swordplay out there like Bleach tries to be nor are the special attacks planet popping like Dragon Ball Z but that’s what gives it the air of, well not realism but if you keep something nice and weak, even in a fantasy story, you’ll get a believable nature to it. I suppose the only exception is Reina’s Dragon Tail which she learned in 1 day being string enough to shatter Thunderclap but I suppose that was a necessary plot device, more over there’s only 24 episodes with a wide range of people to cover, they can’t afford to spend several episodes on the same training session.

Where exactly is this going you ask? Well I’m not sure myself, the point was to “Discuss Queen’s Blade” but I think this is turning more into a ranty blog <.<. Back on track. Why does this intrigue so much? We’ve discussed the jiggles, giggles, fighting, powers, story and plot but somehow I don’t think I’ve covered it. Is it the mixture of all combined? Surely not, not with a story like that. Could it be the jiggles are affecting me more than I hoped? Probably not. After lots of time to think about it on bus journeys and in between workloads and reading 19th Century French Literature (I study French too) I came up with only 1 answer to my as of yet unanswered question. Presentation. Not visual presentation, that would be graphicism. The presentation that in fact a shrine maiden isn’t a poor defenceless lady, the presentation that a demon associated Ninja isn’t necessarily bad, the presentation that maybe Queen Aldra wishes she was a boy? (Her metal phallic armour spike in between her legs supports my theory?) The presentation that the Queen has held her title for 2 Queen’s Blades and is being noted as a threat, the fact we don’t see her inner self but the shadow of what I can only assume is a demon infesting her body? (looks like a stereotypical Dracula to me judging by the shadow.) As I write this I can feel my confidence in this answer waning but I have come up with no other solution to answer my question. I leave this post (admittedly long (1069 words))open ended for you the reader’s to try and discuss (off course not all of you, in fact barely any of you will appreciate this work of art as much as I do.)