Ranked #3318

Queen's Blade: Rurou no Senshi

In a faraway land, in a time unknown unfolds a story of epic proportions that depicts the untold tales of the warriors who fight to save or destroy the world.

Nah, this is just an anime about T&A.

Hot chicks, big swords, even bigger breasts and even bigger swords. Yeah, that about sums up the glory that is Queen's Blade. This anime is every extreme sex fetish and fantasy coated thinly with action animated for our viewing "pleasure".

To say the description above is inaccurate would be wrong; this is an anime of epic proportions (if you are talking about a character's three sizes, of course). The story? During one episode, a character attempts to explain the Queen's Blade tournament to another. That second character promptly falls asleep. The reaction may be the same for the audience of series. So as for the story, who cares!? The story is completely irrelevant. Queen's Blade is scandalous entertainment and nothing more. This infamous anime has the capabilities of making any viewer drool: from becoming instantly brain-dead or by being swept away in what is a naked girl visual feast.

What makes Queen's Blade such a... special show... is that each episode tries to outdo the last in terms of ridiculousness and epic stupidity. The shock value is extremely high, both in terms of the sexuality and violence (and violent sexuality and sexual violence). If this were a hentai, it would probably be one of the greatest ones ever made. Alas, Queen's Blade is nothing more than a regular anime series, though the word "regular" is used quite loosely. Rather, it shall not be used at all, since this anime is far from anything that you have ever witnessed before. However, it is to be noted that the concluding episodes of the series suddenly become a little out of character and attempt to be serious. But not to fear, it never forgets to leave a viewer feeling completely stupefied at the end of the episode.

As for the plot, continuity is a total bust. Can anyone explain how a character winds up being washed downstream from a clearly European temperate forest and ends up in an African desert (complete with pyramids)? In fact, it totally disregards any form of historical accuracy and creates a universe where medieval warriors, shrine maidens, angels, ninjas, mythical creatures and maids can co-exist despite coming from different eras.

I begrudgingly admit that the art for this anime is pretty good, including the character design. Each female warrior has a distinct appearance, so even if you do not remember their names, you will definitely remember their face (or bra size). Some of the settings are actually pretty innovative and appealing, such as village existing symbiotically with the woods and forest around it, or the mountainside hot springs; despite this, the background art is particularly bland, and most of the attention is paid to animating the characters. Most of the scenery consists of desert or forest, so it lacks any real distinction from episode to episode and it could have been a lot more detailed.

Queen's Blade has an adventurous score that builds up throughout the scenes. Its classical influence consisting of sweeping violin pieces, piano, traditional battle horns, drums, and shrill woodwinds is sometimes juxtaposed with the modern heavy rock which is used in the background for some fight scenes. The sounds for this anime are without fault, and it is utterly amazing that so much attention was paid to making an incredible soundtrack while the rest of the anime is a total mess. One track in particular stands above the rest, and it is used as the first episode's outro.

Adding to the magnificent sound is a talented cast of veteran seiyuu. There are several skilled and popular voice actresses in this anime, and each do an incredible job. They are all names you will recognise: Kawasumi Ayako, Goto Yuko, Kugimiya Rie, Nabatame Hitomi, Noto Mamiko and Hirano Aya along with several others. Each do a magnificent job, and considering the content of their scripts, that must have been a rather difficult thing to do. With a top notch voice cast, excellent background music and some decent theme songs, Queen's Blade's sound manages to be rather (and rather shockingly) incredible.

Who wants to forget about the characters, eh? Now don't you all rush. The cast of this anime consists of very strong women but it seems they are also afflicted with a strong case of stupidity as well. They are not morons, but it is hard to describe the calibre of characters presented in this anime without thinking they all need to ride the short bus to school. Let us blame it on the writers, since Leina, Claudette, and the others are potentially decent characters who are delivered in some of the most terrible of ways.

Leina is the typical wounded bird, "I wanna be the very best" character. She pretty much is like a Pikachu: cute, doesn't say much important stuff and can kick ass when pushed into a corner. Claudette is the mean older sister and she is pretty much a jerk for the entire anime. Tomoe is the resident Japanese cliché machine: she is always on about honour, she's a stick in the mud, and she's a shrine maiden. Then there are the comic relief characters (this is hard to differentiate, since they all can make you laugh; mostly not in a good way, of course) such as Shizuka and Nanael. The rest of the cast consists of supporting characters or baddies who appear, flash the audience and provide some overly dramatic back-story and then go away.

Queen's Blade is not a good anime. It is a bad one, but that does not necessarily make it bad to watch. Sometimes mindless entertainment is necessary. There are far more intelligent shows out there and yet they do not have the capabilities to attract an audience the way this anime does. Needless to say, it uses some cheap tactics, but it gets the job done. It should not be taken seriously, and if you do, then simply be prepared to see what is one of the worst anime you have ever seen. If you can keep an open mind and are looking for a good laugh, then this is just what the doctor ordered. Come on, there are props such as holy milk that looks alarmingly like jizz in a bottle, a woman with breasts bigger than her own head, snakes that serve as underwear, the infamous acid breasts... who would even WANT to take any of this seriously? You'd just be setting yourself up for a migraine. Advice? Clear your mind of all intelligent, logical thoughts, kick back, and just watch and enjoy.

If this anime attempted to be a good action series, then there were chances it could have been. It mostly succeeds in being one of the most fanservice-driven, fetish-appealing anime ever released. There are scenes that would make you roll your eyes right out of your head or make you cry laughing from the awfulness. It is ridiculously entertaining.

It is almost like watching someone perform brain surgery on someone using no anaesthesia. Or maybe breast implant surgery would be a more appropriate analogy...? Either way, you just cannot look away. Unless of course, you really dislike those sort of things, which in turn means that if you cannot find humour in the outrageousness of this anime, then you are going to hate it with all your hate for having an awful story, stereotypical, exploitative characters and gross amounts of fanservice and just plain old tasteless idiocy.

This is not the end of Queen's Blade though. These fine female warriors will continue to fight on in their hearts and souls. And in the sequel!

The story has only just begun...

Oh dear. read more

What I am about to say may just create an angry, pitchfork-wielding mob in my driveway, but i'm going to say it anyway: the hated Queen's Blade isn't all that horrible. Don't get me wrong - it certainly isn't very good, but it is at the very least enjoyable. Hold on, I think I see torches! False alarm, at least for now.

The reason why i am doing the unthinkable by writing a review at merely the third episode is because this anime receives such widespread malignment that some might not give it a try for themselves. I will rewrite this after the final episode.

If you can get past the now-infamous, shall we say, tomfoolery - and granted, that isn't easy to do - you've got yourself a decent show. Key word: decent. I think the reason why people say that there is no story is because Queen's Blade hasn't been picked up by a quality subber yet (in fact every English fansub so far has been an utter disgrace), and not everyone can understand Japanese. This is a character driven anime, and the relations between the characters and their backgrounds make up the bulk of it. It isn't all that deep, but it does keep things interesting.

I'll mention this again for emphasis: it is highly character driven. If you like character designs, you're going to like Queen's Blade. The anime was based on a set of fighting game books (yeah, I can't imagine how that's supposed to work, either) and every character was designed by a well-known artist. Unfortunately, the wide range of interesting personalities and outfits are one of the few redeeming qualities that Queen's Blade possesses, but oh what a quality it is.

It has been outsourced, and so the art isn't all that great, but at least the animation isn't terrible, and the battles are short and sweet...

...even if those battles feature a girl with acidic projectile nipple lactation that only ever manages to burn clothes, and another that pees herself constantly, and another that actually walks around completely bottomless with only a snake wrapped around her waist as a censor. The shock value is ridiculous, and any other time I would have been offended and stopped watching immediately, but Queen's Blade is so over-the-top in its silliness that it's actually downright hilarious at times. It seems as if with every new episode we meet a new combatant, each one just as, umm...original as the next. Yeah, 'original' works.

I truly can't wait to see what sort of madness is coming my way next week, and that says it all.

So don't expect a deep, riveting story, flawless artwork, or lovey-dovey romance. What you should try to enjoy Queen's Blade for is the creative cast of interesting characters. If you can get past the shock value (which is truly more comical than irritating), you may come to enjoy this. At least give it a shot before you drop it!

Now if you'll excuse me, I've just been hit in the neck with a pitchfork and have to see a doctor. read more