Queen's Blade: Rebellion

Queen's Blade is one of the more infamous titles out there in TV anime. It's known for catering to nearly every fetish imaginable while at the same time having a legitimate plot with a very healthy dose of PLOT. Queen's Blade Rebellion is the third installment in the Queen's Blade franchise which extends across multiple different outlets of media. Rebellion is a direct sequel to the previous series and takes place several years after the last one. It features an all new cast with the previous characters making appearances throughout the show. The show itself is certainly different from the last ones, but it is ... still the Queen's Blade that you know and love.

When regarding the story, Queen's Blade Rebellion takes a turn from the previous two seasons where it was a fighting tournament and this one changes over to fight the queen who has done away with that said tournament. This sadly means that it is no longer “G Gundam with more tits” and now it has moved onto something else. The story to Rebellion is slightly convoluted due to the fact that it moves rather slowly while introducing the plethora of new characters. Not to mention, a lot of it can be considered extraneous due to the fact that Queen's Blade is a merchandise driven show and you need as many compromising scenes to sell those figures. That being said, the overall main point of the plot is clear and that is to “defeat the tyrant queen” and while the journey to that takes many different paths, the main point of the story is a main focus throughout the series. The attention to the story is something that you rarely see in fanservice driven shows such as this and that's what makes the Queen's Blade franchise unique in this aspect. It might push the envelope on what can actually be shown on TV, but at the same time it goes against the grain and sets itself apart from the masses of mindless fanservice shows. Queen's Blade Rebellion may have a different format and a different story than the first two seasons, but in the end it's still a plot driven show which is rare in this category of show. However, in the end it is still not the enjoyable plot that you had in the first two seasons. The PLOT certainly was improved, but the legitimate plot suffers compared to the second season and reverts back to a similar level of coherence as the first season.

The art and sound of Queen's Blade Rebellion was quite good The fight scenes in it were drastically improved from the first seasons and there seemed to be less off-model shots than before. That being said, I'd suggest watching the Blu Rays regardless since I'm sure they will fix up whatever mishaps were in the show. Other than that, we have a very vibrant color palette which encompasses many different settings and places with well done character designs. It's clear that this is a merchandise driven show because the character designs are certainly paid special attention to since they are moving advertisements for the plethora of figurines available. This is not a bad thing since the character designs are vibrant and interesting which makes the show a much more visual treat. The character models look a little different this time around due to some staff changes but overall, the art in the show is pretty good. When it comes to the sound, it was also quite good. The voice acting is from notable veterans and the OST is fitting. I'm sure it's hard to do a show like this with a straight face and I must applaud the voice acting cast for their performance in this. The OP/ED were acceptable and fit with the setting.

When it comes to Queen's Blade, the characters are what make the show for the most part. Their interactions are key to the overall enjoyment of the show. When it comes to the variety of characters, Queen's Blade never disappoints. We have a whole slew of different types of characters ranging from a Ghost Pirate to a Mayan goddess which may or may not have been a copy from Gundam ZZ. Annelotte is a good protagonist and she seems to get more stuff done in Rebellion than Reina did in the first season. Annelotte certainly gets down to business and she is an enjoyable character and interacts well with the other cast. However, there is certainly some degradation of characters compared to the last season. Without going into details spoiling everything, I must say that there many changes to previously loved characters that will make many people upset. Especially the former queen, Aldra. There are other strange character changes which are passed off as “magic” and it just seems that the previous set of characters are nothing like their old selves. It's upsetting to see them in such states and it ruins some of the enjoyment of the show. While we get awesome characters like Siggy and Lilliana, we also have to deal with the dramatic character changes of Mrs. Bushid—err Reina and Aldra. The new characters are enjoyable, but many of your favorites from the last season are a mockery of their previous selves.

When it comes to the overall enjoyment, I can't deny the fact that I did enjoy the show. While many people did complain about some of the changes and the drastically different plot from the previous two seasons, it's still an entertaining show. Whether you're watching it for the plot or the PLOT, you wont be disappointed when it comes to overall enjoyment. If you just sit back and relax and let it flow, you will save yourself quite a bit of trouble from the inevitable plot holes and other issues that the show has. On the other hand, the new characters are enjoyable and fun to watch and it's great to see more Queen's Blade after the long break in between the last TV series. Since this is a sequel and you should have watched the previous two seasons prior to watching this one, you should know what you're in for. If you enjoyed the last two seasons of Queen's Blade, chances are you'll enjoy this one enough to at least finish it. It's not the best installment in the franchise, but at the same time it's not terrible. It does suffer from the "sequel syndrome" where it does feel somewhat less enjoyable compared to the previous show, but it is still an acceptable show and very fun to watch. Regardless of its issues, Queen's Blade Rebellion is both an enjoyable show and an acceptable successor to the previous installments in the franchise.

This wasn't nearly as good as the original series but it still had a few good moments.

The bad. There is much more fan service than the first two seasons. Which I found kind of stupid. Where as people say that the first two seasons are soft porn, this season is nearly hentai. I also couldn't understand why Claudette was queen, or why Leina has a curse, they don't really explain it that much. They also completely flanderized my favorite character from the first two seasons, Claudette, she was close to her sisters and wouldn't do anything to harm them before but now she is willing ... to kill them to keep order in her kingdom. And don't even get me started on what they did to Aldra, that's not even flanderization, that's just changing her character completely. When it came to the other characters, they were very under developed as characters.

The good. it had a few good scenes and a few good characters at most. That is all.

Final Verdict:
It's worth a watch if you have nothing better to do.

It's safe to say that the first thing that comes to mind when talking about the Queen's Blade franchise isn't the characters or story but rather the well animated "plot". Seeing how much fanservice they can stuff into a 20 minute time span always seem to be the creators goal. Given the audience and fanbase that support this franchise that is to be expected but for some reason excessive fanservice just isn't enough for Rebellion.
You see as much as fans of the series love the "plot" it was also a plus that the characters and story had a decent sense of direction or focus to ... keep things going. QB is far from well written but the writers atleast bothered to have a somewhat fleshed out cast so that we as viewers can understand what they wanted to accomplish. And with a simple battle royal premise to bring all these separate ideals together we can, for the most part, understand why the milk jugs with legs are fighting. But with Rebellion it seems like they just said "fuck a plot" and threw all the so-so writing out the window and just figured no one would notice or care. The fanservice is still there but everything else is lacking. The story is aimless, the characters no longer have a well grounded reason for being there and the previous cast all go through a cheap character reset. Again taking into note that the fanbase will be pleased as long as there's enough "plot" to get fap happy about they won't mind, but this sequel just seem below standards even for a obvious cash grab. They kept talking about a rebellion going on but none of it was shown or properly explored, it was just lazy exposition without any visual representation. Just a few minor squabbles among walking tits and lolis that lacks any tension. No large uprising, no grandiose scale battle, nothing. Just tensionless encounters that led to no real change.
Take into account our main protagonist for example. In previous installments she was resilient and naive but slowly grew as a character through various encounters. We were given a decent conflicting dynamic with her sister and an understanding as to why she fights. But with our new MC Annelotte we are given little to nothing regarding her character. In fact she's closer to a side character than anything else and lacks any proper backstory or ideals. She's simply a chivalrous female warrior with no dimensions to her. The same can be said for all other side characters in the line up. It's like they drew their breast size then decide what they'll be like. They're cheaply written and simply have a personality quirk to separate them.

Also:
"what was up with that crappy ending?" - Melona
No need to address it since the show does it for me.

Overall: 2.5/10

If you want more talking milk jugs battling it out then proceed, as Rebellion offers more boob exposing swordplay, more tentacle rape and more crotch shots to fill any man child's desire. But if you want more than that then don't bother as they place little not no effort on every other aspect of the show. As a fanservice filled sequel it excels but other than that there's nothing here to look forward to.