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The Mike Toole Show - Killer Queens


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Parsifal24





PostPosted: Sun Oct 20, 2013 11:54 am Reply with quote
I watched Queen's Blade Rebellion as it came out on Crunchy Roll and yes parts of it make no sense like the random octopus in one episode to the weird religious cult. IT's a mess plot wise but certain parts are so for lack of a better term "what the did I just watch?" aspect that it is like watching a car wreck.

As far as the type of shows Queen's Blade represents I don't really think it's ever going away, but I'd be happy if there was at least som effort at even basic character writeing but that's probably asking too much.
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pachy_boy



Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 1323
PostPosted: Sun Oct 20, 2013 11:59 am Reply with quote
The only reason I bought the first season of Queen's Blade back in the day was out of curiosity and to support Media Blasters when they were first starting to sink downhill. The only reason I was glued to the entire first season was because from the first episode onward the show had a huge "WTF?!" element to it that was entertaining on its own. In retrospect, I really should've stopped when Cattleya (considering her cow-tits, I think the first two syllables of her name are too much of a coincidence) made her appearance. Whether by herself or when her son nuzzled inappropriately against her, she was just plain nauseating. But there were only a couple episodes left on the disc, so I just finished it.

Then out of curiosity on an impulse I went and purchased the second season--and by then I finally realized I was wasting my money on this show. The very moment the one fighter-girl had that phantom-thing force a tube down her throat and pump in--stuff--to render her submissive, it was like I had snapped out of a trance, as I rested my head and asked myself "Oh my god, what am I doing watching this misogynistic, irredeemable trash?!" Fortunately I was able to get most of my money back selling it on Amazon.

I can definitely see its popularity, but it's one of those titles where I say, "Keep it away from me." As a side-note, did anyone else ever think of the Mortal Kombat theme music when the tournament fight scenes took place?
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walw6pK4Alo



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 9322
PostPosted: Sun Oct 20, 2013 12:16 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
but I think I'm ready to see this trend settle down a bit.


I'm not, I think we need even more every season, and all of them on the level of Qwaser or Manyuu Hikenchou, or more.

Quote:
It does nothing for the perception of anime,


Who gives a shit what others think? Western sensibilities and protestations thankfully mean as much to the producers as that wonderful idea for an anime you have.

Quote:
And does anyone think that boobs actually bounce around crazily and independently of each other in real life?


Of course not, that's why anime's better.
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zrdb





PostPosted: Sun Oct 20, 2013 1:13 pm Reply with quote
I agree with almost every point you made on Queen's Blade. But do you know what? In spite of (or maybe because of) all that I'm hopelessly hooked on Queen's Blade-it's a guilty pleasure as far as I'm concerned.
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JohnnySake



Joined: 22 May 2008
Posts: 582
Location: Auburn Hills, MI
PostPosted: Sun Oct 20, 2013 2:01 pm Reply with quote
Great timing for a great article.

I just finished watching Queens Blade Rebellion this past week and I was surprised and disappointed by it. For most of the series I was wondering what was going on and what the heck happened since the end of the second series. Watching the show all the way to the end answered some questions, but it still left me unhappy with everything that transpired.

Yes, there was just as much outrageous fan service in the first and second shows, but I actually found myself getting interested in and caring about what happened to some of the characters. There was none of that in the Rebellion series, unfortunately.
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leatherhead333



Joined: 15 Aug 2013
Posts: 1187
Location: Kansas
PostPosted: Sun Oct 20, 2013 2:29 pm Reply with quote
I might be the odd man out here but i literally bought the Blueray/DVD bundle that sentai recently released for the soundtrack only.

Dead serious. The music in Queens blade was the only thing i found myself able to enjoy. It's outright amazing. I actually wonder how such a crappy show got such an amazing soundtrack. I love Masaru Yokoyama but he needs to stop composing for such trashy anime like this all the time. Makes it harder to appreciate his truly amazing talents.

As a person who collects soundtracks quite frequently (i'm surprised i haven't gone bankrupt yet) i can say that it was a heck of a deal. The soundtrack never did get an offical release and was instead spread across 7 Blue/DVD enclosures. So basically what you had to do was buy a 70-90$ enclosure to get maybe 7-10 tracks. That's BS! And the sad thing is that it's becoming quite the trend with Japanese marketing. It pisses music lovers like me off! They are just taking advantage of us! Thank god i live in the west because this system would piss me off if i lived in Japan.

As for Rebellion and the episodes that came with it..........i haven't even touched them since i got it. I was planning to but i never could muster up the strength to go through with it. I will at some point but really it's not like it's going to change my opinion of it any. Freezing had great source material to work with but instead decides to butcher with unneeded fanservice at least every 2 seconds. Stuff like that is such a spit in the face to manga readers.
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vashfanatic



Joined: 16 Jun 2005
Posts: 3489
Location: Back stateside
PostPosted: Sun Oct 20, 2013 2:30 pm Reply with quote
walw6pK4Alo wrote:
Who gives a shit what others think? Western sensibilities and protestations thankfully mean as much to the producers as that wonderful idea for an anime you have.

Right, because only Westerners have a problem with this kind of series. Everyone in Japan thinks they're just awesome and totally a great reflection on their culture!

Also, there is nothing comparable to this in America, it's just something crazy and uniquely Japanese that we're too ethnocentric to get.

Rolling Eyes
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Levitz9



Joined: 06 Feb 2007
Posts: 1022
Location: Puerto Rico
PostPosted: Sun Oct 20, 2013 3:21 pm Reply with quote
Honestly, I've nursed a morbid interest in Queen's Blade. I follow a lot of the artists who designed the characters (shout-out to Oda Non!), but I've never bought a DVD because I've had better things on my wishlist.

I checked out the first episode a few weeks ago, and wow. spoiler[Leina wets herself twice.] Classy, Japan. Classy.

I said it a lot during the Dragon's Crown fiasco, and I'll say it again: I love racy pin-ups, but pop culture really needs to tone down on this kind of thing. If the next big action game doesn't have a female lead who is a love letter to the Lara Croft school of design, I won't be sad. Like Toole said, there's a time and place for this kind of character design, but it's so commonplace now that it's outright tiresome. We can't even defend it as "satire" anymore, it's the norm.

I'm still interested in giving QB a shot (as well as The Stigma of Qwaser), because everything deserves a shot, but come on, Japan. As a guy who loves pin-ups, I wouldn't mind if folks started toning the stuff down.

As for my favorite Queen's Blade character, I'm between Risty and that nun-woman from Rebellion. As long as they're on screen and I'm sufficiently hammered, I can pretend that "little sisters" aren't a "thing". At least, until I sober up. I also dig how Risty uses a mace. It's unique, as far as swords-and-sorcery characters go. How many heroes in media use maces or hammers? Provided, Risty is a thief, but you know what I mean.

Also, I'm surprised that Mike found the Swamp Witch to be similar to the Gatchaman character. I found her to be more like a sexified Eye of Sauron. Hey, if you're going to sexualize a character archetype, it's go big or go home--and, honestly, the concept of a sexy Eye of Sauron has me in stitches. That's comedy.

spoiler[F-foolish adventurers! I didn't lay a cloud of evil upon this world because I like you or anything!]
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Mr. Nescio



Joined: 13 Jul 2011
Posts: 165
PostPosted: Sun Oct 20, 2013 3:22 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
And does anyone think that boobs actually bounce around crazily and independently of each other in real life? You see a lot of that in shows like this, and the flagrant lack of realism always takes me out of the story!
It is really strange to see this from a person, who has been an anime fan many times longer than for example I have. Bouncing breasts is such an old and deliberate trope that this is like someone saying "does anyone think that eyes are so impossibly huge in real life? You see a lot of that in shows like this, and the flagrant lack of realism always takes me out of the story!". Eyes and breasts are only just few examples of all the things that are frequently done intently differently in manga/anime style art than in the real world, so my answer to the question is "I don't think there are many people in the production or audience of this kind of anime who believe breasts behave like that".


Last edited by Mr. Nescio on Sun Oct 20, 2013 3:31 pm; edited 1 time in total
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nargun



Joined: 29 Mar 2006
Posts: 924
PostPosted: Sun Oct 20, 2013 3:24 pm Reply with quote
walw6pK4Alo wrote:
Who gives a shit what others think?


People who are aware of their own fallibility, people who realise that they can't spot their own mistakes to learn from them without external references?

"What do I care what others think?" You can't spot your own mistakes by thinking about stuff yourself, if you made a mistake the first time you'll just make it again when you re-think things. You need to check your conclusions against an independent reference, something not affected by your systemic errors: in the case of any disagreement you'd expect that on average half the time the problem's in you.

But, y'know, one of the systemic errors that people can make is not properly realising the consequences of their own fallibility.
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Redcrimson



Joined: 30 Mar 2013
Posts: 160
PostPosted: Sun Oct 20, 2013 5:38 pm Reply with quote
walw6pK4Alo wrote:

Who gives a shit what others think?


People who actually interact with other human beings on a regular basis?

Call me a coward, but I'd like to be able to tell people outside the fandom, or heaven forbid an actual live human woman, that I watch anime without conjuring up images of scantily clad ninja-babes or tentacle rape.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think your booby shows need to go away, but their popularity is freaking absurd. We need to take a step back and realize we're only perpetuating the negative stereotypes that we love to assert over and over again are totally not true.
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rinmackie



Joined: 05 Aug 2006
Posts: 1040
Location: in a van! down by the river!
PostPosted: Sun Oct 20, 2013 5:41 pm Reply with quote
Guess I'll be one of the few posters here who actually likes this show. And is a woman. My husband and I bought the first season and I think we watched the second part on Netflix. It's been hard keeping up with it; I'm not even sure I remember where we left off at in the series. But we both liked it. Sure it's not Shakespeare but then who expects it to be?

As for fanservice anime, while I don't consider myself a huge fan, I don't have a problem with it. And when it comes to the mainstream thinking all anime is porn, they've ALWAYS thought that about anime. And sadly, most likely always will, because no one in mainstream America cares about anime.

I like most of the characters but I got agree about Cattya. Those boobs are way too much! With the purple tunic she wears, it's like she has two giant eggplants attached to her chest. And it's a bit disconcerting whenever they come in contact with her son. But she does have a nice personality! Very Happy Oh, and the girl with the acid-shooting breasts freaked my husband out. But overall, we really enjoyed it.
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casualfan



Joined: 24 Jul 2012
Posts: 333
PostPosted: Sun Oct 20, 2013 6:44 pm Reply with quote
I find it more entertaining than other fanservice shows. The characters are just fun to watch. I dislike that they decided to change the rosters for Rebellion since I've grown attached to the previous characters. And some of the previous characters that appear have changed so much. I suppose it's just a problem with those that don't read the manga or game-books.

As a gamer, anybody I know who are non-gamers constantly give me the negative stereotypes. It's just human nature to give negative generalizations to those outside of his group. So personally I couldn't care less of people's perception of anime. Anime fans would love it and non-anime fans would always look down on it.
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irishninja



Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 344
Location: Seattle-ish
PostPosted: Sun Oct 20, 2013 7:15 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Given all of that, I'm honestly a bit surprised we haven't seen any publisher take a stab at releasing the gamebooks here.


I once worked at a game company that considered it briefly, but the art ultimately pushed them away.
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Ghostz



Joined: 28 Dec 2009
Posts: 3
PostPosted: Sun Oct 20, 2013 8:18 pm Reply with quote
You have given this sort of stuff a fair shake.

I think the proliferation of these sort of shows propagate because we all have morbid curiosity wanting to understand its popularity.

In that sense we're all part of the problem.
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