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You know I never noticed the Swamp Witch/Sosai X connection before.

Also, Queen's Blade is shlock, but it's well made shlock, and it's not nearly as sexist as one might think. It's still stupid, and anyone who says otherwise is straight up lying, but in a good way.

That being said, I do consider QB the upper limit of the level of schlocky stupidity I can take. Stuff like Qwaser goes beyond campy, silly fanservice and into just plain disturbing.

Watched the first episode with my wife a couple years back - she snickered, and said that was a fun bit of dumb D&D schlock. I asked her if she wanted to watch the rest of the series, and her reaction was "Wait - there's MORE? How?!" Here we are now, three full seasons and an ever-growing pile of OVAs, and I still don't know what to tell her. Very Happy

I've watched both of the MB sets (fantastic releases I might add), and have Sentai's Rebellion set on order. I'm sad to say that the mini-OVAs are awful, but that's just par for the course on those 3 minute shorts meant to make the $100 price tag go down just a bit smoother. At best, you have hilariously well-rendered Animated Gif fodder as was the case in Ladies vs Buttlers... Queen's Blade, sadly, is not on that end of the spectrum. I could forgive their cheap terribleness if they were actually funny, but the joke wears thin far too quickly for that to work.

Put me down as another person who interpreted the wicked queen as an Eye of Sauron joke. It's not impossible that it's a Gatchaman reference, but with the show having a (lady)boner over "Western Fantasy" aesthetic I find it difficult to believe everyone involved isn't at least somewhat familiar with Jackson's LOTR trilogy.

For the show at large - y'know what? F**k good taste: I still like it. It's unpretentious, lovingly rendered, psuedo-action/psuedo-porno girl fight fluff that continues to be vapid exploitation solely for the sake of its own meta-amusement. I can vaguely remember an ANNCast in which Zac and Justin discussed that, had this been made a decade ago, it would have been an actual hentai series, and considering the staff behind it I have no doubt that's true. I'm sure I would have loved that interpretation, too (see above on "good taste") but, honestly, I like having the ridiculous parody as a long-form series as opposed to three episodes full of copulation that mean nothing in the long run. I mean, c'mon, we already have 7 episodes of Words Worth...

Queen's Blade is exploitative to the extreme, but it doesn't actively hate its all female cast, does it? Each of the characters actually have a personality behind them (if not a particularly deep one), and while the show actively hates its cast of goofy Fantasy stereotypes... heck, if this is mysoginist, what word do we have left to describe stuff like Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-chan, Kekkou Kamen and Dance in the Vampire Bund?

Mean spirrited or not, though, suggesting there's anything in there worth defending other than its obvious assets is like trying to stand up for Roger Corman or Jess Franco films - there's not much you can even say, is there? You like goofy trash because it makes you smile, ironically or otherwise. Geez, if there's shame in that, I'm clearly doing everything in my life wrong.

Redcrimson wrote:

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.

This is why I don't talk about my hobbies with other people unless they are interested, personally know me or through message boards.

Redcrimson wrote:

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.

Hey, c'mon! People tell each other all the time that we watch our Skinemax, Nudie (Movie) Channel, and Playboy Network! We all know what hotel channels we order on our business trips! We all know the watercooler talks - we've been there! Smile

rinmackie wrote:

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.

Actually, that started to change at the turn of the century when DBZ, Pokemon, Digimon, Toonami, Cowboy Bebop at night, etc. were ruling the airwaves.

casualfan wrote:

As a gamer, anybody I know who are non-gamers constantly give me the negative stereotypes.

Gaming has gone mainstream. We've known fathers, mothers, sons, daughters all gaming together. Gone were the days when I'd be the only one willing to put down gaming as a hobby in the yearbook. Laughing

Michael Toole wrote:

because that's all you need to do to make a character sound like an angel, add “-el” at the end.

That's because "el" means "god" in Hebrew—see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_(deity).

pachy_boy wrote:

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)

Cattleya is a genus of orchids, though the pun may still be intentional.

Mike was able to do something I wasn't able to do - watch Rebellion. I like the first two seasons of Queen's Blade mostly for Nanael and Echidna but only after their characters were, and I say this in all honesty, developed in the first season and then Airi's story in the second.

All the characters were RPG Western + Eastern fantasy girls, elfs and dwarfs {...elves and dwarves? Damn Tolkien...}, barbarians and blacksmiths, clerics and angels mixed with ninjas and samurai plus a mummy, a succubus/vampire and ... a slime. It's a mixed theme but it works for me because its point is, of course, is "Who would win in a race, Superman with boobs or the Flash with boobs?" Because with boobs, everyone wins.

Rebellion doesn't have this; The show lost me right from the start with the robot/golem. No, the priestess with the tentacles outfit. Nope, it was the pirate ... with starfish pasties. The original seasons were stupid but fun and trashy, Rebellion was just stupid, taking itself too seriously.

Hobby Japan did release english books for Alleyne, Melona, Nanael, and Tomoe. (http://www.flyingbuffalo.com/qbenglish.htm)

Mike Toole wrote:

I'm well prepared to rain down nothing but scorn on this cheap, trashy, misogynist pulp fantasy crap!

Is there some rule that says that you can talk about the raunchiest of material, admitting that you watched it, without harming your "reputation" as long as you call out the work for being "misogynistic" first, like how Peter Griffen in Family Guy was able to get away with, ahem, things by claiming to be mentally handicapped? I ask because that is the only reason that I can think of as for why Mike Toole insisted on calling attention to his view of this series before getting the article under weigh.

Also, misuse of "misogyny". There was a fun "discussion" of that in this thread: animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2689562&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15

BTW, are there any writers in ANN's employ who do not affect this snarky, cynical & irreverent style that seems as though it would fit right in at Cracked.com? Even the current Answerman, whose opening columns were listless and dry, has jumped onto the snark-train. I'm somewhat disappointed by that as his dry, more technical articles were a nice breath of fresh, non-snarky air. Nowadays though, if you told me that ANN's ultra-snarky executive editor "ghost wrote" the Answerman column (and, really, all the columns) I wouldn't be all that incredulous. Shocked

rinmackie wrote:

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?

I like most of the characters but I got agree about Cattya.

I originally checked out Queen's Blade for the crazy stuff that happens in the first episode, but started to enjoy the series as it went on, and even though some of the characters in the first two seasons were interesting. I do agree with you about Cattleya's. I think they went a little too crazy with her design.

As for Rebellion, I couldn't really get into that one. Something about QB Rebellion just felt "off" to me, but I could never place my finger on it.

Last edited by Lynx Amali on Mon Oct 21, 2013 9:18 am; edited 1 time in total

I've been following the series since I got hooked on the battle books/RPG books so that would....be around '08 I guess? I think the reason why I like the series is because I enjoy the characters. If I didn't like the characters, I don't think I'd stick with it. (Part of the reason I want another show, and not the Vanquished Queens stuff.)

Still kind of sad spoiler[ they killed off Shizuka just because she didn't have a book. Loved her interactions with Tomoe. ]

My thoughts on the Rebellion arc are pretty much that it was a great idea on paper but in execution, eeeeeeh. It left a lot to be desired. The ideas were there but it just didn't come out all that great.

Now, it did give birth to Gate so that's a plus in my book. Especially the PSP games that spawned out of it. Jean is by far the most broken character despite being rather ordinary compared to everyone else in the setting which is really ironic, considering he's just an ordinary guy who gets involved with everything going on by chance, multiple times.

As someone who grew up on Conan and Red Sonja, I've always liked Queen's Blade and I think similar minded people appreciate it for the same reasons.

I understand why people don't get it, or why it is popular, but the constant quest by these people to try and "get it" is a little annoying. Just shrug your shoulders and move on. I don't try and understand why Magical Girl anime is enjoyable to some people.

That said, I found the Vanquished Queen's OVA disturbing. It was just 30 minutes of them being tortured with no purpose. I hope the future of the show doesn't continue in this manner because it was really hard to watch.

I've always been drawn to Queen's Blade for some weird, unexplainable reason. I think that it all started for me when I saw those figurines of Echidna and really liked the design.

I also prefer Rebellion to the other two series, but that probably has a lot to do with the fact that Liliana is my favourite character and Luna-Luna's ridiculous outfit which would make me collapse into fits of giggles whenever she appeared.

Echo_City wrote:

[ Is there some rule that says that you can talk about the raunchiest of material, admitting that you watched it, without harming your "reputation" as long as you call out the work for being "misogynistic" first, like how Peter Griffen in Family Guy was able to get away with, ahem, things by claiming to be mentally handicapped? I ask because that is the only reason that I can think of as for why Mike Toole insisted on calling attention to his view of this series before getting the article under weigh.

Actually, I'm fairly certain he was being sarcastic, pointing out the expectation so many people have on this site that all the reviewers are immediately dismissive of any series built on fanservice. In reality there's a wide range of views bout ecchi shows on this webpage, and not everybody agrees on everything.

Quote:

Also, misuse of "misogyny". There was a fun "discussion" of that in this thread: animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2689562&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15

Misogyny means "hatred of women" the way that homophobia means "scared of gay people" -- i.e. etymologically. "Misogyny" has long been used to refer to particularly virulent sexism that holds women as inferior to men, only there to be objectified sexually or to be rescued by a strong hero.

I have no idea whether Queen's Blade would qualify as that extreme because I haven't seen it, and I wish people would pay less attention to fringe cheesecake shows and a little more to how men are almost always better and stronger in mainstream series like Bleach, or when "smart girls are unappealing" gets explicitly preached like in Bakuman, or when hundreds of series, particularly ones aimed at women, paint rape as okay so long the rapist "loves" their victim. That's way worse in the long run than a few fanboys getting horny to girls in skimpy armor.

The thing is, in QB, it's the women who are the strong capable fighters. It's not sexist in that way. It's in on the joke (there's a bit in season 2 where the bizarre and sexually suggestive poses done by one character as part of her fighting style are viewed by the rest of the cast as bizarre and stupid). It's a lot different than say, the women in Bleach being ineffectual.

I haven't seen Vanquished Queens yet, but I don't think I's enjoy it one bit. It sounds too serious, as if it's missing the point in favor of torture fetishism.

I have to give this series credit. When I watched the first few episodes I thought I had lost most of my interest in fan service shows, but QB made me realize it wasn't so much the fan service as it was the boring male leads in most of those shows that had grown stale for me. Not having such a character helped a lot here.

Also, I'm glad Mike mentioned the soundtrack that came with Rebellion. I was rather disappointed that it turned out to only be background music for the show, especially since most of it wasn't that good, and seemed like a step down from the music of the first couple seasons. I suppose Sentai either couldn't get the rights to the theme songs, or the price was too high. Something similar happened with Dusk Maiden of Amnesia where the soundtrack didn't have the opening, but at least it had the ending. But, it's not like I wasn't going to buy the set anyway, so there isn't any real harm done.

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