When power corrupts, the fallout is wide and far, and bouncy.
What They Say:
The Queen’s Blade tournament may be over, but the stories of the feisty feminine fighters continue in a scintillating collection of bodice-ripping, chest heaving yarns that will leave you breathless! First, the surviving sword maidens scatter across the lands seeking fame and fortune! With that additional exposure, however, come new dangers: witches, tentacle monsters, and even each other! Then, when the once-noble Queen Claudette’s ways seem to have turned to oppression and persecution, a new generation of warriors must take up their naked blades! Baring their fury in open rebellion, an unprecedented force of femme fatales come together with the goal of stripping the evil queen from her throne! If a heart of gold lurks in the breast of the noblest warriors, prepare to bear witness to a treasure trove of improbable magnitude!
Queen’s Blade Rebel Warriors Collection contains anime episodes 1-12 of Queen’s Blade: Rebellion and OVA episodes 1-6.
The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this series is standard fare here but nicely done as we get the original Japanese language in stereo as well as the English language dub, produced by NYAV Post, both of which are encoded using the DTS-HD MA lossless codec. The series isn’t exactly dialogue-heavy in a way, but there’s a good bit throughout and it’s generally well handled as there are some fun areas of it with placement as the characters flit about. With the action side of it, that stands out a bit more with some good depth to it as it flows and some decent impact as well. The various kinds of weapons and attacks used to provide for some variety to the sound effects and it works well here in a very clear and distinct way. Dialogue is clean and clear throughout and we had no problems with dropouts or distortions during regular playback.
Video:
Originally airing in 2012, the transfer for this twelve-episode TV series is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 in 1080p using the AVC codec. The show is spread across two discs with nine on the first and three on the second. The third disc has the six-episode OVA series that was originally released in late 2010 and early 2011. Animated by ARMS, there’s a lot to like here as the colors have some great pop to them and are pretty much solid throughout with little in the way of noise or any breakup. The series has a lot of different colors working throughout it, even just for skin tone, but it has a good hue here and definitely is appealing. Details are strong and clean without any breakup as well, making for some good costume design and plenty of clothing-ripping moments to come across in an engaging way. The show definitely works the vibrancy right when it needs to and there are areas where it really is quite fluid and active that are beautifully captured.
Packaging:
The packaging for this release comes in a standard-sized Blu-ray case that holds the two Blu-ray discs on a hinge and the third against the back wall. The front cover does some good work here as we get the logo through the middle while above and below are three blocks where we get individual character artwork on the illustration side. Each is wonderfully detailed and colored so it stands out really well and is eye-catching. The back cover is a bit simpler as it’s given over to a huge amount of text overall. With a black background, we get white text on it to showcase the basic storyline that’s fairly wordy. The top breaks down how the three-disc set is spread out and what other sets it’s built from, and we get a decent selection of shots from the show as well. The bottom third is all standard fare design material with the production credits and a technical grid that lists everything clearly. No show-related inserts are included nor is there a reversible cover.
Menu:
The menu design for the release works off of the standard templates that Sentai uses and is nicely tied in-theme to make it work well. The left side features the standard episode navigation by title and number, which also doubles as the pop-up menu, making it quick and easy to see where you are during playback and to access on the fly. That all takes up just under a third of it while the rest uses some character artwork, the first volume with Shigi for example, that takes up the rest with a bit of the map. Submenus load quickly, and this is particularly useful on the second disc where all the extras are. Language selection is a breeze even if it defaults to English with sign/song subtitles.
Extras:
This release comes with a pretty good chunk of extras that will definitely make it a lot more fun for the heavy enthusiast, though some of it may not be all that engaging for the casual fan. Or the fan that just wants the fanservice. For the TV series, the big extra is the inclusion of several audio dramas, which run about ten minutes each, and add up as there are six of them. These are fun little fluffy pieces with the actresses just playing the roles without animation and Sentai has done it up with a simple border and black screen with the subtitles playing through the middle. More interesting are the six omake episodes, which clocks in at under four minutes each, that push the boundaries of the TV show with its sexuality and silliness, though your mileage may vary. Also included are the always welcome clean opening and closing sequences which we get for both the TV series and the OVA series.
While I hate to label a series a guilty pleasure, because I feel no guilt in watching a series that gives me pleasure, Queen’s Blade: Rebellion is certainly one of those. The whole point of the show is, in the end, to sell more figures, statues, and merchandise related to the Hobby Japan property. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Gundam is essentially the same, but they’ve had a lot more material to work with and have, at times, elevated the work in a great way to be something meaningful. Queen’s Blade is not meaningful. That doesn’t mean it’s not fun though and that’s what I kept finding with this season when I watched the simulcast and as I rewatched it here in marathon form. It’s light, fluffy, and doesn’t always explain itself well, and I’ll be buggered if I can find a character that I can connect with, but it swings the sword, shakes the booty, and has some good bouncy action with a bit of erotica that sometimes feels even tamer than the previous season.
What we do see throughout this season that follows what came before in the Exiled Virgin series in that while the world is getting better for most people now that Claudette is queen, there are still a whole lot of women out there that want to fight. But this is problematic as she has closed down the Queen’s Blade competition and removed that option from your average warrior. So we do have a lot of people out in the lands and it’s pretty fun and creative with the costumes that are quite varied, much as seasons past, and the skimpy level of some of them. One of them even has her chest bared for awhile but with pink starfish covering the nipples so they can show all of her chest. Others that don’t have that get the White Blur of Doom applied to them which covers up sizable tracts of land. At this point though, because of the way the show is organized, nobody really stands out in a big way in terms of who they are, just in their designs and their combat ability. Which is par for the course for the franchise as it should thin the ranks a bit soon and focus on more of the cast individually.
With this kind of world as the backdrop, we do get the sense of unease that’s out there, but it really only comes through with a few characters. In fact, one of the big plot points about the evil creeping across the land doesn’t really get mentioned until the last couple of episodes, undercutting a central reason for the larger fight that’s going on here and why. With Claudette in the shadows, we don’t even get her saying all that much and showing what kind of ruler she is. Instead, we see most of the problems being created by Ymir, the Iron Strategist, as she rallies different people to her cause by manipulation and works them against the ostensible lead character of the series, Annalotte. Ymir is fun to watch because she does the manipulation well and of course there are some pretty sexual moments for it as well, especially with the hyper vibration armor she creates for Mirim that uses her excited mode to achieve greater skill. But even in this, Ymir’s motivations aren’t really that clear for most of it and she becomes a one-dimensional villain instead of something more interesting.
As the series lead, Annalotte doesn’t fare much better, which is really unfortunate. Because of the nature of the show and the way it has such a large cast, she ends up going through a lot of different places in her quest to get to the castle and question the Queen about things, and that means most episodes introduce some new person or team. And from there, they often end up rallying behind her to different degrees as they realize the rightness of her cause and her general righteousness, something that confuses Ymir as she can’t understand why Annalotte is able to cause this among people. Annalotte, for her part, does have the most complexity and depth, again done sparingly throughout the series in order to build the full, and while she can spend a lot of an episode off screen, she is the standard type of character that you can experience the world through.
But really, the show is all about bringing in the different characters, letting them have their fun with their quirks and gimmicks, doing some fighting or letting them be all sexual, and moving on to the next pairing. Some of these are just weird but strangely alluring, such as Luna Luna who has two personalities and two looks depending on who is in control. Her outfit is damn strange as is her land and customs, but it brings a kind of wildness to things. Mirim is the complete opposite in that she’s young and cute and under Ymir’s control while trying to do the right thing all while stumbling through her life. The kind of the middle area is figured out by Shigi, the Inquisitor, who is doing the work of the Queen but continually finds herself struggling as she realizes that the rightness of her service is being done in the service of someone who doesn’t deserve it. But he, she has the Holy Pose and straddles her sword in order to win fights. She can do whatever she wants.
OVAs:
The Beautiful Warrior six-episode OVA series was released over a few months before the TV series came out and serves to show us events leading up to the TV series itself and then moving forward from there. This show is all about the smaller moments with mostly standalone stories, though there are a few minor areas where some interconnectedness comes in. Largely though, you get to focus on a few of the combatants and just enjoy the sexy time with them being mostly in various states of undress.
With this being a prologue for the Rebellion series, there aren’t any real surprises here. Taking place after the recent Queen’s Blade event, the various combatants are making their way to different places and coping with the fallout from it. There are some hints at what’s to come in a few areas, but mostly it’s a little place setting and some stage dressing to have fun with things as the women are all accosted in different ways, or just find some downtime to enjoy being less clothed than usual. The opening episode has Elina in chains hanging in the fortress as Echidna torments her while Elina waits for Leina to come and save her. It’s actually a bit interesting for some of this as it goes into Elina’s childhood and the issues with Leina over the years that have made Elina really, really love her sister and want to be with her. We also get the fun of Echidna using her snake to “tickle” Elina in her most private of places to make a point. As a character-building episode, there’s some fun to it. But mostly we get Elina hanging naked, being tormented and later playing at lots of silly naked time with Leina. So yeah, it’s a good episode.
From there, we get some other material that spends time with Nowa and Alleyne as they continue to travel back to the forest as Nowa knows she belongs there, but ends up enjoying the long route that Alleyne takes. There’s obviously an affection there, more from one side than the other, but it mostly just gets to be a playful episode before the action hits with a threat from Nyx. The fun here is just in watching our elfen ladies enjoy the beachside events such as volleyball and splashing about while wearing bikinis made of leaves that are very appropriately designed and hold together very, very well. It’s not a rich episode by any means, and these are two of my least favorite characters, but there’s plenty of lighthearted fun in a lot of it to make it serviceable in the least.
A lot of where the remaining episodes go, outside of the finale, is in dealing with Airi and Melona. Melona by her very design is a hard one to take since she’s pretty much naked most of the time and utterly playful in her service to the Swamp Witch. With Airi trying to figure out her own place in things after the recent events, we see her struggling with what to do and how to align herself with her wraith past while also wanting to serve. The two have some comical adventures together, including a stint with Menace along the way where they try to recruit her to the Swamp Witches side in order to gain more power so she can revive her country. That has a lot of fun as Melona and Menace have some decent fighting skills and styles, but it also slides in a piece of strange action where a merchant in Menace’s land wants to design figures based on the Queen’s Blade participants and we get some commentary about that.
One of the more interesting episodes involves Nanael, our little angel up in heaven, who continues to do things poorly when you get down to it. She’s screwed up so badly that the Head Angel has decided it’s her time to go to hell to atone for what she’s done. Hachiel can’t help her this time, but as Nanael is sent downward, we get a comical sequence as Melona and Airi end up rescuing her for their own plans to use her. It’s all a plan within a plan and there’s a lot of fun here as Nanael completely takes advantage of her fallen angel status, even without any real powers associated with it, and sets her own goals to establish some power and position for herself. Watching as she totally gets into harem mode while Airi and Melona watch is great since they’re not quite sure what to make of it. It’s definitely one of my favorite episodes on the release.
In Summary:
I’m a big fan of the Queen’s Blade world overall and really liked what I’ve seen before of it, but I just wish it had a better set of writers to it in order to really do the right kind of worldbuilding and storytelling. It works with the idea of the world succumbing slowly to madness and evil, but it doesn’t show us a lot of this throughout and doesn’t even really explain it. Instead, it’s a roadtrip for Annalotte with Ymir providing a parallel track as she works to stop her. Each adds to their ranks along the way – and they do swell (ho ho ho) – but there’s also no characters that you really get drawn to because of their character. I have plenty that I like for the visuals, the quirks and their attacks, but not because of who they are or their personalities. There’s not much soul to Queen’s Blade Rebellion, but there is a lot of fun and it does excel there, making it an enjoyable romp that could have been more but didn’t want to try. This edition does a solid job of combining material that should be together and gets us a little closer to someday having a bigger box to hold the whole thing. It looks great, hits the right fanservice notes, and swings its swords, and delivers its magic in a very fun way more often than not.
Features:
Japanese DTS-HD MA 2.0 Language, English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Language, English Subtitles, Audio Dramas, Queen’s Blade Omake, Clean Opening Animation, Clean Closing Animation
Content Grade: B
Audio Grade: B+
Video Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: A
Menu Grade: B+
Extras Grade: A-
Released By: Sentai Filmworks
Release Date: June 16th, 2021
MSRP: $79.98
Running Time: 480 Minutes
Video Encoding: 1080p AVC
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Widescreen
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P 3D HDTV, Sony PlayStation 3 via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
