Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Queen's Blade 2: The Evil Eye - Complete Series Blu-ray Movie Review

They're baaack. And also, their fronts!

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 27, 2011

Can there really be such a thing as a “happy accident” in animation? The era of the director commentary on home theater DVD and Blu-ray releases have seen a glut of statements about how this shot or that shot (in live action films of course) just kind of happened due to the vagaries of fate. A gorgeous glint of sunrise was caught peeking over the ocean’s horizon. An actor who couldn’t remember the correct line came up with something much more brilliant on the spot and it was kept in the final cut of the film. But animation, and its Eastern cousin anime, are different ani-mals entirely, since so much planning has to go into pre-production with regard to storyboards, initial line drawings, in- betweening and everything else that contributes to the final product. Whether hand drawn or assisted by the superpowered ways of today’s computers, it doesn’t seem possible that things can “just sort of happen” in animated fare, at least not in the same way that they seem to fairly regularly in live action films. And so one must come to the conclusion that the really stupendously varied shots of women’s breasts and crotches that fill up great swaths of the Queen’s Blade series had to have been meticulously thought out. How else to explain such fantastic (if just slightly laugh provoking) framings as a sort of Roman amphitheater, a place of battle, seen through the spread legs of a curvaceous female, a shot which gives ample display of both her posterior and her more private areas? How else to explain the seemingly nonstop array of heaving, jiggling bosoms that seem to become almost totemic after a while, characters in their own right that are frequently mentioned by the various combatants trying to assume the title of Queen, as if this were a bizarre world version of either Queen for a Day or a beauty pageant a la Miss America or Miss Universe, where the “talent” might be battle but the “swimsuit” competition is all about the cleavage? The mere fact that such questions even occur points up the central issue with Queen’s Blade, which is that despite its best efforts to cram a little character and story into its proceedings, it ultimately is all about the pulchritude.

There actually is a story to Queen’s Blade, one that is perhaps almost insanely complex (at least with regard to the sheer number of characters if not to the actual plot), which I dealt with in fairly general terms in my review of the first season of the series, which can be accessed here. Putting aside for a moment the dialectic between style and content, which was also a main focus of the first season review, the fact is there is a lot of content here, made completely obvious by the kind of humorous attempts of the writers to bring the audience up to speed as the second season, subtitled The Evil Eye for this stateside release, gets underway. What that means is that each character is (re)introduced with supposedly “casual” conversation which always identifies them and offers several salient facts about them which is obviously meant to anchor the audience in a quick understanding of what’s going on. It actually gets funny after a while, as it’s so patently artificial.

Be that as it may, and despite its seeming “cast of thousands”, Queen’s Blade 2: The Evil Eye largely boils down to three characters: Nanael, the kind of accident prone little sprite who in the first episode is “assigned” by the Head Angel to infiltrate the Queen’s Blade competition as a combatant; Queen Aldra, the current denizen of the throne who seems to be under the sway of some sort of nefarious influence; and Leina, the Wandering Warrior whose journey to the Queen’s Blade tournament was also the focus of the first season of the show. It’s not really a spoiler to mention that everything works fairly seamlessly toward a final showdown between Aldra and Leina, with various supporting characters’ arcs playing tangential roles along the way, but what might be at least a little surprising to some viewers is the kind of nice denouement offered several of these women (and the few men involved in the series), a denouement which sets several on paths of reunion with lost family members and the like. Also, the putative villain of the piece turns out to be at least something of a surprise, and we find out that a character we thought of as evil really isn’t all that bad, it’s just the demonic force inhabiting that character, that’s all.

Which brings us to the style of Queen’s Blade, which is ultimately where this series excels, and stupendously so. This is one of the most gorgeously animated series in recent memory, whether or not you’re an amorous young male or not. The care and precision devoted to character and background here is more often than not astounding, and this season also offers a bit more CGI than the first, mostly devoted to some of the supernatural aspects of the series. But even “standard” backgrounds, like the pale purple pastels of Heaven with their glittering array of fairy dust, sparkle and shine and always present the viewer with a lot to look at. As if breasts and crotches weren’t enough.

Queen's Blade 2: The Evil Eye - Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Say what you will about Queen's Blade in general, and Queen's Blade 2: The Evil Eye in particular, there is no denying the beauty of the animation of this series, and as with the first season, this new two disc set on Blu-ray offers stunning video quality courtesy of an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Line detail is sharp as a tack, colors are bold and often resplendent, and as I mentioned in the main body of the review, this season also benefits from more consistent use of CGI, which lends several sequences a really finely wrought display of very cool looking "supernatural" effects. Motion is completely fluid, and even the more impressionistic backgrounds pop quite nicely throughout the series' twelve episodes.

Queen's Blade 2: The Evil Eye - Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As with the first season of Queen's Blade, Queen's Blade 2: The Evil Eye is presented with two lossless audio options, the original Japanese language track delivered via a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix, and a very good English dub, also delivered courtesy of a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix. Surround sound enthusiasts will no doubt wonder why a 5.1 remix in English wasn't presented here, especially considering the series' many battle elements, but if taken on their own merits, both of these stereo tracks get the job done, albeit across an obviously narrow soundstage. Fidelity is excellent on both of these tracks, though to my ears the English mix has just a bit more highs than the Japanese track does. Otherwise, they're virtually identical in terms of levels and supporting effects and music. Dynamic range is also superb throughout the series and dialogue is always crisp and well prioritized in both languages.

Queen's Blade 2: The Evil Eye - Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• OVA Episodes 7 – 9 (HD; 9:12) presents three more brief vignettes, this time subtitled "Gynos Academy Gone Wild!", which should give some indication of their content.
• OVA Episodes 10 – 12 (HD; 8:40) offers more of the same breast-obsessed shorts.
• Textless On-Air Endings (HD; 4:36), It would have been a nice touch to have included optional English subtitles to translate the spoken elements included here.
• Textless Opening (HD; 1:32)
• Textless Endings (HD; 4:36)
• Promotional Video (HD; 1:41)
• Commercial Clips (HD; 00:34)
• Anime Festival Event (HD; 22:25) is a sort of Comic-Con sitdown from September 2007 with several of the Japanese voice cast.

Queen's Blade 2: The Evil Eye - Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

In my review of the first season of Queen's Blade, I mentioned the fine line between hentai and "mere" fan service. That line is probably finer than ever in this second season, which offers everything from full frontal nudity to crotch shots which leave little (if anything) to the imagination. Counterbalancing that approach, though, is the undeniably excellent animation style that Queen's Blade exhibits, something that less provocative animes would do well to emulate. This is a series where virtually every frame is full to bursting (and not just the bosoms) with excellent detail and gorgeously rendered characters and backgrounds. While this is most definitely not a show for younger viewers, those with a more liberal tolerance for the naked female form might be pleasantly surprised at how much they end up enjoying Queen's Blade from a solely visual aspect if not from any other perspective.