6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Anime | 100% |
Foreign | 94% |
Action | 32% |
Erotic | 25% |
Fantasy | 22% |
Adventure | 6% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Japanese: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
The world of anime is a self-contained universe that has its own vocabulary which seems positively foreign to outsiders. There are far too many anime-centric terms to ever discuss completely in a review such as this, so today we’ll focus on two somewhat related terms and their implications, at least with regard to the series which is the focus of this review, Queen’s Blade. The first term is hentai, a word which in Japanese more or less refers to sexual perversion but which in its Westernized usage has come to mean animated porn. The second term is fan service, one of my personal favorites, at least with regard to euphemisms whose actual meaning can’t be instantly gleaned from the terminology itself. ‘Fan service’ refers to what might be considered “soft porn,” or at the very least sexually charged, imagery which dots any number of anime offerings. These images might be things along the lines of long, lingering shots of ample busoms, or long, lingering shots of panties, or even the occasional (or more than occasional) scantily clad or even semi-nude female form. When is any given offering hentai and when is it “just” fan service? That seems to be somewhat akin to the Supreme Court’s definition of obscenity, which basically boils down to “I can’t say what it is, but I know it when I see it.” Some people are going to see Queen’s Blade as nothing more than a perhaps overly aggressive form of fan service, while others, perhaps more conservative if not overly prudish in their proclivities, may be shocked and appalled at the lasciviousness almost constantly on display in this series and will in fact probably consider themselves being charitable by terming Queen’s Blade “only” hentai.
Queen's Blade bounces onto Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This may just be my love of the naked female form showing, but this Blu-ray is rather incredible looking quite a bit of the time. But enough about the naked breast quotient. The image quality is actually one of the major reasons Queen's Blade can't just be dismissed as low rent hentai or fan service. There has been a lot of care devoted to the character designs and environments, and they're shown off to great advantage on this Blu-ray, with exceptionally sharp line detail and beautifully varied color. While there may not be anything especially innovative in the overall design aesthetic of Queen's Blade, save for perhaps the almost fetishistic emphasis on boobs, the series looks great, with clean and appealing lines and some really gorgeous backgrounds. The last few episodes (especially the final one) also have some great looking CGI elements which are blended into the hand drawn elements with a surprising amount of skill.
Queen's Blade offers two lossless stereo tracks, both DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mixes, one in the original Japanese and the other an English dub. Both of these tracks are virtually identical in terms of amplitude, fidelity and overall mix, though this is one case where not only purists may want to stick with the original Japanese language track. At least a couple of the English voice actors are downright annoying, with gravelly, squeaky or otherwise less than appealing voices. The Japanese language track also has greater variety of voice approaches overall. That said, however, both tracks offer great balance between dialogue, score and effects and both offer some appealing LFE, especially in the many battle sequences. Dynamic range is also quite strong throughout the series.
I'm not prudish in the slightest, but even I was a bit agog as Queen's Blade played out. Nipples shooting acid and lightning are outré enough, but when virtually every episode lingers on the nude female form for no other reason than—well, do you really need a reason when you get right down to it? That's the salient point to keep in mind about Queen's Blade: the plot doesn't matter, the pretty backgrounds don't matter, it's all about the naked (and/or semi-naked) girls. Pretending otherwise would be somewhat akin to insisting you're subscribing to Playboy for the articles, and we all know how that plays out with various authority figures. While I can't come right out and recommend this series to everyone without reservation, I can say it's gorgeously animated, it features some passably interesting characters, and it offers ample opportunity to appreciate pulchritude. That must count for something somewhere.
2009
2012
2011
2010-2011
2010
Essentials
2011
Limited Edition
2010
2010-2011
Asobi ni Iku yo! / Essentials
2010-2011
2008-2009
2009
Anime Classics
2008-2009
Director's Cut / マルドゥック・スクランブル 燃焼
2011
2012
2010
S.A.V.E.
2010
2015-2016
S.A.V.E. | Tokyo Revelations / Spring Thunder
2007-2009
Collector's Edition | 獣兵衛忍風帖 | Jūbei Ninpūchō
1993
2017