I hate Vanquished Queens. Because of it, my interest in Queen's Blade has been in a steady decline mainly due to VQ being the worst form QB could take other than a harem anime. I find the focus on defeat, embarrassment, and torture (all while escalating QB's ecchi style to a borderline hentai one) to just be a huge step in the wrong direction for QB, which used to be quite impressive for how it mixed together ecchi with great characters and story arcs.
I'll give VQ a little credit, as it does still try to give the characters story arcs, but, imo, the execution is way too grim, and clashes heavily with the tone of the previous series. Sure, there were grim characters like Nowa and Branwen, but their story arcs never reached a VQ level of grim.
And with Vanquished Queens going into its 3rd book and 4th OVA now, it looks like I won't see a return to the Queen's Blade I enjoyed so much any time soon; which is a real shame. I hope VQ ends soon, so that a second Rebellion season can begin, or maybe a Grimoire series. Just something to get me back into the series again.
The VQ books are probably the part of the Queen's Blade series that's most true to the ideals behind the series; that is, they take the blatant sexuality of the characters - which are normally kept shockingly meta-character in their presentation - and make them have an in-narrative presence. Seeing the semi-erotic fates of the defeated Beautiful Fighters is Queen's Blade at its most honest.
Insofar as the anime goes, it seems to have done an adequate job of trying to keep the quasi-sexual nature of what happens to the defeated characters. However, it's insistence on having happy endings to their trials - likely because the anime seems to want to keep everything in continuity, whereas the printed materials feel no such constraints - undercuts the entire premise of the work. These Beautiful Fighters can't be called "vanquished" if they're overcoming relatively minor setbacks, after all. Doing so gets away from the spirit of the original VQ books, which sort of defeats the entire purpose.
I suspect that this is why the newest OVAs have started supplying two endings; a "true" ending where a given Beautiful Fighter overcomes her trials and cotinues on her way, none the worse for where...and one where she's truly vanquished, usually to be kept as some sort of pet by her captor.
Neclord X - 10 years ago
If we are talking about the books, I love them if we are talking about the anime I hate it, since the first PV was obvious the anime would be a fail, but didnt expect it to be so bad they didnt get the spirit of the books at all, may be the first ova did a bit, but the rest...
Blitzgob - 10 years ago
Is this poll about Vanquished Queen books or anime?
'cause the VQ 3 OAV was such disapointing compared to the first one...
I hate Vanquished Queens. Because of it, my interest in Queen's Blade has been in a steady decline mainly due to VQ being the worst form QB could take other than a harem anime. I find the focus on defeat, embarrassment, and torture (all while escalating QB's ecchi style to a borderline hentai one) to just be a huge step in the wrong direction for QB, which used to be quite impressive for how it mixed together ecchi with great characters and story arcs.
I'll give VQ a little credit, as it does still try to give the characters story arcs, but, imo, the execution is way too grim, and clashes heavily with the tone of the previous series. Sure, there were grim characters like Nowa and Branwen, but their story arcs never reached a VQ level of grim.
And with Vanquished Queens going into its 3rd book and 4th OVA now, it looks like I won't see a return to the Queen's Blade I enjoyed so much any time soon; which is a real shame. I hope VQ ends soon, so that a second Rebellion season can begin, or maybe a Grimoire series. Just something to get me back into the series again.
The VQ books are probably the part of the Queen's Blade series that's most true to the ideals behind the series; that is, they take the blatant sexuality of the characters - which are normally kept shockingly meta-character in their presentation - and make them have an in-narrative presence. Seeing the semi-erotic fates of the defeated Beautiful Fighters is Queen's Blade at its most honest.
Insofar as the anime goes, it seems to have done an adequate job of trying to keep the quasi-sexual nature of what happens to the defeated characters. However, it's insistence on having happy endings to their trials - likely because the anime seems to want to keep everything in continuity, whereas the printed materials feel no such constraints - undercuts the entire premise of the work. These Beautiful Fighters can't be called "vanquished" if they're overcoming relatively minor setbacks, after all. Doing so gets away from the spirit of the original VQ books, which sort of defeats the entire purpose.
I suspect that this is why the newest OVAs have started supplying two endings; a "true" ending where a given Beautiful Fighter overcomes her trials and cotinues on her way, none the worse for where...and one where she's truly vanquished, usually to be kept as some sort of pet by her captor.
If we are talking about the books, I love them if we are talking about the anime I hate it, since the first PV was obvious the anime would be a fail, but didnt expect it to be so bad they didnt get the spirit of the books at all, may be the first ova did a bit, but the rest...
Is this poll about Vanquished Queen books or anime?
'cause the VQ 3 OAV was such disapointing compared to the first one...