Queen’s Blade is back after a year long absence. Even though the return may be short lived, it’s nice to see that this franchise isn’t quite dead just yet.
This project was initially announced last April with the expectation of a Fall 2015 release. Nothing else was heard again until just recently, with the project now being a part of the Winter 2016 season.
It seems that production itself will be by a small company called FORTES. They have done just a small handful of assistant animation work in the past and never before has they acted as the main animation group for a project. It’s worth noting that they have assisted many erotic anime and hentai in the past.
What’s more interesting is the crew is basically a reunion tour of the staff that produced Queen’s Blade I and Queen’s Blade II . Almost everyone who was involved in a key role with those two early seasons is back, and that might explain why the animation quality in the PV appears to be much higher quality than it was in Vanquished Queens or Rebellion .
Some of the cast members were announced as well. Probably the most interesting name was Yoko Hikasa (Rias Gremory in DxD) as Monkey Necromancer Seiten (the purple haired twintail with the staff).
Grimoire will have two releases, and if the trend remains the same from Vanquished Queens , then we can probably expect one episode per release. The first of two Queen’s Blade: Grimoire OVA will be released on January 29, 2016. It’s not yet known when the second release will happen, but late 2016 feels like a safe bet.
