Queen’s Blade – Rurou no Senshi fanservice compilation

Based on a “choose your own adventure” styled gamebook of the same name, Queen’s Blade debuted to great fanfare in 2009- mainly because of the seiyuu cast, arguably the most star-studded cast of all time for any anime TV series.

 

Torrent.  Seeders needed!

DDL [1080p]:  part1, part2

DDL [720p]:  part1, part2

 

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Production Company:  ARMS

Vintage:  Spring 2009

Notable Seiyuu: Rie KugimiyaEri KitamuraRie Tanaka, Aya Hirano, Kanae Itō, Ayako Kawasumi, Mamiko Noto, Kaori Mizuhashi

 

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Though initially hyped by anime fans, their excitement quickly turned to disgust when the first episode revealed just how far Queen’s Blade would take things.  I think the term “borderline hentai” is overused, but when the revered Rie Kugimiya is voicing a character who shoots clothes melting milk out of her fully exposed, gigantic tits, that was bound to shock people, especially those who saw the cast and were expecting a mainstream anime.

Eri Kitamura is very talented.  She might be the only VA that could pull off Rin Kokonoe from Kodomo no Jikan the way she did.  Like Kugimiya, she has plenty of talent to take any role and do it well, but she still ends up getting pigeonholed in her roles.  With Kugimiya, it’s tsundere and little boys.  With Kitamura, it’s vixens.  They cast her perfectly here as Alleyne.  Kitamura knows how to navigate between serious, emotional, playful, and matter of fact sluttiness, and she’s really good at them all.  Not only does her voice just “fit” the Alleyne character, but her versatility proves useful for a character that is mostly conservative, but when she isn’t, wow.

Rie Tanaka’s casting as Nyx seemed completely wrong, and yet somehow felt right.  Nyx’s character only exists to go deepthroat with her magic staff, an item which appears to have no other real purpose.  I wonder how thick a seiyuu’s skin has to be to work in that business.  There is no dignity in a role like that.  Especially for a respected star like Tanaka.  But just the same, she give us all her A-game in what might be the sluttiest non-hentai role of all time.

Aya Hirano isn’t my favorite actress, but I think she deserves more credit for her versatility.  Everyone thinks of her as Haruhi, but that was a long time ago now and she’s shown quite a bit of diversity in her roles.  She plays the angel character Nanael in Queen’s Blade, and also does the narration.  If her career really is all but done, I won’t shed a tear, but I do think her reputation (as a voice actor) is probably over-hated.

Kanae Ito really impressed me with her acting ability as the lead role (Ohana) in Hanasaku Iroha.  I really like her singing voice as well.  Despite all that talent, she’s no stranger whatsoever to nude ecchi series.  She plays the ghost-maid Airi here.  She’s also the main character (Erisu) from Asobi ni Iku Yo!, Nana from To Love-Ru, Sena in Haganai, Asuna from Softenni, as well as several notable roles in mainstream anime.

Ayako Kawasumi has been in quite a lot of ecchi too.  She plays the titular character, Leina here.  A (relatively) podgy female swordsman with big ta-tas, it’s hard not to draw an immediate comparison to her most famous role:  Saber from Fate/Stay Night and Fate Zero.  In other ecchi roles she’s played Aoi from Ai Yori Aoshi, she was Maharu in Girls Bravo, she was Chizuru from Kanokon, Tomomi from Ladies vs. Butlers, Mahoro from Mahoromatic,  Saki from To Love-Ru, Miyuri from Seikon no Qwaser.

Holy shit.  Not only is she in a ton of nude ecchi series, but she’s usually got the leading role.  If ever an ecchi Hall of Fame is erected, Ayako Kawasumi is a no doubter first ballot entry.

Mamiko Noto does her usual soft-spoken meek character type as the samurai girl Tomoe.  She’s been no stranger to ecchi as well.

Kaori Mizuhashi isn’t really a star, I just apreciate what she does.  She voices the spunky brat character Elina.  She also voiced Minami from Baka to Test.  Every now and then she veers into “annoying” territory, but the rest of the time, I think she’s great.

Wow, that was a lot of talk on seiyuu, but I guess that’s inevitable for a show like this.

The fanservice was pretty extreme in Queen’s Blade.  I think there is a gulf between typical non-nude fanservice anime and hentai, but somewhere between those definitions is a line where material might be considered legit spank material.  Sometimes it’s really easy to tell when that line is crossed (Ladies vs. Bulters, Kanokon specials), other times it is more debatable.  I think in this case, the creators intended for Queen’s blade to straddle that line, and they did so successfully.  There isn’t much story in this show, but it does attempt to present a story.  At the same time, the fanservice is frequent enough and long enough in duration to work as softcore porn- especially if you edit a video to segment all of those sections together seamlessly.

Until recently, there wasn’t a ton of “softcore” in the world of animated porn.  You’re pretty much all in or nothing.  I think the surge in nude ecchi we’ve seen the last 5 years is an attempt to fill an empty niche.  Some of us like seeing naked girls in 2D, but don’t want to see all the grotesque and offensive things that come along with standard hentai (namely, rape and torture).  I think this video accomplishes the goal of something along the lines of softcore hentai.  I really enjoy making these videos, but it would be nice if someday my efforts were unnecessary.