A Woman’s Conflicted Feelings About “Queen’s Blade”

From early on it's clear that the creators of the series actually cared for many of the characters because, even aside from their chest sizes, many of them are fairly well-developed and despite how tacky the proceedings might be, it's still easy to root for them.  Reina and Tomoyo, as the two leads, are obvious examples, but even secondary characters are provided with more back story and motivation than I've seen in series that are more critically well-received.  Claudette Vance, the black sheep of the royal family, initially battles to gain her father's support but eventually decides to support the institution of the Queen's Blade tournament.  Her story arc, conflict with Reina, and internal conflict regarding her loyalties plays-out during much of both seasons. Cattleya, she of the intimidating chest size, is a loving mother to her son and, in addition to competing in Queen's Blade tournament, is also an accomplished blacksmith in the midst of searching for her lost husband.  Even Airi, demonic servant of the Swamp Witch (a secondary evil in the series) gains a bit of a sympathetic edge when she rescues Cattleya's son after she's defeated by Queen Aldra and takes him under her wing.

There are also a lot of positively-portrayed and/or complicated relationships between the women in the series. There are multiple incarnations of the mentor-student dynamic, including Echidna and her former student Irma (which helps to shed a bit of light on Echidna's training of Reina late in the first season, as well as making it quite clear that Echidna has a sexual interest in many women), as well as the two elf characters who, coincidentally, end up in a dual-duel with Echidna and Irma during the tournament as a test of being able to work together. Reina's admiration of Risty, the desert bandit, plays a large role in her drive to become a better warrior, and this relationship takes on a more complicated role in the second season, when Risty falls under the Queen's malevolent influence.  I appreciate the fact that the women aren't all catty rivals of each other; oftentimes they strive to better themselves because of a sense of duty to other characters. And despite the very close nature of these relationships, there is surprisingly little yuri subtext to put up with (although it does exist and Echidna is often portrayed as a predatory lesbian).

The fanservice, though abundant and ultimately deal-breaking, is admittedly of a decidedly different flavor than that of most series, and I think one of the main reasons it feels this way is that much of the nudity the characters exhibit, either through battle damage or other means, is portrayed without shame on their part.  This isn't universal, but it almost seems so at certain points. Even Tomoe, who I believe comments on the lack of clothing most of the other participants wear at one point while she wears a very modest shrine-maiden outfit, manages to avoid the comedic "blush and scream" reaction when violently disrobed that seems to occur regularly in other ecchi anime. I've decided that this is probably due to a few factors.  First of all, the show isn't mainly a comedy, though it does contain a few humorous situations. Secondly, and I think this is probably more important, there are very few in-universe male characters who might potentially react to the sight of a nude woman (in fact, I can think of only two - Count Vance, father to Reina, Claudette and Elina, and Owen, Cattleya's Husband, and neither fill the "useless ecchi comedy guy" role).  There is no surrogate for the male viewer in the show and so the extremity of the sexual nature of the nudity is up to the viewer to interpret, except in the few moments where same-sex attraction is obvious.  In short, most of the time many of the characters seem unaware of or unfazed by their own nudity, and there are no lecherous male characters present to reinforce or inform their reactions.  In fact, Reina deals the finishing blows to the enemy in the final act while wearing nothing but a thong and, to me at least, it wasn't that distracting. Or at the very least I had seen her boobs so often at that point that I was immune to them.

Despite having multiple positive aspects, the show sabotages its credibility often enough that I found myself getting increasingly frustrated with what I saw as unnecessary pandering.  I realize that the show is billed partly on the frequency and grandiosity of its fanservice and it would have been stupid of me to go in and expect there to be a complete lack of nudity and convenient camera-placement.  I think what really bothered me was the increasingly fetishistic nature of the characters and situations.  I think that Cattleya was an admirable and likeable character, but her breasts are not only unrealistic, they're grotesque and probably impossible naturally without the aid of surgery; this complete indulgence of the oppai fetish was obvious, distracting and it made the character design seem completely awkward rather than attractive. One of the new characters, Nyx, powers up by being tentacle-raped by her living magical staff. Elina has an obnoxious sister-complex that is played up to the point of discomfort.  Melona shoots acidic milk from her breasts.  It's almost as if, each time the show gains an ounce of respectability, either through some unexpected moment of character development, some good visual direction (surprisingly, this is fairly frequent) or a great piece of music from its orchestral soundtrack, it has to sabotage itself before the audience thinks that it might be aiming too high.

It's especially disappointing when you meet characters like Claudette, an accomplished and respected general with power to spare, or Tomoe, a humble and modest warrior with abundant inner strength, who are then stripped down to their bare skin with the camera focused on their breasts - while I elaborated earlier upon the different feel to the fanservice in this series and how the characters' reactions to their own state of dress (or undress) often has them feeling unashamed or even unaware of their nudity, in the grand scheme of things I can't help but interpret these scenes as acts by the creators and directors to minimize the perception of threat from powerful female characters.  Despite their combat abilities, their physical and mental strength and their agency, the producers can flip a switch and turn them into sexual objects, and it's this knowledge that hung over my head the entire time to various degrees while watching the show.  It's knowledge that looms in the background while watching any fanservice-heavy series, it's just made all the more disappointing this time around because I felt like so many of the characters were people worth knowing. This type of character sabotage just elaborates on the fact that the creators didn't agree that a story could be built on their merits alone despite the care with which many of them were developed.

If I had the means to do so, I'd like to take the characters and the story and set them loose in an environment where clothes don't explode off of women's bodies at the first strike of a sword.  It's not as if it can't be done - Claymore is a fantasy series (albeit a very dark one) where the cast is mainly female and the last thing on the viewer's mind is sex.  But Queen's Blade wouldn't necessarily have to even tread a darker path in order to "make up" for the loss of it's trademark fanservice.  There is the seed of a solid story there and the characters are overall very likeable people; with the right amount of nurturing the show could be great without all the pandering.  What ultimately kills the show for me is that the creators just don't have the confidence in the franchise to go that route. It almost makes me wish that the characterization and the story had been tragically terrible so that I wouldn't be faced with so many mixed feelings.