is a Japanese series of visual combat books published by Hobby Japan inspired by the licensed works from Firelight Game Company's ''

Lost Worlds The lost world is a subgenre of the fantasy or science fiction genres that involves the discovery of an unknown Earth civilization. It began as a subgenre of the late- Victorian adventure romance and remains popular into the 21st century. The g ...

''. The overall plot of the game revolves around a tournament called the Queen's Blade, which is held once every four years to determine a Queen. Since its original release, the series has evolved into a

media franchise A media franchise, also known as a multimedia franchise, is a collection of related media in which several derivative works have been produced from an original creative work of fiction, such as a film, a work of literature, a television program ...

, spanning four

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is ...

adaptations, three

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

adaptations, three light novels, and a

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedba ...

adaptation. Figures of the characters made by various manufacturers, such as Kaiyodo with their

Revoltech is a Japanese company which manufactures figurines and garage kits. Its headquarters is in Kadoma, Osaka Prefecture.会社概要 ...

series, have also been produced along with several memorabilia. A sequel series, ''

Queen's Blade Rebellion is a series of visual combat books published by Hobby Japan. The sequel to '' Queen's Blade'', it features an all-new cast of characters, as well as reinterpretations of characters from the original series. Like ''Queen's Blade'' before i ...

'', was launched in 2009.

Story

In the Continent, a tournament called the Queen's Blade is held once every four years to determine the most beautiful and powerful Queen. Held in , the Queen's Capital, various fighters from all over the Continent travel to the Capital to defeat

Aldra Aldra is an island in the municipality of Lurøy in Nordland county, Norway. It is located just off the mainland coast, north of the village of Haugland and west of Brattland. The island is separated from the mainland by the Aldersundet. The ...

, the current Queen. The overall story of ''Queen's Blade'' focuses on Leina, the heiress of the esteemed Vance Family and next in line for the throne, as she travels to Gainos, encountering many other warriors also competing in the Queen's Blade for their own intentions. The original gamebooks feature characters designed by many popular artists, including Hirokazu Hisayuki ('' My-HiME''), Kazuhiro Takamura, and Eiwa.

Media

Gamebooks

*Series 1 (Leina and Risty) - Released November 25, 2005. *Series 2 (Irma and Nowa) - Released December 28, 2005. *Series 3 (Tomoe and Echidna) - Released June 9, 2006. *Series 4 (Menace and Elina) - Released September 29, 2006. *Series 5 (Airi and Leina 3D) - Released December 22, 2006. *Series 6 (Nanael and Cattleya) - Released March 16, 2007. *Series 7 (Nyx and Melpha) - Released June 29, 2007. *Series 8 (Melona and Claudette) - Released October 18, 2007. *Series 9 (Ymir) - Released February 15, 2008. **A limited-edition second-player color version of Ymir was distributed exclusively by online hobby shop Post Channel. *Series 10 (Aldra and Alleyne) - Released June 20, 2008. At Anime Expo 2010, Hobby Japan announced that English translations of the gamebooks will be released in North America. There exist English versions for the characters Alleyne, Melona, Nanael and Tomoe.

Anime

adaptation of ''Queen's Blade'', entitled , was produced by ARMS. Directed by Kinji Yoshimoto, the anime aired twelve episodes in Japan from April 2 to June 18, 2009 on AT-X, with subsequent broadcasts on

Chiba TV , doing business as , is a Japanese commercial terrestrial television broadcasting company headquartered at 11-25 Miyako-chō 1-chōme, Chūō-ku, Chiba serving Chiba Prefecture but spill-over is received in the neighbouring prefectures. It is a m ...

Sun Television is a commercial television station headquartered in Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and a member of the Japanese Association of Independent Television Stations (JAITS). Office *the head office - Kobe Ekimae Just Square, 1-1, Higashi-Kawasakic ...

, and

Tokyo MX JOMX-DTV, branded as Tokyo MX (officially stylized as TOKYO MX), is an independent television station in Tokyo, Japan, owned by the . It is the only television station that exclusively serves the city. It competes with Nippon TV, TV Asahi, NH ...

. The series aired uncensored on AT-X, while being heavily censored on other channels. Six DVD and

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

volumes were released by Media Factory between June 25, 2009 and November 25, 2009, each DVD/BD volume containing one of six OVAs. A second season, , aired on AT-X and other channels from September 24 to December 10, 2009. Six DVD/BD volumes were released by Media Factory between December 22, 2009 and May 25, 2010, each containing six OVAs which continue from the first six. An OVA series, called , was announced on the May issue of ''Monthly Hobby Japan''. A prelude to events of ''

'', the series takes place after the events of the Queen's Blade tournament and chronicles the characters on their separate paths. The episodes were released on six DVD and Blu-ray volumes from August 25, 2010 to March 30, 2011. In North America, the first and second anime adaptations are licensed by Media Blasters under the respective titles ''Queen's Blade: The Exiled Virgin'' and ''Queen's Blade 2: The Evil Eye''. The first season was released between May 18 and October 26, 2010 as three DVD volumes, each containing four episodes, while the second season was released between May 24, 2011 and July 19, 2011 as two half-series volumes.

box sets of the two seasons were later released on February 15, 2011 and September 27, 2011, respectively. Sentai Filmworks has licensed the ''Beautiful Fighters'' OVAs and will release them on digital and home video formats. On May 11, 2017, the channel Toku announced that the first season would be broadcast on its channel beginning June 5, 2017 through August 21, 2017. The opening theme for the first season is "Get the Door" by Rie Ohashi, while the ending theme is by Ayako Kawasumi, Mamiko Noto, and

Aya Hirano is a Japanese actress and singer associated with the voice acting agency Grick. Beginning in the entertainment industry as a child actor in television commercials, she appeared in her first voice acting role in the anime television series ''An ...

, the voices for Leina, Tomoe, and Nanael, respectively. The opening theme for the second season is by ENA while the ending theme is "buddy-body" by Rie Kugimiya, Yuko Goto, and

Kanae Ito Kanae (written: , , , or ) is a Japanese given name generally given to girls. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese ice hockey player *, Japanese tennis player * Kanae Ikehata (born 1982), Japanese fencer *, Japanese voice actress an ...

, the voices for Melona, Menace, and Airi, respectively. For the OVA, the ending theme is by All 19 Beautiful Warriors, consisting of the entire female voice cast of the series.

Manga

An anthology comic of ''Queen's Blade'' was published by Hobby Japan with four volumes released between April 25, 2007 and February 25, 2008. A

adaptation centered on Leina illustrated by Kabao Kikkawa was serialized in the October 2008 issue of Media Factory's '' seinen'' manga magazine '' Monthly Comic Alive''. Three volumes were released between February 2, 2009 and January 23, 2010 under Media Factory's ''Alive Comics'' imprint. Another

adaptation of ''Queen's Blade'' illustrated by Iku Nanazuki called , began serialization in the December 2007 issue of '' Comp Ace''. A spinoff of the original, the series centers on Elina searching for her older sister Leina, and it introduces Frolell, a servant of the Vance family who travels with Elina on her journey to bring Leina back. Five volumes were released by

Kadokawa Shoten , formerly , is a Japanese publisher and division of Kadokawa Future Publishing based in Tokyo, Japan. It became an internal division of Kadokawa Corporation on October 1, 2013. Kadokawa publishes manga, light novels, manga anthology magazines ...

between June 26, 2008 and June 26, 2010. A third manga adaptation, called , is illustrated by AstroguyII and began serialization in the December 2007 issue of '' Dengeki Black Maoh'', and continued in ''Dengeki Maoh'' after the latter stopped circulation, albeit with new chapters delivered bimonthly. The first volume was released by

ASCII Media Works ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because o ...

on March 27, 2009, with four volumes currently available as of February 27, 2012 under their

Dengeki Comics is a manga publishing label affiliated with the Japanese publishing company ASCII Media Works (formerly MediaWorks) and is aimed at a male audience. Aside from the main Dengeki Comics label, there is the related Dengeki Comics EX label, which wa ...

imprint.

Light novels

light novel A light novel (, Hepburn: ''raito noberu'') is a style of young adult novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students. The term "light novel" is a '' wasei-eigo'', or a Japanese term formed from words in the English languag ...

adaptation of ''Queen's Blade'', called , is written by Eiji Okita with illustrations by Eiwa. The first volume was released on April 27, 2007 by Hobby Japan under their

HJ Bunko is a publishing label affiliated with the Japanese publishing company Hobby Japan. It was established in July 2006 and is a light novel A light novel (, Hepburn: ''raito noberu'') is a style of young adult novel primarily targeting high ...

imprint, and released five volumes until November 1, 2008. A bonus novel called was published on March 1, 2008, with illustrations provided by Hirotaka Akaga. A light novel based on the first anime series, written by Okita and illustrated by Tsumotu Miyazawa, was also published by Hobby Japan, and released two volumes between August 1, 2009 and October 1, 2009.

Video game

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal ac ...

called was developed by

Bandai Namco Games is a Japanese multinational video game publisher headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Entertainment America and Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe, are respectively headquartered in Irvine, California a ...

for the

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 200 ...

. It was released on December 17, 2009, and features all-new characters and an original storyline exclusive to the game in addition to recurring characters from the original series. A limited edition of the game, called the ''Gekitō Pack'', was also released, featuring a Cute figure from Figma and a bonus character voice CD. A sequel, '' Queen's Gate: Spiral Chaos'', was released as part of the ''Queen's Gate'' series of works.

Other

*''Queen's Blade Fan Disc'': character dress-up software published in 2006. *''Queen's Blade i'': A mobile phone game using game rules from the combat picture book series. Service host by DigitalMediaLab and it supports

FOMA Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access (FOMA) is the brand name of the W-CDMA-based 3G telecommunications services being offered by the Japanese telecommunications service provider NTT DoCoMo. It is an implementation of the Universal Mobile Telecom ...

703i and 901i series. Carriers include NTT DoCoMo. The service seems to have been discontinued since. *''Queen's Blade'' Collection Card ver.2.0: A currently-produced card series with individual biography cards for each character, plus artwork cards and bubble gum. *Three visual books called were released by Hobby Japan, narrating the backstories of the fighters before the tournament: **, illustrated by Eiwa, released on Abril 28, 2007. **, illustrated by F.S., released on February 15, 2008. **, illustrated by Hirokazu Hisayuki, released on February 28, 2009. *A databook called was released by Hobby Japan on June 27, 2009. Aside from compiled illustrations from other official sources, the databook contains extended profiles on the fighters, a "world guide" detailing many of the Continent's locations and the resolutions of each character's storyarc. The book is licensed under the title ''Queen's Blade: Perfect Visual Collection'' in North America by Vertical Publishing. *''Queen's Blade: The Duel'': A

collectible card game A collectible card game (CCG), also called a trading card game (TCG) among other names, is a type of card game that mixes strategy game, strategic deck building elements with features of trading cards, introduced with ''Magic: The Gathering'' in ...

with Queen's Blade characters, later expanded with a few of the ''Queen's Gate'' and ''

'' characters and renamed to ''Duel System TCG''. Released by Megahobby in 2008. *''Queen's Blade: The Conquest'': An RPG

Browser game A browser game or a "flash game" is a video game that is played via the internet using a web browser. They are mostly free-to-play and can be single-player or multiplayer. Some browser games are also available as mobile apps, PC games, or on ...

featuring the ''Queen's Blade'' characters made by Aiming in 2012, with plans to be expanded with ''Rebellion'' characters. It is free-to-play, though items can be bought to progress faster and reduce cooldown time.

Sequels and spin-offs

The original game book series was followed by a sequel series titled , featuring all-new characters as well as reinterpretations of previous characters, and a supplement called , featuring licensed characters from other games and series. A spin-off series of

Original video animation , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA ...

s, titled , was launched in 2016. The anime is set in a parallel universe inspired by

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful beings. In most cult ...

s. A reboot, titled , was announced in 2017.

References

External links

Official site

Official anime website

''Queen's Gate'' official site

''Queen's Gate: Spiral Chaos'' official site

''Queen's Blade: Spiral Chaos'' official site

''Queen's Blade The Duel'' official page

''Queen's Blade The Conquest'' official page
*Arms Corporation page
''Queen's Blade: The Exiled Virgin''
at Media Blasters * {{Hoods Entertainment

Queen's Blade is a Japanese series of visual combat books published by Hobby Japan inspired by the licensed works from Firelight Game Company's '' Lost Worlds''. The overall plot of the game revolves around a tournament called the Queen's Blad ...

2007 Japanese novels 2008 Japanese novels 2009 anime television series debuts 2009 Japanese novels 2010 anime OVAs Adventure anime and manga Anime Works AT-X (TV network) original programming Arms Corporation ASCII Media Works manga Dengeki Comics Fantasy anime and manga Gamebooks HJ Bunko Kadokawa Dwango franchises Kadokawa Shoten manga Light novels Media Factory manga Mass media franchises Seinen manga Sentai Filmworks Sword and sorcery anime and manga Yuri (genre) anime and manga