Meido breakdancing!!!
My shoddy list of highlights:
- In the room of petrified people, Aldora sits on her throne and tells Cattleya and Airi to start the match. Cattleya fights handicapped, wielding a spear with her right arm and carrying Rana with her left, but Airi appears to have weakness for little boys and cannot gain the advantage.
Gotta hand it to Yummil for having the business sense and audacity to turn a Queen's Blade match into a promo for her products.
- In the lava cavern arena, Reina is being worn down by the heat and Yummil's heavy axe strikes, and Yummil use the fight to put on an infomercial for her weapons. Yummil believes that defeating Reina, who wields a sword made by Cattleya, would prove that the dwarf weapons are better and thus she'll get more customers.
- Nanael is watching the Reina vs. Yummil broadcast from Melpha's church and wonders why the other match isn't being aired.
- Back to Reina's match, Reina is succumbing to the cavern's heat and is growing tired. Yummil sees the opportunity and goes for her killer move "Double Swing" (somersault axe swing), but Reina is able to block the attack. Yummil goes for "Double Swing" again, but this time Reina dodges the attack and counters with a "Dragon Tail", sending the dwarf flying. With her axe broken and body battered, Yummil admits defeat not to Reina but to Cattleya, but in effect Reina wins the match.
Cattleya only gets a two with the maid bowling.
- Meanwhile, Cattleya and Airi are holding their own against each other. To get rid of the obstruction known as Rana, Airi summons some spirit to pull Rana out of Cattleya's grasp and to tie up Cattleya. The spirits cause Cattleya to drop her spear, but Cattleya quickly draws the Giant Killer and sends Airi flying. Airi crashes into a couple of petrified people and gets pinned beneath one of them. Cattleya steps up to finish Airi off, but she becomes distraught when she discovers that the petrified person lying on top of Airi is her husband Owen. While Cattleya griefs over her petrified husband, Airi frees herself and tries to finish Cattleya, but she is unable to follow through with her swing when Rana gets in the way. Since Cattleya no longer has the will to fight, Airi wins the match anyways.
Not as wussy as he looks.
Cattleya could have easily dodged the petrifying beam by stepping to the left a bit, but she chose to stand there like an idiot.
- Aldora explains that she made the match take place in this room is so that she can see all the drama with Cattleya's family and she then petrifies Cattleya. Airi decides it's a good time to leave, but she pauses to look at the frozen Mellona. Aldora is about to fire her petrifying beam at Airi, but the attack is broken up when Rana charges at Aldora with Cattleya's spear. Aldora fends off the attack, but Airi ties Aldora up with some spirits and flies out of the room with Rana in tow.
Risty is trying to hide her face because she knows her costume is ugly.
- Before flying out of the palace, Airi takes a pit stop to replenish her energy by draining the life force from a guard. Airi and Rana are then confronted by a squad of assassins led by Risty, but Risty gets a headache when she sees Rana and this allows Airi and Rana to escape. Airi tries to leave Rana in the middle of the city, but Rana refuses to stop following her.
Airi finds out firsthand that little kids cause headaches.
- After winning her match, Reina sleeps in her room for a few hours until she is woken up by Yummil banging at the door. Yummil states that she wants to take care of Reina's sword since Cattleya has lost her match and probably left town. Yummil declares that she'll make the sword even better by reforging it with dwarf techniques, and Reina agrees to arrangement.
- Airi takes Rana back to Menace's slave camp where Menace makes fun of Airi for having a kid. Menace is then called to her Queen's Blade match where she is fighting against Claudette in a windswept desert.
- In a dark alley, Irma is confronted by Risty and a squad of assassins who have been ordered by Aldora to kill Irma.
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Very decent episode. Perhaps the episode can even be considered "good", although a "good" Queen's Blade episode is probably an oxymoron. Anyways, some pretty interesting plot twists this week with Owen being part of Aldora's frozen figures collection and Airi hooking up with Rana. I'm not going to say I'm psychic or anything, but I did sort of mention in my last Queen's Blade post that Airi might have a weakness for little boys. Rana was actually pretty impressive, since he was able to thwart Airi, Aldora, and Risty in the span of one episode. Nobody else has done that in this series and I doubt anybody will in the future. I'm not saying that Rana is kick-ass or anything, but my opinion of him is definitely higher than before watching this episode.
On the other hand, Cattleya just absolutely sucked. First of all, she's a terrible parent by bringing her son into a Queen's Blade and using him as a meat shield. I doubt Cattleya would have known ahead of time that Airi had a soft spot for little boys, and even if Rana insists to come along doesn't mean that Cattleya should let him. Secondly, what's with Cattleya suddenly losing all of will to fight after seeing her petrified husband? It's understandable to grief for a bit, but afterwards the next logical step should be to smack Aldora around for an explanation instead of standing there and do nothing. Cattleya definitely had the skills to put up a decent fight, but she lacked the will. Oh well, I guess won't be seeing her for a while.
As for the rest of the episode, Reina predictably won the match via some fluke, and she also gets a new blacksmith in Yummil as Cattleya is on vacation indefinitely. Risty also made her action debut as the leader of the Assassin of the Fangs, but it appears that like Airi she also has a soft spot for little kids. I have to say Risty's new helmet and hairstyle looks pretty ugly; her new battle costume doesn't look nearly as good as the one shown in episode 3. And what's with the helmet covering one of her eyes? Risty may not have been able to strike down on Rana, but she probably has no problem with killing Irma. Irma is in a pretty bad situation, but maybe Echidna will come along and save her.
Overall, this was one of the best Queen's Blade episodes thus far. Given that Queen's Blade is already a ridiculous show, it can certainly use more crazy plot twists like the one shown in this episode. The next episode looks like a straight-on fight between Menace and Claudette though. Menace has the environmental advantage, but you can never count the Lightning General out. It's not that important of a match though given that it doesn't involve Reina, Tomoe, or Aldora. I wonder when Nanael will finally fight in the competition. She seems to be the odd one out in the tournament, but it's possible she could face the winners of last round of matches or supposedly non-participants like Risty or Shizuka.
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