Everyone thinks they are Ranka Lee these days.
Shoddy list of highlights:
- Nanael returns from the heavens with Hachi to inform Melpha that Aldra is getting her power from a fallen angel named Delmore, and the group form a plan to stop the fallen angel.
How is Reina still alive after this?
- The final match begins in the main arena of Gainos and almost all of the surviving characters are either in the audience or watching broadcast. The match begins with Aldra sending Reina flying with a few power slashes. Reina counterattacks with a Dragon Tail which Aldra is able to block, but both Aldra and Delmore know Reina's sword is dangerous. Aldra then pulls some flash steps and hits Reina in the neck. Reina looks to be down for the count, but she suddenly gets a power boost when Risty arrives in the audience. Reinvigorated, Reina hits Aldra with Claudette's thunder strike and Tomoe's patented kick. Aldra summons Mini-ons to attack Reina but Reina destroys them by powering up.
Over the course of this season Rana is developed into quite a little warrior, but first he needs to stop dressing like a girl.
- While the match is going on, Rana runs inside Aldra's castle to save his parents. Inside the collections chamber Rana is confronted by a guard, but Rana is able to fend off the guard with Airi's scythe (seems Aldra never bothered to clean up that room). Airi, still living within her scythe, absorbs the guard's life force and regains her usual form. Nanael then arrives to supply the holy milk to free Cattleya and Owen, and the angel also picks up the miniaturized Melona. After everyone leaves, Menace breaks out from her crystal and plans to revive her kingdom again.
- Elina has arrived home at the Vance castle and talks to the count. The count reveals that he planned to attack Gainos only to avenge his wife and he tells Elina to go live her own life, but Elina chooses to stay by her father's side for a few more years.
Good and evil have joined forces.
There's a reason why she wears that.
- Back at the arena, Aldra realizes that her collections have escaped. Reina charges at Aldra but Aldra petrifies Reina with the evil eye. As the audience starts to murmur about Aldra's attack, Aldra becomes angry and petrifies all of the audience accept Hachi, Melpha, Risty, Claudette, and Tomoe. Tomoe is about to jump into the arena floor to face Aldra, but she is held back by Risty who states Reina hasn't lost yet. Suddenly, all of the character's weapons start glowing in harmony and they realize it's Reina. From above, Nanael and Melona spill some holy milk to free Reina. Aldra tries to hypnotize Reina with the magic light from her left shoulder armor, but Reina is saved by Shizuka's spirit. Reina destroys Aldra's left shoulder armor, but Aldra fires her strap-on Secret Cleaver which destroys what's left of Reina's armor. However, Reina is unfazed by the attack and sends Aldra flying with a Thunder Dragon Tail. Aldra is knocked unconscious, and thus Reina is declared the winner of the match.
One wins the match when she destroys all of her opponents clothing and armor.
Evil male monster is about to suffer the wrath of Girl Power.
- Inside Aldra's consciousness, Delmore finally admits that he was the one who drove away Aldra's little sister. Back in the real world, Delmore emerges from Aldra's body and from into a large, black, winged creature with Aldra's body at his core. However, Delmore is soon spilled with holy milk and Tomoe free Aldra from Delmore. The rest of the warriors then proceeds to pummel Delmore with their signature attacks, and Reina finishes off the fallen angel for good with a Dragon Tail.
Everyone lives happily ever after, including Nyx.
- With Delmore's defeat, all of the petrified people are returned to life. Inside the collections room, Nyx arrives to pick up Funikura. Back at the arena, Aldra receives a sudden growth spurt to account for the lack of growth during the years when she was possessed by Delmore. Elsewhere, Irma finally wakes up and is greeted by Echidna.
- The ED sequence features a slide show of still scenes over the usual Queen's Blade music. Risty is shown to be back with the orphans; Nowa and Allean are still traveling the land; Tomoe is back at Japan saving the young emperor from a bunch of evil ninjas; Claudette is shown overlooking Gainos from the queen's castle; Nanael is taking bath in the clouds; Yummil is saying goodbye to Rana, Cattleya and Owen in front of Owen's shop; Aldra is staying with Melpha; and finally Reina is standing on a pillar in a canyon watching the sun at the horizon.
- The three stooges (Airi, Menace, and Melona) wonder what they are going to do now since they failed their mission. Menace plans to rebuild her kingdom again, while Airi plans to visit Rana. Melona however is going to try to mess up the next Queen's Blade tournament which will take place four years in the future. THE END?
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Given how "decent" some of the episodes were in this second season, this finale episode actually kind of sucked. For one thing, this episode went back to the episode 1 mentality of covering all the notable characters, and that unfortunately leads to a disjointed narrative. They should have spent more time on the fight between Reina and Aldra, and at least one of the scenes in the middle (the Elina-Count Vance conversation) should have been moved to the end of the episode when it was time to tie things up.
The thing that irked me the most was of course the fight itself, although I probably should have expected this given it was fight involving Reina. Reina received more inexplicable power-ups in this fight than all of the previous episodes combined, and she somehow stole moves from Claudette and Tomoe. Everything else in the fight went in the really predictable manner including the "we all believe in you" weapon glowing segment and the final "everyone join forces to beat down on the real bad guy". I was kind of expecting the unexpected from this finale, but this episode delivered a rather bland fight and that was a bit of letdown too. I guess I was hoping for too much. I do find the final fight with Delmore somewhat amusing though since it drives home the point that there's no place for men within the Queen's Blade tournament. Delmore was presumably a male and look what happened to him lol.
Although I didn't like the main event, a couple of good things happened in this episode. It's good the Airi has returned from the dead and Nyx is reunited with Furnikura, and it was also nice to see Echidna and Irma making a final appearance. Unfortunately, it seems that Shizuka is dead for good and she only appeared in spirit to help Reina look away from Aldra's magic lights. This makes Shizuka the only female warrior who actually died in the series. Why must fate be so cruel?... lol. The ED sequence slide show was decent as well, and it shows that Reina ran off in her typical irresponsible manner and and decided to hand all responsibility of Gainos to Claudette. Wasn't Reina supposed to help Risty and Tomoe too? Haven't happened, according to the slide show. Risty is back taking care of the orphans while Tomoe has to go save the young emperor by herself.
That's the end of Queen's Blade, or at least the part about Reina's quest to win the tournament. The conversation at the end with the three stooges leaves things open for a continuation, but I'm not sure if I want to see a third season of Queen's Blade. Overall, Heir to the Throne was better than the first season in terms of the story, the action, and consistency. There's also a much smaller number of crazy fan service scenes, but I'm not sure if I should be glad or be disappointed by this. After all, it was the crazy fan service that made the Queen's Blade anime so infamous.
Now that I have one less anime series to blog about, it's time to go back to studying for my finals.
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