There are no explicit screenshots, but I still wouldn't read this at work or school.
Summary:
At the evil swamp, the Swamp Witch tortures Melona for the shapeshifter's previous failures. Melona blames her treatment on Airi, and knowing that Airi must return someday because the Swamp Witch's command spell, Melona vows to punish Airi when she returns.
Shotacon alert!
Airi the Ghost Maid actually working as a maid. Who would have thought?
Meanwhile, Airi has been living with Rana, Cattleya and Owen and helps around with chores in the house. Airi has grown accustomed to the lifestyle and her feeling for Rana continues, but she feels obligated to return to the swamp to serve her master, so one day she secretly flies away. Airi returns to the swamp and is met by Melona who quickly puts Airi up for some torturing. During the torture session, Airi reveals that the command spell on her is no longer effective, but she came back on her own volition. Melona is skeptical, but after Airi refuses to break under torture and swears loyalty to the Swamp Witch, Melona let Airi back into the fold and the two starts hanging out together again.
Tickling can be an effective form of torture.
Melpha's Holy Poses aren't much to look at, but you have to be impressed by the effects.
In Gainos, Melpha is alone in the church again after Aldora left with Tomoe on a journey. While praying to the heavens, Melpha hears Nanael's voice ordering her to go to the evil swamp to do something (it's Nanael, so the order isn't exactly specific). Melpha follows the order and journeys to the swamp where she starts putting the green back in the plants with her Holy Poses. Airi and Melona detect the intrusion, and Airi flies in to confront Melpha while Melona chooses to watch from a distance. In the battle, Melpha blasts off Airi's clothes with a Holy Pose, but Airi traps Melpha with her spirits. Airi then goes in for the kill, but Melpha detects that Airi is feeling unsure about something. Airi ignores Melpha's advice and proceeds to ingest some of Melpha's life force, but this gives her a bad stomach ache and she flies away only to fall unconscious on a platform. While unconscious, Airi dreams of Rana but it isn't enough to convince her to return to Rana. Airi wakes up and finds Melona watching over her, and the two decides to go fetch Menace to reform their group once again.
Crush evil indeed.
Melona does have a point: priestess life force gives ghosts bad stomachs.
Sometime later, Melpha has returned to her church and reports to Nanael that she has purified some of the areas of the evil swamp, and Nanael is unsatisfied because Melpha failed to defeat Airi and Melona.
Being the minions of evil has its perks. You are not going to find private hot springs at Rana's house.
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Story-wise, this was the worst episode so far in the Utsukushiki Toushi-tachi OVAs. My problem with this episode is that it didn't explain why Airi felt so inclined to ditch Rana and return to the swamp. Since the command spell no longer works on her, why did she want to get away from a life that she appears to enjoy? Maybe Airi didn't want to suck Rana's life force; or maybe she thinks hanging out with Melona is a lot more fun than playing maid for Cattleya; or maybe even she wanted to wait until Rana grew up so they can have some grown-up fun. Whatever the reason was, this episode didn't really explain it other than to say that Airi felt obligated to serve her master, which was entirely unconvincing.
Continuing down the path of negativity, it's pretty obvious that Melpha's mission was just randomly tossed in so that there would be some action in the episode. I guess you can say the same thing to the two previous episodes (Echidna and Nyx's appearances), but Melpha's mission feels more contrived... probably because the order came from Nanael. I also thought that Melona forgave Airi rather easily. Melona herself was sliced and diced by the Swamp Witch, but she was only shown tickling Airi (albeit for three days supposedly). I suppose this whole episode was just some mechanism to get Airi and Melona back together again so they can go fetch Menace next episode. The OVA seems to be trying to reunite the three stooges before the beginning of the next full season, but from the previews it looks Menace won't rejoin the group without a fight. I'm sure it'll be more interesting than this episode.
Now that I'm done complaining about the plot elements (of a Queen's Blade episode... yeah sounds pathetic right?), the only positive thing I can mention is that the 720p version looks really nice. I've been watching the standard aspect ratio AT-X feed for all of the previous Queen's Blade episodes, so this was the first time I saw the show in wide screen hi-def, and it looks much better. Too bad this episode sucked though, but the hi-def did have a positive impact on the watching experience. Still, I'll probably watch whichever version that gets subbed first.
Oh, and there was plenty of boobs courtesy of Melona and Airi (so much so that they didn't need Melpha or Cattleya's help). In term of the amount of boobage, this episode probably trumps the previous two, and that's probably important to quite a few Queen's Blade fans.
which episode is it when the witch tickles airi?
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