Retroactive Winner: 2006 “You Got Your Plot in My Fanservice” Award.

About a year ago, I wrote about the series Witchblade, based on watching the first four fansubs. I’d quickly gotten overdosed on the completely-over-the-top fanservice, and dropped it, even though I noted that the plot seemed to be thickening, and maybe getting just a bit interesting. The premise of this series is that 200 years in the future, the Witchblade has reappeared, this time in Japan. Tokyo went through a terrible quake before the story began; a major portion of the city is now submerged. People are still rebuilding, and there’s a lot of poverty and refugees as Masane arrives with her six-year-old daughter. Unfortunately, they quickly end up on the run, because of a paternalistic state agency that doesn’t allow unemployed single mothers to keep their kids. Masané is a ditz; her daughter is far more sensible than she is.

Interesting note: she gets nicknamed (by a dirty old man/neighbor), “Masamuné” and a sub note explains that masa = serious and muné = chest. So her nickname is “Serious Chest.” Guys are the same, all over the world, aren’t they? (What this also means is, in Abenobashi, the crazy redhead is nicknamed “Chest-Chest” or perhaps “Double Chest.”)

(Shown here with a neighbor, a nosy photographer. He picks up on the Masamuné nickname quickly, much to her displeasure.)

Also, although she’s unaware of it at first, Masané is the wearer of the Witchblade, and there’s multiple groups after it. Eventually, she ends up employed by one of them to hunt down rogue “transforming androids” (for lack of a better term). I won’t go into the details, but in recent past, Cloneblades were created, and fitted to specially chosen women. Supposedly they are as powerful, but without the sentience of the Witchblade. However, I don’t think they are, as the androids keep killing them.

Part of the opposition. Queen of the damned?

Ok, that’s all I can show above the fold, folks… after this, if we went any further into NSFW territory, I’d have to call this a porn site.

From the OP. As if you couldn’t tell what studio this is from. However, I’d like to bring your attention to the “spike” in the, uh, center, by the “O”.

Here’s a better shot of it, in action…

Moving right along….

Now that’s a short skirt.	And that gives a whole new meaning to strapless.
Well, at least her opponent has straps.	Mostly.
Crappy animation quality.	I went to a fight, and a lesbian scene broke out.
Ok, ok, the women are bit more dressed than Kekko Kamen, but barely, where it counts.	This show’s got more crotch-shots than a bad comedy.

But click on this one and look carefully at the full size picture for an amusing coloring mistake. Remember the spike I pointed out earlier? Well, the shot is fuzzy and dark (sorry, it’s clearer on my monitor), but look carefully…isn’t that spike supposed to be blue, or dark gray? You have to wonder if the only reason that patch stays on is that there’s another…. no. NOT going there. Superhero glue. That’s what it is, same thing that keeps comic-book heroine costumes on, worldwide. Gotta be…

Last I checked, DVD’s 1 and 2 were out; all the above is from DVD 2, which ramped up the fanservice. DVD 3 might be out by now, but the series won’t be complete until summer, at least. Where it’s going to end up, I have no idea. Could be a completely tragic end, could be happily ever after. Gonzo being Gonzo, it’ll probably be a train wreck, but at least it will be a half-naked one. And probably bloody. (Although if you look closely, you might notice that the various women have cream-colored blood in their transformed states. All the better to get past the censors.)

At this point, the sides seem to have firmed up somewhat, but it’s not all black and white. (Firmed up? Wait, was that the power of suggestion?) There’s not an awful lot of trustworthiness to be had here; it’s a lot of cloak and dagger. Someone’s going to betray somebody before it’s all over with; probably several betrayals are in the offing. There’s a few twists in the story already, and there are some people whom I don’t know which way they’re going to jump. The show has already surprised me once; I knew something was coming about a character, but I missed my guess, despite the (in retrospect) obvious clues. At least I got it before they got the sledgehammer out and made it really obvious. It’s not a Misaki Chronicles level of plot thus far, but it does share the distinction of having a story that’s overshadowed by grotesque boobs and loads of pointless fanservice. I’d probably be more impressed with the plot if I could see it past all the mammary flesh….