Thursday, June 6, 2013

QB Beautiful Fighters FAQ (1): Cattleya, Shizuka and Nanael

Update June 8th: Tina was stealthily previewed! So lovely!



Welcome to yet another long-forgotten feature that I'm kinda bringing back to fashion! This one's even older than Siam's story, these are questions about the chars asked by fans back in 2007, answered in a series also known as "Ask 1 Question, Get 2 Answers!" by both the character herself and Hans, HJ's avatar, with illustrations by Frisk. And, seeing as it's Hans himself talking, you can bet these are canon ("Word of God", like the cool kids say? :D)

(Since the Hobby Channel page is going through some remodelling, can't link to their original pages right now, but they still can be found in Google's cache by searching "bitousifaq").

Enjoy!

FAQ 1: Cattleya

Question:

I decided to get a figure of her with her son Rana when a topic suddenly came to mind about Cattleya. Since she's the only character within the series that is a married mother, I have to wonder about her age. So could you give it to me straight, how old is Cattleya-Sis?


 
Cattleya's Answer:
Eh?? My... age? When I heard this was a consultation corner, I had thought this would be a place to answer more serious worries and questions from everyone. Err... even as a customer, I can't give an answer to that.
Sorry if I let you down...
Though... there is something I'd like to ask myself, are there a lot of people watching this consultation corner? On the off chance my husband Owen is watching, won't you let me say a few words to my missing husband?
"Darling, Rana is already 7 years old. Please come home soon...!"
Also, we've just replenished our stock of Omnipotent Javelins. Should you stop by our shop, you are welcome to come take a look, we'll provide you with high-quality weapons at better prices than other stores.



Hans' Answer:
The characters in Queen's Blade don't have any established ages... though we did throw around that Echidna is around 500 years old, and Ymir's around 60.
While for non-human characters you might get a sense that "Hmm, she certainly doesn't look that old," it's a bit more of a delicate issue in the case of the human female characters.
That being said, shall we dare to take a guess? To commemorate the event of course.
For starters, her son Rana seems to be 6~7 years old.
And according to Cattleya's introduction, Cattleya and Owen first retired after being adventurers, opened a weapons shop and following that, she gave birth to Rana.
(Let's assume the reason she retired from being an adventurer while still being young was because she was pregnant).
If we consider that the two were already quite well-known as adventurers, I doubt they were teenagers.
So at the earlier, Cattleya retired at 22 to 25 years old.
In that case, her current age would be...


FAQ 2: Shizuka

Question:
It's a given Shizuka went to the Continent with Tomoe, so what does she typically do there?

Shizuka's answer:

Anything for my beloved Lady Tomoee~
I eliminate the assassins that annoying Queen (Aldra) never fails to release before they can get anywhere near Lady Tomoe~, I chase away men who don't realize they're out of their league and act like stalkers to Lady Tomoe~, I stay next to the inn Lady Tomoe is at then provide her inn with ingredients or sashimi~, and I carry out all these frantic activities without letting anyone see me. Pret~ty awesome, aren't I?
So, westerners don't seem to make a custom out of eating raw fish, you know? I thought that Lady Tomoe might miss the taste from Hinomoto, but when I tried to arrange for the inn's cook to prepare "ikezukuri" (slicing a fish and presenting it in its original form), he was all li~ke "Savage!" The old man made a really scary face when he said it too, it was pret~ty hilarious all things considered though♪
After leaving the Kouma Ninjas, I focus day and night on not troubling Lady Tomoe even though I'm being chased myself too. I haven't thought ahead much about Miss Tomoe's desire to become Queen through "Queen's Blade" though, for now all I can say is that I'm happy enough as it is just tagging along with my cute Lady Tomoe.



Hans' answer:

Shizuka threw away her position as head of the Kouma Ninja Corps, became a runaway ninja and is now serving Tomoe all throughout the Continent.
Though, that doesn't mean they're together like glue at all times, usually Shizuka is supporting Tomoe like a shadow. It's a similar feel to Windmill Yashichi [a character from the Mitokomon drama series].
Of course, one of the reasons why Shizuka lays so low is that she's being chased by her former comrades. That being said, Shizuka knew full well how dangerous things would get once she chose to serve the woman she had been charmed by. With the person in question remaining blissfully unaware of that sorrowful fate, every once in a while Shizuka and Tomoe will eat together, and enjoy their two-person trip to the fullest, by taking baths.
Not having an entry in Queen's Blade, naturally she doesn't fight in the arena. It's a pity that we haven't seen her fighting openly, but it may be that she wanted nothing to do with such an upfront battle to begin with.



FAQ 3: Nanael

Question:

Why doesn't Nanael have a halo over her head?

Nanael's answer:

Huuuh~? Your brain defective or something? You peons might have randomly gotten it into your heads that angels come with halos attached, but I'm not about to encourage that simplistic view for you people. My life in a nutshell really, I guess some people might read this and be left a bit bummed out about it, but honestly, that's such an outdated way of thinking. There are no trends like that up there, mo-rons☆
Say, could you be... could the guy in question be an otaku? Gross! Come on~! Only handsome guys are allowed to come anywhere near me♥ Remember that!
Come to think of it, if I had a halo, wouldn't I get mistaken for a dead person? My figure is divine enough as it is~!
Still, once I take over the Queen's seat through Queen's Blade, I guess I won't need to waste my efforts gathering men anymore, all the guys in the country will become mine (drool) A-hn, looking forward to it♥♥♥
Ah, but in your case, should I banish you with the other female monkeys~? ♪
*Please keep in mind that Nanael is a character with a sharp tongue



Hans' answer:

As a matter of fact, there was an idea of adding a halo to Nanael! The halo would have become a weapon, a sort of cutting tool she'd fight with. However, since one of the illustration themes of the "Angel of Light Nanael" became "She lets her weapon fight on its own because she can't be bothered to do it herself," it was replaced by her current Celestial Saber.
Though, ol' Saber is the number one "Weakest looking weapon"(?) in Queen's Blade, the way it admirably fights all alone is something to be impressed by. Next time you look through Nanael's book, please watch not only Nanael but ol' Saber too.

8 comments:

  1. nice, i'd like to read more of these.

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  2. Very good!

    BTW I'm happy that all these Grimoire characters are coming out, but do we know when Werbelia is coming? I hope they will finish Rebellion too!

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    1. Well, if Goldie's surprising early release date proves anything, is that they're trying to get more books as soon as they can, so either Matsuryuu is kinda slacking about it, or they're really going over Werbellia's drafts to make sure the very last Rebellion char is the best it can be...

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  3. These are pretty cool. It's nice to see more info about Shizuka.

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  4. LOL!! nanel's is funny. I hope you do menace and the other swamp witch girls!!

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    1. Sure will! Though, Tomoe, Claudette and Aldra are getting the short end of the stick... ^^U

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  5. Just a correction:the name "Windmill Yashichi" is translated as Kazagurumono Yashichi since it's a proper name. You can find info about the Mitokomon drama here: http://es.drama.wikia.com/wiki/Mito_Komon

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    1. Oh, that explains why I could barely find mentions of the name.

      But well, the QB Perfect Book did translate it as "Windmill Yashichi" before me too, guess we'll add that to the surprisingly small list of errors the Perfect Book has... ^^U

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