This is the one that stops pretending there's a tournament bracket to care about. Six shorts, no crown on the line, just the women of Gainos off the clock: Leina still restless, Claudette still carrying House Vance like a debt, Tomoe and Shizuka still tethered to Hinomoto, Nanael still the worst angel ever assigned to anything. If you watched The Exiled Virgin and The Evil Eye, you already know the deal, the armor was always structurally optimistic and the fights were always an excuse to get these characters in a room together. What Beautiful Warriors understands is that the excuse was the appeal. Nobody comes back to this franchise for the succession politics of a fantasy kingdom, they come back because Melona is insufferable and Echidna knows it. Watch it for the cast you got attached to despite yourself, and own that.

Queen's Blade is a contest held every four years, and it has come and gone: in the end, Queen Aldra was defeated by the wandering warrior Leina. Beautiful Warriors picks up some time later with six short stories about the fighters who took part, showing their lives once the competition is over. Drawn from Hobby Japan's gamebook, the OVA mixes fantasy adventure and action with a heavy dose of ecchi fanservice.