Alternative TitlesSynonyms: BRS OVA Japanese: ブラック★ロックシューター
Information
Type: OVA
Episodes: 1
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Jul 24, 2010
Duration:
52 min. per episode Rating:
PG-13 - Teens 13 or older
L represents licensing company
StatisticsScore: 7.371 (scored by 39663 users)
Ranked: #16492
Popularity: #122
Members: 58,607
Favorites: 589 1 indicates a weighted score
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SynopsisThese young girls' hearts are pure, and then violent!
Mato Kuroi just got into junior high school, and on the first day, someone catches her eye; her classmate Yomi Takanashi. The two meet.
The innocent and naive Mato. The mature Yomi. Seemingly opposites, but the time they spend together only strengthens a growing friendship.
But as they go into their second year at the school, they get placed in separate classes, and they begin to grow apart.
But somewhere simultaneously...
In another world, a young girl, blue fire residing in her eyes, Black Rock Shooter faces another young girl; this one holding a jet-black scythe, Dead Master, and a battle to the death begins to unfold.
(Source: The Official Black Rock Shooter Site) |
Related AnimeAdaptation: Black★Rock-chan, Black Rock Shooter - Innocent Soul
Alternative version: Black★Rock Shooter (TV)
Spin-off: Black★Rock Shooter
Characters & Voice Actors
Staff
Reviews
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Archaeon
331 of 491 people found this review helpful
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1 of 1 episodes seen
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| Overall |
6 |
| Story |
6 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Character |
5 |
| Enjoyment |
6 |
Inspiration comes in a myriad of forms, and anything can lead a person on a flight of fancy. In 2007 the artist Huke designed an original character called "Black Rock Shooter", which he posted on his blog. The character inspired Ryo, the leader of the band Supercell, to write a song entitled "Black Rock Shooter", and Huke joined the band to provide further illustrations that were used in the music video for the song. Anyone familiar with the band's musical history will find it unsurprising that the lyrics themselves are sung by none other than the Vocaloid Hatsune Miku.
In 2009 Yamamoto Yutaka's production comapny Ordet (Suzumiya Haruhi fans should recognise his name as the production director for the original series until he was fired from KyoAni during the making of Lucky Star), decided to make a series of animated music videos based on the original work in conjuction with Ryo. Ironically, the same scenes was used for all three shorts, with the only real change being that the titular track was presented in three different ways.
All three shorts were gathered together and released on DVD under the title "Black Rock Shooter: Pilot Edition" and, following its successful release, Ordet embarked on a 50 minute OVA for the show. In an extremely surprising move (and truth be told, a very good bit of marketing), the new iteration was subtitled into seven different languages, and released free (that's right, free!), on the cover of Hobby Japan and Megami magazine, with a further release on the cover of Animedia scheduled for August 10th 2010.
The anime will also be released as a retail version in December of this year as well, but with all the freebies it will be interesting to see if anyone actually buys it.
Okay, now you know something of its history, but why have I bored you with all that when what you really want to know is, is it any good? Well, there's a reason for all that information (and no, it's not because I love the sound of my own voice, which is admittedly rather gravelly these days - and don't ever let me sing!), which has a big effect on how one views this show.
As far as the story goes Black Rock Shooter is ostensibly about two friends, Kuroi Mato and Takanashi Yomi, who are both first years in junior high school. The anime is also about a blue eyed girl wearing very little who is engaged in various battles with other characters.
And that's about it really.
The main issue with Black Rock Shooter is that there is no explanation as to what is actually going on, or more importantly, why. While I'll be the first to admit that such sentiments are not always necessary in anime (especially certain comedies), the lack of any real direction makes one wonder what they've just watched. While the plot may be fairly straight forward in the "real" world (albeit on the brief side), the whole deal with the parallel world is never investigated, nor are any explanations forthcomin no matter how long you wait. The viewer must assume certain things in order for the story to work, however while this may be fine in certain shows, there is simply too much missing from Black Rock Shooter to allow for any viable suspension of disbelief.
What does make sense though, is that the story is effectively about depression and isolation, however the highly stylized approach adopted by director Yoshioka Shinobu leaves too much to the imagination, with no real compensation for the viewer's input except for a scantily clad girl with a gun/sword/whatever it is at the moment. The fact is that there is scope for a much, much better story here, but for various reasons, some of them obviously financial (hence the "official" retail releases and all the merchandise), there is no room for the plot to evolve into something worthwhile.
The seeds are there though, for a much more in depth look at the franchise, and I for one would be interested to see how a 13 episode series would play out as this OVA does have some good ideas and concepts.
One area where the music video influence shows is in the look of Black Rock Shooter. The animation is pretty decent in both the real world and its parallel counterpart, however there are some flaws with both styles used by the show, especially with the character movement which are, at times, a little on the odd side.
The design of the anime is good on the whole, especially the settings in the parallel world, all of which are a little on the post-apocalyptic side. The look of the real world is very much like that of any number of anime, although there has been some effort to increase the level of detail in the surroundings. The one thing that irked me, however, was the number of scenes in the parallel world where one character or another does nothing more than pose in a cool way, as this just seems an unnecessary attempt to curry favour with the viewer.
On a side note, has anyone else noticed that the scantily clad, gun-toting, parallel world loli looks remarkably like a punk/goth version of Hatsune Miku?
As far as the sound goes, Black Rock Shooter is good in every department, but it's a long way from being great. The acting is decent for the most part, however there are occasions where the sieyuu are overcompensating for the lack of characterisation. The effects are well chosen and choreographed, however there are some timing issues that occur during the heavy action scenes.
Now given that this is a show that's ultimately based on a music video, one would be forgiven for thinking the music might be a little bit special, however this is not the case. While the thematic music tends to be rather subdued over the course of the show, there is a distinct lack of accompaniment for the majority of scenes. The major piece is actually the ending theme "Braveheart" by Gomband, a fairly generic J-rock song that actually works rather well given the manner in which the show ends.
To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure what to make of the characters. On the one side Mato and Yomi are decently realised as junior high school students with a budding friendship, however there isn't any real development of them or their relationship as what the viewer is only given a "fast forward" perspective until the "interesting" stuff begins to happen. On the other side there are the characters on ... the other side, none of whom are explained in any way, and only one ever gets named.
Granted this is only a 50 minute OVA and there's a lot to cram in there, but this is exactly why I believe this show should really have been at least 13 episodes, as while the "real" world characters are personable enough, I'm pretty sure many viewers have asked the same questions I did (i.e. who are the parallel world characters and what the hell is going on?).
While the OVA is enjoyable to a degree, the problems it has are simply too big to be overlooked or marginalised. One of the biggest issues is that the money wasted on producing this 50 minute OVA could, with a bit of frugality, been used to produce a 4 episode series that would have allowed formore development o both the plot and characters.
In essence though, Black Rock Shooter is simply another example of what is actually wrong with the anime industry. The various production studios waste so much money making shows that cater to a minority market, even within the anime community, and must therefore make up for their losses by overpricing the licenses for overseas distribution, and that's basically what's going on here (hence the retail release and the huge amount of merchandising).
Be that as it may, Black Rock Shooter is a decent way to waste 50 minutes, but it's not the best way to spend your time given the number of "better" (and I use that word very loosely), shows on offer. read more
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Foggle
23 of 41 people found this review helpful
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1 of 1 episodes seen
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| Overall |
6 |
| Story |
6 |
| Animation |
6 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Character |
5 |
| Enjoyment |
5 |
Going in, I expected an awesome action extravaganza about Samuel L. Jackson running around Tokyo with an unrealistically large assortment of firearms and explosives blowing shit up with a soundtrack composed entirely by Motorhead. After all, what else could an hour-long OVA entitled Black Rock Shooter possibly be about? The friendship shared by two middle school girls, apparently.
What we've got here is a slice of life school drama masquerading as a trippy fantasy action movie. It doesn't help that the trailer is composed almost entirely of fight scenes or that there is pretty much no fan or official art depicting anything other than the characters' alternate reality personas.
So...
The title is misleading.
The trailer is misleading.
The art pertaining to it is misleading.
But, disregarding all of that, is it any good? Well... yes and no.
The story begins with rejected Magical Touhou: Lucky K-On Witches' Kindergarten - A's character Mato Kuroi getting ready for her first day at a new school. Yes, this is yet another "moe" anime, though it actually makes sense in this context, since the characters are in Junior High and not college. This, unfortunately, does not stop the producers from throwing some (thankfully light) fanservice into the mix on occasion (really, guys?). It isn't long before she meets Yomi Takanashi, and they become good friends very quickly.
The scenes involving Mato and Yomi being best buds would serve to make the rest of the OVA more effective if they didn't feel so rushed. More than half of their friendly interactions are shoehorned into a montage, removing any and all relatability from these situations that could be emotionally charged under other circumstances.
Soon, the inseparable pair begins to drift apart. While this is extremely abrupt and there is almost nothing building up to it, these scenes are easily the best in the feature. Mato, though she is unaware of this, begins neglecting Yomi, and once the latter disappears from the picture, she becomes horribly confused and begins feeling isolated and regretful. The raw emotion compounded into these segments is conveyed very well and would have genuinely constituted a few wonderful moments had the establishment of their friendship earlier on not felt so amateurish. It's also too bad that this topic was already covered this year (and to better effect) by Toy Story 3.
This is all supplemented by numerous, random, and very brief sequences of the main characters' alternate world selves fighting over... something. The action scenes are all fairly lame with the exception of the last one, which is suitably over the top and fun to watch. It is unfortunate that these alternate world segments - for which the OVA is named - are all entirely inconsequential and have a total running time equivalent to that of the movie's ending credits. One of these is literally a three second shot of a desert spliced in between two school scenes for absolutely no reason. Several of them feature a character whose alternate persona does nothing whatsoever aside from stare off into the distance for 15 seconds or so.
The ending and moral have both been done before... in Pokemon: The First Movie. Black Rock Shooter basically tells you that if you cry hard enough, your missing and/or dead friends will come back to you. This would be relatively easy to ignore if all the loose ends were tied up by the conclusion, but that is not so. There will likely be a sequel sometime in the near future (though nothing has been announced yet, as far as I know), and I can assure you that I will not be watching it unless it fixes all the problems from this episode.
The art is fine if you like the generic "moe" style. Nothing too spectacular, but nothing really awful, either. The animation varies greatly; some scenes are amazingly fluid while others are choppy and terrible. Ironically, it is usually the supposed "eye-candy" action scenes that get the short end of the stick.
The voice acting in Black Rock Shooter is pretty good. Mato's actress especially does a great job of making her character's emotions seem "real." While the others' voices aren't quite as excellent, it's all very professional-sounding and the performances are enjoyable. The music doesn't fare as well, however. I only really noticed two songs in the entire OVA (outside of your standard ambient background soundtrack), neither of which I liked. The first, played during the friendship montage, is a teary-eyed, nostalgic piece and, as far as I can tell, is sung entirely in Engrish (and I hate teary-eyed, nostalgic pieces - especially when sung in Engrish). The second, played during the ending credits, sounds like it was recorded by a Japanese Green Day cover band (and I hate Green Day - especially when played by cover bands).
Overall, you could do a lot worse than Black Rock Shooter. There's not much that's actually wrong with it, even though all it really boils down to in the end is a great story told poorly.
TL;DR
Story: 6/10 (It had a chance to really connect with the audience on an emotional level, but instead felt like it was hastily slapped together at the last minute)
Characters: 5/10 (While we're offered lots of interesting insight into Mato's life, she's the only character who really develops at all)
Art: 5/10 (Standard "moe" style)
Animation: 7/10 (Can change from awesome to awful in a matter of seconds)
Voice Acting (Japanese): 8/10 (The voice cast did a really good job with what they were given)
Music: 3/10 (Nothing really memorable or even good)
Overall: 6/10 (Feel free to watch it if you're bored; it's nothing amazing but you might like parts of it) read more
Recommendations
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One girl snap at her best friend for absolutely no good reason. Then they fight. Relationship-wise, both can be implied as shoujo-ai.
I heard all the times that maiden heart work in mysterious ways. Positively looking this two shows just portray it to the extreme.
Ga-rei zero do include why the fight is unavoidable in an interesting non-chronological fashion. BRS however is written in the way that assume audience know everything, making the show sort of a fan fare.
Two similar pairs of girls become friends and end up fighting each other. Both have slice-of-life elements (far more so in BRS) and seem quite slow paced at the beginning.
In both, two girls start off as pretty close friends and end up fighing against each other. In both, the friends who turn evil share the same name, Yomi.
Both have dark music and nice fighting scenes.
Both contain supernatural & slice of life elements but Ga-Rei Zero is much more tragic and dramatic.
both protagonist are struggling with Yomi :D
Both about a strong bond between girls, but they should fight each other against their will. In both one girl is ready to do anything to save other.
But Ga-Rei is much more heartbreak.
quite similar in the style of the story.
In both shows we have two main heroins who become very close friends during the series and very fast but sadly in the end they become enemies who are forced to fight each other.
Also how ironically it wouldn't sound, one of the heroins is called Yomi in both series and in both of them she ends up falling into darkness.
The difference is that Ga-Rei Zero is much more dramatic and most importantly it gives a clear explanation of what is happening in comparison to Black★Rock Shooter. I definitely recommend to watch it.
Both are about the friendship between the 2people both maincharacters end up fighting eachother due reason against their will. Both are REALLY similar but BRS is inferior to Ga-Rei in my opinion.
Both shows are about two best friends end up fighting each other. Another thing is that one of the main girl in both shows share the same name Yomi.
The way the story flow is very similar. At first, it show two girls fighting scenes and then flash back to the point they first meet each other and how their relationship grow , how conflicts begin . After that it back to the fighting scenes to the end.
Both have a storyline where the 2 main characters become very close friends but later one of them turns evil and the other one has to kill her. And coincidently in both animes the one that turns evil is a girl called Yomi
Best friends who have to fight each other. In both shows those girls are very similar, one bright and full of life and always nice to others, not willing to hurt anyone, and the other serious and kind of noble, but because of this she doesn't have a lot of friends. They become very close, like sisters, but the second one eventually turns evil, and her friend has to make a very hard choice, not willing to fight her but being forced to.
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Both feature the alter ego of a young girl fighting strange creatures in a surreal otherworld.
You are a girl (a hot one) and you wanted to save your friend from something audience never get to know. But there are more than two girls in a show, and you can't get along with one without epic catfighting with the others.
1- Imagine yourself in that kind of situation, with physics-teaching alien who try to save the universe but lack the understanding of human emotion (aka. see human as disposable-condom-used-to-keep-the-excess-magical-power-used-to-save-universe-from-heat-death), and that alien is your employer. You got Magical Madoka.
2- Imagine yourself in that kind of situation in a black and white TV series that ended halfway and never announced sequel. You got BRS.
These shows both have the same feeling. Also, both have middle school girls who end up fighting in "another world." Plus the animation is similar.
'magical' girls, story about friendship and a hidden universe. When I watched the first ep, it hit me. This was like BRS, only more colorful and a lot darker[if that made sense]
both have 2 worlds it seems, and gives off the same feeling and have really similar points in it. Both first start off with a dark scene, then introduce the characters with a light tone feeling, but gradgually gets darker.
Though the plots of Magica and Black Star are different, the animation is basically the same way. If you love how Magica was drawn, you will love Black Star Shooter. Black Star also has a similar dark tragedy story like Magica, where its a female friend fighting for a female friend. It also involves alternate dimension like scenes. The only real difference is the two girls fight each other as opposed to Magica they fought 'witches'
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Opening ThemeNo opening themes found, add themes.
Ending Theme"Braveheart" by THE GOMBAND
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Related ClubsClaim a Vocaloid/Utau, Anime Girls Fan Club [A.G.F.C.], Anime/Manga Sanctuary, Takanashi Yomi Fan Club, Katsuri Fanclub, Thigh Highs FC, Everything is SEALED, Mato Kuroi Fan Club, Dead Master FC, BlackRockShooterTV, Vocaloid, Long Hair Characters Fanclub!, Kawaii Anime Girls Club, [HIATUS] The World of the Member Cards Alliance~ (W.M.C.A.), ★~Awesome Characters FC'-.,_,.-~★, SUPER SECRET CLUB, Moji Claims, Odd Eyes Club, Stuff That Needs to Come out of Japan, LE Paradise ❤ { L.E.P.}Love rock 'n roll , Insane Black ★ Rock Shooter FC, Kasane Teto Fanclub, MAL Chat , Black★Gold Saw FC, Ultimate Heroine, Vocaloid Love ♥, Tako Luka Fanclub, Hachune Miku Fanclub, *~Anime/Manga Club for ALL~*, Missile Punch, Claim a random Vocaloid item or Song!, Shishio's Custom Lists and Profiles (CSS + BBcode help) with Image sharing, ★★★ Vocaloid ★★★, Ro-Vision Studios, Elite{★}Star Cosmos 「 Project ESC 」, .:Ecchi Vocaloid Love:., Hatsune Miku - the Goddess ~FanClub~, Anime Dimenzija, Miyuki Sawashiro Club, Polski FC Vocaloid, Dead Master --> FanClub <-- , Forever Dream Cards, [K!L]LER MENTALITY, -^.,~*Greatest Chara - Poland Club*~,.^-, My Plan to Watch Anime, Hanazawa Kana's Fans!, tcg-zone, New South Wales Aussie Anime Club, BLACK★ROCK SHOOTER, Miku Hatsune FC~, >>VOCALOIDs<<, Official Black★Rock Shooter Anime Petition, mikuchan, ~ Polski FC VOCALOID, UTAU., Otaku Dreams, White ☆ Rock Shooter Fanclub., Black Rock Shooter ★, Takanashi Yomi Fans!!!!!!!, Black★Rock Shooter Poland, Kana Asumi Fanclub, 黒の刀 Kuro no Katana, Dark Angel AMV fan club, †=†=†=†=†=†=†=†=†=†=†=† ___________Готы___________ †=†=†=†=†=†=†=†=†=†=†=†, Special Cards Club (S.C.C.), Supercell FC, Kaai Yuki fanclub, Female Badass!, Black★Matagi FC, Black★Rock Shooter, Kamiya Hiroshi fanclub, Asutoraea no Oka(yuri rp), Genderbent Vocaloids, Girls With Scythes see all
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