STORY:
THIS IS NOT THE ACTION FANTASY YOU WERE PROMISED BY THE TRAILERS.
Roughly half of the 5 to 10 minutes of actual Black Rock Shooter footage was already shown in the previews.
I've seen a couple reviews saying that the show is all about a great friendship story, which is the only thing they can claim when the first 44 minutes of this 48 minute show are spent without the title character getting more than a 30-second spot on screen.
However, the "great friendship story" is 10 to 15 minutes of content dragged out over 44 minutes. Girls become best friends, one girl gets all sad, evil lady captures sad girl, forces her to fight her best friend, best friend transforms and rescues sad girl. This is the entire plot to both BRS and the first episode of Heartcatch, and Heartcatch includes a better fighting scene and does it in half the time. Never has a show made me want to re-cut it for better pacing more than this show. I could have started halfway through the show and not missed anything.
ART:
The art was the best part of the show, which I guess makes sense when the entire show was based on a song and some character art. Some of the animation was a bit sketchy, but I could have forgiven it if the rest of the show wasn't such utter crap.
SOUND:
For a show based on a Vocaloid song, the music was almost non-existent. I think the piano version of the song showed up once, but it was really quiet. The battle noises drowned out any music during them.
For voices, they weren't too bad, except for Yomi's VA (Who I had come to expect better work from). The final scene, the big emotional payoff, was ruined by the "I'm hugging you/I don't want to be hugged/Too bad/I'm going to moan like I'm giving birth to a camel." Everyone in the room cringed.
CHARACTERS:
These characters could have been memorable, if they had given them more lines than idle chit-chat about unimportant crap. The Heartcatch Precure characters have more developed personalities than these girls.
ENJOYMENT:
What enjoyment?
OVERALL:
Just don't bother.
