Black★Rock Shooter (OVA)

I don't understand this one much at all. The OVA kind of throws you into the shit right off the get go and expects you to know things already. Me, since I did not read a synopsis, I could not understand it all till the end.

Reason for the confusion mainly is because we are in one world and then in another almost instantaneously and it keeps jumping back and forth between the worlds like birds migrating for the different season. There is a reason to it, you just have to observe and wait for the reason to get there.

The music in this OVA however definitely ... added a lot of good. I loved the sound, i loved the music and the voice work was also good. If there was one thing enjoyable to this thing, it was the sound.

Which leads me to story. Already told you guys about how it keeps jumping back and forth, but the main plot holds some ok value. Since this is just a 50 min OVA, they kind of rushed things though. I feel like more could have been added in order to help describe the plot a bit better and stuff but I guess what they wanted to do was to make people walking around like deaf people at a heavy metal concert.

If you are to think of trying to watch this OVA, I would say be prepared to be disappointed. Not the best thing in the world and you will only be marginally be enjoyed by the OVA. I would not recommend this to anyone either for it kind of disappoints me to see it fail.

Until Next Time.

Ok, so if you don't know the story, I'll tell you:

The artist Huke drew a picture simply titled "Black Rock Shooter", and a Vocaloid song producer named Ryo though she looked like a black-haired Hatsune Miku, so he made a song and video, which were quite good, and after this entered the internet, it became a hit, so big, that they decided to make an anime.
I can only guess that at first they planned to have fights and a storyline, with BRS's post-apocalyptic world as a setting, but then some numbnuts decided that instead they should take advantage of the hype and make a ... slice-of-life anime about 2 girls...without BRS,of course.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!! BEWARE....or not, this thing sucks anyway

Story:2
If you saw the OVA already, you shouldn't be surprised, two girls, Yomi and Mato, suddenly become best friends but then get separated, and Mato befriends this girl named Yuu, and Yomi becomes jealous, disappears, Mato gets sad and decides to go look for her, that's pretty much it. There are clips with Black Rock Shooter fighting (sometimes just walking, or standing...weeeee)with Dead Master, and a red girl with no name at the beginning of the OVA, who apparently kills BRS and is never seen again(BRS survived...wtf? -.-), there was also a white haired girl with HUGE umm, fist-glove-thingies, who appears for 30 seconds, jumps off a cliff and is never seen again...at this point I wasn't surprised.

Art:6
What can I say, it's K-ON with guns (well, 1 gun), it's not bad, but it certainly isn't good(if that makes any sense), there were low framerate fights btw, not much else to say, except BRS's world looked great.

Sound:4
Fist of all, the BRS song's not in there...ever, there are some parts that sound kinda like it, like the piano at the end, but, the music was decent, but not too good.

Character:3
Well, the "real world" characters were boring, except for yoi and Mato (Well, there's only 9 characters), the BRS world characters, well, I don't know what to say, they don't talk, but the red girl and the white haired one were boring, the white haired one was just standing there, and red girl killed BRS(I guess I can give her some credit for that), but BRS and Dead Master didn't do much either, they just fought and then sort of...stopped, anyway, the characters weren't very good.

Enjoyment:2
Yeah, what did you expect? Well, I sure expected a lot more from this OVA, but it just didn't live up to a hype, nothing lives up to hype actually( well, maybe Gurren Lagann), but this was WAY,WAAAY, below not living up to it, it was terrible, to people who either never heard of the song or just found it by surprise it might be alright, but to other people, it was just a huge disappointment.

Overall:4

A lot of movies and TV shows nowadays are all "let's put as MUCH crap as we can to fit into a screen per millisecond of video. That'll really engage the audience and put us at the top of the entertainment industry." Black Rock Shooter instead starts off on the right foot by mixing plentiful, smooth action scenes with a daily school girl life, making the transition seem sudden and exhilarating.

The story, though a bit obvious and somewhat weird, started off rather slow. Really slow. Like half of 40 minutes was literally a couple average days of school. But let's not stay bogged down ... by the trivial details; it picks up quite suddenly after the second half starts, becoming strangely very serious and uncharacteristically abrupt. However, when you watch it, trust me, it's pretty darn predictable, yet entertaining all the same. There also wasn't much explanation, leaving the entire story up to the interpretation of the viewer. Which really annoys me, because the story is literally never explained, and the character's backgrounds are vague as well as the ending. However, don't let that deter you; the action was entertaining, and the fight scene was freaking epic.

The art, man, the art was gorgeous. Not during those mundane school scenes, but during the sword clashes and gun blasts. The angles were drawn flawlessly and the pace was rapid, not letting you suck in too much of the environment before being whisked away to an entirely different place. This kept the action fresh and inviting; the only problem was that the fighting, in proportion to the rest of the OVA, was scarce and fleeting. You only seemed to nail the tip of the ice berg here.

The sound was fast-paced, the ED melancholic and OP fast-paced and hurried. Supercell is great, and the mood matched perfectly. I'm not complaining about the sound effects, which were equally impressive. Overall, it was top-notch, and the quick movements of instruments were mirrored by the characters, creating an inviting sound experience.

The characters were iffy, at best. You figure out the main protagonist's personality and characteristics early on; her friend stays mysterious the entire time. However, nothing was explained, and there was no flashback nor background interrogation. Instead, it was, again, all up for the viewer to interpret for themselves. Sometimes, this isn't a bad thing, but this OVA really leaves you hanging. I guess they knew they were going to make a TV show based on this, but seriously, the cliff-hanger was ridiculous. However, the characters weren't a bad mix, and I certainly found them entertaining.

Overall, this was a fun little 45 minute detour from the usual mix. I would watch this simply for the artwork and action scenes; they were packed with detail and exploded with color and interesting drawing angles. Though the characters could have been more engaging, they weren't, and other aspects of the story fall way short of the line; however, there were many good qualities, which makes the anime entertaining, at best. Now that theme song is stuck in my head...

When it comes to Black Rock Shooter, I don’t get it. I just don’t understand what the anime was trying to achieve. Is it a slice of life high school anime with some random parallel universe duels thrown in? Or is it the reverse, a parallel universe duel with some random slice of life high school moments thrown in? If I knew the answers to that, then my opinion of this 50 minute OVA might have been different. But sadly, I don't.

Black★Rock Shooter is about the friendship of two girls (I think). Mato, on her first day of high school, meets Yomi, another fresher. Soon, ... they become good friends and what follows is a tale of loyalty and trust. Meanwhile, in a parallel universe, two women scantily clad in gothic clothing, battle it out, one wielding a massive sword and the other holstering a gigantic gun.

If you just stop and think about it, the concept of BRS is pretty damn good. Two girls entwined in a bittersweet tale of friendship, while their otherworldly alter-egos beat the living hell out of each other in an alternate dimension. Sounds interesting, right? Sure, there are some clichéd moments and the characters are nothing out of the ordinary, but at its core, it is entertaining. It is a very watchable show, with its fight sequences and fluid animation. While you’re following the innocent lives of the two girls, the anime suddenly throws in with the duel between the two female warriors.

However,with a run time of less than an hour, being merely "watchable" isn't that hard. And this anime never really rises above that due to its convoluted plot that looked like it was bullet points/chapter names instead of an actual storyline.

The animation is the main reason I’m giving this anime a pretty decent score. It’s awesome. The dark, gloomy planet is drawn perfectly and exudes a morose atmosphere thanks to the picture-perfect shade selections and varied camera angles. The azure copper sulphate blue eye fire of one of the duelists was slick.

Black Rock Shooter is another anime that joins the list of could-have, may-have and might-have’s. Complex and intriguing as the story may be, random events, clichéd characters, predictable plot and an astonishingly abrupt ending play spoil sport to this technically sound anime. Dive in expecting something awesome and you’re bound to be drenched in disappointment. It’s decent, but that’s about high as it gets.

Black Rock Shooter, is at it's core, an OVA which does not primarily star the character in which the OVA is named after. It is though, in all it's pretentious overtones, a simple interpretation of the inner workings of a teenage female mind.

The world and characters of the "Black Rock Shooter" portions of this OVA, are in fact, overtly shallow symbolism for the inner pain Yomi is going though when she was left all alone by Mato. In fact it could be said it is like her own reality marble.

Who are Yomi and Mato you ask? Well not Black Rock Shooter, that's for sure. That ... being said, you can expect to find two things going into this OVA, one, is a simple yet over-pronounced relationship drama and the other is random action with little to no dialogue.

Overall this show does good with showing character interactions and building up a friendship and report between the two female leads Mato and Yomi, while completely wasting our time with random scenes of their two body doubles "Black Rock Shooter" and "Death Master" existing in a Post-apocalyptic world battling it out.

Though this OVA does not really stand out, the art is not terrible, if a bit over done and pretentious when it comes to the fight scenes and it's at least short enough that if it did suck you are only wasting about 50 minutes, So if you don't give a shit that your favorite character is only used as a plot device and you feel like watching a cheap drama with shallow symbolism than you will love this OVA.

Losing friends is not an easy process. And when I say friends, I don’t mean the people whose exiting your life would make you go ‘awww’ or ‘that sucks.’ I’m talking about the people whose absence from your life leaves you speechless, only for your voice to come back as heart wrenching stutters after your mind has caught up with the fact ‘this person is gone.’ It’s a feeling we don’t want to experience.

Unfortunately for Kuroi Mato, she shares this sentiment a little over halfway through this tale. Yomi Takanashi is suddenly missing, and no matter where Kuroi looks, she’s nowhere to be found. Not ... at the sidewalk where they meet each other in the morning, not at the train station, not at their school, not even on each other’s cell phones. The piano piece in this moment speaks Kuroi’s emotions, but lingers with enough restraint to let dialog go undisturbed.

Later, the police bring their investigation to the Mato residence, as they believe Kuroi, being Yomi’s closest friend, might give a lead on where Yomi might have gone. But as Kuroi hears the words ‘closest friend,’ it’s all she can do to stay composed and answer their questions. The sudden lack of music puts the focus on their dialog, and the natural lighting of the room creates a sense of normalcy that contrasts and highlights Kuroi’s tearful face. It’s a frighteningly believable scene.

Fortunately for us, believably evoking a moment of loss is a testament to what the rest of the story has gained. But to call this moment the pay-off to the rest of the story wouldn’t be accurate. Pay-off implies the rest of the story is watched for this moment, but this moment is just another thread in a fabric of powerful scenes. Some loud and dramatic, others a whisper of the everyday, but all connected by the Golden Heart of a little-known OVA called Black Rock Shooter.

Of course, how a story about two friends in an everyday setting can conjure a title like Black Rock Shooter is bound to be confusing. But the tie-in between the title and story is the least confusing thing about the OVA. Several times throughout this anime, fight scenes between two characters—who I’ll call Blue Eyes and Green Eyes from this point on—are spread throughout the otherwise normal tale of Kuroi and Yomi’s friendship. There’s a lack of relevancy between the two concurrent story threads.

Or so it seems.

Now, the location of these fight scenes is never stated, but they’re less about the ‘where’ and more about the ‘what.’ ‘What’ they stand for. They’re not meant to be taken literally, but as a reflection of Kuroi and Yomi’s friendship, and of the characters themselves. Think I’m overreaching? Well, studio Ordet wouldn’t bother making Kuroi and Yomi resemble Blue Eyes and Green Eyes—or maybe it’s the other way around—without reason. The results are visuals that reinforce—reinforce, not creates—Kuroi and Yomi’s characterization.

Let me describe these characters. Kuroi is the outgoing one of the two, being the one to break the ice with Yomi while easily warming up to another character introduced later. She tends to easily show her emotions, from her bemusement meeting Yomi the first time to her later anguish. Then there’s Blue Eyes. She reaches out to Green Eyes, her weapon is a gun, and her outfit is revealing. Who reached out to Yomi? Kuroi. What does a gun do? It reaches out to things at a distance. What does a revealing outfit do? It shows a lot of skin, reflecting how Kuroi shows a lot of emotion.

Playing the foil and friend to Kuroi is Yomi. Her aloofness at the start believably melts into familiarity, as the reason she acts distant betrays her want for a friend. But she only opens up to Kuroi, and even then she holds back her feelings at the worst time. This creates the story’s conflict and justifies the fights with Green Eyes. Green Eyes herself wears a modest dress and fights with a scythe. What does a scythe do? It marks the end of things, and Yomi thinks their friendship has ended. What does a modest dress do? It doesn’t show much skin, mirroring Yomi’s emotional reticence.

Rolling the third wheel is Yuu Koutari. She’s the friend Kuroi makes later on, and serves as the catalyst of sorts for the story’s main conflict. Unfortunately, her relative lack of screentime, even for a side character, makes it hard to get a read on her, or get a general sense of her mindset and personality. It’s hard to tell if Yuu plays the ‘antagonist’—at least, Yomi sees her as such—by accident or whether she has ulterior motives for befriending Kuroi. The result is she becomes nothing more than a force to drive the story, which is one of the faults against the OVA.

The other fault of the story—but also one of its strengths—is how a year of Kuroi and Yomi’s friendship is shown as a montage. Their friendship would be more believable if it unfolded more in ‘real time’, but their development before the montage is believable as is. This pre-montage development covers what it needs to cover, from their first time passing each other by to Yomi believing Kuroi’s words. And the montage itself glosses over mundane stuff that would needlessly slow down the story. If nothing else, the light beats of the guitar-like track gives a peaceful, everyday feeling.

Speaking of which, the music is one of the overall stronger points of the OVA’s aesthetics. Pieces are either perfectly timed for whatever the mood is, or withheld entirely to bring focus to the dialog. Special mention goes to the tracks used during the three scenes at the town’s overlook. The instrumental in the first scene is upbeat and carefree to match Kuroi’s mood. The vocal track in the second scene mirrors Yomi’s melancholy AND Kuroi’s optimism in reaching out to her. And the piece during the third scene is understated, but helps to make a powerful statement about Kuroi’s character.

Now, I say the music is strong ‘overall’ because I was only talking about the music during the normal moments. The pieces during the fight scenes, save for the very end, amount to uninspired rock tracks. They set the mood for the action, but they’re all virtually identical. And with the fight scenes being spread throughout the story, the sudden change in music from soft to rock makes the action sound jarring. Thankfully, all the action only adds up to 10 minutes of a 52 minute OVA, so going back from action to normal doesn’t hurt the latter too much.

But while the soundtrack stays strong, the same can’t be said for the visuals. The normal scenes look nice, but the fight scenes have standard choreography and fluidity. The real strength of these visuals is what studio Ordet does with them. The fight scene backdrops are stylistic complements and echoes of the normal scenes. Blue Eyes is usually on lower ground than Green Eyes; Kuroi brings up Yomi’s height. When Kuroi is emotionally vulnerable, Blue Eyes takes a heavy blow. The final fight takes place on an overlook; the town overlook is significant to the story.

See, it’s the details within the fight scenes that link the action to the rest of the story. The biggest hurdle to overcome watching Black Rock Shooter is how the action seems thrown in for the sake of action. But as I might have pointed out, it—and the character designs—echo what happens in the rest of the story (except for that first—and only—scuffle with Red Eyes…) and don’t take up much time anyway. Of course, lots of thought being put into the visuals won’t mean much without compelling characters. And Kuroi and Yomi are genuine as characters and sincere as friends.

And it’s that authenticity between Kuroi and Yomi that makes Black Rock Shooter so strong, despite how it seems to misfire. Its story keeps firing forward without Kuroi and Yomi being reduced to mere story triggers (Yuu). Action that seems aimless has a lot of thought going into its design. Add music that’s on target most of the time, and the end result is something to keep your sights on. Its steadiness isn’t perfect, but all it takes to hit the mark is a Black Rock Shooter.

I thought this was gonna be awesome chicks fighting each other but all we got was like 10 minutes of horribly animated chicks fighting and 40 minutes of slice of life yuri shit. I wouldn't have minded the slice of life stuff if the story wasn't just retarded. I heard there was a lot of hype behind this and it was supposed to be good but it was probably the most boring 52 minutes of my life. I also heard that this was supposed to have something to do with Vocaloids? I was expecting a bunch of good songs but there were literally only like ... 4 songs in the whole show.

Overall: Boring story, Ok art, bad fighting animation, ok music (for what music there was), and stupid characters.

(This is just a re-post of my thoughts in the episode discussion forum.) Thank goodness I wasn't swept by the hype ... otherwise... From what I've been told, it was supposed to be an anime series, then turned into a six episode OVA, then turned into one 50-minute OVA. So pretty much like what happened to The Last Airbender movie. It felt rushed, lacked in good development of characters and story, and felt really trippy... I don't even know what that means. Wait ... I meant unbalanced.

Anyway, this OVA is quite disappointing even if I wasn't at that point.

Let's start with the good.

The animation was ... actually pretty cool. I like grittiness of it, reminds me of Escaflowne in a way. The mesh of action and a somewhat sad daily life kind of defined the grittiness of the animation.

Now we go with the ugly.

The parallel plots with one in-media-res and the other ab-initio really messes up the story. Too many things are left unanswered and the way the story was told made the pacing feel off and too quick for me to actually care. Also, the way the ending was told made me feel that this really isn't THE Story of Black Rock Shooter. It's just a prequel of it. (Think Star Wars prequel trilogy bad.)

Characters don't really feel unique but it'd be surprising to see unique characters in a single OVA. So I'll be forgiving. Also, is everyone in parallel world (that they don't explain about, by the way) mutes or something?

And now with the bad. (Just felt like referencing things.)

There were barely any songs in there. The ones that do exist, though, were average and nothing worthy of being memorable. What's good is that at least the score wasn't suicide-inducing annoying like Akikan's. Funny thing is, they didn't even have the song, oddly enough "Black Rock Shooter", that they based the anime off of. I kept saying to myself that they would put the theme song in the climax or end credits. But after a while, I lost hope... Stay focused me!

Lastly, I want yuri. Damn it! Give me some yuri! (This does not weigh into my decision. I just really like to whine about this particular genre.)

Therefore, I give this an "Average" rating because there wasn't any given reason to hate this other than time constraints and I feel like being nice. After all, I just saw Inception.

P.S. Go watch Inception. It's much better than Avatar and it's pretty awesome.

P.D. Because I said Avatar, I got reminded of the cartoon about controlling elements and what not. Go watch that series too and while I'm at it, the Legend of Korra also... Well, once the Legend of Korra comes out.

A wave of hype comes as they announce an OVA about a Vocaloid song, Black Rock Shooter. Awesome promotion art, magnificent trailers and even cosplays ranging from outrageously horrible to very excellent went.

The OVA was released and came to this, a not good but not bad anime.

Story: 6/10

The plot was unclear at first. Two people become best of friends and one of the friends, Mato, become friends with Yuu. Yomi, Mato's friends, turn jealous... but that doesn't explain the other world where it shows people that look like Mato and Yomi but with weapons fighting each other. A very overused plot, but... what the heck ... is going on? It just pops into the world where Mato and Yomi fighting and the real world without any reason. Perhaps a sequel?

Art/Animation: 6/10
The art was uneven. The world where Mato and Yomi fought was very well-drawn, however, the real world was really average. Same for the animation.

Sound/Voice Acting: 6/10
The sound was average. As for the music, there are very few pieces of music played in this anime. The ED didn't really pop in my head, and I just liked the battle themes. The voice acting was average as well, but nothing special.

Character: 4/10
Definitely one of BRS's more weaker points. Yomi, Mato and, it looks like, Yuu developed quite a bit in this anime. However, they don't explain who are the people that look like Mato and Yomi, what are their intentions, etc. Are they used to develop Mato and Yomi's (in the real world) characters? Are they used just because they wanted to mix slice of life and action together?

Enjoyment: 4/10
How could I enjoy such a confusing anime? The only thing that made 'enjoyment' a 4/10 would be the fighting and I liked some of the characters' voices.

Overall: 6/10
This is a waste of time. If you don't mind a ton of slice of life, few action scenes, and a very confusing plot + set of characters, then watch this. I'll be expecting a sequel that's a thousand times better than this.

Black Rock Shooter became popular before appearance in the screen. All fans waited and pinned hopes on it... but they were disappointed.
At first Ordet gave the hope for the viewer but then they threw us into the abyss of the school life...

Deception begins immediately in the first episode. Wonderful atmosphere of the "Other world" and fighting girls were amazing... But all good things sooner or later finished... In place of the wonderful world comes that what we saw (many times)... for example, in K-ON!. This is the main bad side of BRS. There are too many usual pupels. It's epic fail.

Meet - Маtо Kuroi. Sweet, ... funny, direct girl. Just entered at high school (Say hello to Yui, Haruhi and millions other girls) and wants to meet new friends. Typical character. She met Takanashi Yomi. Beautiful, smart, high girl. She just moved to this town from Germany. Yomi lives next door to Mato.
Next thirty minutes girls are floating on the waves of school life...

They talked at the break, went in school's clubs, went shopping, sometimes tryed to learn, reminded the girls from K-On, prepared for the school festival... In short, they did what everybody already rather tired of seeing.
And sometimes (for no reason) suddenly arise scene from another world. Very beautiful world. Designers have tried good (unlike writers)...
In the second half of the OVA suddenly begins operation. The viewer at this time followed the fight of Black Rock Shooter and Dead Master. Then there is the ending. Indeed the story gets denouement... It seems that before the terrible final cut half an hour of screen time.

Although, if you look last ten minutes, without drawing attention to everything else, especially sentimental people can even find a reason to cry... Authors hint of continuation unlikely to deliver the viewer the feeling that he was left high and dry and without a clear plot.

So that is Black Rock Shooter. Very beautiful, pleasant to the ears and eyes... between futile school days. And sometimes it's dejected so much that want to stretch to the red cross in the corner of the screen.
It's great time to tear the head of Black Rock Shooter figurines.

This is Probably the first review I've ever written so, If I Make any mistakes my fault!I've watched it Twice One Raw the other With Subs.It was easy to understand.

Kuroi Mato just got into Junior high.But on her way to the Junior high for the Ceremony she meets Takanashi Yomi.Probably At First Sight she had to have admiration for her. During those times, Mato Pushed herself to talk with Yomi.Just in a few seconds they started talking;sharing their biography and even started to hang out and buy things for each other.Though It was Only Mato who bought Both herself and Yomi a blue Star Cellphone ... chain.

During Mato's Basketball practice,Mato's Basketball Manager;Yuu had came in to help Mato when she accidentally minor sprained her Knee/Ankle.After a Year had passed by Yuu and Mato had came into the Same class while Yomi was separated into the other.Mato and Yomi Slowly started to separate from each other and didn't talk as much anymore. Mato was talking to Yuu now,plus they were in the same club too.

One Day When Yomi was ended up Missing.Mato Takes to long to realize on what she'd done to their Friendship.Yuu on the other hand tells Mato not to worry about it and says she'll come back.Mato Desperately wants her friend back.

One night She gets a blank text message from Yomi and Bikes to their Spot.When she sees Their Charm in the grass, She holds it and Sees Black★Rock Shooter.Black★Rock Shooter gives Mato the Chance to walk with Yomi once again.

//Story; 8/10
The story was a Natural-like Story that we're usually used to and with the mix of a Fantasized side in a other world.It was a bit dramatic and Sad.But It had A story or Lesson About Friendship.Never let someone important to you feel left out since you were with someone else. That was Part of the story had said in my opinion.This story was a fantastic job!

//Art; 9/10
The Art was beautiful.it Annoyed me a bit how in the other world it looked kind of flat or two dimensional.Though They were pretty cool.The artwork on the scenes were perfect.

//Character; 8/10
The Characters were well-drawn but it doesn't have the appearance of Insane★ black rock shooter nor does it explains about the other two characters appearances Black★Gold Saw and Strength(STR). For multiple of seconds you only get to see Strength three to four times in the episode/movie and Black★Gold Saw once,At the beginning her battling against Black★Rock Shooter.

//Sound; 10/10
This Original Soundtrack was fantastic!I loved the battles themes when Dead Master and Black★Rock Shooter were battling.Plus the emotional themes that were included in there.They were wonderful!

//Enjoyment; 10/10
This Anime has been on hold for too long and I was Just Excited enough just to see this anime!I enjoyed how cute the characters were and how awesome the fights were.It actually made me a bit upset how they took out some of the characters that belonged to this anime,I was looking forwards to Seeing Black★Matagi,Black★Devil girl,Dragon slayer and Geshumaru. But This Anime was still good without them.

I just hope there will be a Sequel to it.I would like to see Black★Matagi,Black★Devil girl,Dragon slayer and Geshumaru Appear in there. With Black★Gold saw and Black★Rock shooter once again. That would be interesting. I loved it all!

“Link”

After watching the OVA I felt an urge of seeing more of this as the anime is been compressed with a short period of time which result into such dismay

The Story…

With such high anticipation for this anime, seeing and feeling shallow spark throughout the story is a bit disappointing while it seemingly turns out to be a typical scenario of a two junior high school students that creates friendship along the way. On their way, this ‘another world’ which is questionable in some terms to the plot becomes one of the assets of the story that adds twist, action, and drama, which turns out ... to be quite entertaining due to the method they use for such scenes, but judging on the looks of it, they created a complex concept into it.

The main attraction would be drama and action of the story. Simultaneously they will bring up scenes that will captivate your senses. But due to its environment, it looks like that it is not likely effective and doesn’t give such immense impact to the story itself. Also, the way they represent it as a whole became less attractive even though some of the scenes were truly worthy and touching.

Art & Animation…

This might be just right for you if you like a different illustration of action as it shows some of its magnificent character movements and backdrops, which truly helps on bringing life to the anime. Besides on that, they also have beautiful backgrounds, detailed character designs, and impressive scenery that blend to the setting.

Sound…

The sounds really blend in with the action and the drama of the story. Calm, dramatic, fast beating and silent BG sounds which brightens and suits to the OVA.

Character…

The character traits here are also common. One with an energetic trait, Mato, while the other is quite timid, Yomi, usage of these traits is not new but adopting this in the OVA surely affects the whole story. There are some ups and downs into it. The ups are, it maintains the flow of the story to the level which is not boring, and it also became quite interesting, but the downs are, it doesn’t have other aspects that will surprise the viewers on watching.

Enjoyment…

The story is quite predictable and plain but it also has some good parts into it. The art, animation, and sounds blend together while the characters simply match into it. The only thing that you may not be fond of is the development of the story which is quite intriguing of what is hidden inside of the content.

Overall…

It contains a simple story with a different style of maintaining the enjoyment throughout the show. An action mixed with drama context around the characters is colorful, but don’t expect too much about it as a whole while it contains a plain feature, nice designs but not on the plot.

I suppose, having watched as much anime as I have, I should stop wanting everything to make sense and happen for an explicit reason. Then I might be a little less 'WTF?!?' about this OVA. I enjoyed it a fair amount, I must say, though I found the slice-of-life portion to be fairly bland and the post-apocalyptic battle to be excllent and intriguing, but tragically unexplored.

Story: 7/10; good ideas, but much is left unexplored.

For a plot synopsis; two girls meet in a junior high school, become friends, and then drift apart. At the same time, two warriors resembling the schoolgirls are engaged ... in a battle to the death. The two parallel stories don't unfold on the same time scale; more than a year passes in the school, while all we see of the alternate universe is a single battle. The two parallel universes seem to be linked in some unexplored way, but why the two warriors are fighting and what the consequences of their fight are in the real world is left entirely unexplained. Maybe the creator wanted the audience to fill in the blanks themselves?

Art: 8/10; excellent fights and smooth action, but meh school scenes.

Unsurpisingly for an OVA, the art is excellent, especially in the post-apocalyptic battle. There's really only so much you can do with schoolgirls in fuku, though, and sometimes the real-world scenes seems like more of an afterthought to the dialogue between characters (which is mostly Lucky*Star type inane chatter, without the humor and otaku jokes).

Sound: 8/10; nice soundtrack, but some dialogue between our two fantasy girlies would've helped.

The music suited the mood well and I especially enjoyed the music that played throughout the battle sequences. The voice actors did well for what they were given, though in the battle story it mostly consisted of grunting without even calling out move names.

Character: 5/10; who is this devil girl and why is Rin's sister trying to kill her?

You'd think with two versions of each character, the main girls (Yomi and Mato) would be pretty well-developed characters. Not really, they're not really fleshed out much beyond basic character archetypes (sporty girl and quiet, mature girl), and we don't know anything whatsoever about our mysterious fighting girls, not even learning the protagonist's name until the very end. Still, I liked the character designs in the fantasy world, especially Yomi's succubus-like attire, so that's worth some points.

Enjoyment and Overall: 7/10; not sure what I just watched, but I liked it!

I wish more had been explained, but I've almost come to expect that from anime. They're not too great about filling in all the blanks, but perhaps I'm spoiled in that regard by American movies and television. The fight between the girls was killer; I'd have enjoyed it more if they had spent a lot less time on the slice-of-life BS, and more on what happened to the fantasy world and why BRS is fighting Devil Girl.

Hello there.
Probably you fan of Hatsune Miku or Vocaloids. If yes, mark this review as useful, and go watching. Because words below will break your soul and make your life miserable more than Gregory House after surgery.
If not, read below.

Black Rock Shooter was a long awaited OVA after first trailer. Ordet had to do much to please fans.
What we got? A mix.
We have a two new high school students: Kuroi Mato and Yomi Takanashi (who got weird style of writing her name). It's a typical story about two girl falling for each other, making it a nice yuri couple. For dozen of minutes only scene ... that you will want to see, is they kissing.Especially, that there no men in this world, except younger brother of Mato. If you watched Strawberry Panic, you will feel similar vibe.
Sorry, not today, cause here comes combo breaker.
It's all good to this point. Especially, that we have sudden, full of action moments of fight between Death Master and Black★Rock Shooter.
You can loud say "Whaaaat?! / Naaaani?!" but yes, we have retrospection of events. This is all okey, because art, music and storyline is firm and solid. And with every minute it's better and better.

Yet, and the end you will end with disappointment. Without spoilers I will say - cliffhanger. And at this moment, in day of release I have my finger on BIG RED BUTTON. Button, which launch all nukes in the world into Ordet HQ. I send them a nice letter / bloody threat that Black Rock Shooter needs a two hours long sequel, that will explain everything. Deadline is tomorrow.

Hope they get it in time :)

Jealousy is a disease that gives birth to malice and love is the only cure.I think that's the message in this anime.I feel kinda corney for writing that.
Now lets talk more about the anime Black rock shooter one of the most anticipated shows this year.Some people think it's a appointment and some don't , but i say its not that bad.Sure i expected more but i knew it wont be as good as the trailer, cause that's how every anime is.

Story : It feels empty after u watch it.
The anime begins with Black Shooter fighting with some sadistic evil girl (which all the people know ... that it's her friend so it doesn't count as a spoiler).Then it shifts to Mato waking getting ready for her first day at high school i think.Soon afterwords u will see how they met for the first time and how they became bffs.The anime shift from their fight and their time as friends.Through this process u will find out how tings turn the way it did and why.

Art-Sound : The art is great and the fights kinda reminds me of soul eater maybe because yomi had a scythe.

Characters: Not much the anime centers on Yomi(evil) Mato(B Shooter).

Overall i say give it a shoot it's a good show no matter what you hear about it.Why? Because i said so hehe.

Well, my first impressions of this anime was: Girls with impressive weapons fighting in this abandoned, gothic, fantasy world. Not bad. Then I watched this OVA and at the end i said to myself "So where's the next part?" only then to realise that was the end... It didn't make sense! It left everything unexplained, which really disappointed me! These are a couple things I would like to talk about!

Story
The plotline was simple, two girls Yomi and Mato meet at school they become best of friends. They then get put into seperate classes and there friendship falters as Mato begins befriending ... Yuu. Yomi is left out. Typical school situation but meanwhilst there are two girls that look coincedently like Yomi and Mato fighting with big weapons... thats all there is too it.
Art
The art is simplistic, the characters do not have very much detail and all sport somewhat wacky, inventive hairstyles. However in the fantasy world I find the art style very inspiring and interesting to look at. The character design for the two girls is also quite impressive and imaginative which always impresses me. Although i don't understand why the Mato look-alike has to be in a bikini, yes you've got consider the male fan base but really?!
The Unexplained Bit
I find it frustrating that nothing was explained about the girls in the gothic world throughout the anime! Except the ending where you find out the identity of the Mato look-alike... thats all you ver really know about her. Why were they fighting so intently? What happened to Yomi, did it have any relevance to the fantasy world? Where the girls in the fantasy worlds just more exagerated clones of Yomi and Mato just in an alternate dimension?
So many questions! Hopefully they will be answered when i watch the Black Rock Shooter series when it shows but this is my opinion on this OVA. Thanks for reading!

Now, listen. I won't throw in any major stuff, but there might be one or two spoilers. For one, there wasn't enough Black Gold Saw! She only appeared for about 20 seconds in the beggining! Nor was there enough Yuu-chan! She was there for abit, but not alot. I really did like this anime, but it was quite more disappointing then I expected. They didn't play the Black Rock Shooter song anytime at all in the OVA. The ending was kinda cheesy or corny. I don't know. One thing I did like was Yuu/Strength. Very cute and bubbly character. I loved the fight scenes, so ... it should have had more of them. I really did like the art style. The animation is pretty smooth during the fight scenes, alittle slow in the rest of the OVA. I guess this was a pretty good OVA, but not something if you were expecting something amazing and inspiring. Maybe just watch it to see if you think it's good or not. :D

You have to take Black★Rock Shooter as it is. What started as a bunch of art that became more popular became an anime ova. The story deals with friendships of two girls. Both grand and the strugling, and also combines another universe that is both creative and a little bit war hungry among others. Mainly Black★Rock Shooter and Dead Master.

The storyline was thought of for the ova in itself. It sometimes ran dry with the normal day life, begging for the interactions of the other world.

I gained more respect for it with the soundtrack and the way it ended.

Making me beg for more additions.

I ... take it as it is and i appreciate the work that went into it to actually make it happen. As well as appreciating the desire for more.

Black Rock Shooter, the OVA, was based off the highly praised song composed by supercell composer ryo. The vocals were done by Hatsune Miku (vocaloid), and character designs by huke, a popular artist on both deviantart and pixiv. The original video, along with the song, tells of a heroine wandering through a barren wasteland. The song gained immense popularity, and soon, covers, remixes, and videos by fans were being created en masse.

One such video that received a lot of attention was a 3D pv, with a real storyline. It depicted Black Rock Shooter facing off against Dead Master, who was possessed by evil spirits. This ... famous video was to become the basis of the Black Rock Shooter OVA.

Black Rock Shooter was green-lit for an anime OVA about a year and a half ago. It came out July 25th, 2010. Here are my thoughts about this long-awaited OVA.

First off, let's just say it was a little disappointing. Many people believe it simply wasn't worth the wait. Indeed, waiting a year and a half for a 50 minute OVA of average level wasn't fun. There are some really amazing things about Black Rock Shooter, but there are also a lot of points that were just bleh.

Plot 6/10: Let me confess, I expected it to be based almost entirely off of the 3D PV, so I already had high hopes and expectations. However, while the storyline is intriguing enough, the way it was presented was very poor. There simply wasn't enough development or explanation. There are too many points where the audience is left to its imagination, as well as some completely pointless scenes. While the real world plot was indeed developed enough, the BRS world was completely completely random at some points.

Art 10/10: Visually, the OVA was stunning. It was quite surprising, considering that the animations company, Ordet, is quite new to the scene. Black Rock Shooter was their first actual production, although they helped out animations for a few other anime, such as Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens and the second season of Shakugan no Shana. The creepy world of Black Rock Shooter was drawn and animated so amazingly that seeing the landscape would send chills up my spine. The animations were quirky and abstract in the Black Rock Shooter world, and extremely clean and beautiful in the real world.

Sound 8/10: I love ryo's music, no kidding. The background music fit the OVA rather well, especially when you could hear Nagi's vocals weaving in and out of the background at some points. I'm a little miffed, however, that the actual song this OVA was based on didn't make its appearance, except as the main tune of some of the background music tracks. I mean, at least make it the OP or the ED!

Characters 8/10: For a 50 minute OVA, the characters were very well developed. We were able to see the personalities of Yomi and Mato in an instant. However, I don't believe that the BRS world was discussed very well. Admittedly, there isn't much need for explanation, but still, it would be nice to have some development. It was as if the characters were just BAM!, placed there, already knowing what to do and getting it done.

Enjoyment 7/10: I had extremely high expectations for this OVA, and the way they presented it was just very disappointing. It was definitely not worth waiting a year for! However, I think the only reason I enjoyed it as much as I did was BECAUSE of the fact I waited so long for it. While I was watching it, I felt a certain sense of relief, like, "Thank god, whether it turns out good or bad, the wait is finally over." All in all, it definitely did not live up to my expectations.

Final Judgement: Black Rock Shooter is worth watching, worth buying, and heck, it may even go down in history as the first Vocaloid-ish anime/OVA ever to come out. Maybe we'll see more of this in the future. (I wouldn't mind seeing a Kokoro/Kiseki OVA, or a Just be Friends OVA!) However, there are much better anime/OVAs out there, and the fact that Black Rock Shooter is best described as "slightly above average" is quite disappointing.

-Story:
The story was simple and not really well developed. The negative thing about it was that it didn't reveal much things about the thoughts of the characters and it was slightly lacking. It would have been better, in my opinion, if it had been divided into two OVAs. However, I believe that this vague story was actually interesting. The show explores people's feelings in great detail, problems that seem typical for school girls to experience are treated much more seriously than ever. The fantastic world of Black Rock Shooter server as a metaphor to what the girls are feeling deep inside them. So to conclude, ... it emphasizes a lot in feelings but it's lacking in thoughts of the characters.
-Art:
The art was great, both the background and character's design where outstanding. The scenes in the fantastic world are amazing, and the setting was something I really liked.
-Sound:
As for the sound, I believe it was also marvelous, the epic music at the end made my heart skip a beat, it was great and I played it over and over again.
-Character:
The characters are slightly lacking because it was a very short OVA, their thoughts are expressed almost at all, especially Yomi's thought. At the end we are left with this kind of suspense about what exactly Yomi was thinking or what she going to tell Mato.
-Enjoyment:
Subjectively, I really enjoyed the OVA. I watched when I had final exams and it helped me relieve stress, even thought it filled my mind with lots of thoughts about it!
-Overall:
To conclude I think that this OVA emphasized a lot in people's feelings and that it was also educational due to the fact that it shows in such great detail how humans perceive life in certain situations. It gives a lot of information about jealousy and it's causes.