I see it as a psychological show.
Other selves = girl's mind.
Other selves fighting = Girl stress
Death of other self = Girl went from stress to snap.
When the girl snap, they'll cut all ties with the subject of their stress.
However...
The show have slight "supernatural" involvement.*
Other selves fight to defend their Original's sanity, help them endure the pain that would otherwise cause them to go into rejection/denial.
Matou is too nice to a fault. She never complain about anything, and she's hurting, BRS took them all in, while at the same time, eliminating everything that stresses her. Matou want a world where people is free of trouble and everyone is nice.
Matou's biggest concern are the stress of her friends**
When her friends are stressed out, they'll have their other self doing "damage control" in their own world... And BRS comes into play...
BRS role
BRS protects Matou by invading and killing everyone's other selves, forcefully eliminating everyone's stress for Matou. Thus all the girls went snap and go into denial/rejecting reality. When Kagari was causing Matou's stress, she went and beheaded Chariot. Same with Senpai and Yomi. She forcefully "treat" them. Which brings very negative effect. As the girls went from stress to rejection.
Saya Sensei
Saya believe, if the girl's other selves are strong and keep protecting their "original", eventually, when the other selves absorb/share enough of the original's punishment, they'll heal and become a stronger person.
Saya claim that when one is hurt, their other self get stronger. Stronger other selves = better defense against BRS. (Which is true, though it's not the nicest way, but her intentions are not bad)
Saya wants to protect Yuu and other girls from going into "rejection", and she's well aware of BRS's existence and power. So, if one of Matou's friends are stressed out and it in turn stresses Matou, she'll stress them out even more to strengthen their other selves. Protecting the girl's sanity from BRS.
The more hurt the girls are, the bigger the strength they need to overcome their "pain". If they endure it, they'll gain the strength their other selves possess.***
From above, one can tell that BRS is an entity capable of turning girls into reality rejecting people. And BRS is willing to do so as all she care and love is Matou alone.****
She initially try to strengthen the Senpai's other self, but BRS got to Senpai's other self before BGS even have a chance of "training" the Senpai's other self. Put a quick, effective end to Matou's stress.
Strength knows that despite how hurt/stress out Yomi was(which strengthen MD), she cannot beat BRS as Matou's the biggest reality rejecting artist, thus her BRS is even stronger. Strength confront Matou, and both Matou and "Strength" understood that running away is not the best optionn. Strength brought Matou to the other world, but it's too late, as BRS already killed MD.
Matou went into deep shock, one that's enough to coma her psychologically. When one is psychologically traumatized, they sometimes go into a deep sleep to protect themselves. Being the ultimate "rejecting reality" person, BRS gotten even stronger, becoming IBRS.
IBRS, destroys everything in it's path. Because Matou don't want to face anything anymore. (I mean, she went into a deep sleep to protect herself from absolutely everything)
Strength continues to call out to her best friend, and Matou, is cured off her "rejection/denial" naturally. (Something that Saya wants all girl to achieve) Matou became a much stronger person, as strong as her true other self, Black Rock Shooter.
The bird book basically tells you the story. Matou takes in all the colors, she snapped when she's completely tainted, then the colorful world bring her right back, and having been through everything, Matou is a lot stronger. She takes reality heads on. (One would think that if all girl cured by themselves, they'll become as strong as their otherselves that protects them)*****
Yomi, Kagari, Senpai, all confront their inner demons again and win. And they all become stronger by the end.
conclusion.
Matou is so good at denying reality that her otherself, BRS, got so powerful. And She's capable of doing impossible damage to others mental state. BRS is a anti-hero, a very selfish anti-hero. She'll do everything to protect Matou be it good or bad.
That's my final interpretation on BRS(TV). Psychological show about girls learning to deal with reality with slight supernatural elements involve.
EDIT: In hindsight, the bird book is stupidly deep. Gatha love Japanese writers and their symbolism.
The bird can be interpreted as one that take too much of the world go into sleep(like Matou), and recover from it and rise back up strong
For those of you who complain about BRS not being the type of show you hope it'd been... Or feel that the TV series have slaughtered BRS as a whole...
I think you should not forget that...
BRS, is just some artwork and a song. The writers are writing their story base on the art and the song by supercell. And IMO, they interpreted the song in their own way, and came up with, and shared us a very interesting psychological show(with BRS theme).
EDIT: Forgot to mention that Supercell did the ending, and it also reinforce their view on the story. (The 2 songs are perfect for the show)
Imagination level = So good at being pretentious it's not funny. If they have gotten the idea while smoking something... Whatever they're smoking... I want one!
AirStylesMay 11, 2012 11:24 PM
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wel i sayed it once and i will just past it here why i hate BRS TV so much >>>
1. Hatsune Miku - Black Rock Shooter would be Awesome opening but... they added this stupid Remix >_>
2. They changed apperance of every character... so now they look terrible..
3. The main plot... is piece of shit... we get forced Drama pushed by nonsense fighting (allthou the battles were rly good)
4. Black Rock Shooter who was the best character in this anime imo... turned into a monster... changed her colour into purple.. and was fighting with Mato!! (gosh.. seriously????) hahahahahahaha XDDDDD
5. why Mato doesn't have a star by her cellfone? in exchange for that she get stupid bird wallpaper alongside with whole story about it which was the main "theme" of the anime >_> i didn't like that change..
6. Death Master >_>
7. why that girl on wheelchair was on wheelchair anyways?
8. i didn't like the thing that this story was focused on Yuu >_>
I know that its based on MV by Hatsune Miku and some Art but even then after watching awesome OVA i was so much dissapointed after seeing TV series... they made it all wrond...
7. why that girl on wheelchair was on wheelchair anyways?
8. i didn't like the thing that this story was focused on Yuu >_>
I know that its based on MV by Hatsune Miku and some Art but even then after watching awesome OVA i was so much dissapointed after seeing TV series... they made it all wrond...
i only really can only respond to 7 & 8 lol
7. it was explained that she experienced a sort of trauma that prevented her from walking
8. the 1st half of the anime was focused on Yomi/Kagari, just like the OVA, and just like how the OVA was headed although it never really went there, the 2nd half was focused on Yuu. So I didn't see a problem. If you don't know what I mean then you must've not seen the scene at the end of the credits in the OVA.
But I understand why you're saying that. Personally I thought BRS Insane mode was badass lol, And I like the badass fights in the anime too. But overall art dropped and story wasn't delivered properly, since it was like almost like a tragic poem. And I actually liked the OP. But these are all opinions :)
The way I see BRS is that it is a show about escapism. The second world is the way the characters escape from crippling stress, but the show emphasizes that escaping reality doesn't solve the issue. Instead it's message is that you should live your life and experience everything whether it be depressing or joyous. This is coming from the whole "Tiny Bird and the Colors" book. The book is about how a bird enjoys the fruits and pains of life until the very end. Instead of trying to escape life, or the colors, it takes them in stride and eventually dies. However, in the end of its life it can still remember all of the colors and the different emotions that they represent. Going on with this theme and my earlier point, the second world is an escape where many find refuge by having other beings take the brunt of their pain from the real world for them. BRS is different in how it aims to destroy other people's avatars in the second realm and therefore remove their ability to escape from emotions. Some people try harder than others to escape from reality (ranging from people who try and escape completely to others who just stow away most of their stress). The whole point of this series is to convey the message that no matter how negative your emotions seem, you still have an entire wonderful array of emotions that you can feel, but not if you escape reality.
The "Tiny Bird and the Colors" book really is an enigma to me... It has more than one way to look at it. Yet, on the Internet there's nobody talking about it!! ><
First off, the colours in the book represent the characters in the anime, but it's not pinned down in canon. The problem here is that some character designs are of one colour, but their home in otherself is another colour. For example, pink of fever probably refers to Kagari, since she was 'sick'. Being with someone as they are sick (Yomi took care of Kagari) is one of the 'colours that you experience' in life. But Chariot is Yellow, which is not in the book.. But her bracelet is pink. The orange of smiles represent Yuu (strength is green) and the joys with a friend. Blue of tears represent Matou herself, how she sympathises with her friends. I think blue also refers to the sky, as she is the bird that flies through all these different colours.
Purple of haze is IBRS, in that the confusion of the events thus far has led to IBRS's birth. IBRS is Matou's self-conflicts and confusion personified into an uncontrollable monster.
Red of anger represents Yomi because she held contempt towards her friends who left her (though Dead Master is green?) ... Yomi stops feeling this anger/grudge after DM was killed. She literally is OK with Kagari... (rather, she doesn't even acknowledge her friends as closely)
And lastly, the black... Two ways to see this, both explained in the show, iirc.
1) Black represents the culmination of all these colours. Matou having seen all this in her friends, could be considered as absorbing these into herself, or more like BLACK ROCK SHOOTER has been doing the absorption for her. After all the penting up of these emotions, it overwhelms her and she breaks down (coma)...
Matou also said she felt like she was the bird.
But within this same metaphor, there is another interpration of it.
At the end of the series, Matou and her friends want to experience everythig in life and not reject them. The bird takes it in until death. This is what Matou meant in episode 7 that she always wanted to be the tainted bird.
It's interesting that the bird is something Matou aspires to be (experiencing life head-on), yet she already is in another metaphorical meaning (BRS removing all the pain of her friends).... The second one is a bit blurry, but it's worth considering because in episode 7, Matou says.. "That's right.. the bird.... is... black rock shooter!!" and she follows with "I..." but interrupted by Yu. I interpret that as Matou realizing that she was BRS all the while, and has been doing this subconsciously.
2) The black represents that Black of Pain. The pain of hurting your friends (which matou has not done, but let BRS do it for her) to absorb their hurt. The pain that all the characters do not want to experience and end up letting their otherself absorb it or they reject the entire problem (otherself death)
from the wiki: Mato thinks about herself as the Tiny Bird during the climax fight with Insane Black★Rock Shooter. A voice in her head says Tiny Bird is dead, but she responds that she can still remember colors so she will fly to see them.
This is in line with the first interpretation (given by OP of this thread). Just like Pseudophenomena said, the tiny bird's death represents a person having too much of life's 'colours' and therefore 'dying' (giving up, rejecting the problem, etc.). Once you get past that, you become stronger than before. In fact, in the ep 8 sequence, the otherselves gather to help BRS. Once you have your friends (other otherself) to support you (their worlds merge, so their problems are shared and one the same), you can overcome your emotional conflicts (blasting away IBRS)
... I'm going to end with a quote from Matou in episode 1 (from BRS wiki)
"This world is so colorful.
Bright colors. Warm colors. Sparkling colors.
As well as dirty, lonely and sad colors.
Colors aren't all wonderful.
But even so, this world is beautiful!
There are firends who laugh with you.
There are many different colors and things...
all of which we will accept one by one.
We will accept them all and grow up.
We will grow up in this world."