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Watching and reviewing Black Rock Shooter was a complete last-minute thing for me. Since it started well into the Winter anime season, I picked it up on a whim because it looked at least semi-interesting. To my dismay, that's exactly what it was. Semi-interesting, nothing more. I have a pretty neutral stance on this show, I suppose. I've never watched the Black Rock Shooter OVA, but I've heard mixed opinions on it in comparison to the anime series. Judging on how average this show is, I don't think I'll even spend time watching the OVA.

Story [5]
I suppose the story was original for the most part. ... I just thought that the whole idea was rushed, especially towards the end. That, and some of it just straight-out didn't make any sense. The story is about a girl who fights in an alternate world to fight off her pain in the real world. The main premise seems pretty interesting, right? Well, it would have been, had the producers done it better. This show had a lot of potential just based on the plot summary, but the actual show does not do it any justice. I suppose that, for some, this would be an interesting watch, but it just didn't cut it for me.

Characters [5]
The characters are a bunch of whiny middle school characters with hardly any depth to their personalities. None of them really stood out, save for maybe Kagari in the first few episodes of the show. I found the characters to be rather generic and bland. They had no outstanding traits, which makes for a bunch of rather boring characters.

Visuals [9]
After all the bashing I've just done on this show, I have to say that the visuals are the strong point of this show. Maybe not so much in the real world-there's nothing too memorable about the art there. But in the other, alternate world, the visuals are pretty amazing. The battles, weapons and character designs are very nicely done in the alternate world, as well as the background imagery. Even if the plot of it all didn't make much sense, it still looked nice.

Sound [7]
Both the opening theme and ending theme were really good in my opinion. The music throughout the show didn't do much for me, though.

Overall [6.5]
I really wouldn't recommend this anime. The first few episodes I actually enjoyed for the most part, but it all goes downhill from there. If you're just looking for some kick-ass battles and animation, I guess you can give this show a shot. But otherwise, it's really not worth the time. (Or, at least, it wasn't for me). It's just one big mess of an anime that's pretty mediocre in my book.