Black★Rock Shooter - Episode 8 (Completed)

Given that Yuu's (or rather, Strength's) attempt to enter Black Rock Shooter's world to save Mato has failed, is there any way of returning things to normality?

As far as Strength is concerned, there's only one thing for it - to end her life and thus toss Yuu (aka Black Gold Saw) back into reality, which unsurprisingly Yuu herself is none too keen on.  Neither, for that matter, is Mato, and it's her reaction which turns this world decidely topsy-turvy.  Before we know it, Black Rock Shooter is facing off against herself in the form of Mato, with the latter individual's insistence that she's ready to take on any pain required to protect others being taken rather too seriously by Black Rock Shooter, who proceeds to knock the living daylights out of the poor girl.

Thus, much of this episode is effectively Mato's brutally violent fight against her alter ego, with the other characters whose lives Mato has touched regaining their memories of why she's so important to them enough to cheer on from the sidelines.  Ultimately, Mato defeats Black Rock Shooter and causes the world she resides in to explode with colour, meaning that the day is won and both Mato and Yuu can return to normality, even if Black Rock Shooter's world continues onwards as ever.  The moral of this story?  If you have a split personality, destroy it with a massive energy weapon.

If I had to sum up Black Rock Shooter in a word, that word would be "huh?!" - very little of its core concept felt particularly coherent, with overblown melodrama offset by stylish but largely pointless action in a world where none of the characters can die as a result of said action.  It's this horrible shoe-horning of drama and action that destroys any credibility Black Rock Shooter deigned to have, making it feel like the clumsy attempt to sandwich a popular character into an anime series that it clearly is.  Given how great the action component of the show frequently looked (some flaky CG aside), it feels like an utter waste of that particular art style and presentation, and I can't help but think the writers could have found a better way of introducing that world without all the overblown nonsense it relied upon here.  In comparison, even the Black Rock Shooter OVA felt a little more coherent, and that's really saying something.

Black★Rock Shooter - Episode 7

Saya's turn from villain to almost-hero in an attempt to save Mato from Black Rock Shooter's world seems to have failed, so what next for our protagonist as the fighting within that world continues?

Once Saya has given up any hope in her own rescue efforts, it seems that the only hope of bringing Mato back to reality lies with Yuu, and it's she who is next to enter the show's other world to call out to Mato.  Indeed, this move meets with some success, bringing some level of realisation from Mato as to her circumstances - however, while Mato wills the fighting to stop, it seems that Black Rock Shooter has other ideas and has no intentions of bringing her battle to an end, even if it means taking some drastic measures to do so.

As news of Kuroi's disappearance reach her school and begin to resurrect painful memories for Yomi and Kagari, so Yuu's dabbling in matters in the other world come to the attention of Black Gold Saw... or should we say, they come to the attention of Yuu thanks to the rather fluid arrangement of personalities between Black Gold Saw/Yuu and her "Strength".  If you thought that Yuu was a pillar of sanity in this series, think again, as she gets her opportunity to prove how bat-shit crazy she is on account of the pain and suffering levelled upon her.  Regardless, it seems that only a more powerful outside influence can save Mato now - no prizes for guessing who that is.

Despite its best efforts to explain a little more about the link between its two worlds, as well as how both Mato and (more substantially) Yuu fit into its equation, it doesn't really stop this episode from further backing up the idea that the series as a whole is a story-telling mess.  With no real threat of death from its action scenes unless the plot explicitly requires it, there's little tension in anything that we see on-screen, while the show's drama proves to be as overblown as ever as it desperately tries to wring some emotion out of a scenario that ultimately feels heartless at a fundamental level.  If we didn't know it already, this instalment seems like the final evidence that Black Rock Shooter simply doesn't work - it's an attempt to shoe-horn a story into a concept that was never created or designed to have one, and it shows.

Black★Rock Shooter - Episode 6

At last, the exact nature of the link between Black Rock Shooter's world and reality is made clear, as Mato is sent into the breach to save her distraught friend Yomi.  But what effect will this have on Mato herself?

The answer seems to be - not good.  Perhaps due to the mental anguish of killing Yomi's "Dead Master" cipher within this netherworld, Mato seems unable to return to reality as things deteriorate, with Saya the next target within Black Rock Shooter's sights.  This clearly isn't what Yuu was expecting when she sent Mato into that world, and thus she carries her friend's comatose body to Saya as her only port of call in this particular storm.

While Saya isn't exactly thrilled at this development, it seems that there's no other option than to throw herself into Black Rock Shooter's world in an attempt to speak with and save Mato - a decision which gives this episode the opportunity to enter flashback mode as we explore the relationship between Saya and Yuu, the latter of whom appears to be the origin of this strange other world which Saya has sworn to protect in the face of the difficult mental pressures put upon her friend.  While calling out to Mato is one thing, extracting her from the world in which she is now part is a much tougher proposition, especially as Saya's alter-ego Black Gold Saw finds itself protected from an arguably unexpected source.

Although I've been calling for Black Rock Shooter to explain the link between its two worlds from the very start, I can't say that this episode has really helped its plot from an "actually making sense" perspective - although things are certainly much clearer for the most part (with Yuu the other world's "owner" which others have been deliberately dragged into via mental pressure in some shape or form), the entire setup still feels like a contrived way to shoe-horn the Black Rock Shooter concept into the midst of a bunch of over-wrought teenage melodrama and there isn't really a lot that can be done at this juncture to fix that.  Still, if nothing else this was perhaps the best looking episode of the bunch thus far, with its other-worldly scenes again delivering in terms of just looking great - it's a real shame that this shallow pleasure is about as much as I can derive from a series that seems to want to do so much more but has alas picked the wrong vehicle with which to do so.  In those terms, Black Rock Shooter is the anime equivalent of taking an F1 car to collect the weekly grocery shopping.

Black★Rock Shooter - Episode 5

Last week was Yomi's turn to go batshit crazy in Black Rock Shooter, but can what ails her mind be as easily resolved as we've previously seen with Kagari?

Certainly, when Mato and Yuu pay Yomi a visit the next morning - things seem better, if only on the surface, as Yomi tries her best to act cheerfully and even provides Yuu with a bracelet to match the one previously given to Mato.  Regardless of this, beyond her act on the surface something is clearly still wrong, and this comes to the fore when an art lesson turns into an impromptu session of self-administered hairdressing by Yomi.

With Yomi sent home to go nuts without bothering the other students, it's Mato's turn for things to take a decidedly weird turn - slapping Kagari (quite rightly) for apathetically suggesting that Yomi's heart has died, scrawling all over her favourite book in an attempt to give it a happy ending, and being strangled by the school's student counsellor (who seems more adept at keeping her job in the face of abject failure than a City banker).  If this isn't enough to send her off to the loony bin, the suggestion that Yuu doesn't exist pretty much finishes the job, as Mato runs to her friend's house to find that it doesn't exist.  However, Yuu is still very much present within her life, as we finally learn of the link between Mato's own world and that of Black Rock Shooter as the two collide in an attempt to save Yomi.

Although I've humoured Black Rock Shooter somewhat up to this point, forgiving it it's frequent oddities, this feels like the moment where I have to come out and say outright that this series makes absolutely no sense whatsoever - if early episodes of the series stretched any suspension of disbelief, this week's instalment attaches it to a shuttle and blasts it to Pluto to ensure that there's no possibility of it recovering.  Okay, so I've been asking for a link between the two worlds posited within the show and I've now finally been granted it, but I was hoping for something that sounded a bit less like utter bullshit.  For all its grandiose action scenes (and there was a terrific one to open this episode) and attempts to foster human drama, Black Rock Shooter increasingly feels like a series that's being made up as it goes along, and it's an impression which is massively to its detriment.  To call it a train-wreck might be a little premature, but right now it's certainly an N-gauge model train-wreck.

Black★Rock Shooter - Episode 4

Whatever happened to her last episode, basketball club captain Kohata doesn't seem to have been too badly affected by her collapse, as we see her alive, well (sprained ankle aside) and as bright and breezy as ever as this fourth instalment of Black Rock Shooter kicks off.

Indeed, Kohata doesn't seem to be the only one who things are looking up for, as Kagari also puts in an appearance as she starts life at school, in Yomi and Mato's class no less.  Although the horrors of her old attitude have been put to bed, her sheltered life still leaves her appearing both shy and abrasive - not that this seems to bother her class mates, who take to her immediately.  Before we know it, Kagari has a number of close friends and is even co-opted into the school's cooking club.

While this may seem like good news, it's anything but for Yomi - already feeling like a third wheel in Mato and Yuu's friendship, Kagari no longer needing to rely on her for anything leaves her hugely upset; emotions which she then has no hesitation in taking out on those around her at every opportunity.  As things worsen, Yomi stops coming to school altogether much to the concern of Mato, Kagari and even Yuu - when Kagari spends an entire evening outside in the rain trying to persuade Yomi to see her, the latter believes that perhaps Kagari's former reliance upon her as return, only to find that what Kagari has been waiting for say is about to break her completely.

If previous instalments of this series have seemed a little heavy on the melodrama, this week's episode of Black Rock Shooter lays it on so thick that I can only assume they had to haul an industrial strength mixer into the production studio to do so.  If Kagari's madness early in the series seemed at least somewhat plausible, Yomi's is anything but, with a paranoia that almost literally borders on the insane.  The trouble is, with so much bitchiness and the like floating around the show, it's come to the point where I don't like anybody within it - Mato and Yuu are rather wooly friends to Yomi, and every other major character is a different shade of bonkers.  Alongside that, the show's alternate world continues to be arbitrary and there simply to use the Black Rock Shooter name rather than anything more revelatory, and it's only the mystery of the world's worst student counsellor and her "powers" that really hold any kind of intrigue at this point.  It seems that my worst fears about Black Rock Shooter are coming to pass, as it increasingly shows us its true colours as a clumsy tie-in to the franchise and concept that gives it its name - stripped of its title, there's nothing but overblown drama and mediocre animation to this show.

Black★Rock Shooter - Episode 3

Given how much delight it took into bringing us to a cliff-hanger full of melodrama last week, the result of said cliffhanger is surprisingly mundane as we enter Black Rock Shooter's third episode.

In short, Kagari's seeming descent into madness is more of as descent into sleep, and Yomi finally standing up to her seems to have given her sister the opportunity she needs to try and stand on her own two feet, both literally and metaphorically.  As a result, Yomi is now freed from her sister's obsessive way of thinking, meaning in turn that she can spend more time with Mato - however, it seems that Yomi has some jealousy issues of her own as she repeatedly casts envious eyes over Mato's relationship with childhood friend Yuu.

Aside from this particular dynamic, the focus of this show also shifts somewhat to focus on Kohata, the captain of the school's basketball club.  An enthusiastic, hard-nosed slave driver in the vicinity of the basketball court, it seems that Kohata has a softer side as we see her confessing to a boy who attends the same school.  There's nothing wrong with that of course, but upon returning from a training camp Kohata finds her confession letter posted up on a school noticeboard, while both the letter and the gift she bought her would-be boyfriend are openly mocked.  Kohata laughs this off outwardly, but in truth she's stung by the reaction of those around her - not that a visit to the school's counsellor helps, as this only shunts more distress on her.  Is it this that pushes her towards breaking point come the end of the episode however?  While counsellor Saya's behaviour is increasingly odd, the actions of Black Rock Shooter herself in her netherworld also take a decidedly sinister tone as this episode progresses.

Given that last week's big finale turned out to be a pretty huge damp squib, I almost don't want to read too much into this week's cliff-hanger - still, it has at least cast an interesting shadow across the weird "dream" world of the series while also perhaps introducing some closer links to reality.  On the other hand, the crazy turns shown by the series' student counsellor (she must be evil if she serves black coffee, right?) were a clumsy way of introducing her importance to proceedings, leaving me not sure what to make of things as they stand.  The show seems to be moving in the right direction in general despite its slow build-up this week, but I get the feeling it's going to have to try and be more than the sum of its parts if its going to create anything genuinely interesting.  For now though, my interest in Black Rock Shooter remains piqued, and that has to mean that it's doing something right.

Black★Rock Shooter - Episode 2

Despite her creepy experiences at the hands of Kagari, young Mato Kuroi is still determined to make a friend of Yomi, inviting her to the forthcoming festival and ensuring that she turns out to meet her despite Yomi already indicating that she wouldn't be able to attend.

Needless to say, Yomi doesn't turn up, leaving Mato waiting for a couple of hours while finally sending her an apology by way of a text message - a fact which is of little consolation to an upset Mato as she trudges home barefoot with no further explanation as to her wannabe friend's actions.  Of course, it doesn't take much to figure out what the problem is, with Kagari doing her utmost to ensure that Yomi remains at home - indeed, it seems that the fruits of her madness take on many forms.

Even after all this, Mato doesn't give up - despite being shocked to see Yomi bearing the same scar as she saw in a dream of hers, she still finds the courage to pour out her feelings of disappointment and frustration at Yomi in a manner which would mean the end of many a friendship, yet Mato still finds it within herself to turn up at her doorstep that very same day after school.  Unfortunately, Mato's persistence only sees Kagari upping her own game with Yomi, as she deliberately hospitalises herself as "punishment".  As we learn the origins of Kagari's mental imbalance and Yomi's reasoning behind putting up with it, Kuroi still refuses to accept the situation, bringing things to a head which could well see a huge change on Kagari's world.

Compared to the rather fluffy story of the OVA, the real-world segments of Black Rock Shooter in its television form certainly feel more solid and thus have a much more weighty impact to them - Kagari's madness really drives this episode in particular in a way which adds plenty (perhaps even too much) of drama to proceedings, while Mato's slightly odd way of looking at the world doesn't extinguish her determination when it comes to doing what she feels is right.  The trouble is, how does any of this actually fit in with the Black Rock Shooter theme?  Once again, some clunky CG can be forgiven against the backdrop of scenes filled with eye-catching colour, movement and concepts which are occasionally really rather excellent, and yes there are moments which tie the two worlds together, but at the moment for the most part this series could survive perfectly well and perhaps even hold my attention more were it shorn of its netherworld scenes to focus on its reality and the human aspects within.  It was a lack of any tangible connection between its two scenarios that ultimately did for its OVA - I really hope this TV outing for the franchise isn't going to make the same mistake.

Black★Rock Shooter - Episode 1

Let's be honest here - for all of its hype, the Black Rock Shooter OVA wasn't anything to write home about, proving ultimately to be a disjointed mish-mash of ideas that had neither the time nor the directorial skill to pull together into anything more coherent.  Despite that, here we are again, this time with the more luxurious possibilities that come from a TV broadcast run.

As per that OVA, the most instantly visually arresting elements of Black Rock Shooter are those set in its mysterious checkerboard world - a place, it seems, of constant conflict for our titular character as she comes across weird and wonderful locations as well as those who she knows from the real world.  The link between this place and reality is, at this early juncture, not explained at all, but with colour as one of the clear motifs of the series there's clearly a method to this madness, and if nothing else (and despite some really clunky CG) the occasional segments set in this "dream world" are striking and surprisingly violent as what seems to be almost a depiction of the protagonist's inner heart.

Beyond this, and back in normality, we join the world of Mato Kuroi - a kind, energetic and decidedly naive girl who seems more taken by her surroundings than her classmates.  At least, this is the case until she bumps into Asobi Kotori... or rather, Yomi Takanashi if she'd read the name correctly - a girl who immediately strikes her as someone Mato would like to call a friend.  After some shy beginnings the two hit it off over their shared love of a book, which ultimately sees Mato invited to Yomi's house.  It's here that the girls fun is interrupted by a seemingly unwanted guest - a wheelchair-bound girl named Kagari who seems to take an instant dislike to Mato and has no problems in saying so.  This naturally upsets Mato greatly, but even this isn't enough to dissuade her from trying her best to become friends with Yomi.

As opening go, I still feel a little unsure as to what this TV outing of Black Rock Shooter will offer - at first glance, its characters are horribly simplistic in both animation and personality, and this in turn feels so far adrift from the grittier otherworldliness of the show that it's hard to put the two elements together.  Somehow, Kagari's appearance manages to change this to some degree, giving things a decidedly weird edge that hopefully moves us closer to a balance between the two worlds within the series - this is clearly something that needs to be fleshed out substantially more moving forward, and it's perhaps the pivotal point in whether Black Rock Shooter will succeed or fail.  As a mish-mash of elements and animation styles, it's on unsure footing from this opener, but I certainly wouldn't want to write it off just yet.

Black Rock Shooter OVA

After what seems like an endless period of hype, promotion and teasing, the much-anticipated Black Rock Shooter OVA is here. Can a simply Vocaloid track and some neat character designs really make the transition into a full-blown anime?


Things certainly kick off with the promise of action aplenty, as we're thrust straight into a stylised conflict between Black Rock Shooter and Dead Master which is exactly the kind of thing we were expecting. It isn't long however before we're transferred back to the real world, and the first day of high school for one Mato Kuroi, an energetic but far from academic girl.

On that first day, Mato finds herself immediately entranced by one of her classmates, and after the school opening ceremony Mato approaches her to introduce herself. The two soon strike up a friendship, and before we know it Mato and Yomi Takanashi are doing everything together from sharing homework through to joining adjacent clubs - basketball for Mato and volleyball for Yomi.

As this pair reach their second year of school however things begin to fall apart, as the two first find themselves assigned to different classes before Mato ends up spending more time with new classmate and fellow basketball club member Yuu; a scenario which causes jealousy aplenty for Yomi, and quite probably the main reason for her disappearance, with Mato learns of via the police turning up at her home.


But what does all of this slice of life drama have to do with Black Rock Shooter I hear you ask? Well, that's a very good question, and it's one that is never really made apparent throughout this OVA. The entire instalment is interspersed with scenes featuring Black Rock Shooter and Dead Master even before the collapse of the relationship between their real-world counterparts, but we're never let in on either the chronology or the setting for this - indeed, it's only late in the OVA that there's any suggestion that what we see with regard to Black Rock Shooter is any kind of reality, although even then you could still argue that it's some kind of fantasy within Mato's head or a virtual world or something.

If this were the first episode of a series, or the first instalment in a set of movies or OVA, this sense of mystery would be perfectly alright, but the fact is that this is a one-shot story, and as such the entire thing is left feeling decidedly unsatisfactory. It's a shame really, because those action sequences have potential which is never realised thanks to their short-form nature and a complete lack of dialogue, leaving them to rely on impressive scenery and some fluid movement alone, while the slice of life side of things is a reasonably compelling story of friendship and jealousy. There are myriad ways these two components could have been interwoven via a decent narrative, but such a story is entirely lacking here, giving the two sides of the OVA a feeling of having been written by entirely different people.


After all the build-up and hype, the fact that the major pulling points of that hype have ended up being left almost entirely unexplored and under-utilised seems simply bizarre, although I suppose if they were trying to build up demand for a sequel perhaps they have succeeded. Certainly, Black Rock Shooter does need a second instalment to try and tie its disparate elements together - without so much as the promise of such explanation however, the whole thing is left feeling a little odd and empty.

Black Rock Shooter - Pilot Edition

There isn't really much to be said or seen that hasn't already been viewed or discussed surrounding Black Rock Shooter as it stands, but it would be remiss of me not to at least hold my hand up as part of the Zeitgeist that is at least a little excited by this project.


Based around a character created by huke and a song penned by ryo using the infamous virtual Vocaloid Miku Hatsune as vocalist, the concept of Black Rock Shooter has quickly gained a cult following, so I suppose it was almost inevitable that this promisingly potent act would make its way into a full-blown anime at some point.

Of course, all this "Pilot Edition" DVD gives us is a few different renderings of the Black Rock Shooter song and some early animation to whet our appetites - Still, there's something to be said for the rather unique look of what we've seen so far, with an odd juxtaposition of colourfully muted tones and slightly rough around the edges aesthetic promising something different from the norm. As for the actual plot... who knows? Clearly what we're looking at is some kind of schoolgirl turned superhero (and friendship gone awry) concept, but beyond that your guess is as good as mine.


Nonetheless, despite hoping that this pilot DVD might give us a little more to chew on, I can't help but keep my hopes up for something well worth watching come the start of the series proper.