Black Rock Shooter (anime) - Review

In spring, two girls meet: Mato and Yomi. They each sense something in the other that they lack in themselves, and are drawn to each other in spite of their contrasting personalities. Though initially hesitant, they form a strong connection. But they both have secrets - and in an empty world, two girls fight: Black Rock Shooter and Deadmaster. A strange being, Black Gold Saw, watches their mysterious battle, laughing. This is the story of two girls, in two worlds, entangled by the threads of fate.

What I Like - To be truthful there isn’t much to like about BRS this time ‘round. The one thing that I can praise highly are the fight scene. At first I was skeptical and against the idea of it being in 3d when I saw the first episode, since my earlier experiences have showed it to be gimmicky and not very necessary. And have been overused to the point of annoyance (cough SKET Dance cough). But I have to admit that I was wrong this time around. With the faced paced fist fighting and the spectacular bouts of acrobatics, 3d was probably the better choice to go with.

The overall art was okay too. It basically used the same art style used in the over to show the simplicity in a normal life that one would expect of normal japanese middle schoolers. But there is where I must end my opportunity to raise the little amount of good in the anime. (Mom! Go get the chainsaw! This tree is gonna fall so hard my grandkids’ll hear it!)

What I Hate - Now to the good part.

Now as you may or may not have heard, this anime really really really disappointing. But to truly understand the disappointment you have to watch the OVA. With the OVA we, the audience, are left with anime ambiguous ending and an almost nonexistent plot that holds the 2 worlds together. Now one might expect the anime of the OVA to be less vague and give us a plot that would makes sense as we progress though the story. But such a thing was apparently blasphemous heresy to the writers, which left us the smoldering pile of failed plot that is the black rock shooter anime.

I really hated this lack of real plot and correlation that I watched ever so fervently every week in hopes of it getting better. But I was sadly mistaken. With the other world all you had to worry about who was fighting and see who’d win. In the real world all we could do was guess who’d go crazy next. it really irritated me that none of this made any sense until the last episodes. And even then it was really weak. I had never heard anyone asking any of the real questions that should have been asked. I saw an otaku confession a while back and posted it. I thinkit said that BRS should be called “when crazy bitches attack”.

I mean it made no sense. A world where the personifications of girls emotions fight. At first it sounds cool and all but when they die that girl’s emotions are wiped blank. And then there’s BRS who is kicking ass like there was no tomorrow. But then a teacher in her late 20’s came in to fuck shit up, trying to saving her agoraphobic friend from 10+ years ago with her other self, Black Gold Saw. Skipping a bunch of cool (yet eventually unnecessary) fights and a bunch of crazy bitches going crazy, BRS becomes Insane BRS, who ends up dying thanks to a rainbow colored beam provided by the other selves of girls who had nothing to do with anything and the other selves that should have been dead. And everyone (including the friend of that one teacher who is still a middle schooler by the end) ends up with a happy go lucky life that any japanese middle schooler would want. Thus everything ending up like a really bad season of Degrassi (when is it not bad though). There was also some annoying really depressing crap about a bird that collected colors and died and turned black, which the main character really loved even though she hated the ending.

And lets not forget the art too. The art, while it does display the clear difference between the worlds it its a bit too rash of a jump. I liked it better in the OVA when the just shifted the art a little to fit the combat style and the color scheme to something a tad more depressing to properly set the mood. One more thing I didn’t like how the characters were borderline insane for most of the story and how Mato, our happy go lucky protagonist, would except the purpose of the world when it all made sense to an extant, but she had get her (pure) 2 cents in and say “no one should die, yada yada yada.

In the end I have to say that you really really really have to love the Black Rock Shooter Franchise to sit through this malarkey. The only real thing that saves this anime from failing epicly, are the fight scenes and the ending that sort makes you wanna punch the writers in the face for such a horrible attempt of an anime. Really, I hope that Huke was only apart of the art because if he participated in this bad story, he should be a shamed of himself.