Anime Analyze: Black Rock Shooter

This anime is different from any anime that I have seen before.  The largest reason for this is that the entire series is only 8 episodes long.  And, yes each episode is the normal 24 min long.  This series is good because it somehow fit a deep meaning story in such a short amount of time.  Originally an OVA the anime series was made and released in 2012.  The OVA and the anime series were both created from the song by vocaloid's Hatsune Miku Black Rock Shooter. So, to delve deep into the psyche of middle school students and their counterparts in another dimension, let's delve into Black Rock Shooter the anime.

The basic setting of the series consists of two parts, the first being the most visited in the real world, mostly taking place at the school where the protagonist, Mato, attends as well as various places that she goes to through the series.  The other main location is in the alternate universe that Black Rock Shooter lives and fights in.  In this world, there are girls who are direct counterparts to the girls in the real world, in this case Black Rock Shooter is the counterpart to Mato.  In most cases, the girls who are paired with each other look relatively the same.  Supposedly, the girl in the alternate universe will take all of the pain and stress that the real girl has and then take it upon themselves through the constant fighting that happens there.  It is explained that when the girl dies in the alternate world, then the worries and stress that the real girl has goes away, as seen when Dead Master gets defeated and so Yomi, the girl connected with her, goes crazy and then loses her memories of bad things that happened to her.

Dead Master's Character Design

The plot is very in depth and it can be hard to follow at times, even I had to take some time to think about it in order to understand it.  I even had to go to online and look up how some of the things worked, because until near the end of the series, the girls in the alternate universe never really talked.  But I digress, the plot is about Mato, and how she meets this girl named Yomi who seems to be kinda shy and so she wants to be friends.  Sounds good to me, except that Yomi has a friend who is obsessive over having Yomi to herself, (don't ask why, they never explain), which leads into the series having so much drama, mainly revolving around the relationship between Mato and Yomi, with other characters getting involved at times. 

They take the story in a good direction, focusing on what the characters are thinking at times, creating a scenario in which you are wondering what they are going to do based on those thoughts which kept you interested in the series even when there was no fighting going on in the other world.  With the plot as well, you always wonder what the connection is between the real world and the other world, and how they effect each other. The creators did manage to fit a lot in the few episodes that made up this show and that in itself was impressive to put so much into each episode, and even though it did get slightly dry at times with just constant drama, I will give them that.

There is one thing that I just loved about this anime, and that is the animation style.  The animation of the real world is what you would expect from an anime nowadays, but the animation of the alternate world blew my mind.  I had never seen animation like this before, it was more of a 3D style animation and the fight scenes worked really well with how it was made.  The motion was fluid and the effects were just awesome, and even if you just watch it for that it is worth it.

The series as a whole holds up well and even though there are some dry points in the plot and there are some time-killers thrown in there, there are no large plot holes to speak of.  The animation is excellent and the fighting keeps you interested in the show constantly throughout the series.  Once you understand the relationship between the two worlds especially, then you start to enjoy the rest of the show more because you can understand what is happening most of the time, and don't be afraid to look things up on the internet in order to find out how some of the things work in this universe.  I even had to at times and that does tend to bring the show down a little bit.  

The series rating that I would give to the show is an 8.1/10.  Higher because of the quality of the animation and fighting scenes, as well as making you think while watching it which I enjoy.  However, the rating is not that high because of the dryness, time-killers, and the fact that the series is really confusing at first and many people might not get it until almost the end of the series.  

Well that's my review of Black★Rock Shooter, and I have to say, even though I was confused at first, I did enjoy watching it and I do recommend it.  It isn't that long so time is not an issue with this series.  That's all from the ZeroConsortium today, more reviews coming soon!

Final Rating: 8.1/10

Total Episodes: 8

RWF: Japanese Dub w/ English sub (as far as I know, because it is so recent, no English dub exists at this time)

Most Reliable Site: www.nwanime.com