Black Rock Shooter [Anime Review]

“School life in my Black Rock Shooter anime? You betcha.”

One of the most anticipated anime of 2010 is finally here. It’s not a Hatsune Miku anime, but the closest thing, for now. If you’ve seen the music video or even the trailer for the OVA, you would expect a lot of action –– hell, she has a freakin’ cannon attached to her arm! –– but what we get from the anime is something much different. After a brief, albeit cool, one-minute fight scene between BRS and Black Gold Saw (hey, I have that same jacket!), we are taken to what seems like a completely different anime. Kuroi Mato, a first-year junior high student who reminds me a bit of Yoshika Miyafuji from Strike Witches in both voice and personality, wakes up to go to school, where she then meets and befriends a modest rich girl named Takanashi Yomi. Mato and Yomi look very similar, respectively, to BRS and Dead Master in the other world, and that is completely intentional.

Why does this feel like Lucky Star? Oh wait, maybe because the founder of Studio Ordet is Yamamoto Yutaka –– who directed Lucky Star episodes 1 – 4 before getting fired.

Throughout the OVA, the anime constantly flashes between the human world and the darker, more sinister world. I give them credit for telling the story in a unique way, but it got annoying spending 5 minutes in the normal world, jumping for 1 minute into the dark world, then spending another 5 minutes in the normal world, before jumping into the dark world again for only another minute. Don’t misunderstand me, I did enjoy the school-life aspect of this anime, despite not expecting such a huge chunk of it due to the action-packed trailer, but I felt that they spent a bit too much time in the real world, to the point that I started to doze off a bit, while waiting to see what would happen next between BRS and Dead Master in the other world. I mean, that’s the whole reason why so many of us otakus wanted to watch this anime in the first place, right?

She gives off a “don’t-mess-with-me” kind of vibe.

The action sequences were the best part, even if the animation was a bit sketchy, but the CG was good at least (you’ll know what I mean after the first 20 seconds). Anyway, I had two theories about the dark world. At first I thought it took place in the future, since the scenery was apocalyptic and BRS looked like an older version of Mato. Then I opted for a parallel universe theory: where one event in the real world had an effect in the dark world, but that turned out inaccurate too, since the fight between BRS and Dead Master started long before any conflict between Mato and Yomi developed –– which didn’t occur until their second year of junior high. So, after seeing the OVA’s conclusion, I’m going to have to stay with the bland, cliché, alternate world theory. Although, never does it state, in this episode at least, why or how BRS’s world is connected to Mato’s (other than the cellphone strap, perhaps?).

This is the only anime that has ever made me say “WTF!” at the end –– not because I was surprised or amused, but because I thought, “That was it?” Many fans, though, are speculating –– or hoping, I should say –– that this is not the end. And even though “disappointed” is the best word I could use to describe my feelings for this OVA, I hope, as well, that there is more on the way. For this being Studio Ordet’s first solo production, they did an excellent job, and I’m excited to see what they bring in the future with supposedly a larger budget. Signs are pointing that we will be seeing more BRS in the future. There have been many OVAs in the past that later got turned into full TV series. This OVA was possibly just a test to see how people would react to it. If there is enough demand (which I’m sure there will be), we could see more BRS OVAs or even a full TV series to come.

As a stand alone OVA, though, this anime was completely unsatisfying for me. If I wanted to watch a school-life anime, there are dozens of other series I could’ve watched. And for those who are in favor of this OVA, don’t give me the excuse that you can’t make a good anime in just 50 minutes; go watch Pale Cocoon or something (which is only 23 minutes). They didn’t even play the official BRS theme. Black Rock Shooter was a pretty anime to look at, but it left the flame in my heart waning.

SPOILER: For those who have seen the anime, or don’t care about having the thin plot ruined, here is a funny comic I found –– it’s funny ’cause it’s true: http://sandvich.tumblr.com/photo/1280/861332308/1/tumblr_l662ljt6Lt1qzfnus

Like an Olympic flame that doesn’t burn out, I believe BRS will redeem herself in her next anime, if/whenever that is.

Score: 60%