BLACK★ROCK SHOOTER

[Buffalobiian]

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/5739/blackrockshooterpromo42.jpg


The official website for the "Black Rock Shooter" song from the virtual idol singer Hatsune Miku has confirmed that supervisor Yutaka Yamamoto and his Ordet studio are developing an anime project for next spring. A "Pilot Edition" of the anime will ship on DVD or Blu-ray Disc (BD) on September 30. The Pilot Edition will bundle a CD single with a new recording of the song's "live perfomance" version, as well as a booklet with image sketches for the anime.

The song's creator huke and musical composer/producer ryo are collaborating with Ordet on the project. Yamamoto (Kannagi, Lucky Star, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya) is supervising the project, although Shinobu Yoshioka (episode director on Lucky Star, Haruhi) is the actual director.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-08-22/hatsune-miku-anime-with-yutaka-yamamoto-confirmed-for-spring

DVD Pilot Edition shots:http://www.dannychoo.com/post/en/23002/Black+Rock+Shooter+Anime.html
Original BRS PV (translated): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLzOrik5YJ8
Official Site: http://www.blackrockshooter.jp/

I'm really digging the character design, so here's hoping it turns out well. Pilot edition is only 90 seconds worth though...:(

[Board of Command]

Looks pretty badass.

[Nadouku]

Oh, this has to be a dream... A DREAM COME TRUE! :o

[Pandadice]

i've never gotten into vocaloid or hatsune miku, but what i've seen of this looks pretty awesome. i'm definitely gonna check it out when it's released.

[Xelbair]

I can't wait for it.

[Buffalobiian]

Found a "live" performance of the song, with the pilot footage at the end: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbFbXuaKviM

[David75]

Found a "live" performance of the song, with the pilot footage at the end: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbFbXuaKviM

A better screener, on plasma screen in some fair
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5UjBIrh2fA

[Pandadice]

So it's released, and here's one of the many versions out

[Aniridia]_(DVDSUBS)_BLACK_ROCK_SHOOTER_OVA_[720x480 H264 AAC][3AC0D206].mkv (http://www.nyaatorrents.org/?page=download&tid=146295)

[Kraco]

Our very own release (no karaoke version):

BRS OVA - Gotwoot (http://www.gotwoot.net/torrents/%5BGotWoot%5D_BLACK_ROCK_SHOOTER_shikai_%5B0D9364B F%5D.mkv.torrent)

[Board of Command]

Beware of slow torrent speed right now. We're still sorting out distro at the moment.

[Buffalobiian]

-Immediate impression from the first few minutes was that this was really simple. Not just a simple-looking artstyle like Katanagatari, but simple animation as well. Interestingly enough, it an amount of charm about it though, and didn't come off as just bad.

-The use of back-and-forth scenes traded immersion for interest. While it had my attention in wanting to find out how the school-life scenes lead to the barren wasteland one, I found it hard to dive into the same dimension as the characters but watched from above instead. You have to wonder at how much potential there is for immersion however, given the mute fights and school-life chitchat. Perhaps there really was no trade-off to be made in terms of immersion anyway.

- My thoughts on the music score is much the same as above. I liked them, and they fit the mood rather well, but if I actually noticed them, wouldn't it mean they failed as a soundtrack and tried to become it's own piece? I can't decide whether the music was too noticable, or if my noticing was due to the lack of immersion mentioned previously.

-Character building was... surprisingly well done, I thought. I say surprisingly because for what they actually did, (ie not too much), I found myself comparatively empathetic with them. Not a whole lot was expanded on what the main cast were actually thinking, but I got enough out of it to go with the flow.

- To be honest, I'll have to say I'm slightly disappointed, even when I'm predispositioned to like this more than the average person would. (Or perhaps it was because of that mentality). A lot of it was due to they hype, and the fact that they had absolutely ZERO plotline to work off.

Can't tell whether anything more will become of this, but I surely wouldn't mind if they later decided to make a "proper" OVA series out of this. (I doubt the producers can come up with enough material for a season's worth of weekly anime).

One thing's for sure though. Look out for more figures.

[Kraco]

Before the end I was also wondering about the decision to have so frequent switching between the worlds, but when I had watched the whole thing, I thought it fitting. Like you said, they had zero plot to work with and no matter how you look at it, the story they came up with was still pretty close to zero. Of course, reviewing it after watching it removed such worries.

I saw this as an extremely simple thing stretched pretty far and wide with the alternative world and fighting. That alternative world depicted the negative feelings Yomi succumbed to and which Mato needed to remove to get her back. Perhaps in that sense the fights shouldn't have begun before the class was divided, but artistically it would have been bad considering this was still a fighting anime after a fashion; they couldn't very well push all the fighting and BSR beyond the half-way point.

I'm not really expecting a sequel but I found it a nice artistic choice to throw Yuu as well into the bleak world of negativity. I was wondering what she was doing there at all before the very end of the episode that showed her depressed as well.

The thing I found best depicted in the ova was the relationship between Mato and her little brother. That was exceptionally realistic!

[mage]

So uh, what's all this hype about? This was the most boring thing I've watched in a long time. I really had to struggle to watch all of it. Am I missing something?

[Nadouku]

It's really for people that enjoy watching Black Rock Shooter being animated. Nothing special to those that don't really like her, but for me, this was FUCKING special. I really liked how they did the alternating worlds and how it reflects upon the characters that we see.

[mage]

It's really for people that enjoy watching Black Rock Shooter being animated.
Ok.. what the fuck is it? Manga? I can't find anything...

From what I gather, it's a song? So what the hell is this supposed to be, then?

[Nadouku]

Black Rock Shooter is based on Vocaloid 2's character, Hatsune Miku. Vocaloid is a synthesizing program for voicing that you can send in and make music with. You can think of her as a darker version of Hatsune Miku.

[mage]

Wait, so this is an OVA based on a character from a voice editing software? What the fuck... no wonder it's so bad.

[Kraco]

Sounds like your expectations were completely off. You can't really blame anybody but yourself. From what I heard, this ova wasn't even based on the song that created the whole character (I haven't read translated lyrics so I can't verify that) so basically the studio had no material whatsoever save some character designs. Considering that it was quite remarkable, given the theme and setting they chose.

I don't exactly like vocaloids that much - they still sound too artificial in my ears - but still I liked this well enough. It seemed a bit dodgy when watching it but in retrospect surprisingly succesful as long as you don't try to compare it to Karas or something else objectively wonderful.

I have to say this was a really flat show, haha.

[Buffalobiian]

Wait, so this is an OVA based on a character from a voice editing software? What the fuck... no wonder it's so bad

This is an OVA based on a character from pieces of artwork, namely this one:

http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/949/blackrockshooterpic7395.jpg

The original BRS design was tweaked after a song was made about it to look more like Miku. More history here. (http://blackrockshooter.wikia.com/wiki/Black%E2%98%85Rock_Shooter_%28Developments%29)

So yeah, this OVA was based off nothing really.


I saw this as an extremely simple thing stretched pretty far and wide with the alternative world and fighting. That alternative world depicted the negative feelings Yomi succumbed to and which Mato needed to remove to get her back. Perhaps in that sense the fights shouldn't have begun before the class was divided, but artistically it would have been bad considering this was still a fighting anime after a fashion; they couldn't very well push all the fighting and BSR beyond the half-way point

I thought the desolate world was real-time, while the school world were flashbacks going through BRS's head as she went to save Yomi.

[Kraco]

Heh. That's a simple explanation for sure but works well. I guess I was considering the normal world the norm and the alternative world the flimsy thing. But of course the name of the ova is Black Rock Shooter so maybe it's as you said: the bleak world is the core stuff and the school days just additional information.

[Buffalobiian]

Heh. That's a simple explanation for sure but works well. I guess I was considering the normal world the norm and the alternative world the flimsy thing. But of course the name of the ova is Black Rock Shooter so maybe it's as you said: the bleak world is the core stuff and the school days just additional information.

I have no idea how the alternate world happens, but I figured that if Dead Master "abducted" Yomi from the real world into the alternate, it explains her disappearance. (Why Mato's phone went off, :confused: ).

[masamuneehs]

i had no idea what this was about at all, and it seems retarded that this thing, with its paltry excuse for a fanbase generated reason to exist, should ever have been hyped or anticipated by anyone outside of that fanbase.

at first a real bit of over-posturing with the silent battle scenes and the skanky loli character designs gave me instant bad joojoo vibes about this, but i started liking it once Mato started talking (i was starting to hate her a bit when she was just giggling and being all happy). The first thing that struck out to me was the scenery in the 'dark world', and how they used the contrast with the real world and the absolutely completely ho-hum everydayness of Mato's scenes with the completely silent, cannon-toting loli scenes. i felt it actually built tension nicely because they stuck with that approach for so long.

and then the lack of time-synch with the two stories and i started to think that this whole show was just going to switch back and forth between school-friendship story and loli action, and i started to overwork my brain about as to how there would be a connection between these characters, how they would explain the loli fights, and, hell, if there was anything to this show at all.

the 'losing your friend' bit was good, and aided nicely by simple instrumental music, which i'd been discounting up until a point. Don't let anybody say you need a J-pop hit to make a good anime. i started to really feel for Yomi, and I liked that by the time the first actual 'mixture' of the two stories finally actually fucking showed up (almost half an hour in), i was so focused on the school-life story that i was sorta irked to be getting to the fusion part. and when it came i couldn't believe i hadn't figured out that the characters in the loli fights were alter-egos/whatever of the main characters. i suppose what confused me greatly was that the loli fights started out with red versus blue, and while Mato was blue, Yuu yellow and Yomi green, it was never explained who the hell red was or what her involvement with Mato/blue was...


the action in this show was a bit lack luster, as was, well, most things. but i felt that while it was somehow ok for the music to be toned down and a little simple, as well as for some of the real-world scenery to be a bit overly realistic, the loli fighting should have been more entertaining. it was like the show didn't have anything in this area, which it was heavily touting during the build-up. it was all just simple big strikes, overly prone to lazily drawn mid-air combat. the big nasty skulls that had been part of the fight for almost 20 minutes just popped into nothingness upon being meleed, and at that point i really packed away my hopes for any action fix. i prefer my fights fast and fluid and focused on the small details of the fight. hell, i thought the sports practice parts were animated better.

Mato was a bit overly bubbly and cute at the start, but she actually grew on me because she was just such an honestly enduring, trying to be bright kid. They did well pairing her up with the 'quiet, mysterious Returnee' character, and I enjoyed the dumb pun about Koutoriasobi.

the ending is both overly vague, overly common-place, and ultimately unfullfilling. we never get any concrete explanation of what the hell was really going on, and I have a feeling there was little to no plot involved in this thing, ever. it was nicely executed for what it was, but in trying to be something more and, perhaps make statements about people's unconsciousness or whatever it was trying to get at with the battling alter-selves, it didn't do too well there at all. the execution was great, but this was never more than a half-baked cookie with loli tits.

[Pandadice]

Well it wasn't really what I was expecting. From the preview I was expecting a bit more.. Experimental animation, and a larger focus on Black Rock Shooter. I was expecting something visually similar to Windy Tales, though not quite as extreme.

I can't say I enjoyed the school life segments really at all. Between the hum-drum chatter, the bland and tasteless CG backgrounds, or the general emphasis on the "we're BFFs" scenario, I did not enjoy it. I managed to keep myself awake during it, but other than observing the animation, not much was keeping me from turning it off. Luckily though it would cut away to the dark moments before my brain was completely gone. I did somewhat enjoy the animation in the school life parts. The sporadic, choppy movements and none-fluid waves of the hair. It was really appealing to me. But that was about it. The school life segments reminded me a lot of Ga-Rei: Zero, just the two teenage girls who are best friends and will (judging by the opening and the cut scenes) eventually fight each other aspect of it.

My favorite thing about this OVA was without a doubt the smoke cloud animations. I absolutely loved the way they flowed. It seemed distinctly different at two parts, though I wouldn't be able to really say why. But at one part the smoke clouds seemed super TTGL. Their formation just screamed TTGL to me. Seeing those animations made me feel like this was worth watching. Actually I just got strong TTGL vibes from most of the dark scenes in general. And not just the fact that she was in short shorts with a bikini top, firing a gun (though I'm sure those aspects helped). But just the way she was fighting seemed very Yoko to me. And considering the amount of animators who also worked on TTGL, its understandable I guess.

The animation director was Yuusuke Matsuo, who was also an animation director for Kannagi, and did key animation on Shoka, Sora no Woto, Haruhi, and Kanon (and other stuff).

I got super strong K-ON vibes from a lot of the school life segments. The way the girl would bounce around, and present herself, it reminded me an incredible amount of Yui. So watching it I was positive it had some K-ON artist animating it or doing storyboards or something. And sure enough, looking at the credits there is an Atsushi Saito, who did a lot of work on K-ON (Including the OP). They've also done work on Sora no Woto. And actually, there is a very large amount of animators on this who worked on Sora no Woto, and thinking about it it really does have more a Sora no Woto feel than a K-ON feel, but both are apparent. Actually, K-ON, Sora no Woto, Haruhi and a lot of other KyoAni works are shared between a lot of these animators.

Overall I didn't really mind it. I think I'm definitely compromising a lot when I say it's worth watching, and I'm not sure it'd be worse if they cut out the school life segments, but still it was decent. I'm looking forward to the sequel they set up.

[Buffalobiian]

Overall I didn't really mind it. I think I'm definitely compromising a lot when I say it's worth watching, and I'm not sure it'd be worse if they cut out the school life segments, but still it was decent.

Then the only line in the entire OVA would be "I am Black Rock Shooter". :p

[RyougaZell]

Meh... I don't have a full introspective of why... but I liked it. Enough for me.

[The1LittleMchale]

Heh. That's a simple explanation for sure but works well. I guess I was considering the normal world the norm and the alternative world the flimsy thing. But of course the name of the ova is Black Rock Shooter so maybe it's as you said: the bleak world is the core stuff and the school days just additional information.

Which shows a grand good guy bad guy situation if one were good and one were bad... but you don't know which one is really good or really bad, because that doesn't matter. What matters is their friendship.

[Penner]

Man, this is some weird shit... i have no clue what the hell is going on.

I thought i would atleast get some idea about what the heck was going on but all that happened was that girl with the giant gun appeared in the "real world" and said "I am Black Rock Shooter"... wut?

I'm so totally lost lol :P

[Buffalobiian]

Man, this is some weird shit... i have no clue what the hell is going on.

I thought i would atleast get some idea about what the heck was going on but all that happened was that girl with the giant gun appeared in the "real world" and said "I am Black Rock Shooter"... wut?

I'm so totally lost lol :P

Think of the timeline as:

Real world -> I AM BRS -> Bleak world -> Back to real world.

[Penner]

Is there going to be more of this or was it just a one-time thing? :P

[Nadouku]

There probably will be another one, but don't quote me on that since I'm basing it on Yuu's depressed behavior at the end.

[darkshadow]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5C3RURPgLfs
That is some of the sickest animation I've ever seen, too bad it's not for the anime...

[Buffalobiian]

WTF?!

That's fully sick. It's what the anime should have been. >_<

[RyougaZell]

I have my fingers crossed for that game to be localized in English. NISAmerica apparently is interested... but they haven't confirmed anything yet. Also Gray and White Rock Shooter rock.

[RyougaZell]

Black Rock Shooter Gets New TV Anime in January



Anime to run in Fuji TV's Noitamina timeslot; Yutaka Yamamoto indicates he is not involved

A television ad has announced on Friday that a Black Rock Shooter anime will run in Fuji TV's Noitamina timeslot in the January season next year. Noitamina producer Kōji Yamamoto and Black Rock Shooter creator huke both confirmed the news on their respective Twitter accounts.

The official website has already launched a preview page whose meta tags list the figure maker Good Smile Company, the composer Ryo, the creator huke, the anime studio Ordet, and the musical group supercell.

The franchise already inspired an original video anime, figures, and games. The artist ringo launched the Black Rock-chan four-panel manga in the inaugural issue of Kadokawa Shoten's 4-Koma Nano Ace magazine in March, and Sanami Suzuki (Net Ghost PiPoPa) launched another Black Rock Shooter ~Innocent Soul~ manga in Young Ace in June.


Source: ANN (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-08-18/black-rock-shooter-gets-tv-anime-in-january)

[Pandadice]

That's pretty awesome. I'm definitely looking forward to a TV series of this. I'm not sure how I feel about it airing in noitamina, but it's still good news.

[Marik]

NIS America Confirms Black Rock Shooter the Game License (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2011-08-24/nis-america-confirms-black-rock-shooter-the-game-license)

Release date for N. America/Europe to be announced

[RyougaZell]

Its a joly day :)

[Nadouku]

Great to see NIS America pick this one up.

[RyougaZell]

Black Rock Shooter new Animation trailer

http://www.noitamina-brs.jp/flash.html


I don't like what they did to Dead Master. The others look great. And based on the poster at the site... both Black Gold Saw and Strenght will be featured. Nice.

Its only 8 episodes long though :(

[Buffalobiian]

Yeah, I liked the other Dead Master better as well.

[RyougaZell]

I hope its just a one episode scene or something. Stupid glasses ruining my Dead Master.

[Alhuin]

There seemed to be at least 4 different scenes where she is shown wearing glasses, so chances are it's an actual change. Doesn't make sense though... none of the DM art I've seen has her wearing glasses, so I'm not sure why they decided to include it.

Not enough from the trailer to tell whether I'll like it better than the OVA/movie. I like the donning of her hood in those few scenes. If they show more of her fighting with the Black Blade, I think I'll be satisfied.

[Marik]

First episode of the TV anime is out...

[WhyNot] Black Rock Shooter - 01 - 720p: Torrent (http://www.nyaa.eu/?page=download&tid=283168) | DDL (http://filevelocity.com/8ejbq227g6xo)

[Commie] Black★Rock Shooter - 01 - 720p: Torrent (http://www.nyaa.eu/?page=download&tid=283326) | DDL (http://filevelocity.com/9xt0265k19zw/_Commie__Black_Rock_Shooter_-_01__EEE53EFC_.mkv)

[Alhuin]

I wonder if anyone worth waiting for is going to pick this up. Fansub Wiki isn't any help since it's licensed.

[Kraco]

Kind of similar to the OVA. The strict dualistic nature is there with the school life and the other world. Connected emotionally, I suppose, but it's hard to see how they are otherwise connected. The bird book of colours was a good detail in that sense. I don't really expect this show to try to explain anything too thoroughly. It would be a bit unfair if the original song and character design never explained it. Kagari was succesfully creepy, even if dolls are a really worn way of creating creepiness. Mato getting so shaken by it was also realistic, I reckon. She's just a little girl, unlike Black Rock Shooter. I don't actually know if the school counsellor meant the one trying to hurt Mato is actually herself in more pain or if the crafty woman was talking about BSR enduring it instead of Mato...

[Alhuin]

I broke down and decided to watch Commie's version.

I was very disappointed.

The pacing was off, the animation was sub-par at best, the characters are almost completely different than what they were previously defined as (even though it was just the OVA), and for heaven's sake, why do they have to be in middle school? That last part applies to both this series and the OVA, but for some reason I was more bothered by it in this episode. And Yomi wearing glasses? I mean, we noticed this months ago, but I was hoping it was just a teaser. Either that, or it was JUST Yomi that wore the glasses. To have Deadmaster adorn them as well goes against the original character design. Oh, and last but not least, and this may just be a translation error, but I'm pretty sure Yuu did not actually ask Mato to explain to her what she meant "in plain English".

I can't even comment on the actual content the anime was based on because there were hardly enough scenes. Oh, but wait... I remember BRS getting stabbed and ran over and stabbed again and cut with what looked like a hack saw and stabbed some more and she bled blue and black but still apparently came out unscathed..... *deep breath*.

I realize the OVA is an original production, just like the TV series, and I had some problems with it at first as well (still do with some things). Given that the source material is just a song/music video, I may be holding my idea to a higher standard than it should be, but I know this series could have started off much better. It just feels like I'm going to be let down.

All that being said... I can't decide if I'm going to follow this or just wait for the batch. I mean... it's Black Rock Shooter. That's my waifu. *shrug*

[Janice]

this may just be a translation error, but I'm pretty sure Yuu did not actually ask Mato to explain to her what she meant "in plain English".
She basically said "Speak Japanese, please". Commie decided to localize as "English" since their subs are English.

[Buffalobiian]

She basically said "Speak Japanese, please". Commie decided to localize as "English" since their subs are English.

lol, that's so stupid. I picked that up when it happened, but it made some twisted sense and was ignored.

And yeah, this is BRS show is dropped. The figure is still awesome. (Yes Al, your waifu sits on my desk. :p )

[shinta|hikari]

For those who dropped this, please try and watch it until episode 4. Things got really interesting and intense, and the fights look great, even if Dead Master does have glasses.

[Alhuin]

Has a better fansub surfaced? I plan to marathon the series when it's released on BD, if only because of BRS. But if someone better than Commie is releasing, then maybe I can be persuaded to catch up.

[shinta|hikari]

Asenshi is recommended here. (http://www.whiners.pro/2012/02/fansub-review-asenshi-black-rock-shooter-episode-02v2/)

[Janice]

Nothing wrong with Commie's or WhyNot's releases for this series. They're all pretty much the same quality.