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.
Humans are different from animals. We must die for a reason. Now is the time for us to regulate ourselves and reclaim our dignity. The one who holds endless potential and displays his strength and kindness to the world. Only mankind has God, a power that allows us to go above and beyond what we are now, a God that we call "possibility".
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.
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Meh... I don't have a full introspective of why... but I liked it. Enough for me.
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
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"Always be yourself... unless you suck."
Is there going to be more of this or was it just a one-time thing? :P
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"Always be yourself... unless you suck."
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.
I am training in the shadows.
Currently playing: All of your games, probably.
That is some of the sickest animation I've ever seen, too bad it's not for the anime...
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WTF?!
That's fully sick. It's what the anime should have been. >_<
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
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.
Black Rock Shooter Gets New TV Anime in January
Source: ANNAnime 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.
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.
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NIS America Confirms Black Rock Shooter the Game License
Release date for N. America/Europe to be announced
Great to see NIS America pick this one up.
I am training in the shadows.
Currently playing: All of your games, probably.
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
Yeah, I liked the other Dead Master better as well.
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~