Review of Black Rock Shooter

Ever wonder what the lovechild between Madoka Magica and Higurashi would be like? That doesn't necessarily make it a good thing though. Black Rock Shooter is a beautifully drawn and interesting story that nonetheless falls short due to its lack of cohesion. We still have to consider that BRS is only 8 episodes long, something that inevitably affected how much could be done and still manages to come out as an interesting story of accepting life and the pain that inevitably comes with it. Story: The story is about what it would be like if little girl's despair (now where have I heard that before?) pooled in an alternateworld where alternate personas representing those girls bore the despair and fought against one another to fix them. As it is looks confusing albeit interesting, with lots of potential interpretations. Sadly it falls flat due to the lack of explanation and numerous plot holes, like why only girls? Why not boys and why there only seem to be personas from a certain age range?

We have to consider though, as said before, that Black Rock Shooter only has 8 episodes, which forces the plot to rush and makes troublesome to give both the amazing animated battles and story at the same time. Even Madoka had 12 episodes, so BRS would have benefitted from dropping some characters or preferably, having more episodes.

Art:
This is where the anime shines as its rendered in two ways, the normal world which is made in 2D and that has an amazing amount of detail, on the level of something like KyoAni would make.

The Otherworld where they fight is the best part though, with beautifully animated CGI landscapes and dynamic battle scenes that make it possible to feel the action and the effort put into them. For a long time I wondered what it would be like if Madoka's witch barriers were animated by Ufotable, and this is it.

Sound:
The music ranges from particularly bland to some good pieces played during the battle scenes. Still nothing particularly notable but neither is it terrible.

Character:
Here comes the problem, the anime tries to make us root for the characters and feel the depths of their mental instabilities and insecurities, except its not cohesive in any way. One moment the characters are happy, the next they're on a breakdown, which is why this reminds me of Higurashi (except Higurashi provides a meaningful explanation...). The story doesn't make it very clear how the personas in the Otherworld and the characters in the non-magical world relate, with some being complete opposites of their Otherworld personas and yet, some being exactly alike.

The protagonist is described by the rest of the cast as a paragon of virtue and a Stepford Smiler yet she's way too open with her emotions and the anime doesn't make her seem as anything special.

Found the deauteragonist "Dead Master" annoying but that may also be due to my aversion for yandere characters.

There's another character that's not what she looks like and that gave a nice twist at the ending, but besides her most characters were strange and couldn't relate with them at all. Once again I assume this is due to lack of time for a good character development.

The personas would also have benefitted greatly from having a personality but sadly they are as bland as their fights are cool.

Overall:
It was enjoyable and loved the concept of accepting life and the inevitable pain that comes with it, if it had more episodes and a more cohesive storytelling it might have been able to rival or even beat the likes of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. It was almost there but not quite, hoping for a remake by a more competent director in the future!

If you want an interesting story about pain (I wish I had something like the Little Bird book in my childhood...) or just plainly want to watch scantily clad girls with baddass weapons beating each other senseless this is the anime for you!