Review of Black Rock Shooter

I got into the Black★Rock Shooter franchise without any former expectations based on the song by Hatsune Miku (which i enjoy lots, but not particularly the original Miku BRS song) nor the original illustrations, videogame or merchandise. I was embracing a new show, unaware of what was coming, perhaps wondering what sort of quality anything about this brand could possibly have, when this fame was reached through such disperse sorts of media. This perhaps could have made me a little sceptic but i was nontheless very curious, it was all new to me. I was in for a surprise. STORY - 9 Borderline 10 rating. One ofthe things that admired me the most about this show was precisely, given that it was limited to 8 episodes and it had enough content to be spread through at the very least 12 episodes, considering the standard pace of most shows these days, it kept dropping in my conscience just how solid and well paced the character development and the situational progress of the events turned out in each episode. How can i explain this, it's as if they managed to keep the show quite fast paced but without feeling rushed at all. It also delivered something that i wasn't very pleased with in the OVA: closure. For those who also already finished watching all 8 episodes AND the OVA, and might disagree with this, i'll put it this way: while the OVA finishes while leaving you hanging with the "ok, what now??" question roaming your head, the TV series leave you with a sense that, there will be something beyond this, but you already know what it is and how it will be, you understand the future and the actual story has closure.

Art - 9
To justify this high rating, i shall praise this show in 2 different fronts, where it oozed the quality necessary in order to stand out among hundreds of other series. First and foremost, one of the earliest differences between OVA and TV lies in how the characters look like and move in the "other world". While the OVA looked great with very interesting coloring, traditional drawing and a rather dynamic however jumpy animation (low cell count?), the TV show won my heart in the most unexpected of ways. In the TV series, the characters in the "other world" are rendered in CGI and more often than not, that's a very bad omen for any show, due to the uncanny way 3D character models stand out against everything and everyone else not computer generated. The character CGI in BRS looked to me, both in style as well as in movement dynamics, nearly flawless. Many times it fooled my brain into reconsidering if it wasn't 2D, or perhaps an hybrid, which if it was the case, i shall clap my hands for its seamless way to merge what i would risk saying "2D meshes on 3D models". But, go see for yourself, seriously. No, really, do it. Even the movement was extremely fluid and resembled the freedom of traditional animation unlike most 3D models' movements which regularly come paired with clunky/stuck movement. Furthermore, going back into the "real world", the characters are 2D and, while they only look good for half of the time we're looking at them (therefore the 9 instead of a 10 rating), i found the detail and expressiveness of these characters to be super effective in conveying their emotions and pulling some reaction from me, of excitement or sadness, etc, everytime there was attention to detail on the characters' facial expressions.

Sound - 9
Yes, great. It doesn't have a very memorable soundtrack other than the BRS theme which doesn't count really, because it was already popular out of its own merit (well, to be fair, surely the show will expand on that already estabilished popularity). At various points i couldn't help but become aware of how well the music was being used to enrich several of the core scenes in the story's development, and during certain battles as well (both physical and mental). In terms of sound effects is was equally as competent, delivering some powerful waves especially during some of the battles' most brutal hits.

Character - 10
I can't say much due to spoilers, but, i will say this: i was impressed how did such a short show even only halfway into it, manage to make me so fond of some of the characters, and really, REALLY, feel glad and sad, and in general, moved with the events that unfolded around them. I consider this quality, a true pearl nowadays, when many shows just can't make you care about even a main character during a supposedly emotion filled peak finale, and then comes something like BRS, that made parts of my body clench in anticipation for the following week's episode, to know what will happen to more characters than just the main protagonist. Each character has a fully explained/revealed past that the viewer learns about in the course of the series and they all have strong motives to drive their intentions, and i believe, the viewer can easily understand all their motives sooner or later, given the smooth way that all the questions are answered (although some questions only get answers on the last 2 episodes or so, making it seem like a confusing story for those who didn't finish it and were expecting the gratification of self explanatory writing contained in isolated episodes that wouldn't dare leave questions hanging with these delicious cliffhangers).

Enjoyment - 10
Fully enjoyable, second counting waits between each week, absolute focus on the screen while each and every one of the episodes ran for those 20 minutes, moving characters, interesting story, gripping questions, eyecandy battles. I already know i'll be marathoning the show once it gets a full BluRay release! For a show i had no expectations (good or bad) for, what i found was a rollercoaster of emotions that started off sort of mild on the first episode or two but which escalated intensely with the characters you get to know at a deeper level.