Review of Black Rock Shooter

NOTE: This is my first ever written review of an anime (or any other media), so I thought I’d start off with one of my favorite shows. I would happily accept any critic you have for me, but with this all in mind, let’s get started! Disclaimer: The following review is based on my personal opinions, and does not feature many objective analyses. As such, this may not coincide with yours, or the general publics opinions. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A single illustration is inspiration to a song and a music video. These in turn lead to an OVA, a manga, and an entire TV series. That is the story of theBRS franchise.

Story: (7 / 10)

I hear a lot of people saying the story in BRS is pretty average, and to be honest, I can’t really argue. In reality, all it’s about is the problems that exist in the friendship between a couple of school girls. The “otherworld” parts, while cool, do not really enhance the story in any way, and in the end, it’s still about a couple of girls and their friendship.

However, having said that, I don’t actually think the story is bad. In fact, I found the development of their emotional problems to be quite interesting, and the (few) “plot twists” kept things interesting throughout the series.

Some other people I know who watched this felt it was all very confusing, because not much is explained until rather late in the show. While this is true, I find that the somewhat fast pacing of the story will keep you thinking about other stuff, until you can finally get your answers.

Art: (9 / 10)

I think the art in BRS is absolutely gorgeous! In fact, this is probably one of the better looking shows I’ve seen. The character designs are great, and the overall art, especially the “otherworld” parts are visually stunning.

The action scenes all have very fluent animations, and the aesthetics help set the mood, somewhat. In addition, something I noticed on my second time through, was the attention to detail in the background, in some scenes.

Sound: (8 / 10)

First of, let’s talk about the music. Now, I’m not one to usually notice background music, unless it’s very prominent, and thus, I’ll mostly comment on the opening & ending songs here.

The opening song, “Black Rock Shooter”, written by Supercell’s Ryo, and performed by vocaloid Hatsune Miku, was a great choice, in my opinion. In addition to being a good song, it was the original song that Ryo wrote after being inspired by the original artwork of BRS. Being one of the things that help spawn this wonderful franchise, it only makes sense for it to be used in the anime.

As for the ending song, I also find it very fitting, as well as being a good song.
The song, “Bokura no Ashiato”, is also written by Ryo, and is performed by Supercell’s Koeda.
To be honest, I just adore Koeda, and can’t possibly dislike anything she sings, but this has also grown to be one of my all time favorite songs.
The lyrics and overall mood of the song also fits pretty well with the series itself.

The sound also receives bonus points, since it features one of my favorite VA’s, Hanazawa Kana. I feel like she fits the role of Mato very well, and while the other VA’s aren’t anything fantastic, they all did a good job in adding to their characters.

Character: (7 / 10)

Putting character designs (art-wise) aside, I think the characters in BRS are quite... interesting.

I feel like the characters are pretty relatable (even if some character’s actions seem rather stupid), and a character like Kagari really helps to balance out the cuteness of Mato & Friends.

Other than that, I also think they did a great job with Kagari, because to this day she remains one of the most disturbed little girls I’ve ever seen in an anime...

As for the “otherworld” characters, there isn’t really any dialog or anything to go by, but somehow I still get this feeling of they all being very awesome and in some way “well developed” characters.

Enjoyment: (9 / 10)

I can certainly see why many people may not like this, but personally, I enjoyed this show a lot. I found the mix of “cute girls do things” (at first, at least), and awesome fighting scenes to be very good, and even if the story isn’t anything amazing, it still managed to keep me interested.

I’m a bit disappointed that it’s so short, though (only 8 episodes), as I feel it could have been longer.