Black★Rock Shooter (anime)/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Don't expect many Y chromosomes here.


Introduced in Black★Rock Shooter OVA

Humans

Main human characters who attend Mato's school.

Mato Kuroi

A happy-go-lucky girl who's very excitable and hyper. She's very naïve, however, and very closed-minded; she likes to marvel at things, and enjoys playing the guitar. She's also very skilled at basketball and is a bit of a Tomboy (although not quite as much as one would expect from her appearance).

In the 2012 anime, she seems to be fond of philosophical musings or just "zoning out" and staring at stuff. Saya notes that she is innocent, and that she has never hated anyone nor has, up until now, anyone hated her.

Has a younger brother, Hiro, and a mother who shows up a bit onscreen. Her dad is never shown, however the 2012 anime says he is often on business trips.

Her "other self" is Black★Rock Shooter. In both incarnations, she ends up merging with her at some point.

Voiced by Kana Hanazawa.

General Tropes:

  • Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Doesn't wear black clothes, but a lot of her clothing has a blue/star motif.
  • Blue Eyes: One of the only ones with them in the school.
  • Genki Girl: To a certain extent.
  • Girlish Pigtails: Very short ones.
  • Meaningful Name: "Kuroi" means "black clothes"; "Mato" with the proper kanji means "target" (as in target shooting). Her other self is Black★Rock Shooter, who certainly wears black clothes and works a lot with target shooting, her target being the Dead Master.
    • The aforementioned kanji for "mato" also is used to form adjectives, so together "Kuroi Mato" could just mean "black-clothed."
    • In basketball, one "shoots" baskets.
  • Ordinary Junior High School Student: Well, until the end of the OVA.
  • Romantic Two-Girl Friendship: With Yomi.
  • Tomboy: Not quite a Bokukko, but according to the OVA, she evidently gained her basketball skills from practicing with boys in the park.

2012 Anime Tropes:

  • Battle in the Center of the Mind: She goes even deeper to fight Insane Black★Rock Shooter.
  • Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Brutally averted unlike the Otherselves because she heals slower than them. When she, in form of Black★Rock Shooter, faces Insane Black★Rock Shooter and refuses to attack her, Insane Black★Rock Shooter's ruthlessly beating the shit out of her and specifically attacking face and limbs. Not even a minute, Mato lays with an extremely bruised and bleeding face and horribly twisted leg.
  • BFG/Small Girl, Big Gun: During her fight with Insane Black★Rock Shooter, she pulls out one so big the muzzle itself is as tall the Insane Black★Rock Shooter.
  • Combined Energy Attack / Wave Motion Gun: Her ultimate attack.
  • Disappeared Dad: Specifically stated to be on a business trip here.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: Starts off a brand new friendship with Yomi, Kagari, and the real Yuu in the finale.
  • Fighting From the Inside
  • Freak-Out: After merging with Black★Rock Shooter, she finds that she killed Yomi/Dead Master. The result turns them into Insane Black★Rock Shooter.
  • Grasp the Sun
  • Heroic BSOD: Falls into one after merging with Black★Rock Shooter and becoming Insane Black★Rock Shooter. Strength brings her back to reality to some degree, but she's still confused about what's going on.
  • Implacable Man: At the end. She just keeps walking into Insane Black★Rock Shooter's attack, so she can fire a rainbow colored Spirit Bomb laser at point-blank range.
  • In the End You Are on Your Own: Defeats Insane Black★Rock Shooter herself - though with help from a Combined Energy Attack.
  • The Philosopher: She sometimes lapses into internal monologue about "the color of things" and "birds". She even sees herself as "black".
  • Pure Is Not Good: It's implied that Black★Rock Shooter is born of her desire to help people, and the reason why Black★Rock Shooter is so strong is because Mato is such a good girl with no worries... and she wants other people to not suffer just like her. Ignoring her own worries ends up turning B★RS into The Juggernaut in the Otherworld. And from what it looks like, that mentality had existed and was rooted in her since she was a toddler!
  • Psychic Dreams for Everyone: Dreams about the Otherworld.
  • Stepford Smiler: She's just better at it than the other girls. She hides her pain well, and instead tries to solve other people's problems - putting her in denial that her problems exist and eventually making her think she's running away from them.
  • Synchronization : After merging with Black Rock Shooter, she feels all her pain instead of the other way around.

Yomi Takanashi

A girl who catches Mato's eye due to her Friendless Background and her having been dropped off by a car on her first day. As fate would have it, she lives in the same neighborhood as Mato. She takes the train with Mato from then on, and also joins the volleyball team (which she shows skill in) after watching Mato in the basketball team. Her parents are very rich.

She starts to drift away from Mato after she is separated from her class-wise in their second year, and her disappearance by possession/merging fuels the main plot. Her "other self" is the Dead Master.

The 2012 anime plays her a little differently, not only giving her glasses but changing her personality a bit. Unlike before, she is unwilling to make friends both due to the fear she will hurt them and because Kagari seems to have her on a leash. Again, she seems to not like Yuu. However, this is rationalized a bit better than it was in the OVA.

Voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro.

General Tropes:

  • Expy: Of Yomi Isayama.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: A source of conflict in both the OVA and broadcast anime is the jealousy she feels regarding Yuu and Mato's friendship. It gets worse in the TV anime, where she also has to contend with Kagari's new friends.
  • Green Eyes: The only one with them in the school.
  • Meaningful Name: Her name, written with different kanji, means "underworld" which is fitting when you realize her "other self" is the Dead Master.
  • Ojou: In the OVA, she apparently lived in Germany for a period of time (but is not very good at German). She was dropped off at school by her dad in a car on her first day (which is rare in Japan), and her parents hired a detective when she goes missing - she even has the first kind of Ojou personality, kind and gentle.
    • In the 2012 anime, she also lives in a huge mansion.
  • Ordinary Junior High School Student
  • Princess Curls: An odd variation, as the curls appear on the front part of her hair, but behind her shoulders, her hair is cropped closely to her head. The 2012 anime does this a little differently, as at one point she lets her hair down and it looks normal, albeit a little long, implying she wears pigtails of some sort.
  • Punny Name / Alternate Character Reading: Her family name, "Takanashi". (It's written "kotori-asobi", "little birds playing", but pronounced as "no hawks" - because there are no hawks where little birds play.)
  • Romantic Two-Girl Friendship: With Mato.
  • Yamato Nadeshiko: Has shades of this.

OVA Tropes:

  • Huge Schoolgirl: Not all that tall, but in the OVA, Mato seems to point it out constantly. (It is to be noted, however, that by normal human proportions, she is significantly taller than Mato.) Yomi also admits to having a complex about her height.
  • New Transfer Student: In the OVA, her backstory is that she lived in Germany for a while. Her name, "Takanashi", is also not very common in Mato's area.

2012 Anime Tropes:

  • Creator Breakdown: Her paintings get a lot creepier as her loneliness worsens.
  • Fragile Flower: She cries a lot. Though this is probably more a by-product of her very, very parasitic relationship with Kagari.
  • Freak-Out: Episode 4
  • Ironic Echo: Think of this: at the hospital, when Kagari and Yomi hear Mato (who has been a thorn in Kagari's skin) behind their door, Kagari snaps. In Episode 4, when Kagari tells Yomi that they're done being long-time friends, Yomi snaps.
    • Also has one of sorts to the original OVA; in the OVA, Mato is the one who looks for Yomi when she goes missing, in the anime it's the complete opposite.
  • It's All My Fault: The reason for her current relationship with Kagari.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: The death of Dead Master causes her to lose her memories of how her hair was cut, and she loses her feelings for Mato to the point where she deletes Mato's mails from her phone.
    • Until Episode 7, when she actually manages to get said memories back by thinking about it hard enough once Mato's disappearance affects her badly.
  • Meganekko
  • Yandere: Acts like one to both Mato and Kagari, if Episode 4 is anything to go by. When she gets a text from Yuu with her claim of being "Mato's friend", Yomi snaps and almost destroys her phone! It gets really, really worse at the end of the episode when Kagari tells her that their friendship is over!
    • Basically, Yomi has a psychological need to have someone need her more than anyone else.

Yuu Koutari

The manager of the basketball team at Mato and Yomi's junior high school.

In the OVA, Mato only respects her in her first year, but becomes close friends with Yuu in her second year (as they are in the same class together, and Mato and Yomi are not). Her "other self" is implied to be Strength.

In the 2012 anime, she is a childhood friend of Mato who often skips classes. She is also fond of coffee. She is in fact Strength, having switched places with the real Yuu years before the beginning of the show. As such she is not entirely real, though she can still interact with the physical world. 

Tropes related to the original Yuu Koutari go in the Strength section below.

Voiced by Kana Asumi.

General Tropes:

OVA Tropes:

  • No Name Given: She was only given a last name in the 2012 Anime.
  • Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Trailer: Did not appear in the pilot or the trailer, and her existence was unknown before a magazine and the website revealed her existence.

2012 Anime Tropes:

  • A Darker Me: Inverts this trope. The actual Yuu is more savage than Strength, once Strength gains emotions and begins to interact with the real world.
  • Ascended Extra: In the OVA, she was simply a girl who seemed to be awkward around Yomi, generally acting as an annoyance to Yomi and being extremely pissed off about being left out from Mato and Yomi's friendship. The anime? Not only is she much nicer and assertive, she's actually Strength. Quite a departure.
  • Because You Were Nice to Me: Has a strong attachment to Mato because she was her only friend when she was younger and all alone.
  • Died in Your Arms Tonight: Last episode. She gets better in The Stinger.
  • Driven to Suicide / Heroic Sacrifice: Originally tries to kill herself to stop the real Yuu's pain. She eventually goes through with it in the final episode, literally breaking into pieces and forcing Yuu to enter the real world.
  • Dying Declaration of Love: To the real Yuu, before crumbling away.
  • Humanity Ensues: She develops human emotions because of Yuu's pain, and then takes her place in the real world.
  • Invisible to Those Who Don't Have An Otherself
  • Literally Shattered Lives: She gets better.
  • Mysterious Waif: To an extent.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero / Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Her intention was to help the Otherworld and Saya and she felt like she could fix the situation by merging Mato with Black★Rock Shooter. Instead, it trapped Mato within her and made everything worse.
  • Not-So-Imaginary Friend: She only manifests as Yuu to a certain degree in the real world, as she has no shadow and only under certain circumstances is her existence acknowledged by other people.
  • Spirit Advisor: Is this for Saya to some degree.
  • The Shadow Knows: Strength-as-Yuu has no shadow in any of the scenes she's in when everyone else very clearly has one. This sets up the episode 5 reveal.
  • Straight Man: To Mato.
  • Undead Tax Exemption: As far as the public real world is concerned, Yuu disappeared several years ago (when Saya was a High School Student) and switched with Strength, and Strength is not acknowledged as existing by anyone. That original Yuu can be a New Transfer Student in the last episode would require quite a bit of paperwork.


Other Selves

The denizens of the "Otherworld", the "other selves" are weaponized human-type girls who constantly fight against each other for some reason. A hint of magic seems to exist as they seem to be able to merge with their human counterparts, and there seems to be something about being material or having a body. The reason for their existence, or their fighting, is unknown.

In the 2012 anime it is revealed that they exist to shoulder the grief of humans and their deaths result in the real counterpart losing all of his/her grief - but also losing their attachments that caused said grief (i.e., love).

Black★Rock Shooter (Anime) / Insane Black★Rock Shooter

A mysterious girl in the Otherworld who seems to be a good fighter, but does not give any reason for her fighting. Seems to be a silent hero.

In the OVA, she loses her katana, the "black blade", and, according to some interpretations, her life in a battle with Black★Gold Saw and fights with the ★rock cannon, which can fire 20 bullets per second.

In the 2012 anime, she represents Mato's desire to solve other people's problems and ignore her own, and thus goes on a rampage to kill "other selves" throughout the Otherworld. This causes Saya to panic and quickly traumatize the other girls in the hopes of awakening "other selves" to stop her progress and protect the Otherworld for the original Yuu. Mato ends up merging with her in Episode 7, but the shock of seeing Dead Master die transforms them into Insane Black★Rock Shooter (see listings below).

Since she is the "other self" of Mato, she is also voiced by Kana Hanazawa.

General Tropes:

  • Badass Longcoat: With a star on the back.
  • BFG: The ★rock cannon.
  • Black Swords Are Better
  • Cute Bruiser
  • Girlish Pigtails: Doesn't define her personality at all, however; they're also extremely long, and one of them is shorter than the other.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has a scar on her hip and another on her leg; in the OVA it's likely from the impact of Black★Gold Saw's final stroke.
    • She doesn't have them in the 2012 anime.
  • In the Hood: Her Badass Longcoat always featured one, but she has always kept it down until the 2012 Anime.
  • Shapeshifter Weapon: Rock Shooter's "★rock cannon", which can transform into a small katana "black blade" and also into a 30mm Gatling Cannon.
  • Small Girl, Big Gun: The ★rock cannon is almost as big as her.
  • Stripperiffic: Bikini top, booty shorts, thigh-high boots, and a hoodie.
  • Super Strength: May or may not have this, as in the OVA, she breaks the Dead Master's chains with her bare hands; however, this could just be from being a Determinator.
    • There's also the fact that she can even lift her cannon, let alone wield it as both a ranged and melee weapon.
  • Sword and Gun: She loses the sword in the first scene of the OVA, however; instead, her gun gets to become some sword-like blunt object.
  • The Rival: Can be interpreted as this to Dead Master.
  • The Voiceless / The Speechless: Does not speak at all; whether she does so because she is The Stoic or because she cannot is unknown. She finally talks to Mato at the end of the OVA, although this may be because Mato is her human counterpart.
    • At the end of the first anime episode it seems she's incapable of making any sound as she gets impaled by Chariot and opens her mouth in a scream but there's no sound at all, although this could be just stylistic.
    • In the end of the 2012 anime, she does speak, albeit telepathically.

2012 Anime Tropes applying to normal Black★Rock Shooter:

  • Atop a Mountain of Corpses: B★RS in the third episode.
  • Anti-Hero: Seems to be completely fine with massacring "other selves" without restraint. This bothers Saya very much, but it concurs with Mato's belief that the Otherworld is wrong.
  • Cartridges in Flight: B★RS's minigun appears to eject entire bullets instead of spent casings.
  • Dark Action Girl: Sort of. She's shown as an Anti-Villain Protagonist in this continuity.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Mato pretty much brings B★RS under control after defeating her.
  • Disney Death / Unexplained Recovery: Or something like that. She's destroyed as Insane Black★Rock Shooter but is seen unharmed as Black★Rock Shooter shortly thereafter.
    • The ending hints that as long as their real-life counterparts are alive, the girls' Otherselves will also continue to exist, to help shoulder their grief and sorrows as the girls continue living.
  • Gatling Good: Her response to getting a giant waterfall of macarons thrown at her is to upgrade her gun into a minigun and fire so many bullets that they even scatter everywhere. She later uses a stationary double minigun for a brief moment.
  • Heel Face Turn: The end of the final episode.
  • (Non-) Human Pincushion
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: It's just the first episode and B★RS is already ran through by Chariot's wedge-like form, which is as big as a bus.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Decapitating/killing "other selves" causes people to lose their grief. It also causes them to lose the attachments that caused said grief.
    • Her unchecked progress in destroying the Otherworld is what is getting Saya to try to stress out the girls in the hopes of getting "other selves" to stop her.
  • Offhand Backhand: Chariot tries to rush at her with a sword when her back is turned, but instead B★RS ignites her eye-fire and beheads her, barely even turning at all.
  • Made of Iron: She takes enough damage to kill a human several times over in the first episode alone.
  • More Dakka: See Gatling Good.
  • Nineties Anti-Hero: Badass Longcoat, Stripperiffic, talks with her humongous gun and katana, vague ill-defined powers revolving about being Made of Iron and Good Thing You Can Heal and she's not afraid in the least to use lethal force. She's just missing the Most Common Superpower.
  • Perpetual Motion Monster: All otherselves doesn't need sustenance other than justification for their existence -- the continual suffering of their humanselves, for them to shoulder. But B★RS is especially notable in this regard, because she invades the realm of other otherselves to kill them.
  • Sword and Gun: Wields both her sword and cannon at the same time in episode 5.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Sort of. Technically she has no emotions and only acts by instinct - however she was born of a desire to help people.

2012 Anime Tropes applying to Insane Black★Rock Shooter:

Dead Master

A girl with two horns and the "Dead Scythe". Seems to be followed around by two telepathic skulls, which she uses as weapons. She also has powers over chains.

May be Yandere. Her human counterpart is Yomi. As such she is also voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro.

She receives a noticeable redesign in the 2012 Anime, including glasses and a wedding veil.

General Tropes:

OVA Tropes:

  • I Have You Now, My Pretty: Does this to Black★Rock Shooter; whether this is feeding off Yomi's instincts or if it's entirely the Dead Master's volition is up to debate.
  • Load-Bearing Boss: Her lair starts crumbling after she escapes Yomi's body and dissolves.
  • Oh Crap: Her reaction in the near-end of the OVA when Black★Rock Shooter broke the chains holding her in place, marches forwards towards her, and then embraced her. She resisted to no avail, resulting in her falling off the ledge and then dissolving afterwards, leaving the body of Yomi aside.
  • Orcus On Her Throne: In the OVA, after "taking" Yomi, she did absolutely nothing except apparently sit in her throne room waiting. Though it's likely she was waiting for B★RS anyway.

2012 Anime Tropes:

  • Adaptational Badass: Inverted. In the OVA, Dead Master was a perfectly capable fighter. In the anime, B★RS quickly unravels the chain, and she gets carried away helplessly by Chariot's spider minions. After struggling for a ridiculously long time against the chains binding her, the moment it seems like she might join the fight, she gets dragged into a fissure created by Black★Gold Saw. Though it may be justified in a sense since Yomi was in a pretty weak state...
    • This no longer applies after episode 4.
  • Back from the Dead For The Finale
  • Big Boo's Haunt: Her zone of the otherworld.
  • Chained by Fashion: Sealed by Chariot with her own chains as a symbolism of Kagari's control over Yomi's guilt. When Yomi's Freak-Out reaches its apex, her chains warp around her into a giant mountain and explode into her army of countless zombies.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Episode 5.
  • Meganekko
  • Natural Weapon: Has huge claws.
  • Night of the Living Mooks: Episode 4.

Strength

A mysterious "other self" that is approaching the Dead Master and Black★Rock Shooter throughout the OVA. She is implied to be the "other self" of the OVA's Yuu.

In the 2012 anime, she is eventually revealed to be the actual Yuu Koutari, who Saya had tried to befriend while they were in high school. She suffered from many familial issues and bullying, but was aware of the Otherworld's existence and related it to Saya when she talked to her. It's implied that the abuse she suffered allowed Strength to become self-aware. After a misunderstanding, Saya offered to do anything for Yuu. Yuu revealed the existences of Strength and Black★Gold Saw, and had Saya promise to protect her and the Otherworld. Afterwards, she contacted Strength and decided to switch places with her, allowing Strength to deal with reality while she deals with the comparative simplicity of the other world.

Voiced, obviously, by Kana Asumi.

General Tropes:

2012 Anime:

Black★Gold Saw

An "other self" who was seen fighting Black★Rock Shooter at the beginning of the OVA. She caused some of her scars; according to some interpretations, she was also responsible for taking Black★Rock Shooter's life.

In the 2012 anime, her eye is seen opening in various locations of the "Otherworld", implying that she's watching. It appears that she has a great deal of power over the Otherworld, and is cultivating the Other Selves. She is in fact trying to stop Black★Rock Shooter from destroying the Otherworld.

General Tropes:

OVA Tropes:

2012 Anime Tropes:

  • Adaptational Badass: Her powers go from hand-to-hand combat to reality-warping.
    • Inverted in regards to B★GS. In the OVA she appears to actually beat B★RS, but in the anime she puts up the least impressive fight of any character.Though note that when she was fighting with B★RS Saya was intentionally trying to take the diplomatic route with Mato, so she did comparatively little fighting - it doesn't excuse her inability to defend herself though.
  • An Arm and a Leg: She's partially responsible for IBRS losing an arm. IBRS then gets revenge.
  • Ascended Extra: Compared to the OVA.
  • Diabolus Ex Machina: When it looks like Chariot's Mental World is breaking apart, B★GS suddenly appears, stops the breakdown in time, and sends Dead Master into a fissure. Then she vanishes, giving Chariot the opportunity to hit B★RS from behind. This culminates in Chariot losing her head. It's all sort of subverted when we learn that B★GS was trying to kill B★RS, and B★RS would have killed Chariot anyway.
  • Evil Redhead: Of sorts - the 2012 anime makes her hair a very dark red...
  • Lady in Red: The 2012 anime adds more red to her outfit.
  • Lightning Bruiser: The fact that she wields a BFS might not justify it alone as the other characters are also able to wield lofty weapons. She is however the fastest in combination with her strength. It takes both DM and BRS a few seconds to notice her, or rather where she was just standing. In addition, She sends Dead Master down a fissure she created with a single swing of her sword.
  • Making a Splash: Seems to have a lot of water related powers.
  • Mook Maker: In episode 6, she shows the ability to create a massive amount of soldiers by throwing water from her watering can onto the ground.
  • Mysterious Watcher: She can watch any area of the otherworld she desires by opening a gigantic eye in the sky.
  • Older Than They Look: Mato says she resembles a middle-aged lady.
    • It can be justified by the fact that Saya is B★GS.
  • Teleporters and Transporters: Moves between different parts of the otherworld by sinking into the ground.
  • The Worf Effect: After her display of power in Episode 2, B★GS is (literally) single-handedly dispatched by Insane Black Rock Shooter in episode 6. See her entry on Adaptational Badass for more detail.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: She's basically Saya's vehicle to protect the Otherworld.

Introduced in Black★Rock Shooter TV (2012 Anime)

Humans

Saya Irino

The middle school counselor of "Dawn Counseling" at Mato's school. She is often the one to go to when talking about personal problems, and will do it while offering them lots of coffee.

She is the other self of Black★Gold Saw, and can consciously channel herself into her. She is awakening other selves through less than moral means to prevent Black★Rock Shooter from destroying the Otherworld - or more specifically the original Yuu Koutari, who now resides there. She was friends with the original Yuu Koutari in high school and later made a promise to protect her. Yuu revealed Black★Gold Saw to Saya before switching places with Strength.

Voiced by Mamiko Noto

  • Anti-Villain: In an attempt to fulfill a promise to the original Yuu to protect her and thus, by extension, protect the Otherworld, she tries to mess up her charges to incite their "other selves" to awaken, purely for the purpose of stopping Black★Rock Shooter's rampage. She also contemplates killing Mato to stop Black★Rock Shooter, but can't do it because she knows it's wrong and that Mato did nothing to deserve it.
  • Brown Eyes
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: Would you believe that she has the same seiyuu as Enma Ai? Both are capable of inducing Mind Screw on their victims! Saya also used to have a Hime Cut back then.
  • Hidden Eyes
  • Hime Cut: When she was young.
  • I Will Protect Her: Her entire motivation is to protect Yuu, and by extension, the Otherworld.
  • Misplaced Kindergarten Teacher: Only visually. She wears a strange kiddish armband.
  • My Greatest Failure / My Greatest Second Chance: She promised to protect Yuu because she had, for a moment, suspected Yuu of burning down her house. In order to make it up to Yuu, she promised to do anything.
  • Psychologist Teacher: Well, she is a counselor after all...
  • Sensei-chan: They actually call her Saya-chan-sensei.
  • The Promise: Her motivation is to keep one.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Coffee.
    • Though she reveals that she actually hates coffee when it doesn't have milk in episode 5.
  • Treacherous Advisor: Does the opposite of what a school counselor is supposed to, all for the sake of the Otheworld.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Her reasons for breaking the girls is that the original Yuu was her friend when she was in high school, and in a desperate attempt to help her, she made a promise to protect her, and, by extension, the Otherworld. She believes that Black★Rock Shooter will destroy the Otherworld if unchecked, so she puts stress on the girls in the hopes of awakening "other selves" to curb her.

Kagari Izuriha

A girl who lives close to Yomi. She is a childhood friend of hers, and is bound to a wheelchair; thus, she does not attend their school. She lives next door to Yomi and seems to be controlling her via a Tin Can Telephone, constantly telling her that she "must not make friends" and claiming Yomi to be "hers"; according to her Yomi must "take responsibility". It turns out that when Yomi was moving away with her family Kagari tried to run after her and was hit by a car.

Fond of pastries and dolls, but is very, very blatant about her hatred for anyone. After Black★Rock Shooter beheads Chariot, however, she suddenly and rather unnervingly becomes extremely calmer, and starts to get over her trauma. She eventually returns to school in Episode 4.

She is the human counterpart of Chariot. Chariot's death in Episode 2 causes her to lose all of her grief - and also her attachment to Yomi.

Voiced by Eri Kitamura

  • Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other: A (probably) non-romantic version. After seeing Yomi coming back to school, her memories of Yomi begin to come back slowly. She is also disoriented by Mato's disappearance.
  • Ambiguous Disorder: Kagari has this. She gets better.
  • Bastard Girlfriend: She doesn't have one. She is one. When she stops being a bastard and becomes capable of normal relationships with other people, [[spoiler: Yomi snaps\\. That's an eerily familiar development...
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing
  • Blondes Are Evil: Never has a cute lil' blonde girl saying "Kaere (Go away)!" been SO CREEPY.
  • Creepy Child
  • Creepy Doll: Heavily associated with one. Its name is Mary. She also "talks through" it, claiming that anything she says while acting as Mary is not something that she is saying. YMMV whether the doll or her owner is creepier.

"Go away! Go away! Go away!"

  • Curtains Match the Windows: Blonde hair and creepy, creepy Eyes of Gold.
  • Cute and Psycho: Mostly psycho, though.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Metaphorically, at any rate.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: She instantly becomes a nice person and is friends with Mato. Not only that, but she gets instantly popular in the class just by saying "shut up!"
  • Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Says this almost word for word.
  • Dull Eyes of Unhappiness
  • Epiphany Therapy: Gets over her years-long psychosis rather easily.
    • She is, however, still a bit psychotic - she likes to make strange remarks from time to time that are a little disturbing.
  • Evil Cripple: Subverted. She's not actually crippled. Pretending like she is - or convincing herself that she is - is part of her evilness.
  • Expository Hairstyle Change: Upon attending school again, she ties her hair into a side-ponytail.
  • Expy: Some fans think of her as Taiga.
  • Glurge Addict: Loves dolls and macarons and is almost always seen with one or the other. This does not make her any less creepy.
  • Hair Decorations
  • Heel Face Turn: She and Mato become friends in Episode 4.
  • Jerkass: In Japanese and most Asian cultures, it's one thing to not like someone, but it's another thing to tell them to their face to GTFO.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: After Chariot, her other self, gets her head chopped off, she loses her attachment to Yomi. She remembers that she loved her once, but she can't invoke those feelings anymore.
    • She regains at least some of her memories in episode 8.
  • Look Both Ways: Her accident.
  • No Social Skills: Ridiculously blunt in her psychoticness toward Mato. Even after she is healed, she's comically blunt and foul-mouthed, which earns her popularity at school. She also badly, badly words her gratitude to Yomi for taking care of her all those years.
  • Pseudo Crisis: At the end of Episode 2 it seems like something bad happened to Kagari...but then in the next episode we learn she just fell asleep.
  • Self-Inflicted Hell: A mundane example. She's not actually crippled physically. However, her mental state has been driven so badly that she believes herself to be crippled, to the point where a twisted wrist makes her think that she is completely incapable of doing this. Debatable as to whether this is "hell", however, as she seems to take pleasure in forcing herself to be dependent on her.
  • Third Person Person
  • Villainous Breakdown: End of episode 2.
  • Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: Semi-inversion; it's more like Why Did You Make Me Hit Myself?

Arata Kohata

A member of Mato and Yuu's basketball team. Seems to always wear her jersey.

Voiced by Manami Numakura

  • A-Cup Angst: Claims to Saya that the only reason she can't confess to a boy she likes is because she doesn't have "big boobs".
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: She and Taku are now a couple, and Mato teases her about it.
  • Genki Girl: All Mato wanted to do was show interest in the basketball club. Instead, Arata made her run sprints.
  • Girlish Pigtails
  • Hair Decorations
  • In-Series Nickname: Kohacchi.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: Black Rock Shooter killing her fledging other self caused her to lose her love for Taku, an attachment that gave her grief.
    • She regains these feelings in the last episode.
  • Love Confession: She likes a boy in her class named Taku and gives him a love letter. It ends very badly when his Jerkass friends decide to mock her in front of the entire school.
  • Out of Focus: She actually doesn't become important in any way.
  • Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Trailer: She does appear on the website, however.
  • Stepford Smiler: This is who she really is, though no one is fooled. It's a source of stress for Mato knowing that Arata is hurting inside but shrugs it all off.
  • Tsundere
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Unlike the OVA, the TV anime plays this fairly straight with Arata, whose red hair is quite implausible.

Other Selves

Chariot

The other self of Kagari.

Characters of Black★Rock Shooter: The Game

Humans

The twelve survivors in 2051 of the 2032 disaster when an alien invasion destroyed almost all of humanity.

Stella or BRS (Black★Rock Shooter)

One of the twelve survivors of an After the End Earth. She's the only one with enough power to destroy aliens.

Voiced by Maaya Sakamoto.

Nana Grey/Gray (RPG)

An ally to Black★Rock Shooter.

Voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro.

Apostles

The Apostles are the leaders of the alien invasion on Earth, with each one being classified as "Class A" aliens. There were once fifteen of them, but by the events of The Game only seven remain. They are ranked in ascending order of power (with "first" being the weakest).

MEFE

Ranked first. She has light purple hair and eyes, and her costume resembles that of a magician.

Voiced by Mai Nakahara.

MZMA

Ranked second. His primary colour is red, and his preferred element is fire. He is very fond of showmanship and can create clones of himself in battle.

Voiced by Tomokazu Sugita.

SZZU

Ranked third. Unlike the other Apostles, she is rather knowledgeable in human emotions and thus able to understand her twin, CKRY.

Voiced by Youko Hikasa.

CKRY

Ranked fourth. A big, bulky male with such a violent, primal temperment that he can only be properly understood by SZZU, his twin.

Voiced by Yoshimitsu Shimoyama.

XNFE

Ranked fifth. She has pink hair and eyes, and has a large headpiece that resemble a bunny's ears. She is physically weak, so she fights by controlling drones.

Voiced by Asami Shimoda.

LLWO

Ranked sixth. His primary colour is green, and he has a strange lightning mark on his hair. May have feelings for XNFE.

Voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya.

SAHA

Ranked seventh, making him the most powerful of the Apostles. Though he resembles an old man, he fights using a large exoskeleton.

Others

White★Rock Shooter (RPG)

A mysterious young woman who appears as an "inverted" version of B★RS, trading black for white and blue eyes for red. She is the person behind the alien invasion of Earth, engineering "The Game" as a way to wipe out humanity.

Voiced by Maaya Sakamoto.

Characters of Black★Rock Shooter (Manga)

Protagonists

Rock (Black★Rock Shooter)

A girl who watches over Hazama.

  • Berserk Button: Flips out when she hears the word "Disappear". The reason? Some bullies burnt her shoulder and leg with cigarettes while chanted the word in her Dark and Troubled Past, only starting to appear as flashes of memories after being in contact with a corrupted soul who died in fire. Before that, she has no reason other than instinct why she hates the word.
  • Emotionless Girl: Has difficulty recognizing what "fun" is, and utterly confused why she has tears leaking from her eyes after seeing her previous life. She's not quite content with this, however.
  • Gender Blender Name: Here, BRS is called "Rock". She is also the legendary "Black Star".
  • Good Is Not Nice: She knows what her mission is, and she offers no consolation to Reto, who just realized that he's a dead guy all along. Time will tell whether she's a full-blown Anti-Hero.
  • Shinigami: Her role is fairly close to one, in that she makes sure souls aren't trapped in Hazama.
  • You Are Number Six: It's revealed that she isn't the only Black Shooter. To be exact, she's number 01451.

Ron

A sort of snake-like being, he forms a sort of partnership as a sort of physical manifestation of Rock's powers.

Acta

Another Black Shooter.

Nico

Acta's partner.

Antagonists

Jack Olie

A mass murderer who feeds on souls who have drifted to Hazama.

  • Complete Monster: His hatred is so massive that it traps him in the Hazama, the realm between Heaven and Earth along with his victims' souls, so that he can kill them again and again and again.

Rock: You're fucked-up.

Hanako Nakamura

A student who lives in a big empty school in Hazama. The school is made entirely of trapped souls.

Dead (Dead Master)

A mysterious, ominous person who approaches Rock at the end of the first chapter.

  • Cute and Psycho: Pretty much adorable. Eats souls.
  • Extreme Omnivore: Her soul-devouring aside, she also ate her teddy bear in her sleep and proceed to eat Rock's hair next. And people are asking why Rock's pig-tails are in an uneven length...
  • Les Yay: Pretty much explicitly in love/lust with Rock.
  • You Are Number Six: Black Shooter number 012370
  • Your Soul Is Mine: Literally eats them.

Related Characters

Others

If they ever appear in anime-related material, they are likely to be "other selves". Unlikely to appear in the RPG at this rate.

Black★Devil Girl

Black★Matagi

Black★Rock Shooter BEAST

Death Scythe

Demon Cannon User

Dragon Slayer

Geshumaru

Great Black Sword / Underworld Icicle

Maid Gunner

Ninja Zero Two

Underworld Vulcan / Maid Vulcan

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