Black★Rock Shooter (anime)



"The little birds fly in the blue sky. The ocean mirrors the blue of the sky. The deep azure is heaven's ocean. In the blue of the sky, heaven's tears lie. In the tears of heaven, the little bird flies."

In 2009 it was announced that an OVA of Black★Rock Shooter would be made based on an original story created by huke.

The OVA had a simple plot: Mato Kuroi (voiced by Kana Hanazawa) becomes friends with Yomi Takanashi (voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro) in their first year of junior high school. However, in their second year, they find themselves in different classes and start drifting apart, especially when Mato befriends another girl, Yuu (voiced by Kana Asumi). Meanwhile, in another world, Black★Rock Shooter is seeking out and confronting the mysterious, evil Dead Master. What is B★RS's reason for wanting to fight this Dead Master, and what relation does this have to Mato and her friends?

The OVA generated enough interest to make a new anime series, running on NoitaminA's timeslot during the Winter 2012 Anime season with a different director. The anime began airing on February 3, 2012, and had a slightly retooled plot: Mato Kuroi enters junior high school and meets a girl, Yomi Takanashi, who seems to be completely distant and aloof. An attempt to become friends with her ends up into a nasty run-in with Creepy Child Kagari Izuriha, who seems to be obsessed with Yomi to Yandere levels. Mato ends up wanting to be friends with Yomi anyway, and meanwhile, Black★Rock Shooter seems to be in another world, still fighting...

2009 OVA
"B★RS/: I am...Black Rock Shooter."
 * Action Girl:
 * Also, Dark Action Girl.
 * All There in the Manual: For all that the OVA diverges from huke's original story in places, you're going to be confused without having looked into it. Black★Rock Shooter is the only character from her world whose name gets revealed!
 * That said, the OVA's story is written to stand on its own for viewers going in blind.
 * Alternate Character Reading: Yomi's surname, Takanashi, is written with the kanji "kotori asobi" ("little birds playing") and read "no hawks" as a play on words (see Punny Name below). Discussed by Mato, who thinks it's cool.
 * Mood Whiplash: The various scenes and transition can lead you to that, as well.
 * Art Shift: Whenever it changes world.
 * Battle in the Center of the Mind: One interpretation of what's going on.
 * BFS: The more blade-like form of ★rock Cannon (not to be confused with the katana shown at first).
 * Blue Eyes: Mato is the only one in her school with blue eyes.
 * Call to Adventure:
 * Chekhov's Gun:
 * Chess with Death:
 * Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: little Hiro Kuroi. You see him a total of three times: waking up in his bed, telling Mato dinner is ready, and eating dinner with his family. These scenes are very brief and don't effect the plot, so it shouldn't be a surprise if you mention Hiro and no one knows who you are referring to.
 * Conspicuous CG
 * Creepy Cool Crosses: One of the landscapes that B★RS walks through is dotted with crosses.
 * Damsel in Distress:
 * : Maybe.
 * DVD Bonus Content: The DVD has an additional Stop Motion video set to a remix of supercell's "Black Rock Shooter" song by Joe Hahn. (He's worked with anime before, like Samurai Champloo.)
 * Evil Cannot Comprehend Good / :
 * Finger-Lickin' Evil: Dead Master.
 * Foe Yay: Sort of, with small implications. If you consider Mato and Yomi "enemies", then yes.
 * Definitely Dead Master at being absolutely tickled at having B★RS in chains.
 * Free-Fall Fight
 * Friendless Background: Yomi.
 * Genki Girl: Yuu, arguably Mato.
 * Girlish Pigtails: Mato. Black★Rock Shooter has longer ones.
 * Good Scars, Evil Scars: Probably shows the moment B★RS got them, as in the intro scene where she fights Black★Gold Saw she does not have them, and it looks like Black★Gold Saw's final strike hits her in the right hip...
 * Good Times Montage: Around halfway through.
 * Green Eyes: Yomi has the only green eyes in their school, coupling with Green-Eyed Monster when Yomi grows jealous of Mato and Yuu's friendship
 * Grey and Grey Morality: People tend to forget that while most would think of Black★Rock Shooter as "good" and Dead Master as "evil", all of the "other selves" are in fact morally ambiguous since we don't know what their motives are.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: When Mato starts speaking in higher pitches, it's easy to hear Nadeko Sengoku.
 * And as it turns out, Popura Taneshima can pronounce the name 'Takanashi' properly.
 * Huge Schoolgirl: Yomi isn't that tall but she admits to being self-conscious about her height.
 * I Have You Now, My Pretty: Dead Master chaining Black★Rock Shooter in her throne room.
 * Joshikousei: The uniforms match this trope, although technically the girls are chugakusei, i.e. junior high school students.
 * Kana Hanazawa Is About To Shoot You: One of the posters depicts B★RS pointing her cannon at the viewer.
 * Katanas Are Just Better: Averted, as Black★Rock Shooter's katana doesn't seem to help her much. Its only appearance is during her duel with Black★Gold Saw, and it then fails to reappear for the rest of the OVA. The ★rock Cannon fills the void by pulling double duty as both a ranged and melee weapon by turning into a sword-like object.
 * Might even be a subversion since she loses with the black blade to a BFS-wielding opponent, and the ★rock Cannon is treated as an upgrade.
 * Late for School: Averted, Mato even gets to enjoy her toast at the table without hurrying and Mato's mother putting a Lampshade on it. She does almost miss the train because she's visiting her special place, but the train is on time and it's at school on time she meets Yomi.
 * Layered World
 * Leitmotif: The original B★RS song.
 * Love At First Sight: Well, something happens to Mato when she first sees Yomi.
 * Love Triangle: Hinted at between Yomi, Mato and Yuu.
 * Luminescent Blush: Happens a lot to Mato when interacting with Yomi.
 * Magical Girl: Even with the rock music, guns, the black clothes, and the desolate landscape; it's a pretty standard Magic Warrior story.
 * Meaningful Name: The kanji used for "Kuroi" means "black clothes", very fitting for Mato. Yomi's name can be alternatively written with a particular kanji that means "underworld".
 * Yep, definitely reminds you of someone.
 * Missing Trailer Scene
 * Mix and Match: Darkseed meets Twin Peaks
 * More Dakka: The ★rock Cannon.
 * Mythology Gag: Before the PV was released and the character rose to fame, Black Rock Shooter had much shorter twin tails. Three guesses as to who uses this design now (first two don’t count).
 * Never Trust a Trailer: Look at this comparison between the pilot and the actual anime. Potentially actual plot points were changed.
 * No Name Given: Okaasan Kuroi, whom is Mato and Hiro's mother. You only hear Mato refer to her as... well... mother. When she called Mato's cell phone the ID read お母さん.
 * Even with the release of the artbook B★RS Phenomenon she is given no name, merely the title Mato no Haha (マトの母 Mato's Mother).
 * Ojou: Yomi, who goes to school on her first day by car (most people walk or take the train) and lived for a while in Germany. She has the first kind of Ojou personality, kind and gentle.
 * One-Gender School: The all-girl school Yomi and Mato attend.
 * Ordinary Junior High School Student: Mato and Yomi.
 * Princess Curls: Yomi and Dead Master.
 * Psychotic Smirk: Dead Master, all the time.
 * Punny Name: Yomi's surname is written as "Kotori-Asobi" ("little birds playing") but is pronouced "Takanashi" ("no hawks"). 'Cause there aren't any hawks where little birds play, get it?
 * Believe it or not, it's an actual surname. A variant of the same pun is used in Working!!.
 * Romantic Two-Girl Friendship: Yomi and Mato, natch.
 * Rule of Symbolism: Stars and Chains
 * Scenery Porn: With a dab of Scenery Gorn in the Other World.
 * Sequel Hook / The Un-Reveal: For the OVA.
 * Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: Inverted; other than her jacket, B★RS is wearing nothing but a bikini. Dead Master's dress, however, covers a lot of skin.
 * Shout-Out: If you're familiar with both series, you might find a few odd similarities with Ga-Rei Zero than as can be explained as pure coincidence...
 * The two schoolgirls Kagura befriends in Ga-Rei Zero are practically proto- Mato and Yomi. You have the dark-haired, quiet, kindly Oujo and the shorter, more hot-headed one who speaks before they think and has no concept of solving problems subtly.
 * Thirdly, Yuu. In both series, the character Yuu serves a wedge between the two main characters, be it unintentionally (BR:S Yuu) or unknowingly (GR:Z Yuu). They also have the same name and hair colour, even though one's an old man and the other's a midget Genki Girl.
 * In the same vein, this could make Yomi, Mato, and Yuu Expies.
 * Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Trailer: Yuu.
 * Super-Powered Evil Side: A possible explanation for Yomi's connection to Dead Master.
 * Swiss Army Weapon: We can see the ★rock cannon morphing into a large blade when BRS fought Dead Master the second time.
 * Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: Black★Gold Saw.
 * Technicolor Eyes: Seem to factor very big: Mato has Blue Eyes, Yomi has Green Eyes, and Yuu has Hazel Eyes. Everyone else seems to have brownish/blackish eyes.
 * Title Drop: B★RS is not even named until the end, when.
 * Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Trailer: Yuu.
 * Super-Powered Evil Side: A possible explanation for Yomi's connection to Dead Master.
 * Swiss Army Weapon: We can see the ★rock cannon morphing into a large blade when BRS fought Dead Master the second time.
 * Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: Black★Gold Saw.
 * Technicolor Eyes: Seem to factor very big: Mato has Blue Eyes, Yomi has Green Eyes, and Yuu has Hazel Eyes. Everyone else seems to have brownish/blackish eyes.
 * Title Drop: B★RS is not even named until the end, when.


 * The Power of Friendship.
 * The Stinger:
 * Trailers Always Spoil:
 * Variable-Length Chain
 * Wrecked Weapon: Intentionally done so.
 * X Meets Y: Magical Girl Persona 3.
 * The Maxx meets Revolutionary Girl Utena. BRS even has Image's Nineties Anti-Hero look.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Largely averted. Even Yuu's light brown hair, while uncommon for an Asian, is not impossible.
 * The Maxx meets Revolutionary Girl Utena. BRS even has Image's Nineties Anti-Hero look.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Largely averted. Even Yuu's light brown hair, while uncommon for an Asian, is not impossible.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Largely averted. Even Yuu's light brown hair, while uncommon for an Asian, is not impossible.

2012 TV Series
""So for our protagonist to ...""
 * Adaptation Expansion: Compared to the OVA.
 * Adults Are Useless: Mrs. Takanashi seems to have an inkling of what's going on between Kagari and Yomi,, but lets it continue because she feels sorry for Kagari.
 * And don't even get started on what's wrong with.
 * Alternate Continuity: Relative to the OVA.
 * And I Must Scream: By episode 6.
 * Arc Words: "The tiny bird" and "world of many colors".
 * Battle in the Center of the Mind:
 * Black Blood: In the Otherworld. There are also flecks of the character's personal color mixed in. Note that.
 * Blade Lock: B★RS does this with each other other-world character in the OP credits.
 * Blessed with Suck: If your "other self" dies,
 * Blue and Orange Morality / Emotionless Girl:
 * Body Horror: Black Rock Shooter's transition to is messy.
 * Book Ends: The first episode starts with a zoom out from B★RS's left eye. The last episode ends with a zoom into her right eye.
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience/Color-Coded Secret Identity: As usual, Black★Rock Shooter/Mato is blue, Dead Master/Yomi is green, and Black★Gold Saw is Red. Meanwhile, Strength is grey, and Chariot/Kagari is yellow.
 * Conspicuous CG:
 * Appears mostly in the Otherworld. According to the official website, part of this was intentional to add to its strange, dreamlike quality.
 * Vehicles and background characters are also CG in the real world.
 * Darker and Edgier: Than the OVA. Rather than dealing with the subtle hues of The Power of Friendship, characters often and regularly go psycho.
 * A Darker Me: A particularly interesting take on this trope.
 * This is interestingly inverted in the case of.
 * Determinator: It doesn't matter how much punishment B★RS takes, she keeps pressing on. She might even reach into Implacable Man territory since she doesn't show much of the damage she takes.
 * More straight to the trope is Mato Kuroi
 * Domestic Abuse
 * The relationship between Kagari and Yomi is basically this.
 * was a victim too. She finds the mindless fights to death of the Otherworld better than her real life.
 * Dysfunction Junction: We could just say everyone, but if you want specifics, then Yomi and Kagari's vicious bond is bad enough as is and even Mato has her own unhinged moments.
 * Scratch that, even isn't a mentally balanced person.
 * Evolving Credits: B★RS is shown in pain, with metal bursting out of the star on her jacket near the end of the opening.
 * Fictional Document: Li'l Bird Li'L Bird Colorful Colors, which is a picture book about a colorful bird flying through colorful environments . This may be connected to other selves' use of Color Coded for Your Convenience.
 * First-Name Basis: Mato using Yomi's first name with Kagari in earshot causes some problems. Even so, Yomi also uses Mato's first name shortly afterward.
 * Foreshadowing:
 * It's likely that the following line isn't just filler:
 * Evolving Credits: B★RS is shown in pain, with metal bursting out of the star on her jacket near the end of the opening.
 * Fictional Document: Li'l Bird Li'L Bird Colorful Colors, which is a picture book about a colorful bird flying through colorful environments . This may be connected to other selves' use of Color Coded for Your Convenience.
 * First-Name Basis: Mato using Yomi's first name with Kagari in earshot causes some problems. Even so, Yomi also uses Mato's first name shortly afterward.
 * Foreshadowing:
 * It's likely that the following line isn't just filler:


 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Eri Kitamura is playing a girl with issues and a persona with a wheel preoccupation. Puella Magi Madoka Magica, anyone?
 * Would you believe that Saya 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.
 * Hope Spot: Episode 5.
 * Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The episodes are named after parts of the original Vocaloid song.
 * Some themes and spoken lines come from it, as well.
 * Fundamentally Female Cast: Mato lampshades it at one point, noting that her strange dreams of the Otherworld seem to always be about a lot of girls.
 * It's explicitly stated that the Otherworld is
 * "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight:
 * Info Dump:
 * Late for School: Invoked by Mato and immediately deconstructed when the bread rips and falls out of her mouth once she starts running.
 * Layered World: Much more apparent than the OVA.
 * Leave the Camera Running: After Yomi abuses her cell phone and buries her head in her pillow in episode 4, the shot is held for 30 full seconds with no changes except the cell phone's backlight shutting off.
 * Meaningful Name: More so than the OVA (see below); the third trailer hints that there will be more wordplay on Yomi's surname of "little birds playing".
 * Mexican Standoff: Each other-world character does this in a circle during OP credits.
 * Mind Screwdriver: explains what is the otherworld and what are the otherselves. May or may not also apply to the OVA.
 * Mood Whiplash: The second trailer. Watch as they intercut cheerful music with an emotional scene between Mato and Yomi, and Kagari slowly going psycho!
 * Mooks: The zombie robots in Dead Master's realm.
 * Giant Mook: And there is a gigantic two-headed version of them.
 * Black★Gold Saw also has Mooks. They are likely pre-Otherselves of girls that  is psychologically conditioning for this purpose.
 * Murder Is the Best Solution: Are you suffering?
 * Mythology Gag: The Spider Tank-type enemy from the PSP game also appears here.
 * Episode 5:
 * Nightmare Fuel: Invoked in the storybook. It ends with the little bird blackens and dies. Who on earth would write a book like that for kids?! Mato's reaction is writing a Fix Fic at the last, blank page of it.
 * Not Good with Rejection: Everyone.
 * Out-of-Clothes Experience: Mato and Yomi are given this treatment when they're connected to their other selves.
 * Rainbow Motif: Li'l Bird Li'L Bird Colorful Colors.
 * Shout-Out: The only thing missing from the scene where is Sephiroth's theme.
 * In episode 7 when Hiroyuki Imaishi is in full swing, he also sneaks in Studio Gainax homages..
 * Sigil Spam: The opening gives each of the otherselves,, their own logos. They never show up in-story, however.
 * Tarot Motifs: "Strength" and "Chariot", so far. (One could stretch and have Dead Master be Death and Black★Rock Shooter the Star. This would possibly make Black★Gold Saw the Devil, based on appearence)
 * The Thing That Would Not Leave: Kagari calls Mato this in the first episode. Like she can talk.
 * There Are No Therapists: There is one, but
 * The Stinger: In the last episode after the credits.
 * Tin Can Telephone: Kagari speaks to Yomi via one of these, possibly since they seem to live next door to each other.
 * Trailers Always Lie:
 * Trailers Always Spoil: Even more obvious than in the OVA, what with.
 * To be honest, 95% of the people who are watching it have seen the OVA or would have guessed in all of, oh, I don't know, 5 minutes maybe. The series' only worse-kept secret is that.
 * The website also showed
 * Trippy Finale Syndrome: It doesn't quite go to Gainax Ending because it's actually pretty darn comprehensible,
 * Uh-Oh Eyes: When someone is affected by their Otherself, their iris becomes gear shaped.
 * Interestingly, this is the same design that Kagari's Creepy Doll has.
 * We Help the Helpless: Black★Rock Shooter is introduced in a heroic light, reflecting Mato's own caring nature and going to great lengths to fight suffering.
 * Wham! Episode:
 * Episode 5.
 * Episode 7..
 * Wham! Line: Episode 3: "I don't understand what you're talking about."
 * Episode 5:
 * Also in Episode 5:
 * The cake goes to this line in Episode 7:
 * With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Huke has long had an illustration and power-up concept based on the trope.
 * World of Symbolism: And this time they aren't even subtle about it.
 * Mind Screw
 * Black★Rock Shooter resides in a tear-blue, checkerboard world littered with jagged blades and other weapons.
 * Chariot's is made of broken dolls and toys, some more familiar than others.
 * Dead Master's is a misty graveyard.
 * Strength resides in an oppressive, Lethal Lava Land,
 * There is a white, colorless desert the Otherworld girls spawn from or are discarded into.
 * Strength resides in an oppressive, Lethal Lava Land,
 * There is a white, colorless desert the Otherworld girls spawn from or are discarded into.