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."

Black★Rock Shooter is a 2012 anime series based on the 2009 OVA, in turn based on characters by Ryohei Fuke and the song "Black Rock Shooter" by Supercell. The anime began airing on February 3, 2012, running on NoitaminA's timeslot during the Winter 2012 Anime season, and had a slightly retooled plot from that of the OVA: 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...

""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.