. Black Rock Shooter OVA



the wait is over! its finally here after months of waiting after the pilot edition was released. The original BRS animation makes its debut!

after hearing the BRS song being sang by Miku and subsequently getting to know more about BRS, the BRS OVA was finally confirmed. The pilot edition did bring out some of the highlights of the OVA and i am extremely happy now, that the wait's OVER!

The OVA had split scenes in and out throughout the entire 50 minutes, showing both the real world and the world Black Rock Shooter is in. It was honestly confusing, about when exactly are the two worlds occurring, they don't seem to be happening at the same time... I'll temporary leave the BRS world to the end for now.

The story begins where BRS is facing off with an enemy wielding a huge blade whilst our dear BRS is only holding on to her thin katana. Apparently, BRS was quickly overpowered by the enemy and falls in comparison of power after being stabbed cleanly with the huge blade. It then returns to the real world where we get to see the main protagonist, Kuroi Mato. She wakes up to a new school term, ties up her hair and before leaving for school, she goes off to her favourite place where she's able to see the whole town just by standing there. While staring at the beautiful scenery, Mato nearly missed the train to school and only nearly managed to catch it. Nearing the school gate, she spots another girl, the other main char, Takanashi Yomi alighting from the car and from then onwards, Mato hopes for a chance to talk to her, as though there's some special feeling Mato feels on her. Spotting an opportunity, Mato goes forward and starts a conversation with Yomi, talking about how she's tall and that she arrives in school from her parents' car. Mato then mispronounced Yomi's name as her written name isn't exactly how it's supposed to be pronounced as. As time passes by, Mato and Yomi become really close friends and when it was time to pick a club, Mato had chosen basketball as she was experienced and wanted to grow taller as well. Overseeing how well Mato is doing in the basketball team, she notices the volleyball team practicing as well and took interest in it, joining the club as a result. From then on, the duo were always able to see each other since both their clubs were practicing in the same location. After school, the duo decides to hang out together and while doing so, Mato buys a blue star handphone strap for Yomi after bringing her to her favourite location which she tells her that she'll definitely take good care of it. Time then flies by quickly with the the both of them excelling in their clubs, going to festivals together, hanging out and then the next school year arrives. After checking the new class arrangement, the duo are disappointed that they're both in different classes and can only meet after school and during breaks. During one of the club practices, Yomi sees Mato spraining her ankle and is taken care of by their manager, Yuu. At this point, Yomi already feels sour from not being there to help her. During one of the school breaks, Mato goes to find Yomi to chat and midway, Yuu cuts in to inform Mato about club activities and introduces herself to Yomi. One day after Yomi's club activity has ended, she sees Mato chatting happily with Yuu on the bench while waiting for her and feels a little down. Even on the way back, Yomi was segregated as the other two were chatting about basketball things which she has no idea. After Yuu leaves and Mato and Yomi are left with each other, Mato sees Yomi spacing out and asks her what was wrong and later apologises for talking about things that excluded her from their conversation. Yomi however said that it doesn't matter but that was only at the surface. The next day, Yomi was already jealous about how close both Yuu and Mato were after they got into different classes and while she was going to find Mato during one of the breaks, she sees Mato chatting happily with Yuu once again and this time, she leaves without cutting in to their conversation. Later that evening, Yomi didn't show up at the bench and after asking the volleyball team, Mato finds out that Yomi had left earlier that day due to urgent matters. Sensing something was wrong and feeling that it was her fault for neglecting Yomi, Mato sends Yomi a message and waited during the night but there was no response from her. Even in school, Yomi was nowhere to be seen and then Mato receives news that Yomi has went missing. Investigators called in for Mato in hope for more information since she was Yomi's closest friend but there wasn't really any important clues to aid the search. Yomi didn't turn up the following day as well and seeing how worried Mato was, Yuu comforts her, telling her to think positively and that she'll return soon. Later in the night, Mato receives an empty message from Yomi and thinking about a possible place Yomi could be, Mato leaves the house, grabs her bike and rides frantically to her favourite location. No one was there when she reached by after seeing something shiny on the ground, she picks up the handphone strap that she had previously bought for Yomi and after holding it close to her chest, a mysterious blue light engulfs her and she sees Black Rock Shooter in front of her. She asks Mato if she wants to save that girl but Mato corrects her, saying that she doesn't want to save her but wants to talk to her like always once again. Black Rock Shooter then let her consciousness enter Mato's and with that, Mato has now the ability to rescue Yomi. After Yomi's return, it seems that Yuu is the one feeling jealous now or could she be the main antagonist after all?

-END-

Leaving the real world aside, its now time to look into the world of BRS. Scenes from the both worlds were mixed with each other and the scenes in BRS generally consists of fighting sequences. After failed to save the first girl where she was stabbed through by her blade, BRS now returns to face another girl, who seems to have been possessed by Dead Master, the girl wielding a large scythe and floating skulls around her. BRS this time is equipped with her own unique cannon and finally locates Dead Master in her castle. Looking at her, BRS raises her right hand, in a request for the girl inside Dead Master to leave with her. It wasn't that simple as it seems to be and a fight ensues. The famous blue flaming eye activates and BRS is up and ready. After finally clearing the two skulls with a concentrated shot and later transforming her cannon into a large blade, she follows Dead Master and after being able to break her scythe, BRS succumbs to her chains. Keeping in mind that she's here to rescue someone, she frees herself from the chain and advances towards Dead Master. Not wanting to be freed, the Dead Master nearly falls from an edge but BRS goes forward and hug her. It then seems like the emotions took over the Dead Master and the form leaves the girl, Yomi, behind in BRS's hands. After finally rescuing Yomi, BRS makes the break for it with Yomi in her arms and escapes from the collapsing castle.

Somethings i'm currently assuming is that the sequence in the BRS world happens AFTER Mato receives BRS's consciousness and the scene after the credits showing Yomi having returned and Yuu feeling jealous would be after BRS rescue Yomi from her world. So what i can conclude is that Yomi, after feeling neglected from Mato, feels that she doesn't belong anywhere and is swallowed by the Dead Master and with BRS's consciousness, Mato is able to save her. The previous "host" of BRS could have been killed in the first scenes where BRS is defeated and that could possibly be the reason for BRS looking for Mato to rescue Yomi or it could be just because they were close friends. A Yuu in the BRS world has incurred some possibilities that could possibly happen after the last scenes of the credits whereby whatever happened to her was similar to Yomi's case or it could perhaps be the one behind everything, planning everything to make Mato being close to her and neglecting Yomi and as a result, she would be engulfed by the Dead Master. There are just too many possibilities floating around and seeing that this is an OVA and an anime series isn't really confirmed, how it would end out to be would be clearly something unknown for now.

For the plus points, the animation was great. It did manage to retain the style of Black Rock Shooter as compared to the original art and the feel was there. Fighting scenes were unique and the fight sequences seems to be equally great as well. Music wise seems to be OK, would love to hear their OSTs but would've hoped that there was at least a small OP of BRS Miku vers. being played. The credit song by ryo too, was a rather nice song as well.

For the negative side, i think the main problem about this is the lack of story development. Considering that this is an OVA and there shldn't be much expectations on story development, it was still rather bland and things happened a little fast. Just a few seconds and minutes and one year had already past?! Mato crying over Yomi's disappearance could have a little more feel if they could show more on their friendship but 50 minutes is really limited. I personally had felt that the introduction of BRS into the storyline could mean something more rather than just jealousy in friendship which seems similar to The World God Only Knows where a "gap" in the heart is taken over by a devil, which in this case is the Dead Master.

Overall, i really was anticipating this OVA but was slightly disappointed on how it turned out to be, watching a 50 minute OVA with way too much split scenes is already confusing enough and with no proper connection between the worlds. Nonetheless, the animation quality has proved to be rather well done and hopefully, there will be a full anime series on BRS which then, could possibly fill in the loopholes in the OVA and also more on story development.

P.S. Mato's seiyuu is the same as Kanade from Angel Beats! if anyone is wondering :)