It isn't the world you know. There wanders a girl with jet-black hair, ebony clothes, and a strikingly
blue, glowing eye. Her name is Black★Rock Shooter. With a huge cannon in hand, she throws
herself into a fierce battle...
Meanwhile, in another world, middle-school student Mato Kuroi is drawn to Yomi Takanashi, her
classmate with an unusual family name. Mato does her best to talk to Yomi, who just won't open up. Yu
Koutari mocks her best friend Mato's efforts but at the same time, supports her. Mato also finds
herself surrounded by other colorful characters at school, like the eccentric school counselor, Saya
Irino, and the hot-blooded captain of her club club, Arata Kohata.
Then, one day, the window of opportunity opens. After Mato sees that Yomi has her favorite picture
book, "Li'l Birds At Play", they strike up a conversation and Mato is invited to come over to Yomi's
house. There, they gradually break the ice, until a girl in a wheelchair appears. This is Yomi's best
friend, Kagari Izuriha...
Two worlds. Mato and Black★Rock Shooter. This is the story of their "pain".
(Source: Nico Nico Douga)
I think that the best anime (and perhaps just the best media, period), regardless of what they *actually* leave you with. Make you *feel* as though you've learned something profound--maybe even lifechanging--by watching them. The 2011 TV anime *Black Rock Shooter* is one such property. Combining an absurd amount of talent under one roof for its all-too-brief 8 episode run, BRS is a masterclass in welding theme to presentation. While the literal central point of the plot isn't introduced until a bit later, the *actual* focus of *Black Rock Shooter* is emotion, and not just any amount or kind of emotion, very raw, very exaggerated emotion, and a lot of it (more seasoned anime fans than myself would be able to guess this simply by seeing Mari Okada's name in the credits as the scriptwriter). Most anime that have serious narrative arcs deal with emotions in some way, shape, or form, and they're usually fairly stylized, so this in of itself is not abnormal. What kind of is though, is the sheer unrepentant melodrama that *Black Rock Shooter* presents, and the degree to which it intertwines that with its themes. This is simultaneously the series' hook and I must imagine, the thing that drives the most people away from it. If you're not able to get a handle on the show's very intense emotional barrages it can be hard to sit through it at all, much less enjoy it. So this is a double-edged sword, but make no mistake, *Black Rock Shooter* absolutely would not work without it. To put it plainly, a lot of shows have emotional torque, BRS has an emotional jackhammer. Negative emotions; sadness, despair, anguish, loneliness, are often conveyed through exaggerated, despairing facial expressions, pained--sometimes wrenched or even *shrieked*--voice acting, and a soundtrack that sometimes borders on the avant-garde, often forgoing simple ambience in favor of deliberately overwrought (or poundingly percussive) piano or string pieces or disorienting, hard-to-identify dissonance. There is also a **lot** of crying; lovingly-animated, beautiful crying. Chipper protagonist Mako, shy artistic Yomi, damaged, willfully hurtful Kagari, the enigmatic Yu, and "school counselor" Saya **all** let tears fall more than once. There are definitely shows sadder than *Black Rock Shooter*, but few shove their characters' emotional problems in your face with this much gusto. And all of this ties into an overarching theme of surrogate pain. The audience is subjected to this as much as the characters themselves are, and this is put front and center by the battles. About half of BRS takes place in a twisted, surreal gothic otherworld inhabited by alternate versions of the characters, who fight and die so that their human hosts don't have to suffer--though if they *do* die their hosts suffer amnesia, something that comes into play in the series' second half. The otherworld is beautifully designed, massive gears, chessboard patterns, colossal iron rubik's cubes, seas of lava, and metal skeletons give the place a look that rests somewhere on the same block as a heavy metal album cover, but feels fully lived-in despite how comparatively little information we're fed about it. The fight scenes, it must be said, are remarkable. CGI gets a bad reputation and it's often unfairly associated with budgetless schlock like the 2016 *Berserk* anime, but here it is used to incredible effect. The otherworld is done almost entirely in CGI and the combat here is well above par when compared to just about anything from the last decade. They're visceral too, the other selves' natures as literal stand-ins for emotional trauma seem all the more real when they're stabbing each other and technicolor blood goes spraying in four different directions. This is to say nothing of the surreal brutality of the weapon designs, which often evolve and twist in strange ways from scene to scene, sometimes changing shape entirely (such as when Strength's Dr. Octopus-esque bionic arms turn into a sort of railgun as she whales on Black Rock Shooter herself). And when they don't do *that*, they stretch the definition of "weapon" to its very limits, see Deadmaster's undead army, capped by a pair of gigantic, floating, glowing green skulls. This is *Black Rock Shooter*'s entire point, really. The violent ballet of fight scenes as code for human emotional struggle. The more Mato (and the other girls) avoid confronting their problems, the harder the other selves fight, and the more they risk losing their memories, and while the literal threat of induced amnesia is obviously not a real one, on a less concrete level, this applies very much to the real world too, it doesn't take a psych major to know that suppressing your emotions isn't very good for you. The theme is revisited repeatedly--most frequently through the in-universe children's book *The Little Playful Bird*--and through the abstraction rings crystal clear up until the finale. One of the very last scenes, where Mato just out and out squeezes Yomi and cries all over her, is emotionally cathartic in a way that a lot of media *tries* to be, but only rarely is the mark hit this well. So is BRS ultimately just a very longwinded metaphor for the power of honesty and a good cry? Well, yes and no. Simple, resonant themes are worthless if they don't *resonate*. But it's hard, especially in 2017, to not feel for Strength whimpering that the real world is "scary", and in a cultural environment where more than ever we are encouraged to put on fronts and appear to be people we're not in order to appease others (let it be said that millennials are masters of code-switching), it's surprisingly poignant. Combine that with fight scenes that foreshadowed what *Kill la Kill* would do just a few years later and some of the best CGI the medium's ever seen, and it's genuinely difficult to not recommend *Black Rock Shooter* to anyone who can process its emotional extremeness.
__Warning: The following is a rewrite of a deleted review from years ago, and contains blacks, rocks, shooters, criticism, profanity and a score below 5/10. Reader discretion is advised.__ Black Rock Shooter has had an interesting rise to prominence, beginning with a mere illustration that spawned into a music video by famous vocaloid persona Hatsune Miku, whose attire was inspired from these illustrations. An OVA was released in 2010 based on the music video, much to the pleasure of many vocaloid fans that caused a ridiculous amount of hype surrounding the project that naturally left a lot to be desired. From there the franchise created their own line of figurines and a video game before finally returning to anime two years later, putting small-time animation studios Ordet and SANZIGEN in charge of the project to expand the franchise further than ever before, culminating in a TV series composed of 8 episodes in early 2012. Rarely does an anime come to fruition from a tangled background like this, the majority of anime use manga or light novels as source material to base a show around. Because of such, questions are bound to arise about the narrative, characters, structure and other elements in regard to a show when it has such a vague and almost convoluted history like this. Black Rock Shooter is a prime example for why such questions and concern about similar circumstances are justified, by being one of the most peculiar anime I’ve seen, and not in a good way. The TV series of Black Rock Shooter focuses primarily on two characters and two worlds. One being the human world where two schoolgirls Mato Kuroi and Yomi Takanashi go about their normal lives and first befriend each other. The alternate world is more of a mystery, coming off as a stylized barren wasteland where the enigmatic fighter known as “Black Rock Shooter” wanders across the land, fighting for seemingly no other purpose than for her own survival. Unlike the OVA, this series does attempt to show that characters between both worlds are connected, with BRS and other fighters acting as the personas of characters in the real world, providing an intriguing, distinct expression into how characters honestly feel about each other. Unfortunately, the show was unable to capitalize on this at all with the 8 episodes they had from the very start. The first episode gives a couple lines of exposition on the relation between both worlds, which is an improvement from the OVA which had no focus on the topic whatsoever, but this is the only time when said link is ever touched upon. Looking back, it’s kind of pathetic how production didn’t bother to do anymore with this concept considering that Black Rock Shooter is a series that relies on relationships and links, but they did the bare minimum when it came to the most important relationship of all; with the self. Constantly characters are shown to have their own inner conflicts that are expressed through battles within the alternate world, yet there is an ongoing disconnect between these settings that has a damaging effect on these parallel stories as each on their own have nowhere near enough content and focus to stand on their own. The story of Black Rock Shooter is nothing special; Mato Kuroi has just entered middle school and she is looking for friends, eventually befriending Yomi Takanashi, a shy, aloof girl initially through their shared interest in a picture book. Slowly Yomi becomes more open with Mato as the show goes on until, plot twist, Yomi has another best friend, and she isn’t happy with Yomi talking to other girls! Oh my god, what drama! Honestly, it’s just a silly middle school girl drama that takes itself way too seriously and has no real entertainment value that warrants much attention. At least if it stuck with only focusing on the two main characters, then maybe I wouldn’t have such a problem with the plot, but Black Rock Shooter does not care about being a disjointed mess. After the half-way point the show takes a turn off a cliff as more characters are introduced with little screen time, only to never get a mention again. More “plot-twists” and backstories are added to give the story more shock value that no one cares about at this point, and it all bundles together to form this perplexing piece of work that both insults your intelligence with how simplistic it can get, yet confuses one with so many plot points unanswered to the point where viewers are no longer watching for the plot and only for the action. Which brings us to the alternate world of Black Rock Shooter: This setting is a complete change in presentation, showing a vibrant yet desolate realm that is supposed to represent the mentality of middle-school girls; chaotic, turbulent, dangerous where peace among fellow wanderers is not an option. It’s kill or be killed here. All the focus here is action and it is easily the best part of the show. The directing, use of CGI and choreography were all impressive here and a keen eye for detail was present with every battle. Sadly, I would argue these scenes act as a double-edged sword for Black Rock Shooter. On one side, it’s certainly visually impressive and the only parts of the show I would ever recommend watching, but what these scenes do is take away precious time that should have been used to tell the actual story at hand. As far as I’m concerned, the action is second to the main plotline and if the narrative here is rendered to shit because the staff wanted to add more cool action scenes, I don’t see how that makes the show better. All it does is turn the series into one where you can only enjoy if you “turn your brain off” and what makes that any better than looking at a fucking brick wall? It doesn’t help that most of the action scenes are jumbled together with scenes from the human world and ends up clipping the actual story, with horrendous transitioning that makes it all feel worthless. Maybe if they actually put emphasis on how the two worlds correlate, then maybe people would care about what happens in these scenes, but that seems like an impossible scenario considering the staff couldn’t fucking do it right a second time with 3 hours to work with! Black Rock Shooter has a very poorly constructed storyline that feels like a case of a show trying to accomplish much more than what time given would allow, but taken to the extreme and doesn’t bother to focus on telling a coherent plot in the process. But as bad as the plot may be, the characters are arguably even worse. These young girls are both simple yet [redacted], let me explain. Both main characters are fairly generic, with Mato being an outgoing girl with a strong sense of loyalty and Yomi being an introvert wary of getting close to anyone due to a “tragic past”. The two easily contrast each other and are in no way memorable until they begin showing signs of stupidity that does not match their personalities. The way these two react to everything around them is unnatural; they exaggerate to any problem they face and never try and think about it rationally. Whether it be Mato constantly yelling at every minor problem in her relationship, or Yomi getting the crazy-eye expression one would compare with an anime character about to commit suicide, these two are atrocious when portraying appropriate feelings. This is why I call them [redacted]; even for teenage girls they come off as incompetent whenever the slightest bit of conflict occurs in either of their lives. The cheesy dialogue does these girls no favours and only further implies that they have mental issues. This is also seen with the underdeveloped characters that are shown for 2 minutes before disappearing from the show, but I found the main leads to be unbearable. For a show that relies on emotions, there was always a feeling of disconnect between what was happening onscreen and what was happening in subtext. And now, after bearing witness to all of their actions, I can easily say that these are two of the most overdramatized lesbian characters I have ever seen; so bad that even the LGBT+ community doesn’t acknowledge them. For the most part, Black Rock Shooter looks like one of the most bland and uninteresting anime in recent memory if you exclude the alternate world. The characters all look sloppy with a sketchy art-style with no identity of its own and some laughable attempts at highlights. The animation here just looks cheap, as if all of the budget when into the action, which barely took about 1/3rd of the series. The lighting was actually commendable when used in the more “traumatic” scenes, creating a believable aura of uncertainty that helped enhance these moments if only on a technical level, but otherwise it was forgettable and almost absent for the remainder of the show. However, the action scenes are on a whole other level, showcasing some of the best CGI implementation I have seen in an anime and homes some marvellous camerawork and fight composition that makes me wonder why the entire show wasn’t in CGI. When comparing the two diverse art-styles it makes what was hand-drawn look more and more like a piece of shit – one of the rare cases where an anime has crappy hand-drawn animation with stunning CGI animation. Sound-wise it was fine: voice-acting, soundtrack and audio effects were all passable, except for the opening. The opening was sung by supercell featuring everyone’s favourite vocaloid Hatsune Miku, and while some will definitely enjoy the opening, it’s one that feels out of place with this show, and one that I can easily say is “not for me.” Black Rock Shooter was ultimately another attempt for people to try and make a quick buck off a rising trend, and now that the fad has quietly calmed down I hope that people can see what a pile of utter shit this series it. A successor to a shitty OVA that slightly improves on the material in some ways, only to make the plot even more confusing, characters even more infuriating and an impression on similar works where I expect such to be a complete waste of time. There’s a lot of things I fucking hate about this show, but what really pushes me to the edge is part of the fanbase that find it “d33p” and that if you didn’t like it then you obviously didn’t get it... To anyone who belongs to this group: Trust me, we all got what it was aiming to be, but what actually happened is a different story. We don’t get it? Maybe you don’t get that a show which tries to be an internal character study can also completely fail at it. And with that said, I leave you all with the final verdict. _“♫♫♫ Black Rock Shooter, where have you gone? ♫♫♫”_ __TO THE HALL OF PAIN BITCH!!! REST….. IN…… PISS!!!!__
(Note: This is my first time writing a review in a while, so go easy on me please.) __SPOILER FREE REVIEW__ img(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7a/Black_Rock_Shooter_cover.jpg) To be frank, I went into this anime with very low expectations, seeing some of the reviews are 10/10 and some of them are 1/10, I decided to watch this 8 episode anime and see what it was about, and to my surprise, it wasn't as bad as I thought. ____ __Plot__ The premise of the anime is pretty unique. The main cast of girls go through shit irl, while their other selves in another world, their embodiment of their thoughts, fight and when their other version dies, their main cause of that anxiety vanishes. Interesting premise and unique concept, but when you only have 8 eps to work with, you can't but rush a bit, and that was the biggest issue of this anime. They rushed it hard and in turn messed the whole thing up. Plenty of plot holes and rushed character development killed the anime. img(https://pm1.narvii.com/6071/303d70263918736e952736d7cf8c7ee0be3e3a9f_00.jpg) ____ __Animation__ Even though the rushed they fuck out of this anime, the other world fights was made using CGI, and this might be one of the best. CGI action anime I have watched. Using the smoothness CGI provides to the fullest advantage, it delivered some fast paced, epic fights. I really do wish they fights were a bit longer, some of the fights felt a bit short. But, considering the fact that most anime tend to kill themselves with their awful use of CGI, this anime showed me a ray of light that if CGI is used properly, it can deliver more and more amazing fights like what this anime had. img(https://pa1.narvii.com/5820/c4c2748f570f58b861860b6a4a6dc6cce47c35f8_00.gif) ____ __Characters__ The characters, well, uhhh.... were meh. For real though, they had to potential to be a really good cast of characters, but rushed development made me confused as fuck. The way they shove scenarios into every character, made it seem like a joke to be seen seriously. They undergo too much too fast. And that is the major issue with the characters. ____ __OST__ OST wise its got a solid one. Its OP and ED were actually pretty good, seeing vocaloid being used in an anime op for the first time, i was really happy. The soundtracks during the fights weren't very memorable but it was very good nonetheless. ____ __Art Work__ The character designs for the other world characters were so fucking cool, it really looked badass and rad. Their irl versions reminded me of characters from Madoka Magica. Also the other world for each character, looked really unique and amazing as well. I wish they'd have taken the time and explore the other world more, but sadly that didnt happen. img(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kfRw87BcgmA/T2zx7bc_MFI/AAAAAAAADD8/jkywPiyRQts/s1600/Black+Rock+Shooter+5+main.png) ____ __Verdict__ This anime had potential to be at least Madoka Magica level stuff, the interesting premise and the unique concept was killed by rushed development and plot holes. But the amazing and proper use of CGI, banging OST and really good character designs makes me not to put it in the trash can. Its fine, neither a masterpiece nor trash. Scores Plot: 5/10 Characters: 5/10 Animation: 9.5/10 OST: 8/10 Art: 8.5/10
Black★Rock Shooter (TV) is a high budget arthouse mashup of Madoka☆Magica and Kill la Kill, created with passion by top talents of the industry, only to be misunderstood and forgotten by its contemporaries. If, for some reason, you aren't convinced to watch it yet, here is a review for this masterpiece - completely spoilerless (the only spoiler it has is for Madoka☆Magica - hidden in the creative background chapter). This review contains absolutely no information about the plot of this anime, but you will understand upon reading whether you will enjoy it or not. So, what makes Black★Rock Shooter (TV) brilliant? #~~~IT REQUIRES A SMART AND DEMANDING VIEWER WITH RICH WATCHING EXPERIENCE TO TRULY APPRECIATE IT~~~ Black★Rock Shooter (TV) flopped when it aired, and its quality has nothing to do with its marketing failure. While not flawless, there are way worse works that are legendary cult classics - even among other works by the people who created Black★Rock Shooter (TV). Black★Rock Shooter (TV) was a marketing failure because... nobody understood it! Well, knowing how Ordet were comfortable with creating anime that nobody liked (which doesn't necessarily mean they are bad, okay there?), it wouldn't be too surprising if they simply did not even care if someone wouldn't understand some of their works. That's it. The most voted negative reviews all complain how their authors either did not understand something, or how nothing in this anime makes sense (which is a less honest way to say that a given work is beyond their comprehension - quantum physics does not makes sense to many as well, but it actually works, okay there?). It is not just some immature teenagers who complain how they cant' understand something - even adult viewers often have problems understanding this anime... and it did not even attract adults. This avant-garde masterpiece attracted an audience of teenage vocaloid fans who were simply not mature enough to enjoy it. If you find a person who knows about this gem, it is going to be someone who was a teenager when it has been airing in 99% of these cases, and in 90% of even these rare cases, they would tell you that they did not like it because they did not understand anything, or wanted more action instead of drama. Curiously, two years later, SHAFT made the very same mistake with their vocaloid-based Mekakucity Actors - but this is not a review of Mekakucity Actors... The side-effect of this mismarketing was it also didn't reward the show with creative reputation of avantgarde anime that would allow it to attract the audience of snobs who watch avant garde anime to distance themselves from the mainstream. Thus, Black★Rock Shooter (TV) only allows really demanding and experienced viewers to truly appreciate it - and there aren't many such viewers around, which is good for finding experienced viewers with good taste to follow, and not good for the popularity of the anime. Now, the reason why all this review was written - to make you understand whether __you__ are going to like the show or not. Most people can't really appreciate it enough - including those who __like__ it, because these are different things to just like something and to get so impressed that you will find yourself thinking about it months later. You will most likely not enjoy Black★Rock Shooter (TV) if: * You can't relate to young female characters with typical struggles of young female, and/or you can't empathize with people who are unlike you; * You are disappointed that there is not enough action and too much drama in this anime - you will be better off watching Kill la Kill (another work by Hiroyuki Imaishi, a co-author of Black★Rock Shooter (TV)) instead, until you are mature enough to enjoy drama; * You are a victim of expectation bias, and the reputation (looks, ratings, reviews, critical reception) of a work and its creators influences your impressions more than the contents of the work itself. If you praise Neon Genesis Evangelion for its symbolism just because it is Neon Genesis Evangelion, despite its creators directly stating that there is no meaning to its symbols, you have to be _very_ careful to not fall victim to the same bias while watching this; * You only enjoy art house anime and think that "art-house" means "profound topics with bad animation" (in this case, you also probably did not like Monogatari series because you thought that it is nothing more than a lolicon bait); * You feel uncomfortable with the confusing magical feeling it gives off (remember Monogatari series?); * You feel that, in order to enjoy it, you have to __force__ yourself to understand it instead of just getting the key points intuitively while watching it; * You can't feel a work more than you can understand it, and you can't let yourself get absolutely flummoxed out and lose yourself in your feelings, as if it is not some anime but a 3-hour-long classical concert. Now, you will most likely enjoy Black★Rock Shooter (TV) if nothing above describes you. The odds are higher if: * You have accumulated enough watching experience, and you will get absolutely blown away by this gem and by the fact that some noname studios could create something that holds up more than 12 years after its release (written at 23 April, 2024), while generic seasonal garbage gets produced, consumed and disposed like Durex condoms; * You are a fan of Madoka☆Magica and find its successors to be of unacceptable quality and/or its predecessors to not have the same vibes you love Madoka☆Magica for. Black★Rock Shooter (TV) is the __only__ show that does justice to Madoka☆Magica, even doing some things better than its predecessor. Trust me, I saw many pathetic attempts to emulate the great classic, and so far, Black★Rock Shooter (TV) is among the only two anime that even can be described as a "successor", "reference", "tribute" or "homage" instead of a "plagiarism" or "rip-off". The second one is called Selector Infected WIXOSS, but this is not a review of Selector Infected WIXOSS; * You can and you want to get an absolutely unique experience of getting shocked, terrified, emotionally demolished and literally shaking while understanding almost nothing; * You think that you would not enjoy it because you now know that this work is most likely beyond you, but you still want to see what a work of art should be to be above your level; * You were successfully convinced by me that it is a brilliant work and you'll love it because the expectation bias introduced by me right into your brain will trick you into thinking that it is great, which wouldn't have happened if you haven't read this review before; * You are just smart enough to enjoy it. Let's face it, some art really requires the consumer to be bright enough to appreciate it. #~~~IT LEAVES NOTHING BUT IMPRESSIONS, ALLOWING YOU TO WATCH IT AGAIN AND AGAIN LIKE FOR THE FIRST TIME UNTIL YOU COMPLETELY MILK IT OUT~~~ This is the part which most viewers of this anime fail (or, maybe, it is the part that fails the most viewers?). Black★Rock Shooter (TV) is deliberately created confusing and inaccessible to be __felt__ instead of understood. This anime is all about feelings. It is not just about story, it is not just about characters, it is not even just about ahead-of-its-time production. It is about feelings. You have to suspend your understanding and only feel it to appreciate it. If you can't know how you can just feel cinema... has a song in a language you don't speak ever made you feel something? This is how you should watch this masterpiece - as if you were listening to a song. Shut up your rational being and let this work talk right to your heart, and you will experience its magic. Nobody who watched this masterpiece remembers anything about it but how they felt about it, be their feelings positive or negative. I even heard from some people how they couldn't remember anything about it, except how scary it was. And you, too, will not remember, and, most importantly, you __must__ not remember anything but your feelings about it. In fact, this review says nothing about the plot of this anime, because considering that it is a show you feel instead of understanding it, telling any more about it would be considered a spoiler. If you feel comfortable with its magic and let it surround you, it will make your limbs tremble, it will crush your soul, it will absolutely demolish you, it will make you cry - out of despair at its climax, and out of happiness in the very end - it may even make you laugh hysterically and, in the end, it will relieve you. If you watch it with your heart open, you will experience the entire palette of human emotions with Black★Rock Shooter (TV). ##~~~ITS AHEAD OF ITS TIME PRODUCTION VALUE STILL HAS NO DIRECT COMPETITORS~~~ Black★Rock Shooter (TV)'s production - the visuals, animations and sound design - is at the forefront of the technology that was available back in the day. The animators behind this show utilized every technology they worked with to its full potential. No matter what the current year is, Black★Rock Shooter (TV) always looks and sounds better than (at least!) 99% of anime made that year. Black★Rock Shooter (TV) aired in 2012 - just compare how it looks to the most popular anime of that time and you simply will not believe that it was made the same year with Sword Art Online! The key feature of this anime, the CGI animation, is executed so well that many people can't even notice that it was used. It is not the Ufotable-style CGI made to look like traditional hand-drawn animation, but the artistic CGI fine-grained to give an impression of a psychedelic trip. Considering that Hiroyuki Imaishi himself (Gurren Lagann, Kill La Kill), was responsible for these CGI shenanigans, he definitely could've made it Ufotable-style, but his creative choice was not to (and for a good reason!). If you think that Beastars and Land of the Lustrous have the best CGI, Black★Rock Shooter (TV) will make you doubt it. #####~~~Beastars this, Land of the Lustrous that... Meanwhile some forgotten avant-garde anime from 2012: ~~~ ~~~youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuMnHItjNEs)~~~ #~~~IT HAS UNIQUE CREATIVE BACKGROUND - CREATED BY TOP TALENTS, INSPIRING AND REFERENCING PUELLA MAGI MADOKA☆MAGICA, AND FORESHADOWING KILL LA KILL~~~ Black★Rock Shooter (TV) is a product of ultimate creative freedom of some of the top talents of the anime industry associated with Kyoto Animation and Trigger. If you ever wanted to see what a group of really talented artists is capable of when they are completely creatively independent of their employers and are allowed to create anything they want, you should definitely watch Black★Rock Shooter (TV). Many people notice how Black★Rock Shooter (TV) is similar to another fantasy psychological thriller - Puella Magi Madoka☆Magica, but not many realize its relationship with this legendary genre-defining anime is way more complex. They both were in production in the end of 2000s-start of 2010s, and influenced and referenced each other. Black★Rock Shooter (TV) is, essentially, an older twin sister of Puella Magi Madoka☆Magica. Black★Rock Shooter (TV) was _actually_ inspired by Puella Magi Madoka☆Magica. It is the _only_ anime that emulates Madoka☆Magica that good while having its own unique style. Character designs and archetypes, plot points, visuals and animations, themes and ideas... they complement each other so well that even the music in both anime sounds so similar, you can replace the entire soundtrack of Madoka☆Magica with the soundtrack of Black★Rock Shooter (TV) or vice versa, and they would fit just perfectly. It is obvious that these Madoka-esque vibes are not accidental. ~~~img220(https://i.imgur.com/nb4dUda.png) img220(https://i.imgur.com/9W0iy4g.png)~~~ ~~~img220(https://i.imgur.com/ddnnWGl.png) img220(https://i.imgur.com/QvJECIT.png)~~~ #####~~~Of course these are just coincidences~~~ ~~~img220(https://i.imgur.com/4MmUgju.png)~~~ #####~~~This must be a coincidence too~~~ ~~~img120(https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/blackrockshooter/images/a/af/Yomi_Takanashi.png) img220(https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/blackrockshooter/images/3/37/Yomi_Takanashi_2012.png)~~~ #####~~~huke changing the character designs is also a coincidence! Stop gaslighting me!~~~ Moreover, Madoka☆Magica, apparently, has some references to the Black★Rock Shooter franchise, too. ClariS, the singers of Puella Magi Madoka☆Magica's OP song "Connect", have even made a cover of a song that later became the opening of the Black★Rock Shooter (TV) - you can find it on Youtube and Nicovideo. There are even some AMVs for Madoka☆Magica with their cover. ~~~youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLYm1aS329E)~~~ ~~~youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h05Zt9_rC-0)~~~ #####~~~From back in the day when they called themselves Alice☆Clara. Ah, these days when I did not even need to care about anything...~~~ ~~~img220(https://64.media.tumblr.com/e732a917767f85aea9ddf50a1639a88f/tumblr_o5qkdcxvzM1spe9ruo7_r1_400.jpg) img220(https://64.media.tumblr.com/af01491e0e88a284c101c829a8e9ffa4/tumblr_o5qkdcxvzM1spe9ruo8_r1_400.pnj)~~~ #####~~~Do not open the spoiler below if you did not see that Luminous scene in Madoka☆Magica~~~ ~~~ ~!img220(https://64.media.tumblr.com/8705f43aa3b1c754363d856b206eea61/tumblr_o5qkdcxvzM1spe9ruo3_400.gifv) img220(https://64.media.tumblr.com/1eda05b21e8b6fd9b4c7ff1d55f71646/tumblr_o5qkdcxvzM1spe9ruo4_400.gifv) !~ ~~~ #####~~~ Black★Rock Shooter & Madoka☆Magica crossover episode when??? ~~~ It is not just barely believable at this point that Puella Magi Madoka☆Magica, a show of a grade that appear only once a decade if not less often, can have such an amazing counterpart that was created just a year after. Considering awkward production processes at Ordet and difficult personality of its founder Yutaka Yamamoto, its existence is almost an actual miracle. Maybe some lonely girl wished for it to happen and contracted Kyuubey?.. After Black★Rock Shooter (TV) flopped because nobody wanted to watch a school drama with action elements, Hiroyuki Imaishi, the director for its fight choreography, responded by creating Kill la Kill, a reverse of Black★Rock Shooter (TV) - an action anime with elements of school drama. Then he, apparently, learnt the general public would happily enjoy anything easy to digest with lots of flashy fights going on, and then Trigger has never produced anything as great as Black★Rock Shooter (TV), but that's a whole another story... #~~~ITS FLAWS ARE NEGLIGIBLE~~~ Black★Rock Shooter (TV) is imperfect, but given how brilliant it is for the aforementioned reasons, its flaws are easy to overlook and forgive. Its problems are not worse in both quantity and quality than the problems in most of the cult classic anime - in fact, many legendary anime have __even worse__ flaws. We had rushed drama and limited character development in Neon Genesis Evangelion too, y'know. Heck, I can't even say anything bad about it except for "rushed drama" and "limited character development" - these five god damn words mean __nothing__ compared to my entire rant about how brilliant this anime is and why you should watch it, these problems are really nothing compared to how great it is. Actually, watching it for the first time - if you watch it the right way, with your heart open, and let the feeling of magical confusion consume you - it may shock you so much that you will not even notice that something is wrong. If this show is made for you, these flaws are not going to be something you will pay attention to. #~~~IT IS STILL A CULT CLASSIC - PROBABLY THE MOST CULT CLASSIC AMONG LEAST POPULAR ANIME~~~ Black★Rock Shooter (TV) enjoys cult following, despite not being very popular. There are still people talking about it. There are still people suggesting each other to watch it, like me. There are entire communities in Discord and other social media dedicated to the Black★Rock Shooter (TV) and the franchise around it that maintain interest to its existence. This is the most cult anime among all unpopular anime I know, and probably the most cult one among all unpopular anime ever. #~~~IT GIVES IMPORTANT AND PAINFUL LESSONS TO BOTH ARTISTS AND THEIR AUDIENCES~~~ Aside from the main moral message of the show, Black★Rock Shooter (TV) and the story of this masterpiece - the story of its creation, release, reception and fall into oblivion - has enough to teach artists and their audiences, and everyone who values art. I'm talking not just about anime right now, I'm talking about art in general. So, what can the case study of of Black★Rock Shooter (TV) teach us? It teaches us that your work may be absolutely brilliant and years ahead of its time, but if it fails to meet the audience that would enjoy it, it will never attract enough attention and will never produce any impact. Not only the general public does not talk about this masterpiece, the entire anime industry has absolutely ignored it - despite there are enough things to learn from in Black★Rock Shooter (TV), especially its advanced CGI animation. But since this masterpiece hasn't found the right audience and was forgotten, no one ever will think of Black★Rock Shooter (TV) when asked for something similar to Madoka☆Magica, no one will ever compare its music written by Hideharu Mori to the works of Yuki Kajiura, no one will suggest Black★Rock Shooter (TV) when asked about good CGI anime, no one has even __tried__ to replicate Black★Rock Shooter (TV)'s CGI because the industry itself is not aware of the existence of this gem, too. To fall into oblivion is the fate of a work that can't gather enough attention. Black★Rock Shooter (TV) is not the only brilliant work that was undeservedly forgotten - there must be many more are out there which I don't even know anything about. It teaches us that if you can't even __convince__ the audience that your work is great by advertising it as something only for "the chosen ones", it will never gain enough attention. It is not necessarily quality that makes luxury things luxury, it is also the reputation of the brands that produce these things (google "expectation bias" and "Supreme clay brick" if you don't believe me). There are thousands of people who enjoy certain works of art just because these works have reputation of being prestigious or trendy. Such people - probably the majority of their audience - would not love them otherwise, even if they were the very same works but without the flashy attention-grabbing sticker that says "for cool kids only". It teaches us that the absolute most of people doesn't care much about the art they consume as long as it is something accessible and easy to digest, and you don't even need to create something brilliant to satisfy the needs of the general public. Kill la Kill is a prime example of such work - created by a director of Black★Rock Shooter (TV), it simply catered to the popular demand for flashy action with minimum drama. It banged despite not having brilliant CGI sequences, not being extremely visual and graphic, not brilliantly referencing a cult classic show... Why even bother when you can create just another safe work of mediocre quality? I can speak here as an artist too - when I was a hobbyist writer, I was shocked to learn that my most popular works were wish fulfillment fantasies that were simply found relatable by my audience, and soon stopped writing at all. It teaches us that, unfortunately, sometimes artists should learn to suppress their morals and create more accessible and popular works to earn enough money and attention to create something they'd really want to create. Even Ordet, despite its founder Yutaka Yamamoto claiming how they would be creating something "better than moe", soon started to produce moe stuff - despite they still were doing it with passion and it was (probably) really better than the regular moe, it was still moe. Finally, it teaches us that some art may simply be above us, and we should always ponder if it is really bad, or is just beyond our comprehension. Sadly, we still don't have an objective measure of "goodness" or "badness" of art, despite having objective measures in hard sciences, and it is unlikely that someone would even want to develop it. Having such a measure would definitely help to determine whether a work is bad or is just beyond its audience, and to discover a vast amount of brilliant works unjustly overlooked by the general public. Maybe Black★Rock Shooter (TV) is really not great, and its flaws are unforgivable and are just beyond me? I can't tell. Black★Rock Shooter (TV) definitely suggests even more to learn from, but I guess I've already said everything in this review that really matters. Watch Black★Rock Shooter (TV), see my tragic mahou shoujo interest stack on MyAnimeList for shows similar to Black★Rock Shooter (TV) and Madoka☆Magica, and don't forget to donate to Yutaka Yamamoto. Thank you for your attention.