152nd G-View: BLACK★ROCK SHOOTER TV

Hey doods and peeps, welcome to another episode of The G-Views. It’s been a while since I’ve written an anime review and I am long overdue. Also as I stated last week, I’m not going to talk about the final episode but instead post my review. Without further ado, here’s BRS TV.

In case you missed it, here’s my review of the OVA.

37th G-View: Black Rock Shooter

I’ll be making many comparisons to the OVA in this review because the TV anime is basically a retelling. Don’t let that detract your interest in watching the anime if you haven’t seen it yet.

Genres: action, drama, fantasy, psychological

Themes: fighting, girls with guns, other selves, school

Objectionable content: Intense

Number of episodes: 8

G-Rating: 9/10

Plot Summary: In spring, two girls meet: Mato and Yomi. They each sense something in the other that they lack in themselves, and are drawn to each other in spite of their contrasting personalities. Though initially hesitant, they form a strong connection. But they both have secrets – and in an empty world, two girls fight: Black Rock Shooter and Deadmaster. A strange being, Black Gold Saw, watches their mysterious battle, laughing. This is the story of two girls, in two worlds, entangled by the threads of fate.

So BRS TV, the premise is similar to the OVA’s where there are two dimensions, the Real World and the Other World. Also like the OVA the RW and OW girls are somehow connected to each other. However, that’s where the similarities end. I did say it’s a retelling of the OVA’s plot but its contents have also increased in intensity. It’s ten times more violent, intense, dramatic, psychological and yurific. More on the yuri later.

There are many more fight sequences and the violence in all of them are pretty intense and gory. Just because the blood isn’t red, doesn’t make getting arm ripped off from your body any less disturbing. Suffice to say, they’re bloody and action packed to the max.

The School life segments have been replaced with even more drama. For those who thought the relationship between Mato and Yomi in the OVA was lame, you haven’t seen anything yet. The TV’s drama pretty much goes into melodramatic insanity territory. Simply put, these girls are incredibly unstable and their emotions can be easily manipulated. How intense is the insanity? Kagari nearly made me wet my pants, something that 11 episodes of “Another” failed to accomplish. More on Another next week. No matter how fans who liked the anime feel about the melodrama, like the rest of the show, they can’t deny the fact they (Myself included) have been glued to the PC monitors every Thursday Night for 8 weeks. It’s that thrilling of a roller coaster ride. This show will toy with your emotions throughout its entirety.

There are also symbolic imagery and connections of what happens in the RW affects what happens in the OW. I’m not going into full detail since it’ll be self explanatory when you see it.

The animation is similar to its OVA counterpart, though slightly inferior but not by much. The Other World is still a sight to behold as usual. A Post Apocalyptic-esque Wasteland where Combat is the only rule of survival. I’d also like to note the girls look much cuter here than in the OVA, especially Yomi with her “1000 expressions” ala Hanasaku Iroha’s Ohana. Good stuff all around. I also won’t say much about how the OW girls look because they all look badass, even the new Dead Master. I’ve heard some fans complain about her glasses and headdress… this newYomi wears glasses and the headdress is cute, just like Yomi. They didn’t detract from DM’s awesomeness when she fought. She’s still the fan favorite in spite of the cute additions. Yes, I’ll also admit Black Gold Saw is sexy, just like her real world counterpart.

The music however, felt slightly inferior this time. Sure the OP and ED are pretty good but the Soundtrack sometimes felt out of place. I dunno. I shouldn’t complain too much because it is an emotions centered anime.

I won’t go into full detail on the characters. The Real World girls each have their pros and cons and the viewers will choose for themselves which of the girls is their favorite. Same goes for the Other World warriors.

Excellent drawing by chizzachan. Follow the link for more cool stuff.

With the plug out of the way, let’s talk about what’s most important to The OGMan. This is another one of those shows that tries to hide the fact it’s a yuri anime behind the “friendship” cloak. I can tell you all from experience and visual confirmation that friends, not even best friends are this emotionally attached to one another. It’s impossible for the relationships of the girls on this show to be anything other than romantic. Yomi is clearly in love with Mato, Kagari is obsessed with Yomi and these are only the 1st 3 girls. I won’t spoil the other yuri lovers in this one but those who have seen the show know what I’m talking about.

Lastly let’s talk about hardcore fanboy rage. From my understanding, the fanboys’ main gripe with the show are that they want even more action and nullify the existence of the real world girls. Basically they want an action show centered entirely around the HUGE concept art characters. At least that’s what I understood. My answer to that? So you all want another post-apocalyptic anime. Don’t you have billions of shooting games with that concept already? Also, I’ve seen a PA anime recently and it was 100% serious…it’s mediocre at best. For a PA entertainment medium to work, you need humor. When I look at the HUGE illustrations, the last emotion that crosses my mind is laughter/humor. I can’t picture HUGE’s characters as being funny. I saw it in a manga somewhere and I wasn’t amused. BRS can only work in either an Action, Fighting or RPG. Some would say they would rather see an anime adaptation of the BRS PSP game. Frankly it should stay a game. Having it adapted into an anime series wouldn’t work. I just don’t see it. Besides, I personally think what we did get was pretty creative. It may not be anything new but I sure as heck haven’t anything like this in a while. The fact both the OVA and anime were conceived through Illustrations and a Hatsune Miku song is astounding because as far as I know, there’s no recorded text stating a story from HUGE so there’s no original material to bastardize.

In conclusion: If you’re a fan of the OVA, liked its premise but wanted to see even more of it but with the intensity level set to high, this show shouldn’t be skipped. If you don’t like melodrama or the OVA, check out the 1st two episodes before making up your mind. As for the fanboys…do whatever you want.