Anime Review: Black Rock Shooter OVA
I wasn’t sure what to expect from Black Rock Shooter‘s anime debut. If nothing else the franchise has become a great example of the power of the Internet, as original artwork and character designs by artist huke inspired a song by Supercell, which together have spawned an increasing variety of figures and merchandise and – at last – a 50-minute anime, released for free (with various subtitles!) in both physical and digital media. There’s no doubting that Black Rock Shooter is a phenomenon and this OVA has been surrounded by hype, but have animation studio Ordet succeeded in applying a worthwhile story to huke’s fantastic designs or is this nothing more than a lengthy advertisement to sell more merchandise?
I’ll get straight to the short answer before going into a little more detail: there is certainly some substance to Black Rock Shooter and potential for a solid anime franchise to justify all of the merchandising, rather than the other way around. By the end of the OVA’s roughly 50-minute runtime there’s little doubt that there’s more to come, so time will tell if that potential is fulfilled. But enough about potential, let’s talk about the debut OVA. The story centres around Mato Kuroi who, on her first day of junior high school, finds a new friend in classmate Yomi Takanashi. The two girls become close friends, but when their class is split in the second year of junior high their friendship begins to suffer.
I know what you’re thinking: “Where does the girl with the huge cannon fit into this?” That tale of young friends is interspersed with scenes of a stylised alternate world mostly depicting Black Rock Shooter facing off against Dead Master, though the OVA opens with a battle against Black Gold Saw and Strength also makes non-combat appearances. These sequences benefit greatly from a bold, textured aesthetic heavily influenced by huke’s artwork and become gradually more integrated with the main story, though if you can’t make the connection right from the start you’re not looking very hard… or at all. Unfortunately, many of the transitions between the two worlds are jarring and some of the sequences from the alternate world – specifically, a bunch of scenes depicting nothing more than Black Rock Shooter walking – seem superfluous, with little to offer other than the great art design.
Those somewhat extraneous scenes become particularly problematic as the film progresses and it becomes increasingly obvious that the main story would benefit from a longer runtime. To put a more positive spin on things, it’s a problem because the real-world story of Mato and Yomi is actually pretty good. It’s not a particularly original story, but I found myself engaged with the girls’ friendship even when things occasionally moved a bit too quickly thanks to the alternate world scenes eating up the OVA’s already relatively short runtime. While most will be drawn to Black Rock Shooter by the fast-paced action – and they won’t be disappointed – I found myself enjoying the real-world side of the story much more. At this point I’d like to go back to that question – “Where does the girl with the huge cannon fit into this?” – and give an alternative, more personal answer: “Not particularly well, for the most part.” I’ve already mentioned how obvious the parallels between the two worlds are, but they’re not directly linked in terms of actual plot until literally the very end of the film, at which point we’re left with no real resolution. As a lead-in to the inevitable follow-up it’s effective, but on its own – as it is now – it’s a somewhat unsatisfying conclusion (or lack thereof) to a fortunately enjoyable story.
In the end, then, it’s impossible to avoid discussing the franchise’s potential, because whether this is a complete stand-alone story or the start of something more actually makes a pretty big difference when it comes to evaluating the OVA. Given the already formidable popularity of Black Rock Shooter I think it’s safe to assume there’s more on the way, so let’s run with that. While the fight scenes in the alternate world may be mostly all flash and little substance, the seeming convergence between the two worlds in the closing moments of the Black Rock Shooter holds the promise of combining that flash – and it is nice to look at – with the much more engaging, character-driven drama that sustains the OVA. That’s the real potential of Black Rock Shooter and, although this first chapter only begins to achieve it, it’s still a pretty enjoyable introduction. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait too long for the story to continue.
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[...] autaku’s review: [The] somewhat extraneous scenes become particularly problematic as the film progresses [...]
i have to agree with you with most part.. The real world side of story was captivating.. When the scene cuts back to the fight, my mind went “What the hell? Go back to the real world!” Although there were a number of fights, they were quite inconsistent.. Some fight was better, some fight was just dull..
It seemed as though what happens in the real world coincides with the alternate world.. When BRS was fighting Dead Master, it portrayed how Mato was fighting hard to find Yomi back.. This sensation was too subtle to fully grasp..
The animation in the real world was classy, but I cannot say the same for the alternate world which looked stretchy and budget.. Overall I think the music and original world pulled up the score, I was disappointed with how the fights in alternate world went..
I certainly wouldn’t say the parallels between the two worlds are subtle, quite the opposite in fact. I also really enjoyed the animation in the alternate world; for the most part I think I’d say it looks more impressive than the real world.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who enjoyed the real world story more!
personally I’ll be honest I am not so sure this was worth all the hype. I’ll give it another watch and them post my review on my blog in the coming days
I tend not to get caught up in hype to begin with and I think it’s fairer to look at something on its own merits or compared to one’s own expectations rather than whether or not it lived up to its own hype, so that’s not something I’ve really discussed in this review.
I look forward to reading your review!
i watched this without any knowledge of the hype. my friend told me to download it so i did. As a regular anime watcher, i was skeptic when i saw the battle scenes in the start, thinking it was going to be a typical battle manga. The switch to real world and the friendship that grew,however, drew me in, i love how it developed and must admit the switch to the alternate world with the character just walking annoyed me. All of it came together nicely though, there was enough action and character relationship building, also an element of strangeness and ambiguity that kept me guessing. Artistically, even though alternate world does look scrappy, it fits it very well and definitely states to the viewer which world is which. i love the artist’s designs and enjoy how he created a very stark contrast from a calm scene in the real world to a intense fight scene in the alternate. All in All its something that far excedded my expectations so i was happy i watched it and really want a anime to be made but hopefuly it wont fall into a typical battle manga.
sorry, meant battle anime, not battle manga. haha although i watch anime regularily, i read manga alot more so the terms got mixed up XP i really enjoyed how the people looked fluid in their actions as well!
I completely agree with your last sentence! And it really can’t be said enough what a waste of time some of those walking scenes are; although they’re quite brief that time could have been better spent on character development.
I liked it, i thought for OVA is nice, hopefully that will lead to a TV anime, and thats when youll get more bg informations, of course you cant fit every single detail in that short amount of time nor this can be a masterpiece.
I agree. If this was supposed to be a stand-alone movie then it would be fair to complain that not everything is explained, but as it’s clearly intended to be an introduction I don’t necessarily believe that’s a very strong criticism. Of course there are a number of criticisms that can be levelled at this OVA, but I don’t really buy that particular one.
Sorry, but I really found the story very dry and childish. D:
I was expecting a lot of goodness from BRS because of the massive fanarts, it turns out to be the opposite. I did not find a single scene that stood out. The animation and art was superbly fluid and modern, but I hate to say the plot destroyed it all.
~breisa
It’s certainly not even close to being so good that I’d expect everyone to find some merit in it. There’s definitely a child-like innocence to the main story that some will find appealing but others will find too simplistic. I generally do prefer more complex narratives but it’s nice to enjoy something simple as well.
nice review~
Initially I had no idea what BRS was about, thought it was just BRS and dead master fighitng, but I was wrong^^”
Even though I found the story pretty common with the theme of friendship, I enjoyed the high school life/slice of life feel I felt from the OVA. I liked how they built the character development, within 50 minutes, making me loving the characters in the end.
If you want a more detailed view of my thoughts, you can read my review here , http://tabetaiii.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/i-am-black-rocket-shooter-ova-review/ (hope you don’t mind me linking^^”)
I’ve got no problem with people linking to their own stuff as long as it’s part of a legitimate comment. Thanks for your thoughts, it sounds like we had a pretty similar experience with the OVA.
It’s very noticable how Ordet’s just “testing the waters of anime industry” by using this OVA. Damn them! Make the anime already and stop yapping! =P I mean you have the veins of KyoAni in you! XD
I don’t know too much about the behind-the-scenes stuff on the BRS anime, but I do hope we don’t have to wait too long for it to continue.
I approached this anime in the same manner as Yangkj; with no knowledge of its origin. So, I will comment on the OVA accordingly. I discovered this title because of a well-made AMV by Chiikaboom on animemusicvideos.org and, appealed by the of imagery of highschool girls interspersed with imagery of girls battling in some fantastical Victorian nightmare of a world, decided to watch it.
I’m not one for romance, and was happy to find that nothing in this anime was as romanticized as the AMV depicted. However, ironically, by the end of the anime, I realized that I was in need of more sentiment than what little was held in just scenes of these two girls fighting randomly scattered throughout a charming story which it was almost completely irrelevant to (ok, well, the characters in the parallel universe looked similar and they seemed to be having dysfunction in their…relationship? Other than that, though, there was no general connection). I enjoyed watching the short AMV much more, which is a little sad on the part of Studio Ordet.
Your review mimicked most of my personal opinion (everyone who previously commented seems to think this, too).
Thanks for reading and commenting! I’m glad to see that there are plenty of other people taking the middle ground on this, amongst those smothering either love or hate all over it. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but in the case of BRS I can’t help but feeling that many of the people in both of those camps are largely reacting to the hype.
I enjoyed it very much. And contrary to what others said, I kind of liked the walking scenes because you can see the intracate (right word?) artwork, you get to see how parallel B*RS’ is to ours, and it adds suspense. I can’t wait for the official anime to come out!
I’ve heard about this anime in one my best friends and ask me to watch it. and i started watching the Ova and i think i like the story of yomi and mota…especially when mota tries to find yomi and started being the B*RS…and at first i didn’t about the similarities of yomi and DEAD MASTER and mota and BRS …and looking forward for the official series this anime…
i’m sorry i was trying to say that i did not “NOTICE” about the similarities of yomi as DEAD MASTER and mota as BRS .