Black Rock Shooter (2012 anime)

Well, that was a surprising reveal. That real-world Yuu and STR essentially traded places, I mean.

That was a surprising revelation. Good episode, the action was great and the questions that pops out now are how are they going to separate Black Rock shooter from Mato? She seems unstopable! also Why did Yomi erased Mato folders in the end?

edited 8th Mar '12 5:26:08 PM by asellus111

I was under the impression that she did it because she no longer remembers Mato.

What!? If that's true then I have to agree with Strenght that's the wrong way to solve your problems.

Well, Yuu did say last episode that she'd forget the cause of her distress, so if the cause is her feelings for Mato, which are inextricably tied up in her memories of Mato...

edited 8th Mar '12 5:54:31 PM by RedSavant

Interestingly enough I like the implication about just why BRS seems to be this incontrollable and unstoppable killing machine, in that MATO is actually the most broken girl in the series, it's just her traumas are either buried deep or forgotten.

Okay, that explained some of what's going on, but left a number of other things open

Feels more like we have one episode left than two. Only a handful of questions left, and setting up IBRS as the Final Boss. Except...

I think the last few scenes were the most important. A repeated emphasis on that forgetting this stuff is bad, suggesting that Yomi's condition could be reversed, Yomi with gear-eyes, and I think the final shot of STR included the silhouette of another other self

Episode 7 preview MASSIVE SPOILERS.

Now it looks like STR has lost it.

edited 8th Mar '12 6:37:44 PM by dmysta3000

*Sigh* Back to useless previews. Exactly one part of that can even feed speculation, and it's probably the requisite misleading shot

That's true. It's better to wait for the next episode than jump to conclusions.

Still the faces STR makes dont look the most stable...

edited 8th Mar '12 7:11:58 PM by dmysta3000

This show just got much better. Still confusing though. At least it's starting to clear more and more up. Yuu is now more questionable than ever.

There's a new problem however. If Yuu and IBRS fight, and IBRS wins, it's literally the end for Yuu, as she'll die for real. Remember, STR is the one who's standing in for her in the real world.

Sudden surge of fanart. Nice to see, I was getting worried there. Of it, I feel the need to pass this along. Danbooru has nws ads, you know the drill

Great. So the whole show is all Mato's fault.

^Don't you hate the show anyway?

The inner working of your brain must be absolutely fascinating.

At no point did Mato ever knowingly cause BRS to do anything. Ever. Mato has no control over her otherself and is for the most part ignorant of what the hell is going on. Other characters have hinted at it, but she doesn't really understand all that well.

So, no it is not Mato's fault and no it isn't BRS's fault either.

If it is anybody's fault, it's goddamn Saya and Yuu's fault collectively for being a pair of yandere and selfish brats, respectively.

Mato's final statement was more a condemnation on the system rather than anybody's actions. It's basically like saying "this world is unfair because people starve and that's not right." I challenge you to identify one point where Mato does something morally wrong. Not stupid, but morally wrong.

You will not be able to find one.

EDIT: Entropy, the degree in which you vex me is so great that I have to politely ask you to tell me where your profile image comes from. Just a point of curiosity, really.

edited 9th Mar '12 2:31:42 AM by SgtHydra

It's Kaito from Ano Natsu Matteru, a series that's airing this season. Kind of a spiritual successor to Onegai Teacher, yet in the same universe (if that's possible).

edited 9th Mar '12 2:39:30 AM by MyssaRei

I have to agree with Saya, Yuu not so much Students were tormenting her and her family sucked big time, no wonder she doesn't want to comeback to the real world.

I agree, but her actions didn't exactly improve Mato's situation.

Oh hey. I predicted a while back that at some point Mato would end up declaring the way the Otherworld works to be wrong... and I was right! Go me.

Anyway, does anyone else think the TV series feels like a deconstruction of sorts of the original OVA? Like, in the OVA Otherworlders fade away cleanly when they die and their associated real-world person's troubles fade away just as easily... and then in the series the deaths are just as messy as they'd be in real life (just with funny-coloured blood) and the trauma erasure is a result of large amounts of memory loss because people just don't get over those sorts of things so fast naturally. (On the other hand if the series ends with Mato recreating the Otherworld so it works more nicely like it did in the OVA, can we call the two continuities pre-Matokami and post-Matokami?)

edited 9th Mar '12 10:51:33 AM by YamiiDenryuu

No? While the exact way things worked in the OVA wasn't entirely clear, it didn't seem to be very similar to the TV series. For one thing, there's nothing to suggest that Yomi lost her problems because Dead Master died; the events of the OVA included Mato realizing just how important Yomi is, and then doing something that would communicate this to her

Eh, well, it was just a thought.

I would agree with the idea that it is a deconstruction of the OVA.

Things there seemed a little too cut and dry, with no knowledgeable person around to provide exposition or provide some looming threat that needed defeating. Plus, the whole Fusion Dance concept was thoroughly deconstructed by it quickly resulting in IBRS, where as in the OVA it seemed the solution for everybody's problems. Also, Yuu's new role sort of mocks the non-existent role she had in the OVA. And there's probably going to be more deconstructing in the final two episodes as well.

The franchise overall really seems to reboot the magical girl genre from the ground up. Madoka was really more of a dark and cynical reconstruction, more Rebuild of Evangelion than Neon Genesis Evangelion. BRS, as a character and as a franchise, is built on the suffering of Mato Kuroi; just as NGE was built on the suffering of Shinji Ikari.

It's a deconstruction all right, but I wouldn't say it took notes from Madoka. BRS had to have been already in production by spring 2011 and there is no massive sudden tone change that would hint at such an influence.

edited 9th Mar '12 8:07:36 PM by SgtHydra

What does this have to do with anything?

It was also the cause of everybody's problems in the OVA. Dead Master ganked Yomi's body, remember

Or, you know, it's the result of needing four times as much plot

I think it'd need actual Magical Girl tropes to do that