Black Rock Shooter (2012 anime)

Okay, watching the OAV right now.

... Weird fight. I guess this takes place in Another Dimension, and those are parallels to the protagonist and (main) antagonist?

Heh, I don't think I ever saw any character have this kind of laid-back, quasi-energetic wake-up scene.

Oh great, her little bro is a sleepyhead. XD Well, she did warn him.

Oh? We're back to the weird otherdimension-thing... Whoah, she's got a big Gatling gun there!

Wait, back to mundane Earth again? What the heck was that short scene for, then?

Ho-hooo. Anime/manga usually reserve this kind of scene for an implied "Love at First Sight + "Romantic" Two-Girl Friendship" setup. Yeeees— Wait, what? Did the pretty girl just— HOW COLD!

... I think she misread her given name. I just now she misread it.

Uh-oh, another flash of parallel-dimension happenings. Man, this place's architecture sure looks inviting.

... <Face Palm> That was lame. "Your height", she says... Better prepare for the cold should— Huh? She's... She's striking up a conversation! Boy, Mato's got lucky this time!

"(No hawks where) little birds play"... I like that kind of Meaningful Name-based Alternate Character Reading.

Let me take a wild guess: Mato is an Idiot Heroine, right? I was having suspicions for a while, but having her almost miss her class despite being next to it and the name plate being clearly in her field of vision almost cinched it for.

And back to the other-dimension. Come on, let something happen already! This is mega-bori— Oh, a partially-ruined castle. Good, good, there must be something interesting in there, right? Wait, waitwaitwait WAAAAHHH, why did you jump into the for-all-we-know-it-could-be-bottomless pit?!

Heh, nice to see Mato and Yomi getting along so well.

And back to Blue-Eyed Mystery Girl, whom I already know must be the title character^note Yeah, I already got the names and appearances of the three main otherworld-girls spoiled, along with Mato and Yomi's connection to two of them. But I found out that I could sort of "push back" such spoilers from my consciousness far enough that I can "forget" about them and thus watch the show like I'm a newbie, so long as the spoilers aren't heavy/deep enough.. I'm gonna call her Buroshu-chan^* From Burakku Rokku Shuutaa, the title's romaji reading. in my commentaries from now on.

Back to Earth. Alright, I suspect that by "all the same", Mato meant "I suck at everything besides gym". That'll be my headcanon until officialcanon josses it.

Back to otherworld. This church-like building is giving me the creeps. Whoah, scenery change to some desert place... and yet another gir— Yikes! Did somebody cut off her arms to put those nonhumanly-jointed mecha-limbs in?! That's cruel!

Back to Earth. Yomi standing aside looks rather sad, doesn't it?

Back to otherworld... Hey, this fourth girl's hairstyle looks like Yomi's, doesn't it?

Back to Earth— Dammit, from now on I'm using B 2 E and B 2 O instead! Anyway... Heh, you'd think Yomi would be more cross with Mato for violating her personal space; I understand that it's a very big deal in Japan, moreso than in most Western/European(-influenced) cultures. Oh yeah, volleballer Yomi FTW!

B 2 O: Okay, my gut feeling is telling me that either Buroshu-chan isn't her on a "friendly visit", or that this Yomi-lookalike is not going to be that hospitable.

Sinister Scythe and creepy, glowy-eyed skulls. Signs of her having necromantic powers, maybe?

Hey, that's rude! She extended a friendly hand to you, missy!

B 2 E: Strange contrast between those two worlds. Or maybe there's something dark (though not necessarily evil) hidden behind that smiling face of Yomi's?

B 2 O: Uh-oh. Buroshu-chan's left eye is lighting up in literal Cold Flames. Guess you made her angry, Necromancer-chan.

B 2 E: Sharing your favorite place and the design for your cell phone's accessory with your best same-sex friend... in anime, such things are often a sign of more-than-platonic feelings. We seriously need a trope for things that may be quite normal for friends IRL, but which fiction usually reserves for romantic context for some reason.

B 2 O: And the fight is on! Whoever said "don't bring a gun to a sword fight" clearly hadn't seen these two in action. <scene change to Rocky Desert> What're ya looking at, Miss Iron-Hands?

B 2 E: Gaaaaaaahh! When will it just get on with it and show the goddamn plot behind all this?! I like the Character Development and all, but why aren't we getting an explanation about the otherworld when we're almost halfway through this 50-minute video?! <half-hearted rant over> On the other hand... So a Time Skip montage to New Years, huh? Good to see their friendship holding up.

B 2 O: <Rock Desert scene> Oh, finally she moves. <scene change to B 2 E> Wait, what?! That's it?! NOT FAIR!

B 2 E: Eh? Yomi injured two of her fingers (I mean, those are bandages on her left hand's middle and ring fingers, right?), and Mato hurt her ankle on top of her already injured knee? That's got to be plot-significant somehow.

B 2 O: Rocky desert. No sign of anybody.

B 2 E: Oh, hell no. They split the class up? Mato and Yomi's sad faces and voices make me sad, too! Hey, is it just me, or does this "Yuu" look a little like Miss Iron-Hands, hairstyle-wise? Uh-oh, is Yomi jealous? I think she's jealous, or envio— What the hell was that? Did I just... There was a shadowy outline where Yomi was, right? And it looked vaguely like Necromancer-chan, too! Eeeeep. Envy Level rising critical!

B 2 O: <cathedral scene> Yikes. Battle's getting intense, ain't it? Oh yeah, Gatling Gun turned into... I don't know, but it looks Long, Sharp and Pointy! Hey, don't you dare run away, Necrogirl! Come back and fight like a ma— err, woman!

B 2 E: So now Mato decides to notice that she was steadily ignoring Yomi in favor of her new friend. Great, let's hope the damage already done is still reversible.

... Oh, fuck me. GO, MATO! GOGOGO! Goddammit. I may have become emotionally hardier after crying my eyes out during Madoka Magica's Mother Of All Tear Jerkers in Episode 10, but... Please, someone stop those tears.

B 2 O: Buroshu-chan... I don't know what your connection to Mato is, but DO SOMETHING! I know you can solve this somehow.

Hey, what's with all those chains? And this gladiatorial arena/coliseum-like place?

Oh, Crap!. Don't just hang in those chains, Buroshu! You're the "heroine" in this fight, remember?!

B 2 E: Oh, if only things are as easy as you think they are, Yuu.

... Empty message, and instant call refusal/rejection upon calling her back? Oi, something's fishy going on. Well, at least it got Mato motivated out of her lethargic depression. GO, MATO, GO!

Empty. Dammit, this is the only place we know of that she could've gone t— Wait, something in the grass... THE CELLPHONE ACCESSORY! But why did she lea— Uh, it's not supposed to glow like that, isn't it? Waaaaaahhhh! Wormhole alarm!

B 2 O: Yeah, break those chains!

... Oh come on, just take that hand already!

Nope, ain't no dice, missy. She wants her Yomi back, and she's getting her back, over your scattered ashes if she has to!

Oh right. Load-Bearing Boss. Well, time to hightail it out of here.

Okay, we're in some weird limbo dimension. <listens to Buroshu-chan's words> Whoah, you mean we're still not out of the woods yet? Or... Wait, I got it: All this otherworld stuff isn't concurrent, but actually happens after this Fusion Dance, right? Sort of like an In Medias Res Prologue divided in segments across the whole episode... which could very well be the 2012 anime's Pilot Episode .

<credits roll>

... Oh, Crap!. The anime is going to be about Yuu and/or her counterpart throwing up trouble (and possibly merging either right from the start or during said troubles), alongside the mysterious antagonist from the beginning of the OAV, isn't it?

edited 24th Dec '12 11:19:50 AM by MarqFJA

Overreacting much??

Not used to having someone do episode-by-episode commentaries on whatever they deem important details of whatever new show they watch, are you? Demon God Of Chaos 2 seemed to like this approach of mine to watching new shows — I guess he found it fun to read my commentaries for Madoka Magica a few months ago.

Oh, and I'm not really overreacting; I just tend to be a little... over-the-top sometimes, especially in commentaries.

BTW, is that Black Gold Saw in the second half of this music video? If so, it may explain the "Gold" in her name — though not the saw.

edited 24th Dec '12 12:26:43 PM by MarqFJA

The OAV and anime series are mostly unconnected aside from the characters and maybe a few similar plot points.

Yeah, I know. But IINM, this 3D PV preceded any of the other adaptations.

And why is it so "slow" in here? Did the thread "die" after the 2012 anime finished?

edited 24th Dec '12 1:38:34 PM by MarqFJA

Um, yeah, pretty much. There's not much to discuss.

Well, there's the manga (which has a separate thread. And sucks). And Arcana

Okay, can someone at least answer my question above about Black Gold Saw?

@Last page: Oh, come on, that's really out-of-character for Duke Nukem.

Pretend that it's an Alternate Universe Evil Counterpart of him, then.

I binge watched the Black Rock Shooter tv series last night without knowing anything more about it than it was based on some sort of vocoloid song or something and supposedly a magical girl story. Judging from the thread here that ignorance actually worked out better for me than had I gone in with preconceptions from the other BRS media. It never felt confusing, though at the start I had no idea what was going on and creating and disposing theories each episode.

What I liked was that the ending and the story as a whole made emotional sense, that it played fair with its revelations and that in the end, there were no villains, just hurt and confused people trying to make it as best they could.

The world building makes no sense of course if you think about it for more than a few moments and the anime didn't really address that at all, but for the story it told it wasn't necessary.