Black Rock Shooter (2012 anime)

I like her inability to speak in complete sentences. I can actually understand most of what she is saying.

Maybe it's just because there aren't as many adult women in anime as there are middleschool and highschool girls. And experimentation is hot wheras steady working relationships are not.

Yeah! I mean, it's not like birds and rainbows have ever been used as symbols before, right?

That's part of Nicovideo. Just hit the dialogue balloon to turn it off.

Actually, I should rewatch it with comments turned on...

edited 3rd Feb '12 7:12:02 PM by universalperson

They have a choice of having translator notes or assuming that the viewer can read kanji

Because you've been watching an odd selection of shows. Les Yay-heavy series tend to make all major female characters be gay. Like this one. That was not an accident

Why the hell not?

Well, the first episode was kinda boring.

I have to say... I liked the OVA a whole lot more given what I saw on this first episode.

Things seemed a bit rushed for the first episode, events seemed to fly by quite quickly. I also didn't like this new interpretation of Yomi and, by what I can deduce from what we have seen, of Death Master. Yomi now seems quite shy and weak being dominated entirely by this new antagonist while OVA Yomi, while tending to keep things to herself, was more mature and confident. I think she's also being played way too much as a love interest, with her stating on the very first episode how pretty Mato seems to her and the degree of interest she shows in her from the very beginning.

This is also reflected in Dead Master, who in the OVA was a powerful embodiment of Yomi's repressed feelings and jealousy... while in the anime she wears a bridal veil and seems like she will fill the role of trapped princes who fights Black Rock Shooter because of wheelchair girl's will.

Needless to say, I do not enjoy enjoy this new antagonist because of the way she changed the dynamics of character interactions, plus her introduction that revealed nothing about the character but that she "bad".

As for my preferences... I'm guessing they went with 3D because it will make the fights easier to animate and probably reduce some costs. Still, I find this look unappealing and a bit on the uncanny valley. All embodiments seemed a bit too... puppet-like for my taste.

That's about it for my complains. I really love the concept of Black Rock Shooter and I'm glad that it's getting an anime... however I do worry a bit about how it is turning out.

Okay, I think they're changing the subtitles - if you watch the video again they changed "The Tiny Bird and the Colors" to "Li'l Bird Li'L Bird Colorful Colors". Can someone confirm this, or am I just seeing things?

I think I'm just having false memories induced by the tvtropes article.

edited 4th Feb '12 4:45:39 PM by universalperson

It was always "Li'L Bird Li'L Bird Colorful Colors", wasn't it? I never saw it with the other title.

Which reminds me, how come that title and the monologue at the beginning sound like engrish even though the rest of the translation is normal?

Got to see the first episode and I must say: This is actually better than I thought.

Ever since the OVA, I was honestly disappointed by that goddamn Sequel Hook. Now that it's a series with a longer plot I feel this one would be a lot better because we get to explore their world more.

Watched the first ep with my Black Rock Shooter nendoroid on my desk. lol

Calling it now.

Girl with red color motif is symbolic of the counselor.

Nah, it's the senpai.

I'm thinking it's the counselor, since she seems to know what's going on and Black Gold Saw seems to be some sort of observer (those huge red eyes on the walls/sky are hers, right?). Also, senpai doesn't have the right figure. :P

...maybe she's neither of them.

edited 5th Feb '12 8:39:10 AM by universalperson

That would be silly.

Only if her true identity turns out to be a random background character that appears in each episode. Then it would be hilarious.

Looking at the character screen on the website, I'm fairly convinced we'll get at least one more character. Also, I suspect Kagari will eventually get over herself, given a previous piece of artwork where she's in a school uniform.

Not unless "getting over herself" includes regaining the ability to walk. My only guess on the school uniform is that it's an old design, or that the injury that left her in a wheelchair is recent and she was going to transfer to that school before it happened.

Did you see the episode 2 preview on the official website? She's walking.

It says on her profile that she ca only walk for a short period of time, or so someone else in the thread said.

Black Gold Saw is the counselor. They have the same figure and face, and the whole "BGS is watching everything" is a counterpart to Saya knowing what's going on with the girls by simply doing her job

That's exactly what I just said, but without the face (and with spoiler tags)!

... What.

Seriously, what happened at the end? Black Gold Saw appears out of nowhere, Chariot dies, Dead Master disappeared, and both Yomi and Kagari acted weirdly. I get the feeling I'm missing something, but I don't know what. Maybe next episode will clear things up.

I don't think you're missing anything. It's just a huge goddamn cliffhanger. Really, it's infuriating that we have to wait another week to find out what happened!

edited 9th Feb '12 8:12:37 PM by Ruise

Ah okay. It was just so huge that I convinced myself that I was missing something.

So, melodrama, action, more melodrama, action and melodrama at the same time, Black Gold Saw pulls a something ex machina, and episode ends

Hopefully with the Kagari arc most likely over future events will be less overwrought