Characters / Black★Rock Shooter Anime

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Characters of the Black★Rock Shooter franchise first introduced in the anime adaptations.

Introduced in Black★Rock Shooter OVA

Humans

Mato Kuroi

Mato Kuroi

Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa (Japanese), Xanthe Huynh (English)

Mato Kuroi in the 2009 OVA

^{Mato Kuroi in the 2012 Anime} 

A happy-go-lucky girl who's very excitable and hyper. She's very naïve, however, and very closed-minded; she likes to marvel at things, and enjoys playing the guitar. She's also very skilled at basketball and is a bit of a Tomboy (although not quite as much as one would expect from her appearance).

In the 2012 anime, she seems to be fond of philosophical musings or just "zoning out" and staring at stuff. Saya notes that she is innocent, and that she has never hated anyone nor has, up until now, anyone hated her.

Has a younger brother, Hiro, and a mother who shows up a bit onscreen. Her dad is never shown, however the 2012 anime says he is often on business trips.

Her "other self" is Black★Rock Shooter. In both incarnations, she ends up merging with her at some point.

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General Tropes

• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Doesn't wear black clothes, but a lot of her clothing has a blue/star motif.
• Disappeared Dad: Her farther is never shown on-screen, though he is stated to be on a business trip in the TV anime.

• Meaningful Name:
  • "Kuroi" means "black clothes"; "Mato" with the proper kanji means "target" (as in target shooting). Her other self is Black★Rock Shooter, who certainly wears black clothes and works a lot with target shooting, her target being the Dead Master.
  • The aforementioned kanji for "mato" also is used to form adjectives, so together "Kuroi Mato" could just mean "black-clothed."
  • In basketball, one "shoots" baskets.
• Ordinary High-School Student: Mato starts off as your typical junior high school student. Come the end of both continuities, where she merges with Black★Rock Shooter.
• Tomboy: According to the OVA, she evidently gained her basketball skills from practicing with boys in the park.

OVA Tropes

• Love at First Sight: While not full-on love, Mato starts to get a little bit besotted when she first sees Yomi.
• Luminescent Blush: Mato has a habit of blushing a lot whenever she interacts with Yomi.

2012 Anime Tropes

• All-Loving Hero: As Saya puts it, she never detests, or is never destested by others.
• Adaptational Badass: Mato in this continuity tanked a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from Insane Black★Rock Shooter and still kept going before defeating her with a gigantic ★Rock Cannon and some help from the Otherselves.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: She goes even deeper to fight Insane Black★Rock Shooter.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted, in contrast to the Otherselves, because she heals slower than them. When she, in form of Black★Rock Shooter, faces Insane Black★Rock Shooter and refuses to attack her, Insane Black★Rock Shooter ruthlessly beats the shit out of her and specifically attacks her face and limbs. Not even a minute later, Mato is down with an extremely bruised and bleeding face and a horribly twisted leg.
• BFG: During her fight with Insane Black★Rock Shooter, she pulls out one so big the muzzle itself is as tall as Insane Black★Rock Shooter.
• Childhood Friends: She's known Yuu since they were kids.
• Combined Energy Attack: Her ultimate attack involves the Otherselves giving their powers to Mato to charge the ★Rock Cannon to it's fullest power. She fires it at Insane Black★Rock Shooter point blank.
• Determinator: In Episode 8, Insane B★RS breaks both of her legs over the course of a savage beating, but once Mato puts her mind to fighting back, she still manages to stand up and wield the ★Rock Cannon.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Starts off a brand new friendship with Yomi, Kagari, and the real Yuu in the finale.
• Freak Out: After merging with Black★Rock Shooter, she finds that she killed Yomi/Dead Master. The result turns them into Insane Black★Rock Shooter.
• Heroic BSoD: Falls into one after merging with Black★Rock Shooter and becoming Insane Black★Rock Shooter. Strength brings her back to reality to some degree, but after telling Mato she can escape by claiming she's not Black Rock Shooter, the mere mention of the words cause her to have an identity crisis.
• In the End, You Are on Your Own: Defeats Insane Black★Rock Shooter herself - though with help from a Combined Energy Attack with the assistance of the Otherselves.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: Her dark blue eyes reflect on her helpful and good-hearted personality. Saya describes her eyes as such.
  Saya: "I realized when I first saw you. Your eyes are really beautiful. They're the eyes of a girl who's never been hated or hated anyone else."
• Kirk Summation: Attempts to reason with Insane Black★Rock Shooter before they fight. It ultimately doesn't work.
  Mato (as Black★Rock Shooter): I don't want to be healed before I even know I'm hurting! I want to be hurt!
  Insane Black★Rock Shooter: Then I'll hurt you.
• Made of Iron: Not even getting her legs broke from Insane Black★Rock Shooter's beating can stop her.

• The Philosopher: She sometimes lapses into internal monologue about "the color of things" and "birds". She even sees herself as "black".
• Psychic Dreams for Everyone: Dreams about the Otherworld.
• Pure Is Not Good: It's implied that Black★Rock Shooter is born of her desire to help people, and the reason why Black★Rock Shooter is so strong is because Mato is such a good girl with no worries... and she wants other people to not suffer just like her. Ignoring her own worries ends up turning B★RS into The Juggernaut in the Otherworld. And from what it looks like, that mentality had existed and was rooted in her since she was a toddler!
• Stepford Smiler: She's just better at it than the other girls. She hides her pain well, and instead tries to solve other people's problems - putting her in denial that her problems exist and eventually making her think she's running away from them.
• Synchronization: After merging with Black★Rock Shooter, she feels all her pain instead of the other way around.
• Unflinching Walk: In the finale, she just keeps walking into Insane Black★Rock Shooter's attacks so she can fire a rainbow colored Spirit Bomb laser at point-blank range.

Yomi Takanashi

Yomi Takanashi

Voiced by: Miyuki Sawashiro (Japanese), Suzie Yeung (English)

Yomi Takanashi in the 2009 OVA

^{Yomi Takanashi in the 2012 Anime} 

A girl who catches Mato's eye due to her Friendless Background and her having been dropped off by a car on her first day. As fate would have it, she lives in the same neighborhood as Mato. She takes the train with Mato from then on, and also joins the volleyball team (which she shows skill in) after watching Mato in the basketball team. Her parents are very rich.

She starts to drift away from Mato after she is separated from her class-wise in their second year, and her disappearance by possession/merging fuels the main plot. Her "other self" is the Dead Master.

The 2012 anime plays her a little differently, not only giving her glasses but changing her personality a bit. Unlike before, she is unwilling to make friends both due to the fear she will hurt them and because Kagari seems to have her on a leash. Again, she seems to not like Yuu, although this is rationalized a bit better than it was in the OVA.

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General Tropes

• Alternate Character Reading: Her family name, "Takanashi". It's written "kotori-asobi", which means "little birds playing", but pronounced as "no hawks". In Japanese, this also doubles as a Punny Name because there are no hawks where little birds play. Surprisingly, this is an actual surname that has been used in both real life and in other Japanese media, anime included.
• Damsel in Distress:
  • The OVA has a rare case where the Damsel is also (partially) the kidnapper. In reality, it is her otherself who took over Yomi's body.
  • In the TV series, she is chained up and hidden in a doll by Chariot in a floating house.
• Friendless Background: Due to her being a New Transfer Student after staying in Germany for many years. Consequently, she never made friends with any Japanese students before.
• Green-Eyed Monster: A source of conflict in both the OVA and broadcast anime is the jealousy she feels regarding Yuu and Mato's friendship. It gets worse in the TV anime, where she also has to contend with Kagari's new friends. Fits with her green eyes.
• Meaningful Name: Her name, written with different kanji, means "underworld", which is fitting when you realize her "other self" is the Dead Master.
• Ojou: In the OVA, she apparently lived in Germany for a period of time (but is not very good at German). She was dropped off at school by her dad in a car on her first day (which is rare in Japan), and her parents hired a detective when she goes missing - she even has the first kind of Ojou personality; kind and gentle. In the 2012 anime, she also lives in a huge mansion.
• Ojou Ringlets: An odd variation, as the curls appear on the front part of her hair, but behind her shoulders, her hair is cropped closely to her head. The 2012 anime does this a little differently, as at one point she lets her hair down and it looks normal, albeit a little long, implying she wears pigtails of some sort.
• Ordinary High-School Student: It's what she tries her earnest to look like in front of others, including her fellow junior high classmate Mato.

OVA Tropes

• Huge Schoolgirl: Not all that tall, but in the OVA, Mato seems to point it out constantly. (It is to be noted, however, that by normal human proportions, she is significantly taller than Mato.) Yomi also admits to having a complex about her height.
• New Transfer Student: In the OVA, her backstory is that she lived in Germany for a while. Her name, "Takanashi", is also not very common in Mato's area.

2012 Anime Tropes

• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: This Yomi is much more sensitive to Shrinking Violet levels in than in the OVA.
• Creator Breakdown: In-Universe; her paintings get a lot creepier as her loneliness worsens.
• Freak Out: In Episode 4, after Kagari innocently tells Yomi that they're done being friends, the latter snaps.
• Ironic Echo:
  • At the hospital, when Kagari and Yomi hear Mato (who has been a thorn in Kagari's skin) behind their door, Kagari snaps. In Episode 4, when Kagari tells Yomi that they're done being long-time friends, Yomi snaps instead.
  • Also has one of sorts to the original OVA; in the OVA, Mato was the one who looked for Yomi when she went missing; in the anime, it's the complete opposite.
• It's All My Fault: The reason for her current relationship with Kagari, given the latter got caught in a car accident while trying to reach out to Yomi and became chair-ridden.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: The death of Dead Master causes Yomi to lose her memories of how her hair was cut, and she loses her feelings for Mato to the point where she deletes Mato's mail from her phone. At least until Episode 7, when she actually manages to get said memories back by thinking about it hard enough once Mato's disappearance affects her badly.
• Prone to Tears: She cries a lot. Though this is probably more a by-product of her very, very parasitic relationship with Kagari.
• Traumatic Haircut: After her Freak Out, she relapses it into at school by cutting her hair in the midst of class.
• Yandere: Yomi has a psychological need to have someone need her more than anyone else. In the fourth episode alone, she starts to act possessive to both Mato and Kagari, in spite of the latter's maltreatment of her. When she gets a text from Yuu with her claim of being "Mato's friend", Yomi snaps and almost destroys her phone. She later goes off the deep end at the end of the episode when Kagari tells her that their friendship is over.

Yuu Koutari

Yuu Koutari

Voiced by: Kana Asumi (Japanese), Dani Chambers (English)

Yuu Koutari in the 2009 OVA

^{Yuu Koutari in the 2012 Anime} 

The manager of the basketball team at Mato and Yomi's junior high school.

In the OVA, Mato only respects her in her first year, but becomes close friends with Yuu in her second year (as they are in the same class together, and Mato and Yomi are not). Her "other self" is implied to be Strength.

In the 2012 anime, she is a childhood friend of Mato who often skips classes. She is also fond of coffee. She is in fact Strength, having switched places with the real Yuu years before the beginning of the show. As such she is not entirely real, though she can still interact with the physical world.

Tropes related to the original Yuu Koutari go in the Strength section below.

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General Tropes

• Genki Girl: Hardly anything upsets her, and she's always there to cheer up Mato.

OVA Tropes

• Only One Name: She was only given a last name in the 2012 Anime.
• Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: Did not appear in the pilot or the trailer, and her existence was unknown before a magazine and the website revealed her existence.

2012 Anime Tropes

• A Darker Me: Inverts this trope. The actual Yuu is more savage than Strength, once Strength gains emotions and begins to interact with the real world.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Unlike in the OVA, where she'll often adopt a clingy side whenever Mato and Yomi are with each other and is implied to jealous when the two reconcile near the end, this Yuu doesn't mind Yomi hanging around with Mato. This is because she's Strength in Yuu's body.
• Ascended Extra: In the OVA, she was simply a girl who seemed to be awkward around Yomi, generally acting as an annoyance to Yomi and being extremely pissed off about being left out from Mato and Yomi's friendship. In the anime, she not only has a much bigger role in the story and is much more nicer and assertive, she's actually Strength taking her place as Mato and Yomi's classmate, after the two transferred their bodies to each other.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Has a strong attachment to Mato because she was her only friend when she was younger and all alone.
• Casts No Shadow: Strength-as-Yuu has no shadow in any of the scenes she's in when everyone else very clearly has one. This sets up Episode 5's big reveal.
• Decomposite Character: Her role in the basketball team seems to have been transferred to Arata.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Dies in the real Yuu's arms in the last episode. Although she gets better in The Stinger.
• Driven to Suicide: Originally tries to kill herself to stop the real Yuu's pain. That is, until they decided to switch places.

• Empty Shell: Yuu. The real one, that is, opted to become one, due to the soul-crushing situation of her life. As a consequence, she lost the ability to feel any human emotion and became an Emotional Girl for the majority of her school life until Saya came to the picture.
• Heroic Sacrifice: She eventually goes through with her suicidal tendencies in the final episode, literally breaking into pieces and forcing Yuu to enter the real world. However, she is seen restored as Strength in The Stinger.
• Humanity Ensues: She develops human emotions because of the real Yuu's pain, and then takes her place in the real world.
• Invisible to Normals: She is invisible to those who don't have an otherself. Arata is able to interact with her briefly while on the bus to summer camp but is unaware of her existence otherwise.
• Literally Shattered Lives: Her body cracks and shatters near the end of anime, but she gets better in The Stinger.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Her intention was to help the Otherworld and Saya, and she felt like she could fix the situation by merging Mato with Black★Rock Shooter. Instead, it trapped Mato within her and made everything worse.
• Not-So-Imaginary Friend: She only manifests as Yuu to a certain degree in the real world, as she has no shadow and only under certain circumstances is her existence acknowledged by other people.
• Phrase Catcher: At least in the dub, we get the absolutely adorable "Yo yo to you, Yuu".

• Straight Man: Plays this in regards to Mato during her Genki Girl moments.
• Undead Tax Exemption: As far as the public real world is concerned, Yuu disappeared several years ago (when Saya was a High School Student) and switched with Strength, and Strength is not acknowledged as existing by anyone. That original Yuu can be a New Transfer Student in the last episode would require quite a bit of paperwork.
• Walking Spoiler: She's introduced as Mato's childhood friend and one who seems to have no connection with the plot of Black★Rock Shooter whatsoever. Then she's revealed to have an Other Self known as Strength, and on top of that, Yuu and Strength actually swapped bodies.

Other Selves

Black★Rock Shooter

Black★Rock Shooter / Insane Black★Rock Shooter

Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa (Japanese), Xanthe Huynh (English)

Black★Rock Shooter 2012 (Anime Promo Art)

^{Black★Rock Shooter 2009 (OVA Promo Art)} 

^{Black★Rock Shooter in the 2009 OVA} 

^{Black★Rock Shooter in the 2012 Anime} 

^{Insane Black★Rock Shooter 2012 (Anime Promo Art)} 

A mysterious girl in the Otherworld who seems to be a good fighter, but does not give any reason for her fighting. Seems to be a silent hero.

In the OVA, she loses her katana, the "black blade", and, according to some interpretations, her life in a battle with Black★Gold Saw and fights with the ★Rock Cannon, which can fire 20 bullets per second.

In the 2012 anime, she represents Mato's desire to solve other people's problems and ignore her own, and thus goes on a rampage to kill "other selves" throughout the Otherworld. This causes Saya to panic and quickly traumatize the other girls in the hopes of awakening "other selves" to stop her progress and protect the Otherworld for the original Yuu. Mato ends up merging with her in Episode 5, but the shock of seeing Dead Master die transforms them into Insane Black★Rock Shooter (see below).

Since she is the "other self" of Mato, she is also voiced by Kana Hanazawa.

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General Tropes

• Alternate Self: Of Mato Kuroi.
• Anime Hair: Her hair tends to stand up in the air.

• Bayonet Ya: The ★Rock Cannon has a blade attached below the muzzle. Although the only instance where we get to see its usage is when Mato (in Black★Rock Shooter's body) unintentionally stabs the midriff of her Insane counterpart.
• BFG: The ★Rock Cannon is as tall as her.
• BFS: Both her OVA self and her Insane form from the anime wield one; the former in the more blade-like form of ★Rock Cannon (not to be confused with the katana shown at first), and the latter with the Insane Cannon Lance which she wields below the shoulder.

• Chained by Fashion: Many promotional artworks for the original music video and this anime depict her being chained in several ways, mostly by the Otherselves. In her insane version, she gets chained to a pillar because she is causing a rampage in Black★Gold Saw's domain. After ripping her arm, a chain attaches her BFG to the stump.
• Dark Action Girl: The anime version of B★RS is shown as an Anti-Villain Protagonist who is responsible for starting fights with the Otherselves, who are merely doing their duties of shouldering the pain of their real-life counterparts. Her Insane self is worse in this regard, as she has no qualms murdering anyone who gets in her way.
• Determinator: It doesn't matter how much punishment B★RS takes, she keeps pressing on. She might even reach into Implacable Man territory since she doesn't show much of the damage she takes.
• Girlish Pigtails: Subverted. Her pigtails are extremely long, and one of them is shorter than the other; however, she's far from girly in terms of appearance and personality.
• Icy Blue Eyes: She has piercing blue eyes to go with her stoic personality. They also glow.
• In the Hood: Her Badass Longcoat always featured one, but she has always kept it down until the 2012 Anime.
• Leg Focus: A large portion of her legs are exposed, and some shots even focusing on them.
• Morph Weapon: Rock Shooter's "★Rock Cannon", which can transform into a small katana "black blade" and also into a 30mm Gatling Cannon.
• Named Weapons: "★Rock Cannon" for her BFG and "Black Blade" for her katana.

• Small Girl, Big Gun: The ★Rock Cannon is almost as big as her.
• Stripperiffic: Her attire exposes almost all of her body, consisting of a bikini top, booty shorts, thigh-high boots, and a hoodie.
• Super-Strength: While she usually prefers Melee weapons over physical strength, she is shown to be capable of this as shown in the OVA, where she breaks the Dead Master's chains with her bare hands. There's also the fact that she generally carries around the much larger ★Rock Cannon without so much as an issue, let alone wield it as both a ranged and melee weapon.
• Super Window Jump: She gets inside Chariot's floating house by kicking the window with both legs while jumping.
• Sword and Gun: She loses the sword in the first scene of the OVA, however; instead, her gun gets to become some sword-like blunt object.
• The Voiceless:
  • Does not speak at all; whether she does so because she is The Stoic or because she cannot is unknown. She finally talks to Mato at the end of the OVA, although this may be because Mato is her human counterpart.
  • At the end of the first anime episode it seems she's incapable of making any sound as she gets impaled by Chariot and opens her mouth in a scream, but there's no sound coming from her at all, although this could be just stylistic.
  • In the end of the 2012 anime, she does speak, albeit telepathically as she doesn't need to move her mouth.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Only in the TV anime. Black★Rock Shooter has no emotions and only acts by instinct, but at the same time, she was born of a desire to help people. Her Insane form retains this philosophy, but is more brutal in combat.

OVA Tropes

• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has a scar on her hip and another on her leg; it's likely from the impact of Black★Gold Saw's final stroke in their first encounter.
• Swiss-Army Weapon: After the apparent loss of her Black Blade, the ★Rock Cannon can transform into a spiked melee weapon.
• Walking Swimsuit Scene: In the prologue of the OVA, she does not wear her jacket yet while fighting Black★Gold Saw, evoking this image.

2012 Anime Tropes applying to normal Black★Rock Shooter

• '90s Anti-Hero: Badass Longcoat, Stripperiffic, talks with her humongous gun and katana, vague ill-defined powers revolving about being Made of Iron and Good Thing You Can Heal and she's not afraid in the least to use lethal force.
• Adaptational Jerkass: In the OVA, B★RS was actively working toward Mato's intention of saving Yomi, although whether or not any of this happens before Mato merges with her is uncertain. In the series, she's depicted as a Sociopathic Hero and her constant slaughter in the Otherworld is something Mato is unaware of for the most part and would rather not happen for the rest.
• Adaptational Villainy: Played with. This B★RS is a Well-Intentioned Extremist Anti-Hero who is not above picking fights against Otherselves or brutally killing them out of carrying Mato's desire to help others. After going "Insane", she becomes a full-fledged villain, though Mato stops her at the last second.
• Anti-Hero: Despite being the central protagonist of the anime, she seems to be completely fine with massacring "other selves" without restraint. This bothers Saya very much, but it concurs with Mato's belief that the Otherworld is wrong.
• Atop a Mountain of Corpses: B★RS in the third episode after killing pre-awakened other selves.
• Byronic Hero: She's by far the most ruthless and amoral incarnation of B★RS, but she ultimately believes that what she's doing is right.
• Composite Character: This redesigned version of B★RS shares several elements based from her previous incarnations, including other separate characters:
  • Her jacket, black denim shorts, and boots are similar to the clothing of White★Rock Shooter and Black★Rock Shooter Beast. Her overall color theme is now bluish than black.
  • Her hair is more spiky, just like Stella.
  • She no longer has scars on her midriff, just like Rock.
  • She wears two belts, just like her Insane counterpart. Which makes sense, since she turns into the latter near the end of the series.
• Compressed Hair: Her long pigtails instantly disappear when she puts her hood up.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Mato pretty much brings B★RS under control after defeating her.
• Disney Death:
  • She's destroyed as Insane Black★Rock Shooter in the finale but is seen unharmed as a restored Black★Rock Shooter shortly thereafter, without any explanation as to how she recovered.
  • The ending hints that as long as their real-life counterparts are alive, the girls' Otherselves will also continue to exist, to help shoulder their grief and sorrows as the girls continue living.
• Gatling Good: Her response to getting a giant waterfall of macaroons thrown at her is to upgrade her gun into a minigun and fire so many bullets that they scatter everywhere. She later uses a stationary double minigun for a brief moment against Dead Master's undead minions.
• Guest Fighter: Black★Rock Shooter appears in Lord of Vermillion Re:2 resembling her 2012 anime appearance.
• Heel–Face Turn: The end of the final episode, where she returns to her normal self after her Insane counterpart is defeated.
• Human Pincushion: Or "Non-Human Pincushion" rather, since she is not human after all, just humanoid. She's gotten others' weapons stuck into her body. A shot of the opening also shows her being impaled from random directions.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: It's just the first episode and B★RS is already ran through by Chariot's wedge-like form, which is as big as a bus.
• Katanas Are Just Better: In contrast with her ill-fated fight with Black★Gold Saw during the OVA, her Black Blade serves her fairly well in the anime series, dealing most of the killing blows in the Otherworld.
• Love Makes You Evil: Her desire to fulfill Mato's own desire to help others leads to her killing the other Other Selves.
• Made of Iron: She takes enough damage to kill a human several times over in the first episode alone.
• More Dakka: Every time she is outnumbered by projectiles or minions, B★RS responds by transforming her slow cannon to a faster minigun.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Decapitating/killing "other selves" causes people to lose their grief. It also causes them to lose the attachments that caused said grief.
  • Her unchecked progress in destroying the Otherworld is what is getting Saya to try to stress out the girls in the hopes of getting "other selves" to stop her.
• Nonchalant Dodge: Subverted. She attempts to nonchalantly step aside when Chariot charges her only for spikes to suddenly sprout from the wheels, catching her anyways.
• Offhand Backhand: Chariot tries to rush at her with a sword when her back is turned, but instead B★RS ignites her eye-fire and beheads her, barely even turning at all.
• Perpetual-Motion Monster: All otherselves doesn't need sustenance other than justification for their existence — the continual suffering of their humanselves for them to shoulder. But B★RS is especially notable in this regard, because she invades the realm of other otherselves to kill them.
• Sociopathic Hero: Her methods of "helping people" for Mato are rather amoral, even by the latter's standards.
• Sword and Gun: She wields both her sword and cannon at the same time in Episode 5.
• Villain Protagonist: In a sense. Since she is the one who intentionally kills the Otherselves, beings who are merely existing for the purpose of shouldering the grief of their real counterparts.

2012 Anime Tropes applying to Insane Black★Rock Shooter

• Alien Blood: Has purple blood. Emphsized in the final fight with Mato, who's bleeding out normal blood despite turning into an Other Self.
• An Arm and a Leg: Rips her injured arm off from her main weapon.

• The Berserker: Her fighting style is pretty much rushing in blindly, shooting down everything in sight, and shrugging off whatever grazed/slashed/crushed her.
• Body Horror: Black★Rock Shooter's transition to Insane Black★Rock Shooter is messy. She gets impaled by dozens of spikes after changing. And she rips her own injured arm!
• Combat Pragmatist: Well, she's insane at this state and no longer pulls most of her punches unlike her regular counterpart.
  • The Insane Cannon Lance has hidden muzzles on its edges, and she lets one fire at an unsuspecting Black★Gold Saw, momentarily crippling her leg. She later uses this same muzzle to shot herself in the legs to get Mato to shut up and stop interfering.
  • She intentionally aims her punches at Mato's face and limbs, dazing and crippling the latter, sending her limping on the floor.
• Creepy Monotone: When communicating with Mato she maintains a simply and cold monotone, never once raising her voice, even as she is pummeling the poor girl into a bloody wreck.
• Detachment Combat: In the first few minutes, B★GS severely injures the arm IB★RS has her BFS/BFG, IB★RS's response is to RIP that arm off and throw it. Later on, the Insane Cannon Lance takes the place where her arm is supposed to be, and she throws it like any normal lance, crossing this trope with Rocket Punch.
• Dissonant Serenity: Despite her rage-filled expression, her telepathic communication with Mato is utterly emotionless. Justified since she doesn't actually have emotion.
• Dimensional Cutter: After her transformation, she uses the Insane Blade Claw to forcefully cut open a portal shortcut to Black★Gold Saw's location.
• Dual Wielding: Has her BFS/BFG on her right arm, holds a much smaller blade in the other. Later, she uses the chains attached to her back to use B★GS's sword. After she shoots off the arm holding said blade of course.
• Enemy Without: To Mato in the last episode.
• Epic Flail: After ripping her arm off, she uses the chain attached to her back to turn the weapon attached to said arm into this. She then uses B★GS's sword in the same way.
• Exact Words: In Episode 8 of the anime, I.B★RS refers to herself as Mato's "other self". This is because she is a transformed version of B★RS and not a separate being from B★RS. This would also explain why I.B★RS' trademark fangs are not shown in the anime, as Mato, nor the original Black★Rock Shooter does not have fangs.
• Feel No Pain: Unlike regular B★RS she never seems to react to injury in any manner. Mato on the other hand feels the full brunt of it and reacts about as well as one would expect from such a young girl to such injuries.
• Fusion Dance: She appears after Mato and Black★Rock Shooter fuse... but with a twist.
• Gunblade: Her new BFS can also can be used to shoot a MASSIVE amount of shots.
• The Juggernaut: Nothing stands between her and her kills. Not even Mato can stop her... Until she becomes her Enemy Without.
• Lava Surfing: She surfs over Strength's Lethal Lava Land domain using her BFS!
• Named Weapons: "Insane Blade Claw" for her short sword and "Insane Cannon Lance" for her BFS/BFG hybrid weapon.
• Oh, Crap!: Insane Black★Rock Shooter shows no emotion until Mato summons a gigantic version of the ★rock Cannon with a barrel bigger than she is tall, causing her to react in shock.
• Painful Transformation: All that new armor plating bloodily burst out from beneath her skin.
• Power Born of Madness: As Insane B★RS. Yomi's death by her own hands caused the tragic transformation.
• Power Incontinence: Downplayed. While it is not directly related to power, the blue flaming eye of B★RS only ignites when she is serious in combat, or defeats an other self. But the purple flame of IB★RS? It's always ignited.
• Purple Is Powerful: B★RS is strong normally, but as Insane Black★Rock Shooter with a purple motif (red mixed with the blue), she's nearly unstoppable.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: While her overall color them is purple, her transformation sequence starts off with the flame in the eye turning red and, a close-up of her now-red pupils. This highlights how unhinged and dangerous she is.

• Sword Drag: Since her BFS/BFG is too large, Insane B★RS does this whenever she walks in Strength's domain.
• Trailers Always Spoil: Her toy was advertised on the website before she appeared in the anime.
• Variable-Length Chain: It must be magical as it is able to float around in midair carrying Insane B★RS's giant weapons.

Dead Master

Dead Master

Voiced by: Miyuki Sawashiro (Japanese), Suzie Yeung (English)

Dead Master 2009 (OVA Promo Art)

^{Dead Master in the 2012 Anime} 

A girl with two horns and the "Dead Scythe". Seems to be followed around by two telepathic skulls, which she uses as weapons. She also has powers over chains.

May be a Yandere. Her human counterpart is Yomi. As such she is also voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro.

She receives a noticeable redesign in the 2012 Anime, including glasses and a wedding veil.

---

General Tropes

• Alternate Self: Of Yomi Takanashi.
• Chain Pain: Chains are a general motif of hers and she uses them extensively in combat.
• Co-Dragons: Has a pair of huge, levitating, metallic, black skulls as her top two minions and main means of attack.
• Dark Action Girl: As the Evil Counterpart contrasting Black★Rock Shooter's Action Girl status.

• Dem Bones: Not herself (unless you count her skinless wings), but a major part of her depictions is to be surrounded by undead skeletons, usually the two giant skulls that accompany her. Part of her scythe and horns resemble vertebrae, too.
• Elegant Gothic Lolita: Her black dress covers up a lot of skin, but adds to her evil-ness. It gets even frillier in the 2012 anime.
• Femme Fatalons: Her hands are somewhat oversized with sharp, armored fingers.
• Good Wings, Evil Wings: She appears to have skinless bat wings sticking out of her back.
• Green-Eyed Monster: She's the embodiment of jealousy with green eyes who gets stronger as Yomi becomes more jealous.
• The Grim Reaper: Definitely has this vibe to her overall theme. She's named Dead Master and carries a scythe after all.
• Horned Humanoid: Generally has vertebrae-like horns on her head, whether black or green.
• Named Weapons: "Dead Scythe".
• Ojou Ringlets: Her curls are identical to Yomi's, only slightly longer. Personality-wise, its subverted as she has a psychotic side and is dangerously possessive to Black★Rock Shooter.
• Psychotic Smirk: She is almost always portrayed sporting this on, as opposed to her human counterpart. She occasionally does this too in the OVA. And really, her Scythe being broken didn't prevent her from licking her fingers, and then giving this to Black★Rock Shooter as if nothing happened.
• Sexy Backless Outfit: Much more evident in the OVA, as some shots reveal her bare back.
• Sickly Green Glow: As part of her color motif and general nature as an antagonist, anything surrounding her area is flickered through green. The skulls that follow her glow green on the inside; the Pilot Edition short has her green eyes gleam as she's about to presumably defeat B★RS; the fourth and fifth episodes of the TV anime has her battles take place in a luminescent green environment; and in the opening of the latter she is depicted alongside her Death Scythe radiating in green.
• Sinister Scythe: Her signature Death Scythe functions as both a battle weapon and as her Magic Wand, highlighting her sadism and implied lust for B★RS, as well as having heavy resemblance to The Grim Reaper.

• Wings Do Nothing: Mostly spends her fights leaping about and when she does take to the air to glide or hover, it seems to be a case of Power Floats.

OVA Tropes

• Big Bad: Of the OVA, being the instigator of Yomi's disappearance.
• Demonic Possession: Stole Yomi's body for her own after absorbing enough of her negativity.
• Emotion Eater: Grew stronger by feeding off of Yomi's loneliness and jealousy over Mato and Yuu's blooming friendship, to the point where she became strong enough to become the dominant personality of the two.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Black★Rock Shooter laying down her arms and hugging her, despite all the pain inflicted on her, confuses and frustrates Dead Master to no end. It leads to her defeat.
• Finger-Lickin' Evil: Dead Master licks her finger/claw after B★RS shot down a blade of her scythe, causing her to fight bare-handed for a while.
• The Heartless: Strongly implied to be one to Yomi.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: Does this to Black★Rock Shooter, first by chaining her to a wall; whether this is feeding off Yomi's instincts or if it's entirely the Dead Master's volition is up to debate.
• Load-Bearing Boss: Dead Master's death (which leaves Yomi behind) causes her castle to crumble, which forces B★RS to carry Yomi out.
• Oh, Crap!: Her reaction in the near-end of the OVA when Black★Rock Shooter broke the chains holding her in place, marches forwards towards her, and then embraced her. She resisted to no avail, resulting in her falling off the ledge and then dissolving afterwards, leaving the body of Yomi aside.
• Orcus on His Throne: In the OVA, after "taking" Yomi, she did absolutely nothing except apparently sit in her throne room waiting. Though it's likely she was waiting for B★RS anyway.

2012 Anime Tropes

• Adaptational Nice Guy: This version of Dead Master lacks the malice of her OVA counterpart and only fought B★RS due to her role as an Otherself.
• Adaptational Wimp: In the OVA, Dead Master was a perfectly capable fighter. In the anime, B★RS quickly unravels the chain, and she gets carried away helplessly by Chariot's spider minions. After struggling for a ridiculously long time against the chains binding her, it seems like she might join the fight... but then she gets dragged into a fissure created by Black★Gold Saw. Though it may be justified in a sense since Yomi was in a pretty weak state. But this no longer applies after Episode 4, where she is able to hold her own in a fight against Black★Rock Shooter.
• Back from the Dead: Is revived to help fight against the end-of-series threat.

• Chained by Fashion: Sealed by Chariot with her own chains as a symbolism of Kagari's control over Yomi's guilt. When Yomi's Freak Out reaches its apex, her chains warp around her into a giant mountain and explode into her army of countless skeletons.
• Composite Character: She uses the name and general look of Dead Master, but shares aspects with "Black★Devil Girl", such as the glasses and green theme color.
• Four Is Death:
  • If one considers the red eye watch over in the first episode as Black★Gold Saw, then Dead Master is the fourth otherself to appear in the anime chronologically.
  • More like a Visual Pun, but with her glasses, this representation of the frachise's resident Grim Reaper has four eyes.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Played for drama in Episode 5, since Mato didn't want to kill her.
• Natural Weapon: Has huge mechanical-looking claws.
• Night of the Living Mooks: Episode 4 sees this, as she raises an army of undead.
• Out of Focus: In the OVA, she's the Big Bad, being the main antagonistic force in the Otherworld. In the anime, Black★Rock Shooter is the Villain Protagonist, and Strength and Black★Gold Saw become Ascended Extras, leaving her with a more marginal role. She even gets killed in Episode 5, and doesn't appear again until the end.

Strength

Strength

Voiced by: Kana Asumi (Japanese), Dani Chambers (English)

Strength 2009 (OVA Promo Art)

^{Strength in the 2009 OVA} 

^{Strength in the 2012 Anime} 

A mysterious "other self" that is approaching the Dead Master and Black★Rock Shooter throughout the OVA.She is implied to be the "other self" of the OVA's Yuu.

In the 2012 anime, she is eventually revealed to be the actual Yuu Koutari, who Saya had tried to befriend while they were in high school. She suffered from many familial issues and bullying, but was aware of the Otherworld's existence and related it to Saya when she talked to her. It's implied that the abuse she suffered allowed Strength to become self-aware. After a misunderstanding, Saya offered to do anything for Yuu. Yuu revealed the existences of Strength and Black★Gold Saw, and had Saya promise to protect her and the Otherworld. Afterwards, she contacted Strength and decided to switch places with her, allowing Strength to deal with reality while she deals with the comparative simplicity of the other world.

---

General Tropes

• Alternate Self: Of Yuu Koutari.

• Hades Shaded: Unlike the other Otherselves, she has brown skin instead of an Undeathly Pallor.
• In the Hood: Her hood always covers her head, unlike the protagonist.
• Named Weapons: Her giant mechanical fists are named Orge Arms.
• Prophet Eyes: In huke's artwork and in the 2012 anime before she gained emotion, after which they turned red, the color of her eyes were pure white.
• Small Girl, Big Gun: Her arms are made up of two huge mechanical guns.
• Tarot Motifs: Named after the eighth (or eleventh) Major Arcana.

2012 Anime Tropes

• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Both she and the real Yuu had a lot of emotional baggage. Even more so with the latter, who is shedding Berserker Tears while beating up Insane Black★Rock Shooter.
• Adaptational Badass: Has an extra pair of Ogre Arms and can fight Insane Black★Rock Shooter on equal footing.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Strength went from an Emotionless Girl in the OVA to a talkative Ax-Crazy Creepy Child who is angry at the world for wronging her. Considering the fact that she's the real Yuu in Strength's body, who had a rather crappy life before Saya befriended her, this is understandable to some extent.
• Ascended Extra: Compared to the OVA, whose only contributions there was standing on a cliff in the Hollow World before jumping off, and was merely implied to be the other self of Yuu the same way Dead Master and B★RS are to Yomi and Mato respectively, Strength here has a central role in the plot. Not only that, but she's more than just an Alternate Self of Yuu; she's actually the real Yui who transferred her body to the real Strength in order to get out of the hellish situation she was going through.

• Be Careful What You Wish For: As Yuu, she wanted to switch places with Strength, believing that if she were in a world where all she had to do was fight without thinking, she could take the physical pain and she would be happier. By the time the events of Episode 7 transpire, she is clearly unhinged by this decision.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: Her design gives her a mechanical and prehensile scorpion-like tail.
• Berserker Tears: While ranting about her Dark and Troubled Past to Insane Black★Rock Shooter at the beginning of the finale, she can be seen crying in a fit of rage.
• Big Damn Heroes: Saves Black★Gold Saw from certain death by the hands of Insane Black★Rock Shooter, to Saya's shock.
• Cosmic Plaything: "I can't live in that world all by myself! There are monsters... everywhere!!"
• Creepy Child: Compared to the rest of the other selves, she has the appearance of a young girl, which makes since her human counterpart and original self was shortest of the trio. While she starts off as an Emotionless Girl, once she starts talking, she's goes Ax-Crazy and shows Slasher Smiles more often.
• Dark and Troubled Past: With divorced parents and a mother and stepfather who don't care about her, and a ton of bullies at school who torment her (including dumping their eraser shavings into her rice), she has a lot of this to deal with.
• Defeat Means Friendship: In the final episode, after being ambushed by Black★Rock Shooter, she returns to the real world and is promptly befriended by the others.

• Finger Firearms: Can fire bullets out of her mechanical arms. She later upgrades her firepower by transforming her fingers into miniguns.

• Lightning Bruiser: She's small, strong, fast and CRAZY, as she would need to be, considering she manages to surprise Insane Black★Rock Shooter.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: She can unfold another pair of arms out of her first set.
• Mysterious Watcher: Implied, as she's seen dragging and throwing away the corpses of Chariot and Dead Master even though she wasn't present for their deaths.
• Older Than They Look: Because the real Yuu spent the next ten years in the Other World as Strength, she's already at her early twenties after being sent back into the real world.

• Parental Neglect: Her parents divorced and her mother married another man; neither seem to care about her, leaving her in the corner. In fact, they don't seem to care about anything, given the dilapidated state of the house and how it eventually burns down from a neglected cigarette.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: The real Yuu tearfully does this to a dying Strength in the finale.

• Split-Personality Takeover: Of sorts. She's basically Yuu's mind in Strength's body.
• Suddenly Voiced: The only other self capable of non-telepathic speech... since she's actually a human.

• Swiss-Army Weapon: Her fists are incredibly versatile. Outside of the obvious punches, she can shoot bullets from the fingertips, transform and combine her fists into a minigun, take out an extra pair of arms, and even form some kind of railed apparatus that uses one fist to propel the other.
• Undead Tax Exemption: The original Yuu in the ending gets introduced to the rest of the class. Considering she's been missing for 10 years, that's quite a bit of paperwork. She even says she doesn't have a home to go to before she returns to the real world. Granted, Saya might have helped ease the transition in this regard.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • In the last episode, Strength's interference resulted with Yuu being scared for her life when Insane Black★Rock Shooter destroyed her Ogre Arms and prepares to deal the deathblow on her. Fortunately, Mato is unwilling to let Insane Black★Rock Shooter do the deed and personally confronts her Other Self, sparing Yuu as a result.
  • A more soul-crushing example happens later in the same episode when the real Yuu begs Strength not to die because she's "too scared to live in the real world by herself".
• Wham Line: Delivers the biggest whammy of the 2012 series in Episode 7.
  Your greeting is rather late, Mato Kuroi. I see my Strength has been relying on you. My name is Yuu Koutari. Strength is down here right now, just as you are.
• When She Smiles: She doesn't smile very often as Yuu. Saya notes this in the aftermath of Yuu's house burning down.
• You Can Talk?: Other Selves don't talk much (at least non-telepathically). This is not the case with Strength, however, mostly because she's not actually an Other Self in the first place.

Black★Gold Saw

Black★Gold Saw

Voiced by: Mamiko Noto (Japanese), Natalie Van Sistine (English)

Black★Gold Saw (OVA Promo Art)

^{Black★Gold Saw in the 2009 OVA} 

^{Black★Gold Saw in the 2012 Anime} 

An "other self" who was seen fighting Black★Rock Shooter at the beginning of the OVA. She caused some of her scars; according to some interpretations, she was also responsible for taking Black★Rock Shooter's life.

In the 2012 anime, her eye is seen opening in various locations of the "Otherworld", implying that she's watching. It appears that she has a great deal of power over the Otherworld, and is cultivating the Other Selves. She is in fact trying to stop Black★Rock Shooter from destroying the Otherworld. She is later revealed to be the other self of Saya Irino.

---

General Tropes

• BFS: She has a large sword, possibly as big as her in some drawings.
• Horned Humanoid: Generally has red horns on her head.
• Named Weapons: "King Saw" for her long blade.
• Non-Indicative Name: She does not, in fact, wear gold in any of the artwork. There is one figure that gives her a bit of gold on her armor and sword, however.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Downplayed. She wears primarily black clothing with a noticeable red tint to them. While she isn't outright antagonistic, she does display a cold and menacing demeanor when confronting her enemy.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Her entire scheme is red, including her eyes, and though she isn't outright evil she serves as an enemy to B★RS .
• Statuesque Stunner: She is the tallest and the bustiest other self introduced in the anime.

OVA Tropes

• What Happened to the Mouse?: It's unknown what what happened to B★GS after she won the battle, let alone if she even won or not.

2012 Anime Tropes

• Alternate Self: Of Saya Irino.
• Adaptational Badass: Her powers go from hand-to-hand combat to reality-warping.
• Adaptational Wimp: At the same time, her power level is downgraded significantly in the TV anime. In the OVA she appears to actually beat B★RS, but in the anime she puts up the least impressive fight of any character. Though note that when she was fighting with B★RS, Saya was intentionally trying to take the diplomatic route with Mato, so she did comparatively little fighting. It doesn't excuse her inability to defend herself though.
• An Arm and a Leg: She's partially responsible for IB★RS losing an arm. IB★RS then gets revenge, by blasting her arm off.
• Ascended Extra: Compared to the OVA, who merely served as an opponent to B★RS at the beginning of the short before disappearing, here she's the Hero Antagonist trying to defeat B★RS and is the otherself of Saya.
• Diabolus ex Machina: When it looks like Chariot's Mental World is breaking apart, B★GS suddenly appears, stops the breakdown by pausing time, and sends Dead Master into a fissure. Then she vanishes, giving Chariot the opportunity to hit B★RS from behind. This culminates in Chariot losing her head. It's all sort of subverted when we learn that B★GS was trying to kill B★RS, and B★RS would have killed Chariot anyway.
• Dimensional Cutter: She sends Dead Master into a fissure into her and Yomi's Mental World after slashing the ground.
• Evil Redhead: Downplayed on both sides. The 2012 anime gives her a (very dark) red gradient to her otherwise dark hair, and while her goal is to ultimately protect the Hollow World from B★RS, the way she reaches her goal leans more into Pragmatic Villainy territory.
• Glass Cannon: Her ability to hack off limbs with her speed and strength against Insane Black★Rock Shooter is amazing. Taking damage? Not so amazing.
• Irony: She is made to look like a devil and clearly represents the Devil arcana, yet her Leitmotif Heaven is designed like it would belong in a church.
• Lightning Bruiser: The fact that she wields a BFS might not justify it alone as the other characters are also able to wield lofty weapons. She is however, the fastest in combination with her strength. It takes both DM and B★RS a few seconds to notice her, or rather where she was just standing. In addition, She sends Dead Master down a fissure she created with a single swing of her sword.
• Making a Splash: Seems to have a lot of water-related powers. She is also the only other self to cross worlds by sinking herself in a body of water, as seen in Dead Master's world.
• Mook Maker: In Episode 6, she shows the ability to create a massive amount of soldiers by throwing water from her watering can onto the ground.
• Mysterious Watcher: She can watch any area of the otherworld she desires by opening a gigantic eye in the sky.
• Older Than They Look: Mato says she resembles a middle-aged lady. It can be justified by the fact that Saya is B★GS.
• Red Herring: Initially played out to be the main antagonist of the story, only later is it clear that the real main antagonist is Black★Rock Shooter herself.
• Teleporters and Transporters: Moves between different parts of the otherworld by sinking into the ground or water surface.
• Time Stands Still: She is able to stop the destruction of Chariot's Mental World by pausing time.
• The Worf Effect: After her display of power in Episode 2, B★GS is (literally) single-handedly dispatched by Insane Black★Rock Shooter in Episode 6. See her entry on Adaptational Wimp for more detail.

Introduced in Black★Rock Shooter TV (2012 Anime)

Humans

Saya Irino

Saya Irino

Voiced by: Mamiko Noto (Japanese), Natalie Van Sistine (English)

The middle school counselor of "Dawn Counseling" at Mato's school. She is often the one to go to when talking about personal problems, and will do it while offering them lots of coffee.

She is the human counterpart of Black★Gold Saw, and can consciously channel herself into her. She is awakening other selves through less than moral means to prevent Black★Rock Shooter from destroying the Otherworld - or more specifically the original Yuu Koutari, who now resides there. She was friends with the original Yuu Koutari in high school and later made a promise to protect her. Yuu revealed Black★Gold Saw to Saya before switching places with Strength.

---

• Adults Are Useless: She's a guidance counselor, but sometimes, she stirs up some of the girls' troubles instead of outright fixing them.
• Anti-Villain: In an attempt to fulfill a promise to the original Yuu to protect her - and by extension, protect the Otherworld - she tries to mess up her charges to incite their "other selves" to awaken, purely for the purpose of stopping Black★Rock Shooter's rampage. She also contemplates killing Mato to stop Black★Rock Shooter, but can't do it because she knows it's wrong and that Mato did nothing to deserve it.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She turns out to be a lot less nice than she initially appeared to be. She initiates Yomi's Freak Out, tries to strangle Mato to death twice and slaps Yuu when she finds out about Mato merging with Black★Rock Shooter.
• Declaration of Protection: Her entire motivation is to protect Yuu, and by extension, the Otherworld.
• Easily Forgiven: Saya may have been a Well-Intentioned Extremist, but she still sent several high school girls into depression. Even though she's the high school counselor.
• Expy: She looks essentially like adult Suruga Kanbaru and seems to inherit a part of her kinky persona.
• Harmful to Minors: She nearly strangled Mato and passed it off as a joke, and later tried it again before stopping herself.
• Misplaced Kindergarten Teacher: Only visually. She wears a strange kiddish armband.
• Must Have Caffeine: Saya really likes drinking coffee. She frequently makes it for students who drop by the counselor's room. Though she reveals that she actually hates coffee when it doesn't have milk in Episode 5.
• My Greatest Second Chance: She promised to protect Yuu because she had, for a moment, suspected Yuu of burning down her house. In order to make it up to Yuu, she promised to do anything.
• The Promise: Her motivation is to keep one concerning Yuu's safety.
• Psycho Psychologist: At first glance, she appears to be a regular, kind-hearted Psychologist Teacher who aids her students over their personal problems and does a really good job at doing so (justified as she is the guidance counselor), but she has her own dark motives concerning Yuu and the Otherworld. She's also abusive to the people helps, from being responsible for Yomi's Sanity Slippage to strangling Mato so tightly that it nearly kills her.
• Sensei-chan: They actually call her Saya-chan-sensei.
• Trademark Favourite Food: Milk coffee, coming from the same woman who doesn't like plain coffee.
• Treacherous Advisor: Does the opposite of what a school counselor is supposed to, all for the sake of the Otheworld.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Her reasons for breaking the girls is that the original Yuu was her friend when she was in high school, and in a desperate attempt to help her, she made a promise to protect her, and, by extension, the Otherworld. She believes that Black★Rock Shooter will destroy the Otherworld if unchecked, so she puts stress on the girls in the hopes of awakening "other selves" to curb her.

Kagari Izuriha

Kagari Izuriha

Voiced by: Eri Kitamura (Japanese), Kayli Mills (English)

A girl who lives close to Yomi. She is a childhood friend of hers, and is bound to a wheelchair; thus, she does not attend their school. She lives next door to Yomi and seems to be controlling her via a Tin-Can Telephone, constantly telling her that she "must not make friends" and claiming Yomi to be "hers"; according to her Yomi must "take responsibility". It turns out that when Yomi was moving away with her family Kagari tried to run after her and was hit by a car.

Fond of pastries and dolls, but is very, very blatant about her hatred for anyone. After Black★Rock Shooter beheads Chariot, she suddenly and rather unnervingly becomes calmer and starts to get over her trauma. She eventually returns to school in Episode 4.

She is the human counterpart of Chariot. Chariot's death in Episode 2 causes her to lose all of her grief - and also her attachment to Yomi.

---

• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: A (probably) non-romantic version. After seeing Yomi coming back to school, her memories of Yomi begin to come back slowly. She is also disoriented by Mato's disappearance.

• Creepy Child: Early in the 2012 series, she is portrayed as unnerving towards Mato and is very controlling of Yomi. She's also a lot younger than the two, which further adds a layer to her creepiness.
• Creepy Doll: Heavily associated with one, whom she names Mary. She also "talks through" it, claiming that anything she says while acting as Mary is not something that she is saying.
  "Go away! Go away! Go away!"
• Curtains Match the Windows: Has blonde hair to go with her gold eyes, an attribute carried over to her other self.
• Cute and Psycho: Her appearance of a cute lil' blonde girl is contrasted heavily by her creepy nature. In her debut episode, after Yomi questions why she keeps on forcing Mato to her macarons she takes out her doll Mary and pretends to be that doll when asking Mato to go away, all the while saying "Go away!" repeatedly until Mato eventually leaves out of trepidation. Once she adapts to school life though, she starts to show more of the cute side of her psychotic personality.

• Defrosting Ice Queen: She instantly becomes a nice person and is friends with Mato. Not only that, but she gets instantly popular in the class just by saying "shut up!"

• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Sports these in Episodes 1 and 2 as an indication of her psychosis.
• Epiphany Therapy: Gets over her years-long psychosis rather easily. She is, however, still a bit psychotic afterwards - she likes to make strange remarks from time to time that are a little disturbing.
• Evil Cripple: Subverted. She debuts sitting in a wheelchair with the insinuation that her legs were broken sometime before the series started, and she begins to show her true colors when she ask Mato to leave in a unsettling tone, in addition to treating her supposed childhood friend as nothing more than a tool for her use and abuse for own twisted desires. Later, we found out she faked being a cripple and that her pretending as such only added to her evilness.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Upon attending school again, she ties her hair into a side-ponytail.
• Glurge Addict: Loves dolls and macarons and is almost always seen with one or the other. This does not make her any less creepy.
• Heel–Face Turn: She and Mato become friends in Episode 4.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Even after she transferred to Mato's school and became a better person, she still shows signs of being antisocial and clingy to Yomi, as well as being very bad at showing genuine kindness. She does, however, show a lot more gratitude and respect to Mato than she did previously, and treats both her and Yomi as legit friends, even showing some concern for the latter after she goes off the deep end following years of abuse she was subjected to by Kagari.
• Karma Houdini: Kagari doesn't really face any punishment for years of Domestic Abuse, which resulted in a deeply troubled Yomi.
• Knight of Cerebus: Her appearance sets the dark nature of the show.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: After her other self Chariot gets her head chopped off, she loses her attachment to Yomi. She remembers that she loved her once, but she can't invoke those feelings anymore. Fortunately, she regains at least some of her memories in Episode 8.
• Letting Her Hair Down: A rare inverted case. Kagari lets her uncombed hair down when she was still reclusive and wheelchair-bound, but she later ties it to a ponytail when she returns to school and becomes friendlier to Mato.
• Look Both Ways: She was hit by a car while trying to catch up with Yomi.
• No Social Skills: Ridiculously blunt in her psychoticness toward Mato. Even after she is healed, she's comically blunt and foul-mouthed, which earns her popularity at school. She also badly, badly words her gratitude to Yomi for taking care of her all those years.
• Pseudo-Crisis: At the end of Episode 2 it seems like something bad happened to Kagari... but then in the next episode we learn that she just fell asleep.
• Romanticized Abuse: When she stops being a bastard girlfriend and becomes capable of normal relationships with other people, Yomi snaps. That's an eerily familiar development...
• Self-Inflicted Hell: A mundane example. She's not actually crippled physically. However, her mental state has been driven so badly that she believes herself to be crippled, to the point where a twisted wrist makes her think that she is completely incapable of doing this. Debatable as to whether this is "hell", however, as she seems to take pleasure in forcing herself to be dependent on her.
• Sweet Tooth: Not only does she enjoy sweets, but she's good at making them too, like the madelines and chocolate chip cookies she made for Yomi.
• Third-Person Person: Says her first name, Kagari when referring to herself.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Starts off as a cruel and unsympathetic Creepy Child who hates anyone who gets in her and Yomi's to the point of intimidating Mato into exiting her house, and shows zero regard in mistreating Yomi (who up until this point was her childhood friend), leaving the latter emotionally and mentally damaged for the rest of her life. After she goes to school with the rest of the girls, she mellows out considerably and becomes a more friendlier person to Mato and Yomi, even if she doesn't express it correctly. She even feels bad Yomi for all of the abuse the latter endured and her subsequent Sanity Slippage; she even offers her a bag of cookies to reconcile, which unfortunately triggers her Heroic BSoD.
• Unsexy Sadist: The sadist part comes from carving a heart-shaped scar in Yomi's chest, and she's definitely portrayed as repulsive before Chariot gets beheaded.

• Villainous Breakdown: In Episode 2, she completely flips her shit when Yomi suggests that she move on from the accident.

Arata Kohata

Arata Kohata

Voiced by: Manami Numakura (Japanese), Anairis Quiñones (English)

A member of Mato and Yuu's basketball team. Seems to always wear her jersey.

---

• A-Cup Angst: Claims to Saya that the only reason she can't confess to a boy she likes is because she doesn't have "big boobs".
• Earn Your Happy Ending: She and Taku are now a couple, and Mato teases her about it.
• Genki Girl: Arata is a very enthusiastic person especially when it comes to sports. Even when all Mato wanted to do was show interest in the basketball club, Arata instead made her run sprints. However, it's made clear that her bubbly persona is all just an act.
• Girlish Pigtails: Has stubby pigtails that are even shorter than Mato's. While she initially doesn't fit this personality-wise, being a sport-loving tomboy and all, she does start to show a more sensitive side when confessing to her crush.
• In-Series Nickname: Kohacchi by her peers.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Black★Rock Shooter killing her fledging other self caused her to lose her love for Taku, an attachment that gave her grief. But just like the other girls, she regains these feelings in the last episode.
• Love Confession: She likes a boy in her class named Taku and gives him a love letter. It ends very badly when his Jerkass friends decide to mock her in front of the entire school. It eventually ends in an Earn Your Happy Ending for the two.
• Out of Focus: She actually doesn't become important in any way.
• Sacrificial Lamb: To illustrate the effects of an other self dying, Arata's gets killed off in the first episode she appears.
• Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: Is never seen in any official promotional material in the TV anime. She does appear on the website, however.
• Stepford Smiler: This is who she really is, though no one is fooled. It's a source of stress for Mato knowing that Arata is hurting inside but shrugs it all off.
• Tsundere: Can act like a bubbly girl in front of Mato and her basketball team, but she is shy and easily flustered around Taku.

Other Selves

Chariot

Chariot

Voiced by: Eri Kitamura (Japanese), Kayli Mills (English)

The other self of Kagari. A wheel-legged Otherself that Black★Rock Shooter provokes into fighting for holding Dead Master a hostage.

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• Alternate Self: Of Kagari Izuriha.
• Back from the Dead: She comes back to help Mato defeat IB★RS in the last episode. And of course, her head is intact.

• Canon Foreigner: She doesn't appear to be any of huke's previously created characters, though she bears a noticeable resemblance to the Apostle SZZU from the video game.
• Cool Crown: Has a huge black spiked crown that wraps around her head.
• Disc-One Final Boss: The trailers make her seem more important than she actually is. But that's only for the early episodes of the series.
• Dynamic Entry: Her preferable method of saying hello to a guest is to run them over with her overly giant spider and cart.
• Edible Ammunition: Her vehicle has cannons that fire giant explosive macaroons.
• Elegant Gothic Lolita: Her appearance and dress - consisting of a black dress in white frills - invoke this, and she is just as tall as Kagari.
• Evil Gloating: Of sorts. When Chariot first runs over Black★Rock Shooter with her Spider Tank, she gets out and begins dropping gooey regular-sized macaroons on Black★Rock Shooter's face while she's still buried under the rubble. Veeery slowly.
• Giant Spider: Drives a giant robot spider named Mary as a sort of chariot.

• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: She has a huge, wheel-like shield with spikes on it.
• Mythology Gag: Her Giant Spider resembles an enemy from the PSP game. And the character whom she shares a resemblance to (SZZU) also rides a companion (CKRY) Some of Chariot's attacks are also similar to the pair's.
• Off with Her Head!: In Episode 2. The effect seems to have erased Kagari's attachment to Yomi, allowing her to get over her trauma... but also causing Yomi's Freak Out.

• Spiked Wheels: There are spikes on the sides of her leg wheels.
• Tarot Motifs: Named after the Seventh Major Arcana.