Black Rock Shooter Impression
The long await of Black Rock Shooter OVA is now here!
I've been for this so long since it first announced as an anime 12 episodes, to 6 episodes and ended up to bring us with a 50 mins OVA. Did they done it justice? Well, it's all up for you to judge !
Black Rock Shooter, when I first heard about it, I was so excited as I was new to the VOCALOID fandom. Especially loved Miku's character design and all those fanarts of her's around pixiv. Thus I'm not a big fan of Miku's voice various from her songs. I only listening on Nico Nico Singers cause I still finds human voices to be beautiful and much more appealing. But that's difference preference. The real thing that got me into Miku Hatsune fandom is no other than the fanarts. They are all lovely and beautiful, and Black Rock Shooter were one of the great original design they just have the make an anime out of it.
A few months ago, we saw the "trailer" or rather a snip of what the plots will be like, which were called Pilot Animation. If you haven't seen it yet, you can see it here:
The animation looks lovely, the songs are definitely going to be epic and totally action packed. The hypes are all there, looking from the PV at least... so did the anime deliver like what it shows? No, not exactly sadly...
Mato Kuori, our main character, just starts her middle school year as she have been so excitedly to go back to school again. On her first day, Mato got an interest in a girl named Yomi Takanashi who's attends the same class as she is. The two become bestfriend for the first year of middle school and spend a lot time together. When second years come, they got to split apart as they were placed in different classes. Yomi becomes lonely as well as jealous since Mato befriend with Yuu, who attends the same class as Mato. Later, Yomi suddenly disappeared and never contacted Mato as she have tried once to call her. At the same time then, a girl in black haired ponytail (Black Rock Shooter) was seen fighting against someone who looks remarkable like Yomi but apparently that "Yomi" is Dead Master!
The story mainly focus around the middle school girls while Black Rock Shooter were a mere side dish fill with awesome action fights. The fighting scenes were as awesome as we saw from the Pilot Animation just better. But then it were quiet ruin by th pace in the OVA which were awfully weird the way they keep going back and forward between the BRS fights and a sudden switch back to the slowness story of the two friends. It felt like a tease as I wanted to see more of the fights than slice of school life.
Thus undoubtedly the animation were lovely and cute yet could be too little "moe" for some people. Like if you have seen K-ON!, it felt like K-ON! The soundtrack were as we all surely hoped it would be great, well no disappointment there! The famous "Melt" song maker Ryo (Supercell) did the BGM for the OVA, wrote the lyrics and the ending song were sung by The Gomband (the song name "Braveheart"). He deliver it well as expected and so here I made a rip from the OVA so you can listen and download it here. (Sorry if is not the greatest rip out there...)
What I did not enjoy and are deeply disappointed is the storyline. All the hype were for nothing as the story was very simple and made me want to cry. I may not be a big fan of yuri, but the story was very very... boring somewhat. Also I admit I had a high expectation for more action, which is the reason why it disappointed me generally big. Since the first half were too much focusing on the middle school girls I got so bored + the tease of BRS going to fight didn't helps either. It look awkward and somewhat it actually made it worst for me.
Overall it wasn't bad and neither it is the best, but the OVA could've been better. Right now, I'm struggling for which rating I should go for in MAL between 6 or 7 out of 10. The enjoyment wasn't high as I was disappointed with the plot yet I loved everything else. I wonder what if the Pilot Animation storyline would have been, as it seems to look a lot more appealing to me. Apparently the ending after the credits, a scene hinted for an OVA or that doesn't end here and there are more to come. This could explain that the OVA is just a prequel and there will be more of Black Rock Shooter coming, and all we have to do is just waiting for the announcement a couple of months from now on. Thus I wouldn't mind to see a couple of more OVA or even better... a 12 episodes anime. Regardless that, I would recommend to watch this if you're a VOCALOID fan, but I wouldn't greatly recommend it for everyone :(
I've been for this so long since it first announced as an anime 12 episodes, to 6 episodes and ended up to bring us with a 50 mins OVA. Did they done it justice? Well, it's all up for you to judge !
Black Rock Shooter, when I first heard about it, I was so excited as I was new to the VOCALOID fandom. Especially loved Miku's character design and all those fanarts of her's around pixiv. Thus I'm not a big fan of Miku's voice various from her songs. I only listening on Nico Nico Singers cause I still finds human voices to be beautiful and much more appealing. But that's difference preference. The real thing that got me into Miku Hatsune fandom is no other than the fanarts. They are all lovely and beautiful, and Black Rock Shooter were one of the great original design they just have the make an anime out of it.
A few months ago, we saw the "trailer" or rather a snip of what the plots will be like, which were called Pilot Animation. If you haven't seen it yet, you can see it here:
Click to viewThe animation looks lovely, the songs are definitely going to be epic and totally action packed. The hypes are all there, looking from the PV at least... so did the anime deliver like what it shows? No, not exactly sadly...
Mato Kuori, our main character, just starts her middle school year as she have been so excitedly to go back to school again. On her first day, Mato got an interest in a girl named Yomi Takanashi who's attends the same class as she is. The two become bestfriend for the first year of middle school and spend a lot time together. When second years come, they got to split apart as they were placed in different classes. Yomi becomes lonely as well as jealous since Mato befriend with Yuu, who attends the same class as Mato. Later, Yomi suddenly disappeared and never contacted Mato as she have tried once to call her. At the same time then, a girl in black haired ponytail (Black Rock Shooter) was seen fighting against someone who looks remarkable like Yomi but apparently that "Yomi" is Dead Master!
The story mainly focus around the middle school girls while Black Rock Shooter were a mere side dish fill with awesome action fights. The fighting scenes were as awesome as we saw from the Pilot Animation just better. But then it were quiet ruin by th pace in the OVA which were awfully weird the way they keep going back and forward between the BRS fights and a sudden switch back to the slowness story of the two friends. It felt like a tease as I wanted to see more of the fights than slice of school life.
Thus undoubtedly the animation were lovely and cute yet could be too little "moe" for some people. Like if you have seen K-ON!, it felt like K-ON! The soundtrack were as we all surely hoped it would be great, well no disappointment there! The famous "Melt" song maker Ryo (Supercell) did the BGM for the OVA, wrote the lyrics and the ending song were sung by The Gomband (the song name "Braveheart"). He deliver it well as expected and so here I made a rip from the OVA so you can listen and download it here. (Sorry if is not the greatest rip out there...)
What I did not enjoy and are deeply disappointed is the storyline. All the hype were for nothing as the story was very simple and made me want to cry. I may not be a big fan of yuri, but the story was very very... boring somewhat. Also I admit I had a high expectation for more action, which is the reason why it disappointed me generally big. Since the first half were too much focusing on the middle school girls I got so bored + the tease of BRS going to fight didn't helps either. It look awkward and somewhat it actually made it worst for me.
Overall it wasn't bad and neither it is the best, but the OVA could've been better. Right now, I'm struggling for which rating I should go for in MAL between 6 or 7 out of 10. The enjoyment wasn't high as I was disappointed with the plot yet I loved everything else. I wonder what if the Pilot Animation storyline would have been, as it seems to look a lot more appealing to me. Apparently the ending after the credits, a scene hinted for an OVA or that doesn't end here and there are more to come. This could explain that the OVA is just a prequel and there will be more of Black Rock Shooter coming, and all we have to do is just waiting for the announcement a couple of months from now on. Thus I wouldn't mind to see a couple of more OVA or even better... a 12 episodes anime. Regardless that, I would recommend to watch this if you're a VOCALOID fan, but I wouldn't greatly recommend it for everyone :(