Black Rock Shooter OVA

Well then…..

Come with me if you want to live!

Before I say anything about the Black Rock Shooter OVA I want to make it clear I had no what it was before the hype came out. Like the Summer schedule was announced and everyone was like WOOHOO Black Rock Shooter is here so happy blah blah. It did make me pretty interested in the nendoroid that is coming of the Black Rock Shooter girl but other than that I knew nothing. I wasn’t waiting on pins and needles for this show like some people. Really I had no expectations in regards to this OVA and I didn’t even know it was coming out until I checked my preferred anime site and saw it was on there.

That being said….I think I am disappointed.


This summary is going to go in chronological order. But for those who are unaware during the natural flow of events (the slice of life moments) are scenes from other world. These too go in order so it’s like you see the start of the slice of life moments and the start of the fight from the same time with the actual episode ending at the middle of the slice of life and at the end of the fighting. Yay for spoilers.

OVA summary: Black Rock Shooter is fighting some girl that we don’t know in the other world. She has horns and long hair. There is a lot of fighting going on in this castle but no dialogue. This random girl gets the better of Black Rock Shooter, stabs her, and the castle seems to fall on Black Rock Shooter.

Wake up in the morning feelin' like Black Rock Shooter.

Mato wakes herself up early for her first day of junior high. She is super excited and starts her day off going to her favorite spot in the neighborhood (a tall spot overlooking the city) and then running to school. She is interested in a rich girl who is driven to class. After some random new school stuff Mato and the rich girl Yomi become friends. There is some talk about what Yomi’s name means and how Yomi is so tall. Yomi is new to the neighborhood as her family moves around a lot but Mato is so happy that they are close. The girls then start going/leaving school together. Mato joins the basketball team and Yomi decides to join the volleyball team (although she might have only done this to be in the same building as Mato). One day after school Mato takes Yomi to her special spot overlooking the city and gives her a cell phone charm. Then an entire year passes and Mato and Yomi are seen doing all the fun random stuff that happens in a Japanese school kids’ life.

Really feeling bad for Mato. :(

Then the second year starts and Yomi is not in the same class as Mato. However Yuu, the basketball club manager, is in Mato’s class. Mato wants them both to be friends but over time Yomi is super jealous of Yuu. One day during break Yomi watches Mato and Yuu during break and some black stuff engulfs her. That day Yomi doesn’t walk home with Mato and doesn’t answer her text messages. Mato starts to worry and soon the police are involved as Yomi has disappeared. She tells the cops all she knows but no one can find her. The entire school talks about this drama and Yuu is all like it will be okay, let’s play basketball! Time goes on and Mato becomes more and more depressed. One night she gets a blank email from Yomi. Mato runs out of the house and to their special spot overlooking the city. There she finds the cellphone charm she gave Yomi. It starts to glow and POOF Mato is taken somewhere else. Black Rock Shooter appears and asks is Mato wants to save Yomi. Mato answers all she wants is to be together with her again and Black Rock Shooter merges with Mato.

I won't let you take her!!!

Now we are in the other world. Black Rock Shooter is walking in a destroyed looking world. But her gun looks cool so who cares what is going on right? There is some running and another old looking building. Somewhere in another isolated black another version of Yuu is looking out at the scenery looking emo. Black Rock Shooter makes it to other Yomi. She reaches out for Other Yomi’s hand but Other Yomi sends out her floating skulls to attack Mato. Then there is some more Other Yuu looking emo like and moving around in her hard to move outfit. Black Rock Shooter makes her eye glow and the fight is on. She holds her own against Other Yomi and the floating skulls of doom. Other Yomi also makes some chains to trap and attack Black Rock Shooter. Black Rock Shooter is temporarily chained but escaped and destroys Other Yomi’s weapon. Black Rock Shooter then again extends her hand to Other Yomi rejects her. Other Yomi almost falls from a ledge but Black Rock Shooter hugs her close instead. This makes Other Yomi mad and suddenly Other Yomi falls into black pieces while Black Rock Shooter is still holding Yomi. Black Rock Shooter runs towards the light holding Yomi and we are out of the other world.

Wait it's not over!?

After the credits things are back to normal. Yomi and Mato are happily walking home from school but what is this? Now Yuu feels left out and emo? Mato calls out to Yuu to join them but Yuu isn’t her usual fun and happy self. THE END!

Okay then. This is going to be written by someone who had no idea what this show was about beforehand. Because while there are some people out there who know exactly the show/movie is going to be about there are going to be others who go into situations blind to what is going on or what to expect. That is me on most animes anyway. People are all like woohoo this manga is getting turn anime and I am like oh a brand new show! So yeah. I have no idea what this show was about before going into and I am not going to look up what it was supposed to be about until after I am done blogging this.

Cellphone charms are magical!

So….what was going on? Like I was slightly confused on what with the slice of life stuff and the action/fighting scenes but I figured at the end of the OVA all would be explained. So I was patient and waited. No answers came. So if you are like me and watched this no prior knowledge to what this show was all about you are probably confused too.

WHO ARE YOU?!?!?!

I didn’t even realize there were three Others until I started to type the summary and I went back through the scenes. But yep, at the beginning of the OVA there is a different girl fighting Black Rock Shooter. So who is she? What is her deal? And why does it look like Black Rock Shooter died fighting her? Does Black Rock Shooter run around and save normal people who got taken over by an Other?

Yeah none of this got answered. Also we never see this first Other girl again so was that even necessary? Bleh.

Mato is sad too.

So this is my sad face. I thought all was going to be explained or at least halfway explained. But we are all supposed to just watch and not question. Yomi just happened to end up in that world. We don’t need any answers. We don’t know if Other Yomi is really Yomi’s dark self or really an inhabitant that took over her body once Yomi enter that dark place of MY FRIEND HATES ME. We don’t know where this other place is or how one gets there. But we do know that Black Rock Shooter is not Mato as Black Rock Shooter was fighting someone else in the first part of the OVA. We know one thing out of…the entire show. Which is disappointing. I didn’t expect every last thing to be explained but not to know what an Other is or how Yomi got chosen to be one would have been nice. I mean, people get sad about their friends not being as close all the time. They don’t all end up Others.

Why does Black Rock Shooter want to help Mako out? How did she know?!

So with that said…it was sorta disappointing. Almost like the show had no point. No real conclusion and nothing was explained/resolved. I guess since this show was so hyped up I was expecting more. But apparently this OVA isn’t here to explain anything. The viewer is supposed to fill into ALL of the blanks while the OVA gives you a basic outline of what is going on. Only there is a lot of blanks to be filled and way too much to fill in for my taste.

More of this please.

Putting all that aside once I got used to the pacing it was enjoyable. A few slice of life scenes, some fighting. More slice of life scenes, more fighting. Serious business scenes and a resolution to the fighting scenes. Granted it would have been better to get a resolution but what do I know?

But at least she came back.....

I do think that Yomi losing her mind over something so small is laughable. I was expecting something MAJOR to happen. But Mato didn’t even ignore Yomi or treat her poorly. She managed her time between both girls. She can’t help that they weren’t in the same class and she still made time for Yomi. So while I think that Yomi had a right to be slightly hurt I am not sure she has the right to lose her mind and summon an Other or what not. I thought there was going to be a blow or something….Just disappointed.

Pray that this makes sense.

I think that while most of the OVA was devoted to the slice of life stuff I really didn’t get to know about the girls. Just that Yomi really likes Mato and Mato likes basketball. Instead of the long waking up scene we could have seen more in that 30 second “and a year goes by scene”. But I do think what was shown was important and special. Like overlooking the city scene was done well. And I like how Mato was able to make close friends with Yuu. It is too unrealistic to only have 1 friend throughout your entire school life. It is much more realistic to have relationships change and grow and learn from those changes.

No, this is not the time for smiling.

I do think that Mato was the only person who really cared about Yomi so that is why Yomi liked her so much. Hello school mates your classmate is missing and you are gossiping about it?! And Yuu, you were already showing signs of jealously. “Oh let’s play basketball and your friend will be okay!”. But I thought Mato handling the disappearance of Yomi was done well.

Very choppy at times.

I thought at times the art was a bit iffy. As if they didn’t know how to properly execute action scenes. Not very great in regards to transiting from movement in the action scenes. But other than that I really liked the art.

Because when someone goes out of their way to include you you should have an emo attack and go to another world.

The ending was a bit X_X for me. We don’t get any answers to what just happened and now it’s going to happen again to Yuu. Like okay what was THE POINT?! Yes Mato saved her friend but apparently she didn’t learn how to keep this from happening again. She needed to learn why people got turned into Others or what not. But now jealous friends are still jealous. A way to milk another OVA? Maybe. But it left me feeling meh.

So yeah. Didn’t understand the hype, still don’t understand the hype, and I am sure there a lots of disappointed fans out there. But if you wanted to watch a little show that had a great mix of action and slice of life it was a success. The art was great and so was the representation of how females have relationships. But I am not sure if it should have been released as an OVA when there was so much that went unanswered. So I am just meh people. Meh.