Sunday, March 25, 2012

Black Rock Shooter episode 8 FINAL EPISODE!

I feel like a little lazy slug. XD Which I guess is better than being a tired slug. I think everyone was too busy at the movies and enjoy their last days of Spring Break to order a pizza. After Friday night I needed an easy night at work. Now it is time for movies and the internets.

But….I can’t be completely lazy. I have to use this lazy time to blog Black Rock Shooter final episode. It seems the writers had a bit of the lazies when it came to this show. Too bad I already spent my money on nendoroids before this show came out. Of course they are adorable….but could I really buy them and support such a hot mess of a show?

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The face of a hero!

Am I getting too spoilery already? XD If you have made it this far in the show you are either a fan or someone at their wits end? Yay for watching shows that drive us crazy weeee!



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Black Rock Shooter is ready to kill you...I mean love you to death!

Episode Summary: Real Yuu continues to beat the crap out of Black Rock Shooter which causes Mato to be in unbelievable pain. Strength Yuu feels really bad as she was the one who SENT Mato to be in Black Rock Shooter. So Strength Yuu had decided to travel back to Other World (because she can do that now) naked and will kill herself so Real Yuu will go back to the Real World and Mato will be okay. Still in Black Rock Shooter but okay apparently. Real Yuu is like NOOO don’t send me back and Mato is like NOOO Strength Yuu don’t die. Black Rock Shooter is about to finish off Real Yuu when Mato is able to stop her. Strength Yuu is saved from becoming a pancake but Mato emerges from Black Rock Shooter as Black Rock Mato. Strength Yuu makes it to Real Yuu who has lost all her powers. Real Yuu breaks down and is like WHYYYY why would you send me back to reality!!!!! Elsewhere Mato is like I want to feel my own pain and don’t want you fighting my battles anymore. So Black Rock Shooter proceeds to kick the ever loving crap out of her. All the while Black Rock Shooter explains that people can’t get hurt without hurting other people. People who really care about Mato. Mato decides that she wants to see all the pink sneezes and has to live. She powers up against Black Rock Shooter.

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Mato, the sane one of the show.

In the real world all the girls start remembering their past pain and start crying. They should be crying because no one offered to help Yomi off the street when she is crying. Yomi eventually helps herself up and wants to share her pain with someone else. As all the girls in the real world power up their Other Girl counterparts Strength Yuu explains what is happening. In an explosion of color all the Other Girls unite and Mato is able to “beat” Black Rock Shooter. The land then turns all white. Real Yuu looks over at Strength Yuu who is not doing so good. Mato randomly shows up and Strength Yuu explains that the Other Girls have no feelings. But they fight to protect the ones they love…Real Yuu cries and Strength Yuu thanks Mato for being her friend. Then Strength Yuu gets a bad case of sparkle cancer and dies. Mato sees back Black Rock Shooter and suddenly we are back in the real world. Real Yuu is being hugged by Saya while Mato is outside by herself? Yomi finds her and apologizes for being a freak. From then on everything is wonderful. Mato is on time to school, Yuu is introduced as a new transfer student, Kagari hangs out with Yomi, and Yomi makes everyone bracelets sans hair. Then the girls do some weird Voltron thing in the air with their bracelets. They walk home together and talk about how they will no longer freak out about the smallest issues in the world. In the Other World Strength is alive and Black Rock Shooter says she will keep on fighting for Mato, the girl she loves. THE END!

Oh lord. Where do I begin with this hot mess? The good news is though a lot of people are pretty disappointed with this series. I don’t feel so alone with my “negative” opinion. Because apparently if someone doesn’t like a show that makes them a hater. It has nothing to do with the show actually sucking or not.

Maybe I will talk about the show as a whole instead of just this episode. Better connect my thoughts and what not. Or I will rant on about things like normal. XD What do you think?

The fact that Mato didn’t get a past “pain” section makes the entire show very weak. Black Rock Shooter is beyond strong and there has to be a reason for that. And this past pain would have had to happen when Mato was much younger to affect Strength and Real Yuu. Yet no back story ever came. And I am not buying the fact that Mato caring about other people’s pain is what makes Black Rock Shooter so strong. Mato didn’t know about the Yuu/Strength issue. She thought the Kagari and Yomi issue was taken care of. It looks like Mato has a pretty nice life with her family. So unless every single time a bug gets run over by a car I don’t see how Mato could be that messed up.

I mean I think I would have been fine with Mato ACTING okay but deep down she was just as crazy as Yomi. But there is no evidence that Mato is capable of having such deep emotions. She is pretty much lalala bird book and let’s be friends. Given what we know about Strength/Yuu I thought MAYBE her “real” best friend died at a young age. Maybe accidentally by Mato’s hands. And that is what caused Mato to have such pain in her heart. But that never came. And I can’t rate this show on pretending and stretching things that are barely there.

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This is Black Rock Shooter reacting normally to someone who wants to be an adult about her problems.

I am still not feeling the entire premise of this show. I think if the girls had experienced real pain (Yuu not withstanding) it would have made everything a million percent better. Yomi especially. Kagari was a bitch to her I will give her that. But her descent into crazy happened AFTER Kagari got better. Yomi admitting she didn’t know how to be and make friends was a good after thought but still folks. Yomi was killing cellphones, making hair bracelets, and giving me the most amazing screen shots ever. If she was really jealous of Yuu she should have maybe been picking on Yuu, demanding more time of Mato, and doing some glares. Not all that insane stuff she was doing that didn’t apply.

But that would have been a normal reaction. And this show was not about normal reactions. It was about creating drama from tiny little issues so the other girls could fight amazing battles. Maybe it is just frightening to me that these girls couldn’t handle such small problems without totally losing their marbles. Yes it was horrible that someone posted Kohata’s note for all to see but it was going to get better. In the grand scheme of things that small event was not going to matter for her future.

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Well just don't share it with those jackasses on the street. Seriously people.

Maybe I wouldn’t be so hard on this system if it didn’t result in the girls FORGETTING what made them so sad and bonkers to begin with. The Other World girls take on that pain and fight to protect the Real World girls. But if the Others die then the Real World girls just go POOF what sadness? How does that help ANYONE in the long run? It is putting a bandaid on the issue. People have to go through hard times to learn how to deal with sad issues so they can grow and become strong adults. Under this system the girls are stuck being little kids with no emotional growth.

If that is what Black Rock Shooter was fighting for I would be more understanding. That Mato unconsciously did not support that system. Mato wanted people to cry, yell, and fight out their problems. To be honest with one another and lean on each other in hard times, not Other Girls. But it has been stated that Black Rock Shooter was fighting to protect Mato, that all the pain Mato accumulated from feeling bad from other people feeling bad. So while that theory is nice it is not what was going on and that makes me a sad panda.

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I'm pretty sure that makes you a selfish person.

Also there is the small fact that Real Yuu thought the real world was way too hard to live in and sent Strength to suffer in her place. Of course what suffering was there is Strength didn’t really live Real Yuu’s life. I am sure things weren’t all cupcakes and rainbows regardless. So Yuu knows that Strength got beat up every day to protect her and yet sent Strength to suffer more in the real world. X__X Real Yuu was super broken indeed but that is still messed up.

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Who needs a back story when you have girls fighting each other?!

Strength was never shown meeting Mato. Strength didn’t age after leaving the Other World as Saya was much older. So Mato did not meet Strength in elementary school. We don’t even know the extent of Strength’s effect on the world. Yomi was obviously super jealous of Strength so we know SOME people were able to see her. Did Strength have the magic to change her age? Did Strength hunt down a younger girl and tagged along to make sure she didn’t get crazier in the Other World? Or did Strength meet up with Mato much later in life and alter Mato’s memories? All of these are excellent questions but we shall have no answers. So lazy this show, answers are for losers.

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Silly viewers I wasn't a secondary character!

I think this show could have been stronger from the beginning. There was so much focus on Yomi and her relationships with Kagari and Mato. Strength Yuu was almost a side character. Someone to annoy Yomi. Not someone I would think would become the most important person in the story. But at the last second suddenly Strength Yuu has no shadow and she is the reason behind everything. Some might say it is because the series was only 8 episodes long. I don’t think the amount of episodes is to blame as much as how much time was wasted on stupid things.

LIKE THE STUPID BIRD BOOK! Like people…people…I actually thought the bird itself looked cute but after this show I want to kill everything that flies in the sky. Maybe that is Mato’s greatest trauma. That she never read the end of the book and the bird actually lived. Some other birds came and took on a few of the colors each. That way they could live with a little pain together. See how I just made that up in 5 seconds? My idea was better than the whole book crap. I also love how they had to add in a random girl or two to make a rainbow to rescue Black Rock Mato. Just…this book. Pink sneezes my face.

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Ah yes....tough love.

The most disturbing part of this whole episode was Mato getting punched over and over in the fact by Black Rock Shooter. Like hot damn folks! We get it, Black Rock Shooter wants to teach Mato a lesson. The lesson being when someone suffers their loved ones suffer too. But maybe…just maybe that point could have been made with such a broken leg and such? Oh and if you weren’t the one causing your loved one pain?

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Last time I checked....love is an emotion. But maybe I am insane.

Speaking of which….is Strength on crack? Or the people who wrote this show. It is VERY hard to love someone if you have NO feelings. One sentence Strength is saying we are born with no feelings and fight to protect you. And we fight to protect you because we love you? X__x Folks does that even begin to make sense? I get that they need to end this show on a positive note for all the crazy 12 year olds that apparently live in Japan but this does not make sense. Could the Other Girls not learn to have feelings? Like over time we develop love for the girls that we are forced to protect because they freak out over the smallest issue? No we can’t do that? Be impressed with the fighting scenes? I see now.

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Light our darkest hour!!!!

In the end everything is okay folks. No one is mad at Saya for forcing them to have crazy thoughts, Yuu returns to the real world as a transfer student, Yomi and Kagari have their memories back, and bracelets for everyone! While I agree with the fact these girls need to start handling trauma on their own it was just way too forced. Kagari had a lot to apologize for, where the heck is Yuu going to live, and Saya is like oh hi I will make you nonpoisoned coffee now. Just way too rushed.

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Good thing Strength had that dramatic goodbye and all.

In conclusion while collecting the nendoroids is fun I do not recommend this technocolor dream mess to anyone. Unless you like watching 12 year old girls lose their mind at a drop of a hat. For that maybe just go to a local middle school or something. There will probably be less amazing faces but more interesting outfits.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

This anime is OK for me, The fighting was animated beautifully. The symbolism was also charming. I still think the producer could do better on the character developments. I see more development in Strength than in any other character in this series. I wish they could drop the "too-emotional" part and focus more on character.

Anonymous said...

The world is full of many colors and things. WTF OMG MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP … oh, wait, it stopped.

I watched this HD on youtube and the top comments were about how the commenters all admittedly cried like little girls over this episode. Their other selves must be hot messes.

But agree with the other commenter here, the fight scenes were to die for and agree I wish they dropped the "too-emotional" part and focused more on character. Well put.

BTW, “the purple of haze?” Have a feeling someone subbing this show hated the bird book too. The tiny bird is the one character I actually feel bad for. He was so cute and he deserved to be in a much better book. In my mind he is getting a new story where he gets to visit all the colors without getting dirty or whatever.

Christina said...

Anonymous- The fighting scenes were pretty gorgeous even if Black Rock Shooter got a little insane at the end. I feel as if they made the show around the fighting scenes. Like oh I want to draw some girls beating up on each other so let me think of a plot really quick.

I wish that there was more hints at who Strength was during the show. So much attention was focused on Yomi and her many break downs that BAM Yuu being Strength comes out of nowhere. But she is the girl I felt bad for the most. Forced to fight for Yuu and then Yuu made her go to "hell" in her place.

Anonymous 2- NO MORE COLORS! Pink sneezes are gone!

Cried? Like seriously cried? X_x Tears of happiness that it is all over? Yeah I feel bad for their other selves.

The thing I hate about the bird book is just how much focus it had in the anime. We only had 8 episodes to get everything explained yet every other scene Mato, a 12 year old girl, is reading a preschool book. It was just odd.

But the bird itself was cute. Here it is having adventures and colors kill it? Like wtf is that all about? Couldn't it have risen from the ashes like a phoenix or something? So I think the bird is adorable but just the way Mato went on and on about it made me want to pull my hair out.

Anonymous said...

Such negative reviews...the anime was ok...I actually spent time after watching to sort things out, and things did make sense here and there, but it didn't make sense together. Oh well. About the bird book...the bird book does symbolize how when those characters (with their super dramatic emotions or whatever) kind of take on the "pain" and such and they take too much of it, they either slowly "disappear" or just go crazy like our wonderful main characters. The rebirth of the bird symbolizes the "getting over it" part...the recovery part.

Anyways, the show overall was, indeed...a mess. I never really had to take time to sort things out watching other anime, but this one really gets my thoughts spinning. Brain exercises lol. But then,about your complaint that some things aren't explained and some details just doesn't make sense...well, you know, sometimes details DON'T HAVE TO MAKE SENSE. They are not important to the overall plot. (well not like this show had much of an overall plot... >.>) So...yea. :P It is a thing in literature that you should focus on the overall development, and that some things are neglected (necessary evil I guess), but the I think the writers here just categorized too much stuff as "minor details". :/ The last theme is good though: you have to learn to live with your pain and grow up together. My views: kinda good starting idea, messed up plot, great fighting, love that ED, and that's it. :)

Christina said...

Anonymous- While everything doesn't have to be spelled out for the viewer if they walk away feeling unsatisfied and confused clearly the story was not successful. I can see the message that was trying to be portrayed but it was trapped within girls having mental breakdowns over tiny issues and girls who had legitimate issues. The message was all over the place and if I had to hear about that bird book one more time I would throw it in the trash and set it on fire.

HLB said...

Yea I agree on most parts except for this one picture in 9th picture even that BRS kept hurting Mato well she was Insane so of course she will cause Mato so much pain. But I still love it don't mind the flaws in the story, but yea wish there was longer battles so the series would be longer

Anonymous said...

Sometimes thins n life don makes since Ta other people but you knows yer reasons I don don knows much bouts black rock shooter jus foun her n gittin Ta knows her but I don really care much fer most animes but kina stumbled on Ta this un but from what I've lernt bout her so fer I kin truely feels this un somethins jus ernt ment Ta bes explained - commander preach