I watched the Black★Rock Shooter OVA this past Monday and have to say that I was really impressed with the OVA. While it's getting mixed reviews every where I just wanted to toss in my own 2 pennies on the matter. I missed the boat initially on all things Vocaloid and BRS but after following many of Danny Choo's posting on his blog it was hard to not be interested in the upcoming Anime movie that was gaining a huge interest and following. I even found my way to the original music video made by Supercell for BRS and I was hooked. Hooked so much that I even pre-ordered the Figma version of BRS when it was announced. I might even find my self pre-ordering the additional figma releases for the other characters in the BRS world.
With all that in mind I really did enjoy the split world with two stories in one story telling that took place in the anime. The "Other world" of BRS a violent Alice in Wonderland look with no dialogue just violence and music a true to the original look of the music video world. This world is part of the real world where we find the lives of a handful of High School girls experiencing life in a less violent way.
In the real world the story follows Mato a basketball loving young girl who becomes friends with Yomi a girl who catches Mato's attention. During their first year together they two become friends and share many memories together Mato joins the Basketball club and Yomi joins the Volleyball team. All is good in their happy little world. Until the second year when the friends are separated by ending up in different classes and another friend enters Mato's life leaving Yomi hurt and alone. Soon things begin to spiral out of control and the friendship is fractured and Yomi disappears.
All the while in the "Other world" the girl with the blue glowing eye (BRS) and the embodiment of Yomi (Dead Master) are engaged in a huge battle that is destroying Dead Master's castle. Back in the real world Mato is devastated that her friend is missing until she receives a blank text from Yomi. She runs out of her house to find Yomi. Making her way up to the lookout, that she shared with Yomi at the beginning of their friendship, she finds Yomi's blue star phone strap that Mato gave her. As Mato is clutching the phone strap close to her heart BRS appears before her with words of encouragement about finding and saving her friend.
In the "otherworld" the fight is coming to a close and Dead Master is about to fall to her death when BRS reaches out and grabs hold of her and holds her tight turning Dead Master back into Yomi. A flash forward finds the three friends walking away from school their lives returned to normal. Or is it.
I really did enjoy the OVA and don't understand some people's hate for it. The animation was fantastic. The story even though short was great and well done. What really sets this off though is the sound track, the OVA had a great score that went well with the story. What's even better about this whole thing is that it was available for free streamed live and will soon be available as a freebie in several August editions of Otaku Magazines of which all of them are sold out through pre-orders already. I'm sure there will be other ways to get the OVA as well and there isn't any need to wait for it to be licensed as the DVD included 7 different language subs. There is even an English site for the the anime as well.
You can check out the latest trailer here --
