Danny’s Picks – Black Rock Shooter

August 20, 2011 1 comment

Hey everyone and welcome to the second post of Danny’s Picks! This week, I’ll be sharing an amazing OVA called “Black Rock Shooter!”

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Black Rock Shooter was originally an illustration by the artist Huke, which then inspired Ryo of Supercell to compose a song. Huke then joined Supercell and together they made a music video featuring the vocaloid Hatsune Miku. This was then made into a 50 min OVA by studio Ordet, directed by Shinobu Yoshioka. Here’s a trailer to the OVA but first a brief summary of the story from wiki to give context to the video (I deleted the ending to avoid spoilers):

Black Rock Shooter begins at the start of the school year in April. On her first day of junior high school, Mato Kuroi (黒衣マト Kuroi Mato, Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa) makes friends with a girl named Yomi Takanashi (小鳥遊ヨミ Takanashi Yomi, Voiced by: Miyuki Sawashiro) who recently moved to the town. Mato quickly joins the basketball club, which incites Yomi to join the volleyball club since both clubs practice at the same time in the gymnasium. The two spend much time together over the following year, and during one outing Mato gives Yomi the same cellphone charm she has. In their second year of junior high, they end up in different classes, reducing the amount of time they can spend together. Furthermore, Yomi starts to become jealous of Mato hanging around her basketball club manager and classmate, Yuu (ユウ, Voiced by: Kana Asumi).

When Yomi seemingly disappears, Mato becomes concerned when she does not show up at school the next day or respond to her text messages. Mato becomes further depressed when she receives word that Yomi has been reported missing and is asked about her whereabouts by two detectives. One day, Mato receives a blank text message from Yomi and goes to her favorite spot in town where she finds the phone charm she gave her. The charm starts to glow and transports her to a strange world where she meets a mysterious girl named Black Rock Shooter (ブラック★ロックシューター Burakku Rokku S
hūtā), who has a blazing blue left eye and a rock cannon which can fire 20 shots per second. As Mato tries to find Yomi, she merges with Black Rock Shooter and duels Yomi, who was possessed by an evil being called Dead Master (デッドマスター Deddo Masutā), who wields a large scythe.

Black Rock Shooter OVA Trailer

Some pretty amazing visuals and animation huh? But not only that, Black Rock Shooter features a simple yet emotionally engaging story that makes these beautiful fight scenes have deep character driven meaning.