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You really never know what this show will be throwing against you next, especially in ep 5.

With all the things Saya did to others Im surprised noone seems to have reported her. After all Im pretty sure this isnt the first time she does such things.

The biggest surprise is defenitely that Yuu seems to be nonexistant in the real world, or only made a avatar their. Now she decided to go back to the other world completely and thus everyone forgot about her except for Mato.

About the stuff Saya said, she is only half right. Sure if you overcome the pain you get stronger but you wont get stronger with just forgetting like Kagari or Kohata. And if you close of your feelings you wont be like them either, you would turn out like Matos real body did in the end, nothing more than a empty shell.

I wonder what will happen to Mato and BRS now. Will they go on a rampage against Black Gold Saw? Or will they turn out like BGS like the red eye could indicate?

Okay with episode 5 why does it feel like that I just went on a bad acid trip here?

In any case it seems that Yomi is now broken down in this episode. Also, people don't even remeber Yu at all in the basketball club. Saya feels the need to kill off Mato here, and finally Black Rock Shooter managed to kill off Dead Master right when Mato wanted to take over.

Still the one thing that doesn't make sense to me is how did everyone forget Yu like it was nothing here. The only thing that could point to this is Saya did her mind rape ability in the other side and managed to make people forget about her. Not only that but why do I get this feeling that she happens to be Strength in this seires as well?

Yuu is strength and Saya is Black Gold Saw.

as for why everyone is forgetting about Yuu, it looks like that it'll be explained better in episode 6 as it looks like it'll dive into their past.

yep in the images I posted previously each one looks alike to their respective other selves but I wasn't that sure about Gold Saw if she was Kohata's or Saya-sensei alter ego in the first episode, now the high school student Saya looks almost identical with longer hair in the past when she met a tormented Yuu and decided to take care of her... I was wondering what was Strenght's real purpose in the other world disposing of corpses instead of fighting, this time she has no choice but to interfer and protect BGS against a berserker Rock Shooter o.O

it was a cool transformation with BRS's blue and red flames in her eye mixed and turned purple along with her appearence into a more heavily weaponed being to kill BGS, also Mato's awesome screams and suffering in this 6th ep. remided me to Evangelion and a few other series when she was mentally in pain for killing others and physically feeling the damage as her avatar... as I mentioned before I was doubting if Saya/BGS is really the villain here as she revealed her duty is to protect the other world from destruction by BRS, as well I feared Yomi would forget about Mato's friendship when she deleted her from the cellphone but it looked like she did that intentionally instead of trying to remember or asking herself who is she

Im surprised that that Yuu and Saya had such a backstory. It seems like that in the end Yuu grew up thanks to Saya while the other Yuu remained in the other world, but why does Yuu still look like 10 years ago? My guess is that she died back then in the fire too, but Saya hasnt realized that yet, or she has realized it but cant accept it and thus denies it.

I cant really understand what was up with Yomi. Sure she got better just like Kagari and Kohata, but why did she delete Matos mailfolder? I guess it has something to do with them beeing reborn and thus cutting lingering attachments. For Kohata is was the guy she fell in love with and for Kagari it was Yomi. Still it was sad to see Matos folder beeing deleted after her doing so much for Yomi and Kagari.

I just remember that there are only two eps left, so Im wondering how this all will end. Im defenitely looking forward to it.

like I guessed Yomi was trying to forget about Mato after her alter ego was stabbed because she didn't want to get hurt anymore but she got worried for her absence at school and that reminded everything she did for her so their friendship along with Dead Master will revive again, with Yuu's explanation now makes a bit more sense how things work from the real world to the alternate one (lets call it Hazama as named in the manga BRS Innocent Soul being a violent realm between heaven and hell)... I think Yuu kept the same age/appearence and her classmates didn't recognize her name/identity since she switched bodies with Strength being able to speak at Hazama (was cool she isn't the only "shooter" in that world after turning her giant fists into machine guns besides only smashing with them), also just like her BRS and Mato are linked but aren't the same entity so I'm not sure who will help and defeat who or how well will last the final episode though I'm glad this series isn't as predictable as I expected at first

This post has been edited by NecroRyu on Mar 16 2012, 01:40 AM

You know every once in a while there is an anime which totally surprises you. Sadly most of the time its negative but sometimes its positive. Black★Rock Shooter is exactly that. A show where I got into with the feeling it will be a waste of time but soon made it it onto my topspot of currently aired animes.

Doesnt it sound great to have someone you can push all your pain onto? Yes sounds great, but it isnt since its all going to come back at you at one point because even that person has its limits. And this is what this show is about, accepting ones own feelings.

The last ep was a really great end of this show. No questions left open, everything makes sense (as far as it even can make sense of course ^^) and everythings solved. Too bad this isnt happening in other sieres.

Overall it was a great story, sometimes creepy, sometimes weird and sometimes just "WTF???", but overall great.
The characters were all interesting and had their role to play in the plot. They are realistic and their actions are understandable (at least for me).

A 9/10 from me. Really good to see that there are still such positive surprises, you could even say gems, out there.

indeed good thing you didn't drop it after all ^^ since I checked out the PV I had the feeling the TV series was worth a try even if the B★RS OVA didn't live to my expectatives and gave it 6/10 a couple of years ago, reason why I had low interest at first for this new one counting with only 8 episodes but quickly became really good and unpredictable instead... is funny how two series I have been watching from this season turned out the opposite way in expectation as Another isn't as good as I hoped but B★RS TV didn't disappoint me at all, telling by its last seconds maybe a continuation will come in a future possibly based from the manga Innocent Soul or the games but I'm fine if it's left with this ending right now so I'll go as well with 9/10 which initially was 7/10

I have to admit, I liked the finale, and I didn't really expect to enjoy this one. The logic didn't make a lick of sense, but it was a battle of feelings more than logic. The new bonds of friendship at the end were great.

the visuals were nifty, although it was kind of disconnecting how nothing in the world of color could speak with it's mouth, but that just made Yuu's anguished and bitter screams at the end of last episode all the more impactful.

Pretty satisfying, all in all.

Black Rock Shooter 2012 is an original work that and follows the 2010 OVA of the same name. It aired in the NoitaminA time slot during the Winter 2012 anime season and was simulcasted by niconico and Funimation.

Black Rock Shooter has an initial story similar to its OVA. It features the same cast in both parallel worlds but approaches it differently. The show is still ultimately about friendship at the end of the day and not so much about Black Rock Shooter and its own world. The concept is very interesting though not unique. Pacing wise, it initially seemed like stretching the OVA content for a few episodes was a huge mistake. However, as the show progresses, it turns out the pacing was just right. Conclusion wise, the show adds quite the depth to some of the characters as well as meaning to the parallel world. While this meaning is blatantly obvious from the get go, it's nice to see some confirmation. The show does walk down the thorny path of the characters in the real world entering the world of "Black Rock Shooter" let alone knowing about it. It's overall smooth but something I personally would have liked to see avoided. The show does wrap up very tightly though, which is rare for almost any title these days.

Art remains a strong suit of this show. It remains as detailed as the OVA and both worlds are depicted in a highly visually appealing manner. Animation is generally stiff with sloppy and repetitive movements, particularly in action scenes. Character designs for "real world" are a bit inferior to the OVA as everyone seems to a look a little more plump for some reason. There also seems to be some inconsistencies from time to time. In the parallel world, the designs remain solid and on a level equivalent to that of SHAFT works. The symbolism is very pretty from beginning to end and definitely draws out the full potential of Ordet. Distant shots remain a problem due to lack of detail.

OP is the famous Black Rock Shooter theme that effectively started this whole madness. ED theme is a song by supercell, which is completely fitting for the show but not memorable for me in the long term. Not really memorable though. Background music is solid all the way through while sound effects remain above average. Seiyuu is the same as the 2010 OVA.

Enjoyment? Progressively gets better. But why did it take me a whole year to finish a measly 8 episodes? Various things happened so I put this off, especially since it aired in a season where my interest was piqued with other titles, including Bakuman, Shakugan no Shana, and Aquarion EVOL to name a few. To be honest, Black Rock Shooter is a slightly above average title. To me it's barely better than what the OVA actually produced overall. Vocaloid fans will likely enjoy this mostly for just the Black Rock Shooter appearances or for the soundtrack. Non-vocaloid fans are more toss-ups depending on whether he/she likes the parallel world approach and/or the all female cast.

Overall, Black Rock Shooter 2012 is a decent attempt at this whole parallel world business. Not many shows have attempted this field and many are really just average at best. To name a few memorable ones: Noein, Persona 4, and .hack//Sign (any of the .hack titles actually) are all similar in some regard. Out of them, Noein and .hack//sign are the most memorable though Noein is far closer to what Black Rock Shooter is trying to do. It's not a terrible show and a really simple show to kill time given its length. Like or dislike, one may as well watch so that you can say you've been exposed to Vocaloid in some form despite Black Rock Shooter not being directly related to the franchise.

Preliminary Score: 6/10
Final Score: 7/10