Black★Rock Shooter – 02
Why watch a novela when you can watch the even more overly-dramatic love triangle of middle school girls?
~If you’ve seen even a glimpse of a novela (soap opera) like on Telemundo, you know what I am talking about. Anyway, this episode of our middle school soap opera starts off on the day of the summer festival with Mato holding onto that firm belief that Yomi will come to meet her. Yet as day progresses into night, she finds herself still alone and the only word from Yomi are three texts that read, “I’m sorry.” Mato goes home with pain in her feet and heart, despite what the counselor had told her. Meanwhile poor Yomi sits at home with Kagari, crying over not being able to go. Kagari comforts her only a little, then proceeds to ‘carve’ the suffering right out of her.
In the Other World, Black Rock Shooter fights another incredibly harsh battle with Chaos and her macaroons of destruction. Just as she whips out her canon, Dead Master wraps her chains around her entire body and starts pulling them tighter and tighter. She then throws her up, unraveling the chains, but BRS grabs them and swings them off, throwing Dead Master to the ground. As BRS sees a heart-shaped scar on her chest, a horde of mechanical spiders gather under her and take her away.
It’s Mato and Yomi alone in the locker room the next day, but as Yomi undresses, she spots a heart-shaped scar on her chest (the same one she saw in her dream). Covering it, Yomi suddenly asks why she isn’t mad at her. She’ll come to regret it as Mato does get mad and tells her she isn’t bird before running off to the consolation room. After hearing the story, the counselor tells her close friends are connected at a deep level and that they express things that can’t be put into words.
That same evening the doorbell rings at Yomi’s house and she discovers Mato waiting by the door. As she happily goes to open it, Kagari is suddenly there at the stairs. Because Yomi was going to ‘leave’ her, she threatens to die and have her die to, then throws herself down the stairs. At the hospital, Mato waits in the reception room with Yomi’s mother, who tells her why Yomi HAS to stay with Kagari. A few years back Yomi and her family took off the go live abroad, but as the car drove away, a young Kagari started chasing after them and was hit by a car. However nothing was physically wrong with her legs, only her heart, and now she just can’t seem to do anything without Yomi.
Mato of course can’t stand how strange this is and tries to enter Kagari’s hospital room, saying she will only leave with Yomi. Kagari starts yelling out nasty things to her while Yomi tries holding her down, unknowingly smiling. This angers Kagari even more and she throws her to the ground, screaming for Mato to shut up. Yomi calls on Mato for help, getting the answer to not pity her. The more she does, the more pitiful she gets. She realizes that she’d only been trying to make her life easier by just doing what Kagari wants.
It’s okay, Yomi. We’re smiling too.
Meanwhile in the Other World, Black Rock Shooter breaks into the rundown imitation of Yomi’s house and uncovers Dead Master inside a doll, chained. Chaos soon follows after, nearly destroying the top floor. The two continue their fight on the ground with Chaos shooting a huge barrage of destructive macaroons in the air. BRS decides it’s time to literally bring out the big guns as her cannons transforms into a massive machine gun that finally brings down Chaos’ machine. However she pops up from the fiery wreckage equipped with wheels for feet, a sword, and a spiked shield.
As they fight, Dead Master awakens and breaks free from the chains and the stone heart, creating a black hole of sorts that starts sucking up the ground around them. Suddenly, a sword gets locked into the hole, stopping the suction. Next thing they know, Black Gold Saw appears in front of Chaos, then breaks a hole that sucks them all into a green underworld. BRS finds herself until Chaos jumps from a ledge, aiming her sword at her. After a quick black out, Chaos’s head rolls off, the rumble in mid-air finally flying up…
Yomi tries to tell Kagari to try and go out, that she’ll never make her lonely, and that they can change together. Despite her speech, Kagari refuses to step outside and then suddenly falls silent. Mato is finally let into the room, where Kagari sits on her bed, calm with a smile on her face~.
Am I the only who thought it was weird that Yuu and the counselor were so oddly calm with the fact Yomi has a heart scratched into her chest? Or am I just forgetting that this is anime? Anyway, I found myself laughing a little too much this episode. I couldn’t take this episode seriously at all. Everything was so ridiculously over-dramatic in the real world story; I mean, the music, the way they were crying, and this love triangle just screams yuri soap opera. If it wasn’t that apparent they were forcing some sort of ‘interesting’ storyline on us, it definitely is now. Yomi and Kagari’s back story as to why Kagari is so controlling over her was also disappointing. I was hoping it would be something more supernatural that could’ve possibly been connected to the Other World, but my hopes were thrown out the door -sigh-
Of course this over-dramatic yuri bleeds into the Other world, making the parallel connection just too obvious for my taste. Certain scenes would’ve crossed the border into tacky if it weren’t for those last incredible battle sequences between Black Rock Shooter and Chaos. I ended up fangirling more over BRS’s killer machine gun and Chaos’s feet wheels of steel than anything else. Black Gold Saw’s appearance was probably the only real highlight of this episode. She seems to be an instigator wanting a better, more violent show to watch, judging from how she kept watching them in the first episode. Why she’s doing this is the big question as well as why she seems to be in control.
With BRS slicing off Chaos’s head at the end, I want to assume this whole controlling love triangle is over with, yet Kagari’s strange demeanor at the end of the episode keeps me from doing so. If it is, then there’s a million ways the real world storyline can go, but hopefully in a more interesting, less forced, and less over-dramatic way. If not…then honestly, I have no idea how they could even stretch this out more~.
About Hoshi
A tired, over-dramatic 20 year old college student who likes manga and cheesy Korean boy bands. Prone to succumb to laziness and refuse to work for hours on end.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
More love to the yuri love triangle of middle school girls in this anime!!! Everyone is playing tug of war for Yomi’s affection. I now dub this the female version of No.6.
The way the camera angle never stops moving during the fights is so intense. Macaroon barrage!! But the best part was BRS bringing out her machine gun. I hypothesize that Kagari’s personality broke apart and changed when BRS killed Chariot. What does it mean when Black Rock Shooter’s eye ignites?
I wonder who is Black Gold Saw’s human counterpart. Cause I know that Mato is Black Rock Shooter, Yomi is Dead Master, Yuu is Strength, Kagari is Chariot, but whose Black Gold Saw’s human counterpart?
So did Kagari reach the point of complete madness now? She was such a bratty bitch but now she’s completely psychotic. My jaw dropped when I found out she carved a heart onto Yomi’s chest. Why didnt they just send Kagari to a madhouse? She is mad after all. DAMN! Kagari’s voice actor, Eri Kitamura is beast. She makes this SO INTENSE!
POWUH: Meta Resident and Yōko Fanboy with 1246 comments
The eye igniting for Black Rock is most likely either for effects to make it look cool OR it’s an indication of BANKAI mode so he ends up owning after being beaten to a pulp constantly? 😛
Personally I think Gold Saw has no human counterpart but more represents accumulated darkness from everyone which is why Gold decided to help Chariot but fight against Black Rock and Dead Master during the time Chariot (Kagari) was still a mad, evil, psychotic girl but it’s anyone’s guess
POWUH: Meta Resident and Yōko Fanboy with 1246 comments
she ends up owning* sorry, left out the ‘s’
POWUH: 700-799 and Horror Expert with 701 comments
Oh how I wish the entire show would be set in the alternate world. :< I agree with you that everything felt wayyyy over the top dramatic in the real world parts, but the "other world" parts were so awesome. (If anything should have been dramatized, it should have been the heart carving, like you said. -_-)
The part with the killer macarons, yeah I watched that like seven times. XD The gun sequence was my favorite!
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I agree with you about wishing that the entire show was set in Other World and the love triangle being dramatic and over the top but Kagari’s sadistic, psychotic facial expressions and personality made it work out.
High five!! The parts with the macaron barrage and the giant machine gun are my favorites as well.
POWUH: 800-899 and Self-proclaimed Manga Queen with 874 comments
~Same here, same here -sigh- It was like the things you would except to be dramatic weren’t…
I COULDN’T STOP SCREENCAPPING THAT SCENE! It was killed me to delete all the awesome shots I got! The gun sequence was just so bad-ass~
POWUH: 400-499 with 410 comments
It will be partially boring if the entire show is just the alternate world as there’s no conversation going on at all (just gestures). I wish I could just gimp the gun sequence!
POWUH: iLurker with 2 comments
Well. I liked the uber-drama.
You know, schoolgirls emotions are the strongest of all, because of that they’re perfect for harvesting pur… whooops, wrong series. But you get the point.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Yōko Fanboy with 1246 comments
HOSHIIII~~~!!!! x3
Now that you mention it, I am wondering why they were at least surprised or worried about the heart thing :\ Though what about the end? I found it weird how Kagari suddenly became quiet and collected after being psychotically outrageous a second ago. Even Yomi as well, she was all worried and stuff then she opens the door with an EMOTIONLESS face.. Well that’s the only ranting I’d be doing for episode 2 because all the other stuff, I actually really liked ;D
What I love about BRS is how much content there is in one episode which makes it easy to blog about BECAUSE there is so much you could talk about 😛 Maybe it’s just me but hell I’m actually enjoying blogging BRS more so than Inu X Boku :O
I definitely enjoyed it more than you did (according to what you wrote to what I wrote over at Sekijitsu) but I must agree, that machine gun scene was CRAZY~! xD
Hoshi, what do you think of Gold Saw as of current? Any suggestions as to what she might be? :3 If you want to read up on mine you can read the reply I made to BB’s comment. I love overthinking in BRS ;D
POWUH: 800-899 and Self-proclaimed Manga Queen with 874 comments
~TOFUUUUUUUUUUU<3
For a second I thought maybe Kagari had collapsed or died or something because of how quickly she grew quiet. Not to mention Yomi had this look that something terrible had happened. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS ALREADY
Oh yeah, so much content to comment on xD I’m enjoying it too, but this episode just kinda fizzled my excitement a little. I’m hoping I’ll be more satisfied next episode!
I read your comment, and that does sound pretty plausible (sounds way better than what I’m thinking!). For some reason I want to say Black Gold Saw is the counselor at the Dawn Consolation center. She knows their stories, their problems, and watches over them in a way. She could easily be an instigator…Yeah I’m kinda over-thinking this xD
POWUH: 400-499 with 410 comments
True. For some reason Black Gold Saw does make us think it’s the counselor since she is one other character that pops out quite often in the real world. If so, it’s another round of Yumekui Merry again.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Yōko Fanboy with 1246 comments
I can’t blame you for thinking so though if we’re sticking to the ‘same eye colour, same style of hair’ rule then the couselor lady will be ruled out xD
Black Rock has the same hair style as Mato but it’s just longer.
Yomi and Dead Master (do I even need to say?)
Chariot and Kagari is also a noticeable one
Although I don’t consider this reliable, MAL doesn’t show any of the ‘other’ world characters being separate from their counterparts while we do have gold saw and the counselor lady seperate so that might state they are not related? (once again, I don’t use this nor believe in it to back up my statement) ;D
Definitely plausible Hoshi and Toori and maybe that was why she didn’t act ‘surprised’ to the heart news Mato told her xD
POWUH: 400-499 with 410 comments
Maybe that’s why she give the advice about someone that takes your pain.
POWUH: 400-499 with 410 comments
Let’s just say I’ve been fangirling for the whole episode more than any show this time around. Putting aside all the dramatic scenes in the real world, the whole continuation battle between Dead Master and Chaos was way too epic. The unlimited macaron frags, Chaos’ head popping off like Assasin from Fate/Zero, rock cannon changing into a gatling gun, the debut of black sword and the ignition of BRS blue flame!!! I could just faint of fangirling~
I find this whole battle very emotional when you connect it to the real world. With all the ramblings of Kagari represented by the macarons and the smile of Yomi causes Dead Master to finish the battle.
In the end, I was “Black Gold Saw!!! Why you come out now?” and “Why are you smiling, bitch?!!!” There’s too much of mystery left behind in this episode which really make people wanna grab the next episode’s manuscript. Anyway, gotta patiently wait for next week…
POWUH: 800-899 and Self-proclaimed Manga Queen with 874 comments
~Yeah I was ten times more into the continued battle between BRS and Chariot and didn’t start fangirling until BRS took out that machine gun! I love her epic weapon changes.
If I could, I’d definitely steal that manuscript…I have no patience! But I must anyway…
POWUH: 700-799 and Parkouring Fanboy with 776 comments
The action sequences in the other world continued to blow me away. The CG work done here is impressive for a TV anime, and the cinematography that the CG enables gives us the type of fresh content that anime needs. Black Rock Shooter’s run up to crashing through the window was so amazing that I just had to clip it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkCUMZIaQNw
For the actual story, meh, it’s like watching a KEY anime in between awesome action scenes. I can live with it. I’m more fascinated by the technology showcase.
POWUH: 800-899 and Self-proclaimed Manga Queen with 874 comments
~I’ve never really been sure of technical details but yes, that run up to the window sent chills through me and I couldn’t help say out loud, “This is too awesome!”
I can live with the meh storyline
as long as I can complain about it (lol).POWUH: 400-499 with 410 comments
Sanzigen had always been working on 3D and CG for many series so their experience does give a lot of merit for BRS CG.
Now that you mentioned it, I do find the real world’s story something like a KEY anime. Nice pointing out.
POWUH: 600-699 and Romance Expert with 652 comments
uh, hoshi, why are you calling chariot “chaos”?
anyway, epic fight! now we have black gold saw in the fray. too bad that it doesnt seem like she and black rock shooter are close, or at least would get closer…
POWUH: 800-899 and Self-proclaimed Manga Queen with 874 comments
~For some reason when looking up the character names, I read Chariot as Chaos *headdesk* I’ll fix it next time |’D
POWUH: 400-499 with 410 comments
Ya thanks to Hoshi I really couldn’t decide whether I should call her Chariot or Chaos and end up calling her Chaos.
Hope to see more of BGS fighting BRS. The fight between them in the OVA was convincingly nice.
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 323 comments
Black Gold Saw in front of Chaos !!! EPIC
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 243 comments
I still don’t like Dead Master as a damsel-in-distress. Dead Master was such an awesome crazy bitch in the OVA and Chariot and this Saw person are poor replacements, frankly.
POWUH: 800-899 and Self-proclaimed Manga Queen with 874 comments
~I have to agree. I was hoping we’d get that back again, but I assuming they decided to change it up…
POWUH: 400-499 with 410 comments
Well, this IS a different story plot. The alternate world needs to be related to the real world. If Yomi is a damsel-in-distress, so does Dead Master. Though I also wish for a badass Dead Master in the anime.
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 323 comments
finally , somebody hate this Dead Master
i thought i was the only one who noticed this changes
POWUH: 400-499 with 410 comments
Almost everybody hates the changes done for Dead Master. The part I hate the most is the veil…
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
You’re not the only one. I was already disappointed with the glasses for starters but it totally killed it when I saw Dead Master’s veil. I thought they’d keep the OVA’s original design for her.
POWUH: Novice (36-50) and KoujiSeo Fanatic with 47 comments
It’s not Chaos, it’s Chariot.
I feel that the Chariot arc is over but judging by the pit Dead Master fell into created by BGS shows that her arc has yet to be fully touched.
Epic fight scenes and I nearly dropped my ________ (insert creative clothing article) when BRS had her gun transform into that chain gun.
POWUH: 400-499 with 410 comments
Next I think will probably be BRS saving Dead Master (again) from BGS.
I’ll put a ‘jaw’ in the insert. Yes, her Rock Cannon transforming into a chain gun is epic!!!
POWUH: Novice (36-50) and KoujiSeo Fanatic with 47 comments
‘Jaw’ is not a creative clothing article, silly! 😉
I don’t think it’ll be BGS yet – hopefully they can drag out to the Strength arc for a bit.
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 207 comments
I do have to agree that everything was a tiny bit dramatic. That whole scene at the end in the hospital was just so dramtic XD. I mean the whole thing with Kagari getting hit by a car, just because she wanted to be with Yomi, mmmm kind of overdramtic for my taste. I know that they try to parallel the BRS world with the action with the real worlds drama, but BRS world just was far more interesting none the less XD.
I think to me, Black Gold Saw appearance was just a “WHOA DID NOT SEE THAT COMING THING”. I was just waiting so that Kagari could be actually friends with Yomi again, but then BAM! Black Gold Saw out of no where. And then I’m like crap, we’re going to talk about this issue again? NOOOO!!!
I’m not saying that this was bad, I just really wanted this whole friend issue to be concluded.
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 243 comments
The thing with Black Gold Saw’s arrival is that it’s the first event we’ve seen in the Other World that didn’t directly correspond to the real world. No version of Black Gold Saw (people are thinking that she’s the counsellor, yes?) arrived to intervene in the real-world confrontation. Our parting shot of the real world showed everything calmed-down without showing any actual cause of this. The only assumption I can make is that the Other World doesn’t just parallel real world events, it can change their outcome as well. This, along with Mato seeing some of the Other World fighting in her dream pretty much confirms that in this version that events in the real and Other Worlds are running in parallel (rather than in the OVA, where, despite how things were initially presented, the battle in the Other World was revealed to be taking place AFTER the real world events). So I guess we can think of the plot of BRS like it’s the TWEWY combat system, if that helps.
POWUH: 400-499 with 410 comments
I agree that BGS is the alternate self of the counselor (self-prediction along with Tofu). No intervention in the real world? That we can’t tell, after all many things were left in mystery in the hospital scene.
True to say that the alternate world could change the outcome. But Mato doesn’t seem to be affected though. Looking at the changes of Kagari and Yomi who were having a ruckus in the room after Chariot died would explain the first reasoning. And Mato’s reaction would explain the latter reasoning.
POWUH: 400-499 with 410 comments
I as well was like “BGS!!! WHY YOU NOW COME OUT?!!!” I was also waiting for Yomi (Dead Master) and Kagari (Chariot) to be friends again… BGS WHY YOU NOW COME OUT!!!
POWUH: and Yaoi Fangirl~ with 2320 comments
Laughing so hard at the dramatic scenes. This show has the same humor level with Symphogear now when it comes to the dorama. I was pretty disappointed too with the reason why Yomi was stuck with that macaroon girl. Everything here is just so dramatic
Why is Chaos’s body not picking its head and put it back? If Black Rock Shooter has been slashed, pierced, and stepped on SO MANY TIMES and yet still alive, I’m sure Chaos can put her head back.
POWUH: 400-499 with 410 comments
Probably BRS blue flame allows her to permanently kill a character in the other world. Though it’s just my hypothesis.
POWUH: and Yaoi Fangirl~ with 2320 comments
If that’s the case, then isn’t unfair since BRS is the only one with that special flame? >.<
POWUH: 400-499 with 489 comments
kagari getting all Higurashi in the hospital
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
It was like an exorcism was going on in the hospital room. Kagari is a pint sized fruit cake with extra nuts.
POWUH: and Yaoi Fangirl~ with 2320 comments
Lol…The Exorcist