Black★Rock Shooter – 03
Now you have even more reasons not to trust adults…
~I swear this isn’t late due to procrastination. It’s late because of a lack of a proper internet connection *sob* But with no internet, meant no procrastination, which means I actually got this finished in a matter of three hours on Saturday. THAT’S A RECORD. So anyway…this episode opens up on a very bleak world where Black Gold Saw waters a section of ground that turns into budding people in hoods….
Meanwhile in the real world, it’s revealed through Yomi that Kagari is doing fine after her manic episode last week. She ended falling over and falling asleep at the end of the episode. The two happily walk on there way to school, until Yuu needs Mato to come with her to a meeting. At Basketball practice, Mato’s skills get her to be a semi-regular in the summer tournament and have a place at the training camp, as decreed by coach Koha. When Yuu and Mato are talking about it afterward, they discover Koha giving a confession letter to a boy! Yomi calls later in the evening as Mato is packing for the camp, but gets a little disheartened as she talks about Yuu the whole time.
In the Other world, Black Gold Saw catches the eyes of one shaking, hooded girl and gives her hand to her. Before she can make any such motion to take it, the ground begins to shake and rubble falls on some of the hooded figures. At the same time, Mato wakes up, this being her second dream of the Other world. She tells about these dreams to Yuu, who also had woken up. Yuu speculates that maybe these girls are helping endure her pain, just as the counselor, Saya, had said about someone taking away the pain. Mato thinks it wouldn’t make sense, and mentions about seeing one girl that seemed older than the rest of them…
As Mato and Yuu buy souvenirs at a store the next day, they spot Koha’s friends making a fuss over Koha buying a wooden sword for the guy she confessed to before she left. Meanwhile at school, Yomi comes in contact with Saya, but rushes off. Saya goes into the room and pulls out a yearbook that has red circles around Mato and Yomi’s names.
Even Yuu is stanning MatoxYomi~
At every mention of Yuu from Mato, Yomi seems to get more disheartened, even making a comment about her and Mato not being best friends. She continues to try her best though, happily talking with Mato at school. Once they turn into a hall, they spot a group of students around a bulletin board. Koha makes her entrance and spots her confession letter posted on the bulletin board! Everyone begins to laugh, including Koha, who takes the letter down and acts like it was her fault. Koha still seems cool about the incident as she drinks coffee at the counselor’s office, but Saya’s words and sudden tears slowly start to break down her strong exterior. She keeps mentioning the fact that they were laughing, and continue to laugh, at her, and that she’s now the joke of the school. The more Saya speaks, the more the room starts to grow darker until everything fades out…
Back in the Other world, Black Rock Shooter makes her appearance and shoots her canon at the group of hooded figures. She stands in the mass of the lifeless figures, discovering that one, the shaking girl in the beginning, is still alive.
Koha ends up tripping over a girl’s leg at basketball practice, twisting her ankle. Mato helps her to the Infirmary, where she reveals that she doesn’t like thinking that it’s someone else’s fault when something bad happens. She likes to think that it’s her fault so she can do something about it. Mato offers to bring a teacher to giver better first aid, but Koha commands her to go back to practice. As soon as she leaves, the room suddenly turns dark. Meanwhile Yomi sits at the counselor’s office and drinks her coffee, which was left bitter on purpose by Saya.
Black Rock Shooter continues to walk closer to the shaking figure, her hand reached out, but as it keeps retreating, her left eye turns ablaze. In a quick flash to the real world where Koha starts screaming, the figure falls to the ground, its head rolling away. Saya suddenly starts to shed tears and Mato discovers Koha collapsed on the floor.~
Look at Yomi and Mato getting all blushy-blushy when they called each other by their first names! I may poke fun at this show (a lot), but I really do like Mato and Yomi as pairing~. Speaking of pairings, THE JEALOUSY ENSUES IN THIS SOAP OPERA! The love triangle may be over, but that doesn’t mean these two can have a happy ending together yet. Poor Yomi is starting to doubt that they’ll become best friends because of Yuu, who’s been with Mato since Kindergarten. Either we’ll go back to the OVA where Yomi gets more of Mato’s attention and Yuu becomes jealous, or Yomi just continues to get jealous and have negative thoughts, which might bring back Dead Master. It’d be pretty sweet if she goes back to being as bad-ass as she was in the OVA. Then again we have yet to see Yuu’s Other world counterpart so I’ll just have to see how the story progresses. Also, I couldn’t believe how ridiculously anti-climatic the ending to Kagari’s storyline was; they ended up finally toning down the dramatics at the worst possible moment. It felt like such a cheap cop-out to start a new story…I mean, I’m glad we’re done with the arc, but I feel a bit cheated after getting so overwhelmed with that cliffhanger.
My speculations of the counselor being Black Gold Saw are nearly proven! I knew they didn’t just add her to be the caring adult who helps them with their problems. Some speculated it was going to be Koha because of her color, but she was just too cheerful and not as focused on (until this episode) as the other characters were. Saya, the counselor, knows all of their problems since she created a welcoming and trustworthy aura around herself so they’ll come willing to her. She can easily plant seeds of mistrust, doubt, and other negative aspects because of their trust in her advice. These negative thoughts grow in their minds, and can grow fast if they get watered by Saya’s words from constant visits to her. I want to say that in the parallel world, Black Gold Saw does the same, but creating, what I like to call, minions of pain, which represent these dark feelings that potentially lurk inside girls’ hearts. If they take her hand, they could possibly turn into something stronger, both in the real world and the parallel world, just as it had down to Kagari and Yomi and their counterparts. I assume Black Rock Shooter tries to stop and prevent these pains, these dark feelings, for all of them; just as cheerful and kind Mato would do for her friends in the real world. This could explain why she had to kill the potential counterpart for Koha, who just wouldn’t take her hand. It seems Saya now though is trying to get to Yomi, who has a delicate heart already. I’m curious though as to why Saya cried when BRS killed the growing minions and then the potential Koha one, and of course as to how this will affect Koha in the real world, seeing that she collapsed.
But why, WHY?! That is the ultimate question! Does Saya have connections to this Other world, or is she just some crazy adult who likes to pit middle school girls against each other? If she does have these connections, then how did she know about Mato and Yomi? Does she just want to pull them away because of some inter-working of fate that concerns them being together? Or does she just want to destroy Mato so she can destroy BRS, who’s quite powerful in the Other world? She could even be trying to build some kind of army against BRS so she needs to manipulate certain girls who know Mato to create these counterparts in the Other world. SO MANY QUESTIONS, SO MANY SPECULATIONS…Am I just over-thinking this now?~
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: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
AHAHAHAHA…HA
those hooded people totally looked more like a tentacle garden to me when they first started. I blame Hime.Yeah! I think the counselor and BGS are probably the same people too. The only question is why… And if they even know about the Other world. I mean, only Mato has said that she saw it so far.I know what you mean about the Kagari arc being anticlimatic. I was expecting her to have a huge final yandere moment or something, but nope. She’s 100% fine.
Overall though, it may be overly dramatic, but I’m really enjoying the slice of life DORAMA going on. They even did a really good job of incorporating the Other world and the real one so that we’re not sitting there in confusion wondering wtf BRS and Mato have to do with each other. Anyways, I’m looking forward to seeing Yomi go to the dark side. …Again.
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
I too think BGS = Saya, and I would think that BGS both knows and understands the other world, whereas Mato only knows about it.
POWUH: 400-499 with 410 comments
We all know that Saya=BGS. It’s just so obvious.
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
I was mainly assessing the knowledge of the dreams thing. It’s an interesting component of the anime. I don’t think anybody will ever have the ability to control their dreams, but I think Saya is wise enough to know how to manipulate others in the real world so as to reach a desired effect in the dream world.
I also like that I can call it Dream World now. Calling it other world or BRS world always kinda bugged me.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Oh yeah, Dream World sounds better.
POWUH: 800-899 and Self-proclaimed Manga Queen with 874 comments
…I’m still calling it the Other world.
But yeah I can agree with Saya being wise enough to know how to control others in the real world for a specific result in this other world or dream world. Maybe for the climax of the show Mato will be able to learn do the same thing.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Or we can call it Mirror World since it reflects on the characters.
POWUH: 400-499 with 410 comments
Dream world makes me think of Yumekui Merry. I’ll stick with Other world since the residents are the other self of residents of the Real world.
POWUH: 800-899 and Self-proclaimed Manga Queen with 874 comments
~In the beginning the slice of life didn’t seem to connect at all, but now it’s slowly starting to come together, which is very pleasing.
POWUH: 400-499 with 410 comments
Dead Master VS BRS Round 2 is definitely a YES.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
That match would be the highlight of this short series. If it does happen, I hope Dead Master brings her two “Dead Skulls” along.
POWUH: 400-499 with 410 comments
Aren’t those skulls suppose to be part of her trademark?
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Yeah, it’s one of the three weapons she uses in battle: Her primary weapon is her “Dead Scythe”. Her secondary weapons are her chains which serve as her mid-range weapons. Her third weapons are her large two “Dead Skulls” which serve as her partners in both her long-range and close-range combat. Three deadly weapons which makes her a very dangerous antagonistic character.
POWUH: 400-499 with 410 comments
Very true. That’s what makes her a difficult enemy to fight.
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
Koha’s other self got her head chopped off, so if what happened to Kagari/Chariot applies to Koha, that probably means she’ll be shooting basketballs all dandy and well the next day; like nothing ever happened! (It’d fit right in with that anitclimatic ending of Kagari’s that you mention.)
POWUH: 400-499 with 410 comments
I hope so but the cliffhanging isn’t convincing me that it’s like that. Who knows, maybe different people have different results though it’s just my assumption.
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
Yomi screamed at the end of ep. 2 as if Kagari had kicked the bucket, then they walk in > yandere face > nappy time > all cool.
It’d be cooler if there were serious repercussions to what happens in the dreams, but I don’t think Black Rock Shooter (the anime, not the titular character) would take that step. The show (to me) is not really dark enough in tone to kill off people.
POWUH: 800-899 and Self-proclaimed Manga Queen with 874 comments
~Yeah I don’t think they’ll start killing people off. It’d be interesting, but like you said, the show just isn’t that dark. I think the worst that can happen is some serious trauma.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
There are worse things to live thru than death…
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
Like what, reading one of my posts? < /selfdeprecation> 🙁
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Dude! That is not what I meant to imply!
POWUH: 400-499 with 410 comments
I knew it. Saya is so totally BGS. That look and smile literally prove my suspicion all too well. Besides that, her counselling target, Koha, is definitely that shaking hooded person. But why does Saya knows things that is happening in the Other world? And why Mato gets to know the Other world as well?
Back to the story. Like Hoshi mentioned, for the whole dramatism to die down at such a point is really cheating after cliffhanging us for a week. I was hoping for some memory loss or personality change.
The next plan of Saya aka BGS would probably be making Yomi distrust Mato in order to start a fight between BRS and Dead Master who had been MIA.
This episode’s drama scene would seem to have taken more than half of the whole episode. I want more action as well!!! Well, the whole drama plot was good and fits the moments in the Other world. Oh the flashing back and forth.
Hoshi, like you I may also be over-thinking too much things as the whole story plot is still a mystery. Too much questions and too much cliffhangings…
POWUH: 800-899 and Self-proclaimed Manga Queen with 874 comments
~I’m curious too as to how Saya, and slowly Mato, know about the Other world…
I was actually fine without all the action this time around because we got a lot more story progression done xD
POWUH: 400-499 with 410 comments
Ya. It is about to let us know that the main characters like BRS and BGS aren’t the only residents in the Other world and how it relates to the Real world.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Yōko Fanboy with 1246 comments
I had a look around in Randomc and for the crying scenes, I found something interesting which I do agree with Divine who covers BRS.
He stated that time where Saya mentions how someone else takes in your pain and suffering and linked it back to how BGS (a.k.a Saya) makes or manipulates the ‘children’ so she could forcefully ‘give away’ her pains and sufferings which is why when the ‘children’ were being slaughtered by BRS, she couldn’t hold in her tears and desperately pushed all her pain into Kohata. Since Kohata’s other self was killed off after failing to save her (talking about BRS in the dream world)which allowed all the pain and suffering to come rush back to Saya as we saw bursted into tears when talking to Yomi. ;D Anyways Hoshi, it will most definitely go into Yomi’s dark arc then Yuu’s then defeat Gold Saw (this is my guess and with how things are looking and the preview itself, it looks like it will come true) ^^
PS: Jrow, it feels weird calling it dream world because it reminds me of Yumekui merry 😛 I think I’ll stay with other world or alternate world.
POWUH: 800-899 and Self-proclaimed Manga Queen with 874 comments
~For some reason the episodes I download don’t come with previews so I don’t about it (」゜ロ゜)」
Hmmm, that’s interesting. I’m still a little confused though on what he means by saying she ‘forcefully gives away her pains and sufferings’.
I’m sticking with Other world too lol.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Yōko Fanboy with 1246 comments
it’s like, she brings in the students and like what she did to Kohata, she basically gave her own pain and suffering and put it into Kohata; making her go ‘big eyes’ during that very dark moment. I know the scene tells us how Saya talks to Kohata and that’s what makes Kohata start thinking about it all and getting all paranoid-ish with the big eyes and all but maybe that’s a certain method in putting Saya’s pain and suffering into others. Definitely enjoying this HEAPS! BRS keeps getting better and better ;D
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
Well, at least you gave it a try in your second paragraph XD
POWUH: Meta Resident and Yōko Fanboy with 1246 comments
ahahahaha yeah ^^ It sounded cool to use when you mentioned it but when I mentioned it in my comment, Yumekui Merry came up LOLS
POWUH: 400-499 with 410 comments
The whole ‘counselor being the bad guy in another world’ idea is exactly from Yumekui Merry.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Yōko Fanboy with 1246 comments
oh true! that teacher in Yumekui Merry… forgot about him… 😛
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Looks like I got the answer to the question I asked last week. If the girl BRS stabbed is Koha’s representation in Other World, then that makes Saya Black Gold Saw. But Saya definitely looks more than interested in “helping” Koha or anybody out with their issues. Moreover by her having a yearbook that has red circles around Mato and Yomi’s names. And making the room seem darker while being a little too emotional and speaking in a slightly sexual tone, she has the signs of a true psychopath.
I think the reason Saya was crying was because she felt something happened to Koha. If she is the real version of Black Gold Saw, it would make sense. BGS was trying to gain the hooded girl’s trust because she was scared before BRS came along and caused an uproar. Want I want to know is, what was her plan in the first place?
Wow, this is getting interesting. Yomi’s developing her own obsession for Mato and jealousy for everyone else around her, like being disheartened as Mato talks about Yuu the whole time. Do we have another love triangle on our hands? Mato x Yomi; Mato x Yuu.
It’s strange that Koha passed out after her other persona was killed by BRS. This is my assumption: Everytime someone is killed in Other World, the ones in the real world suffer some kind of trauma shortly afterwards like Kagari.
POWUH: 400-499 with 410 comments
Look back at Tofu’s comment on Divine’s idea about BGS (Saya) plan.
Dead Master (Yomi) will probably end up fighting with BRS (Mato) and BRS wins (Mato gets along with Yomi) which will cause Strength (Yuu) to fight BRS (Yuu being jealous of the relationship).
It’s true that people of the Real world will be affected in a way when their other self in the Other world is harmed.
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 243 comments
I think it’s more that, given the whole ‘Other World peeps take on the pain of problems’ (or something) thing, when your Other World, version dies, you’re forced to face up to all the suffering and problems that you’ve been pushing away. This is what causes the screaming and trauma-face, having all that pain suddenly shoot back at you at once. But it seems that this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it allows you to see clearly and address your problems in a way you couldn’t when you were just pushing them into the Other World.
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 243 comments
Wait, Koha is connected to the Other World? But… she doesn’t have the eyes!
POWUH: 400-499 with 410 comments
Assumption: The eyes is just a small hint of the relation between the main characters in the Real world and the Other world. Koha is probably just a minor character so there’s no need for the hint.
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 207 comments
A whole new sparks of thoughts and questions just rose from the grave!
With Saya not being all nice friendly counselor anymore, she really gives off such a creepy aura in this episode now XD. Though I do think I have to agree with the idea of when BRS kills anyone in the alternate world, then go through this huge trauma, but I think they’ll end up better in the end.
It is an interesting concept I think, though I still want to know if Saya actually knows anything about the other world.(Which I’m pretty sure she does, seeing that this episode made her the human version of Black Gold Saw).
POWUH: 400-499 with 410 comments
The questions just keep growing more as we proceed through the series.
Now, Saya probably will be going on the offense to distrust Yomi and later Yuu in order to cause their other self to fight BRS.
Saya probably knows the whole issue happening in the Other world and is trying to drag more people into BGS’s world of despair. (Let’s just say I’m just exaggerating things)
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 323 comments
same plot about a girl playing basketball then trip,then twisting her ankle ~~ BOOM somebody help her then something bad happen ~~
by the way , i like the part when Black Rock Shooter makes her appearance and shoots her canon at the group of hooded figures .
POWUH: 400-499 with 410 comments
Same plot as what?
BRS cracking through the ceiling is cool.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
That’s one of the ways a badass hero makes their entrance other than crashing through a window like what BRS did before finishing the fight against Chariot.
POWUH: 400-499 with 410 comments
Conclusion: BRS is a badass hero.
I agree.
POWUH: Novice (36-50) with 38 comments
I liked the part when nothing happened.
I mean, I watched, wrote a post on, and read every anime blog’s articles about episode 4 before I realized – whoops, I didn’t watch episode 3.
I guess episode 3 had A LOT of information, seeing as I didn’t realize I didn’t watch it until I had already published my episode 4 post and had already read every blog’s episode 4 post.
tl;dr: good direction