Glorious Escapism Roleplay

Phil the Time Wizard · Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 8:10 pm Post subject: Black Rock Shooter

I wasn't entirely sure which section to place this topic in.

The phenomenon known as Black Rock Shooter started with a single piece of artwork. This picture of a cute scantily clad pie with a flaming eye and a giant gun:

Then it was this Miku Hatsune sung song by the band Supercell that brought the character even more attention:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLzOrik5YJ8

Following that, animation studio Ordet (who most notably for me, worked on Fractale with A-1 Pictures) released a full fifty minute OVA.

And now, Imageepoch (most well known for the Luminous Arc, but with a number of other RPGs under their belt) are hard at work producing a Black Rock Shooter video game for the PSP (which apparently is actually getting localized by NIS America).

So it's truly becoming something big. And I can see why. The character design is somewhat brilliant.

I just watched the OVA (and spent several minutes playing with my Black Rock Shooter Figma, but I'll talk about her in the figures topic later when I have time to take pics of her). Well I won't say it was perfect, it was certainly interesting and entertaining.

It's essentially the story of a sort of yuri flavored friendship between two cute Jr. High School girls who meet and become best friends. Interwoven between the segments of these cute girls spending time together are glimpses of the titular character in her much darker world putting her massive gun to good use in action sequences. It seems disjointed at first, and your not really sure how the two stories go together exactly until toward the end.

The whole thing is animated beautifully (between this and Fractale, I think I'm going to look out for this Ordet from now on....), but especially so in the action scenes which flow quite smoothly and are pretty awesome.

The biggest problem with the OVA is the time constraints. They had to jam the whole story into fifty minutes. Nothing is allowed to take very long. I would have loved to see the fight sequences last minutes more... but they had no time to pad anything out.

But it does hint at a sequel at some point. There's a sort of cliffhanger ending and a character (and I mean a character with an interesting, attention demanding design) who is featured at one point and then is never shown again or explained. So I might just get more at some point anyway.

All in all, I was more than pleased with the OVA. A good use of fifty minutes. When the game comes out, I may look at getting that too... We'll see.
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SatanicGlobeArtichoke · Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 8:35 pm Post subject:

She looks amazing... I definitely need to check out the OVA at least.
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I dare ya! I double dare ya, MOTHA F**KA!!

Phil the Time Wizard · Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 8:37 pm Post subject:

She is amazing.

OVA is cute.
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SatanicGlobeArtichoke · Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 9:30 pm Post subject:

The OVA was kinda strange, but it wasn't bad. I agree that it wasn't long enough for the material they were working with. The girl Black Rock Shooter especially wasn't in it enough; the fights were too few and too short.
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I dare ya! I double dare ya, MOTHA F**KA!!

Phil the Time Wizard · Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 10:58 pm Post subject:

Yeah. I definitely wanted Black Rock Shooter to be in her own OVA more. It was more about Mato's story, I guess. I'd complain more, but those sequences were all really cute (and full of yuri subtext).
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Rabukurafuto · Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 11:44 pm Post subject:

I love the story behind this.
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Where others are blind, I am futurely inclined
And you too could see, if you was widdle ol' me!

Phil the Time Wizard · Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 11:48 pm Post subject:

Heh. It is a rather interesting story. Kinda fun how stuff like this can just take off and become popular.
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Rabukurafuto · Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 11:51 pm Post subject:

Does the game go to the top of your list of what to buy in the future?
_________________

Where others are blind, I am futurely inclined
And you too could see, if you was widdle ol' me!

Phil the Time Wizard · Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 11:57 pm Post subject:

I'm not sure its at the top of my buy list. It's definitely toward the top of the list of games I'll be watching closely though. I want to hear a bit more details about the actual gameplay, however I imagine it will be something I pick up.
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Phil the Time Wizard · Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 11:39 pm Post subject:

Well... it seems whether the game will be released over here or not is up in the air, but I now have something else BRS related to look forward to:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-08-18/black-rock-shooter-gets-tv-anime-in-january

BRS TV anime. I imagine this shall be awesome.
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Rabukurafuto · Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2011 10:00 am Post subject:

I heard the game is definitely going to have an overseas release. Save up for a preorder, Phil.
_________________

Where others are blind, I am futurely inclined
And you too could see, if you was widdle ol' me!

Phil the Time Wizard · Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2011 8:18 pm Post subject:

Oh, wow. Just checked my gaming sites and you're right. It's been fully confirmed for release over here.

Good news after months of silence on the subject and speculation it wouldn't be released as Sony was kind of known to be discouraging new PSP titles in the months leading up to the release of their new handheld.

But that's great. I'm sure I'll probably get this. BRS is awesome.
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Rabukurafuto · Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2011 8:34 pm Post subject:

I am glad to make you happier
_________________

Where others are blind, I am futurely inclined
And you too could see, if you was widdle ol' me!

Phil the Time Wizard · Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2011 8:41 pm Post subject:

Heh. Yes. I am definitely excited for this.
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Rabukurafuto · Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 1:59 am Post subject:

Phil, would you pay extra for art books and figures if they had an American release?
_________________

Where others are blind, I am futurely inclined
And you too could see, if you was widdle ol' me!