OVA Review: Black Rock Shooter

Flaming eyeballs? There's a Visine for that.

In case you’re unfamiliar, Black Rock Shooter was originally a character designed by the Japanese artist Huke, which the band Supercell adapted into a wildly popular Hatsune Miku music video. The video itself doesn’t feature much plot; it’s just the titular protagonist travelling around a post-apocalyptic world, looking all emo and angsty. That means when Yutaka Yamamoto and Studio Ordet decided to make a full-length original video animation from this concept for their first independent project, they had their work cut out for them. Not only did they have to prove their little startup studio could produce quality anime, they had to create an entire universe and mythology for Black Rock Shooter from scratch.

So, did they succeed? Did Studio Ordet prove it could hold its own against the older, larger and better-funded anime studios? Sadly, no. This OVA was a disappointment on nearly every level. It’s a pity, since there’s a really interesting concept here. Unfortunately, it was dragged down by poor animation, badly paced storytelling and low production values.

Read more after the break.

Continue reading

Black Rock Shooter and Project Diva Trailers Released

The first trailer for the Hatsune Miku / Studio Ordet collaboration Black Rock Shooter has been posted on YouTube… and it looks AWESOME.

As you may recall from one of our previous posts, Black Rock Shooter is an anime project being developed by Yutaka Yamamoto’s Studio Ordet, and is based on the popular Hatsune Miku song of the same name. It is currently slated for a Spring 2010 release. The project will be directed by Shinobu Yoshioka, an episode director from Haruhi, Lucky Star and Kannagi, as well as one of the many Kyoto Animation employees who left the company in 2007 and joined Ordet.

Continue reading

Yamakan and Vocaloid Join Forces

Yamamoto Yutaka, the famous director of the first Haruhi season, as well as his studio Ordet, have announced that they are producing an “anime project” for the Vocaloid song Black Rock Shooter. Although the format of the project is unrevealed, speculation is leaning towards an animated music video for the song. The anime is due for release next April, although a “pilot version” will be released on September 30th. This pilot release, which includes a CD single and a booklet with anime artwork, also includes a DVD (or Blu-ray) that may contain a preview of the anime.

Here are some screenshots from the project, which can also be viewed on the Black Rock Shooter website.

Continue reading