My Eye - B★RS OVA Review

The very first scene is BRS fighting BGS [BlackGold Saw... whose saw is not Gold but rather Bronze-ish]. For those of you who are wondering, this is supposed to be a scene before everything else happened. Perhaps this could signify an already pre-existing or an ended feud between Mato and an old friend. Her lost to Black Gold Saw could also mean that Mato had already lost a friend in the past.

I have to say, the episode started very preppy! First thing that came into my mind was Yui, and damn it got me all excited to get to the latter part! From here, it’s easy to tell that the Adaptation would be of the Slice-of-Life Genre with a hint of grim creative juices. Unlike your everyday anime, the thing I found most disappointing about the first half of the episode was that there were too much dead points, so much so that it made those parts look more of a video-montage rather than a narrated event. And I’m guilty of nearly falling asleep on the first half of the episode. Hey, don’t think I hated the anime! Despite these first-looks, I ended up loving it!

It starts off with a normal school girl, Mato – entering First Year High. She makes a friend and such and blah blah blah. I’m not going to narrate it anymore since this is supposed to be a review. =____=

The second thing I liked about the anime was how it was very faithful to Huke’s concept. In fact, the producer was able to adapt so much “Concept Arts” from Huke and fans alike into the episode. Though as a viewer who’s not much into the franchise, (and just being part of the hype because hey, it’s a new anime) I must say to a certain extent that the faithfulness was a bit overdone. It started to seem as if those scenes were merely pictures you find in Google when you search “BlackRock Shooter” except this time, they move! To be more specific, these were the scenes where BRS was walking to DeadMaster’s Castle. Well, since I’m already speaking Graphics-wise, I guess it’s also good to say that the artwork was definitely new... in the BRS World at least. How I would LOVE to see this in HD!

The third thing I liked about the episode or perhaps the rest to come, is the story! You get to appreciate this when you reach the second half of the episode where the whole thing just picks up its pace! It’s a very very interesting and mind-boggling concept! Perhaps a normal viewer would think of it as merely confusing, but we would like to dwell into the story. First thing that came into my mind... What really was this BRS World in context of the Real World?

After finishing the episode, I came up with a pretty basic conclusion. First off, it was pretty obvious that the BRS World was a reflection of the Real World characters’ feelings or emotions - when the tension between relationships in the Real World heat up, a battle scene occurs in the BRS World. On the other hand, you may ask that if that’s so, then why was BRS and DeadMaster enemies all the while when in fact, Mato and Yomi were good friends?

That brings me to my second conclusion. The BRS World was not only a reflection of emotions, but it was also a reflection of character. Though Yomi and Mato may be good friends in the Real Life, BRS is struggling against DeadMaster in the BRS World. Why? I believe that DeadMaster didn’t merely reflect Yomi’s ongoing emotions, but also her insecurities. Remember... Yomi kept on moving multiple times ever since she was born, and so almost nothing remained memorable to her. From this, you can infer that one of Yomi’s insecurity is building relationships. Just think, if you kept on moving a lot, the value of friendship becomes short-term and even sometimes completely loses its value. So even though Yomi was showing a good sign of a growing relationship, DeadMaster still reflected her insecurity, and BRS couldn’t get through to her. Remember the scenes where BRS would choose not to start the fight? And instead would reach out her hand to DeadMaster. This shows BRS trying to get through to Yomi’s insecurity of not being able to hold on to a certain relationship.

It’s simply amazing how such genuine ideas could be produced out of an artwork by Huke, and a song by Miku!

Somewhere along the way Yomi loses herself to jealousy, and gets completely eaten up by DeadMaster. Somehow, this allows you to infer that there is a direct link between the BRS World and the Real World. They were closely related dimensions, and not merely simultaneously existing dimensions. The cause of this fall of Yomi is due to Yuu, which brings me to my next and last conclusion about the BRS World.

Aside from those mentioned above, the BRS World happens to also be a guide that can help you infer or tell what’s about to happen... it was a portal to the character’s futures and what grave roles they are about to play. All the while that BRS and DeadMaster were fighting, a new BRS World character was often shown. I’m not sure of her name, nor is her profile seen in Huke’s portfolios, but I believe she is now known as STR [the girl with heavy gauntlets as a weapon]. It was quite obvious that she would be the alter-ego of Yuu – Mato’s new friend who gave birth to Yomi’s jealousy. At first, STR was shown passive, and idle in the BRS World. But once Yuu started getting in between Yomi and Mato’s friendship, STR eventually stepped down from the cliff. This helps you foretell that she would be a big character in the future. But whether she would help BRS, DeadMaster, or be a character of her own – these were all unsure at this point. We just can tell that she definitely will hold a big role.

At the latter part of the episode, BRS was able to contact Mato when she was nearly beaten by a disarmed DeadMaster. After gaining contact with Mato, she was able to break free and grab DeadMaster, only to give her one sweet hug! DeadMaster was fighting it off, trying to break free off of BRS’ hug but ends up failing. Her struggle to break free from BRS was another reflection of Yomi’s insecurities against having friends. DeadMaster then leaves Yomi’s body and burn into ashes.

This is what really got me excited about the upcoming episodes! It’s not really STR’s presence, or the revelation of Yuu’s envy later on. It’s the Merging of BRS and Mato that made me very very very excited about the upcoming episodes! First it made me think that the next few episodes would already be BRS World-centric instead of the Real World-centric theme of the first episode. Having made the definite link between the two worlds, we can tell that the next few instalments would already focus on the BRS World, but hopefully, still having the same depth of relation to the Real World as shown by this first episode.

And of course, now we find out why STR stepped off the cliff from which she was idle in. She’s now gonna play an essential role in the game. And I guess we can tell that she’s gonna be another enemy, seeing that she got pretty jealous of Yomi and Mato getting back together again. Well, only time will tell who STR really will be.

- END –

As for BlackGold Saw though, I haven’t really seen any clues as to who she really is. The only thing I could easily tell is that the prologue scene of the episode [BRS versus BGS] is merely an add-on scene to start off the episode. It’s a scene from before the story. Investigating truly is fun.

Credit: Thank you to Actar for the screenies, though I didn’t really ask his permission. XD

By the way, I watched this episode through Online Streaming. I’m sorry for whoever was affected by me doing this, but I’ve really grown impatient and I just HAD to watch it! I’m now hunting locally for HobbyJapan so I can acquire the HD-DVD of the episode.

As for the three girls [BRS, BGS, and DeadMaster] who're about to be Figmatized, I've already ordered BRS in four local stores, and DeadMaster in one. Still waiting for BGS. Also ordered NendoPucchi+BluRay.. it's actually the first time I've ever planned to complete a Figma-roster from one anime.