Black Rock Shooter

Black Rock Shooter (ブラック★ロックシューター), stylized as "Black★Rock Shooter", is a 2010 Japanese original video animation (OVA) produced by Yutaka Yamamoto's studio Ordet and directed by Shinobu Yoshioka. The 50-minute OVA is based on the song of the same name by Supercell and its accompanying music video with illustrations by Huke. Musical composer Ryo and Huke, both members of Supercell, collaborated on the project. A "Pilot Edition" of the anime was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc (BD) in September 2009, and the full version was released on DVDs bundled with select magazines from July 24, 2010 and is subtitled in seven languages.

Plot and characters
Black Rock Shooter begins at the start of the school year in April. On her first day of junior high school, Mato Kuroi (黒衣 マト) makes friends with a girl named Yomi Takanashi (小鳥遊 ヨミ) who recently moved to the town. Mato quickly joins the basketball club, which incites Yomi to join the volleyball club since both clubs practice at the same time in the gymnasium. The two spend much time together over the following year, and during one outing Mato gives Yomi the same cellphone charm she has. In their second year of junior high, they end up in different classes, reducing the amount of time they can spend together. Furthermore, Yomi starts to become jealous of Mato hanging around her basketball club manager and classmate Yuu (ユウ).

When Yomi seemingly disappears, Mato becomes concerned when she does not show up at school the next day or respond to her text messages. Mato becomes further depressed when she receives word that Yomi has been reported missing and is asked about her whereabouts by two detectives. One day, Mato receives a blank text message from Yomi and goes to her favorite spot in town where she finds the phone charm she gave her. The charm starts to glow and transports her to a strange world where she meets a mysterious girl named Black Rock Shooter (ブラック★ロックシューター), who has a blazing blue left eye and a rock cannon which can fire 20 shots per second. Mato merges with Black Rock Shooter in order to save Yomi who was possessed by an evil being called Dead Master (デッドマスター), who wields a large scythe. The events of their lengthy battle are dispersed throughout the animation. In the end, Mato manages to destroy the evil possessing Yomi by embracing her with a hug. The two return to their normal lives, but Yuu begins to act strangely.

Production
The origins of Black Rock Shooter date back to an original character illustration titled "Black Rock Shooter" by the artist Huke, who posted it on his blog and the online artist community Pixiv on December 26, 2007. Ryo of Supercell was inspired by the illustration and created the song "Black Rock Shooter" based on that character. Huke joined Supercell and provided the illustrations used in the music video of the song, which was later posed online on the Nico Nico Douga video sharing website on July 13, 2008, which as of August 2009 had over 2.2 million views. "Black Rock Shooter" features vocals from the Vocaloid singing synthesizer Hatsune Miku.

Produced by Yutaka Yamamoto's studio Ordet and directed by Shinobu Yoshioka, an original video animation (OVA) project based on "Black Rock Shooter" and its music video was announced on August 22, 2009. The screenplay was written by Nagaru Tanigawa and Shinobu Yoshioka, and character design was done by Yuusuke Matsuo. The music was composed by Ryo and the ending theme song is "Braveheart" performed by The Gomband.

A "Pilot Edition" of the anime was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc (BD) on September 30, 2009 by Good Smile Company. The pilot contains three short animated videos showing the same scenes from the anime while playing different versions of the song "Black Rock Shooter", much like in anime music videos. The first video uses the instrumental track from the original version of "Black Rock Shooter", the second video uses the "2M Mix" remix of the song with vocals by Hatsune Miku, and the third video uses the instrumental version of the "2M Mix". The DVD/BD also came bundled with an image booklet and a CD containing the vocal and instrumental versions of the "2M Mix".

The full 50-minute version of Black Rock Shooter is subtitled in seven languages, and was released as a free DVD bundled with Hobby Japan magazine on July 24, 2010. The OVA also came with Gakken's Megami Magazine on July 30, 2010 and Animedia magazine on August 10, 2010. Retail versions are planned for release on December 17, 2010 in special (BD+DVD) and regular (BD) editions. Both editions will come with a 30-second test short stop motion video as a bonus featuring a remix of "Black Rock Shooter" by Joe Hahn, the DJ of Linkin Park, as well as its making-of video.

Other media
A role-playing video game (RPG) based on Black Rock Shooter is in development.