Black★Rock Shooter (franchise)

Originally an illustration and a music video, Black★Rock Shooter has become a media franchise featuring multiple official derivative works that are based on huke's original character of the same name, including anime, games, manga, and physical merchandise.

Media franchise timeline

 * For Black★Rock Shooter merchandise release dates, see Merchandise.

History
Songwriter ryo decided to compose a song for Black★Rock Shooter when he saw huke's illustration and became inspired by the character's design. The resultant music video surpassed 1 million views within four months since its upload date on June 13, 2008. This caught the attention of Good Smile Company, a manufacturing company of figures and other hobby goods, which then partnered with huke to further develop Black★Rock Shooter into a media franchise. Good Smile Company revealed its first Black★Rock Shooter figure in Wonderful Hobby Life for You!! 9 in February 2009.

The president and CEO of Good Smile Company Takanori Aki contacted then founder of Ordet studio Yutaka Yamamoto to produce animation based on the song and its music video. In September 2009 Ordet released Black★Rock Shooter -Pilot Edition- - a preview of what would become the full original video animation in 2010.

2011 and 2012 saw much expansion to the media franchise. Major works included manga series, PSP game, and TV animated series. Although each work's plot and setting are independent from each other, they all share Black★Rock Shooter as the central element in different names and appearances. As a trademark holder Good Smile Company also released various merchandise for Black★Rock Shooter up to 2014.

On September 16 2021 the OVA website was revamped into an official portal site, and a new TV anime series named Black★★Rock Shooter DAWN FALL was also announced on the same day. On the original character illustration's 14th anniversary, G2 Studios announced the development of a mobile game for iOS and Android named Black★Rock Shooter FRAGMENT, which is scheduled to debut for Japanese market in Autumn 2022, with international release to follow sometime in 2023.

Other Appearances
Black★Rock Shooter and the related characters also make appearance as playable assets in several games, including but not limited to Nendoroid Generation, Weiß Schwarz, Chaos TCG Online, Lord of Vermilion Re:2, Witch Arms, and Punishing: Gray Raven.

External link

 * Official Portal Site