Strength (TV Anime Character)

Strength (ストレングス) is the incarnation of the Strength character in Black★Rock Shooter 2012 anime. She is the "other self" of Yuu Koutari.

Appearance
Strength has tan skin, and wears a black hood that covers her mouth. The hood has a white flame pattern and a matching white zipper.She is rather short, even more so than Black Rock Shooter. She also wears a matching black dress with a white rim, along with white thighhighs, and metallic black shoes. She also has a large, black scorpion-like tail, which appears to be mechanical. Underneath her weapons on her arms are black elbow gloves. Her figure has a thin upper body but thicker, sturdy legs (needed to balance her ogre arms). She is 158cm tall.

Like all of the "other selves" in the anime, her orange eyes have a circular pattern in them. In Episode 7, it was revealed her eyes were originally white and without a circular pattern in them, just like her original concept. After she gained emotions, her eyes turned orange.

Her weapon of choice is the Ogre Arm. This pair of mechanised arms allow her to punch her opponents with great strength (enough to knock Insane Black★Rock Shooter several yards and into various objects) and break open the floor of the other world to access new areas.

Her secondary weapon is her mechanical tail, which she uses when her arms are preoccupied. The tail can extend a short distance and is powerful enough to break Insane Black★Rock Shooter's Insane Blade Claw.

Personality
She is a kind person, more kind than any other otherself shown. She is shown to be rather desperate in serious situations, often making irrational decisions. But she has a wise type of nature and appreciates the real world and its beauty more than anybody else. She is shown to have a slight fear of Black Rock Shooter and her violent ways but a respect for her as well.

History
She is first introduced in Episode 4, in which she is seen dragging the beheaded Chariot behind her, and then throwing the body off of a cliff, after which the red eyes of Black★Gold Saw start appearing in the sky.

Later, while dreaming Mato briefly sees Strength standing in the same area where she was before, but does not take much notice because the scene quickly changes.

While Black★Gold Saw and Insane Black★Rock Shooter are fighting, she drags away the body of Dead Master to the same abyss she threw Chariot in. After the fight between Black★Gold Saw and Insane Black★Rock Shooter, Strength saves Black★Gold Saw and, demonstrating the ability to manipulate the Otherworld, transports them all to another region and moves Black★Gold saw away for her own protection. She then fights Insane Black★Rock Shooter, using the immense strength of her Ogre Arms and her reality-altering abilites to gain the upper hand in the battle. She manages to crush Insane Black★Rock Shooter against a wall and then swings both of her fists down on her.

However, Insane Black★Rock Shooter again gains the upper hand. Strength fights back using machine guns and gatling guns in her Ogre Arms, but is again overpowered. She then seems to go insane and seems to enjoy getting hurt; she even activates all of the Insane Cannon Lance's vulcans at once to injure herself. The world they are fighting in is consumed by fire and "Strength" reveals herself to be the real Yuu, and Strength is the Yuu that Mato befriended. She then activates two more Ogre Arms on her back and easily beats Insane Black★Rock Shooter, throwing her onto a ledge. Strength then explains to Mato about the "other selves" of the Otherworld, how they are born from the grief and despair of the girls in the real world, and how the "other selves" do not have emotions, and are stimulated by their raw fighting instinct. She then tells Mato about how she fought Black★Rock Shooter, and while neither had the ability to feel emotions, Strength could sense that Black★Rock Shooter was exceptionally powerful; they fought, and Strength was defeated. Before Strength was about to die, Yuu had called out to her, and had gained emotions after she called out to Strength, turning her eyes orange.

Abilities
Despite her seemingly heavy weaponry, Strength is fast enough to beat down Insane Black★Rock Shooter and evade her attacks. Strength can also change her arms to become machine guns or gatling guns, which have an extremely high rate of fire. She can also deploy at least two more arms from her back. Strength also shows the ability to alter the Otherworld, similar to Black★Gold Saw. A good example of this is during her fight with iBRS; she teleports and switches places with a large block to strike iBRS from behind. Strength may also have pyrokinesis abilities, as she demonstrated the ability to manipulate fire, expanding it through the entire floor, creating streams of fire that can lead to her enemy. One feature of these flames is that they can touch things as if they were solid objects.

Trivia

 * Her blood is white.
 * In Episode 7, it is revealed the original Yuu Koutari switched places with the original Strength. The former was Saya's childhood friend, and the latter became Mato's friend. It is also revealed the Strength fighting Insane Black★Rock Shooter was actually Yuu, and the Yuu in the real world was actually Strength.
 * It was never revealed how Yuu was able to communicate with Strength, nor how they switched places. The only other person capable of this is Saya Irino with her other self Black Gold Saw.
 * Strength is the only other self shown to be capable of dialogue, doing so by moving her mouth to speak instead of echoing words without moving her mouth. This may be because she is not really Strength and actually Yuu in Strength's body.
 * Strength is the only "other self" who does not have pale skin.
 * She is one of two "other selves" whose weapons are attached to their body. The other is Chariot.

Gallery

 * Full article: Strength (TV Anime Character)/Gallery