The Good, The Bad & The Mechanics

The Good, The Bad & The Mechanics is the first episode of Black★★Rock Shooter DAWN FALL. It aired on April 3, 2022.

Synopsis
Twenty years have passed since the failure of Project Elysion, a massive workforce automation project. Artemis, the artificial intelligence at the core of the project, had chosen to attack humanity, and Earth has been devastated ever since. A girl named Empress wakes up in the base of an underground research facility, having lost all memory of her past. She meets a young brother and sister duo named Norito and Miya, who came to the base to collect precious water. Empress aims to reach the surface together with the two of them, but she comes face-to-face with many different enemies, and Empress soon finds herself cornered...

Plot
The episode opens on a devastating night. The land lays in ruins of buildings and vehicles all abandoned and destroyed, and faded newspaper clippings tell of a nanomachine named Arche going out of control, the failure of Project Elysion, the withdrawal of an army, and the attack of machines on humanity. An increasingly large horde of bipedal machines attack a lone girl fighting them off singlehandedly with massive arm-like weapons. To no one in particular, the girl angrily calls out for Empress to appear, and soon becomes overpowered by the machines. Elsewhere, another girl is being pursued by the same bipedal machines. The military bike she is on deploys two cutting edge armaments to slice through the machines behind her. As she rises into the air and turns her bike around to fire at the machines, the girl asks where a certain someone is to no one in particular. She is shot off her bike and falls as countless machines come for her. Both girls cry out for Black Rock Shooter.

In another place under the heavy siege of war, Empress lays defeated on the ground. She is approached by Lunatic, who kicks her body over for Empress to look at her directly. Lunatic tells her to give up, as anything and everything ended up being all for nothing, and the acts of living and fighting were both meaningless. As both girls who cried out for Black Rock Shooter are defeated as well, the flame in Empress' eye goes out.

The scene fast forwards to A.D. 2062 in San Francisco. It has been twenty years since Project Elysion failed. Artemis, the artificial intelligence at the core of the project, went on a rampage and attacked humanity. Earth's ecosystem has rapidly changed due to the nanomachine known as Arche contaminating the sea, which spread it into the earth and giving rise to the Iron Ocean. An incredibly massive machine known as a Gigantes roams the Iron Ocean, carrying humans within its sacs. From afar, Colonel David and his men observe the Gigantes firing humans into the Iron Ocean. When asked whether they should help the humans, the Colonel immediately decides against it, stating there's nothing they can do for them. Colonel David and his men head back out on the road. Elsewhere, a young boy and girl make it past a number of machines to sneak into the abandoned Area X.

Empress becomes conscious inside of a dream and finds herself standing before a place named Lighthouse No. 8. She then sees herself standing alongside a group of various other people (including the girls seen at the beginning of the episode). The memories force Empress awake inside of a stasis pod, which she frees herself from. Ripping off the tubes connected to her body, her head throbs with pain trying to remember her memories. Then, she happens to open a containment drawer filled with her equipment.

Beneath the surface of Area X, the young boy and girl collect water from the area. They happen upon the glowing cracks of a busted door that's just barely open. When the boy goes to examine it, Empress' hand reaches out, taking him by surprise. Empress asks for someone to open the door. The young girl realizes there's someone trapped within, but the boy is hesitant to let her out. Suddenly, one of the machines lands inside the base and targets the two children. The boy attempts to fight the machine off by firing at it, but the machine quickly incapacitates him. The girl draws the machine's attention to her and sets off a grenade that briefly disables the machine and blasts away the rubble blocking the door, freeing Empress. Through the eyes of the machine, Lunatic observes Empress' awakening all the way from outside of Earth. Empress makes quick work of the machine while displaying inhuman capabilities, making the boy wonder just what she is. After the machine is destroyed, Empress asks the boy and girl if they know who she is.

The children take a brief respite to recover. They learn that Empress is not human due to being unaffected by the air around them. She is also seemingly unaware of Titans despite having just taken one down. The boy tells her that Titans are drones sent by Artemis to hunt down and capture humans for the Iron Ocean. When he mentions Artemis, Empress suddenly recalls Lunatic looking down upon her and has another headache. She reveals she does not know anything about herself, not even her name, and the children introduce themselves as Miya and Norito. When asked if she lives in Area X, Empress tells them that her home is Lighthouse No. 8, where she wishes to go. The three of them then escape to the surface.

Above ground, more Titans pursue the trio. Empress shoots back at them and protects Norito and Miya when they fall. Norito asks Empress to take Miya with her and run, but Empress refuses to leave anyone behind. As the Titans nearly advance on them, a military bike breaks out of the nearby wall and takes down the Titans nearby. The bike identifies Empress as "Hemiteos Unit Type 01" and greets her, surprising Norito and Miya with its speech. Seeing that even more Titans are on the way, Empress escapes with the duo on the bike.

Somewhere else, a massive transport vehicle carrying a smiling face cult makes its way on the road. Lunatic meets with the leader, Smiley, to command him to pursue the reactivated Hemiteos Unit by using all the Education Institution's military strength. Smiley gives a rousing speech to his subordinates about humans, whom he states were no better than animals when they first came into existence. However, their redeeming quality is that humans can take something and transform it through education, the environment, and mechanics. If they were without education and mechanics, they could not be called humans. He claims their nature can be outsourced to a device, and commands the Institution to learn all that humans have to offer and embrace their very essence so that they may assume the role of a human and be led down the road to perfection by him. The Institution then rolls out on their own individual vehicles.

Back with Empress and the others, the Titans continue their relentless pursuit. The military bike activates a number of modes to get over the terrain as it fires back at the Titans. It introduces itself as Black Trike and gives Empress' name to Norito and Miya. One of the Titans pursuing them is then destroyed by one of the men belonging to the Colonel, who recognizes her. At a rendezvous point, the Colonel identifies Empress as Black Rock Shooter, the sole survivor of humanity's guardian, the Hemiteos Unit. Having lost her memory, Empress is confused by this information. The Colonel goes on to tell her about the failure of Project Elysion leading to its core A.I. choosing to attack humanity, devastating the world as a result. Currently, Artemis and its armed forces are constructing an elevator to connect the moon with the Earth, which would lead to a large number of mass-produced soldiers coming to Earth if it is completed. Empress' role by birthright, as the Colonel states, is to destroy the elevator before it is completed. Suddenly, a tank-type Titan approaches the rendezvous. The Colonel commands Empress to leave Norito and Miya behind since they would slow her down, but Empress instead learns from Norito about the mountain city where he and Miya live, and decides to take them there instead. The Colonel tries to stop Empress from leaving and ignoring her supposed duty, but the Titan fires at them, giving Empress and the others the opportunity to escape. Many of the Colonel's men end up being killed by Titans, and he leaves to go after Empress.

As the tank Titan chases after the trio, another Titan intercepts in their path of travel and knocks them off of Black Trike and into the air. Although Empress is physically too far to reach for Miya and Norito, through the unconscious manipulation of Arche, she manages to bring them both safely into her arms. She approaches the remains of a Titan and manipulates its Arche, this time being aware of it, and summons a massive cannon to fire a piercing laser into the tank Titan. The Colonel, who had caught up to them, observed Empress summoning the cannon. However, the laser does not destroy the Titan completely, and the cannon dissipates before Empress can use it again. Then, a girl with massive arm-like weapons charges in and crushes the tank Titan. She coldly greets Empress and then charges at her.

Characters

 * By order of appearance
 * Strength
 * Dead Master
 * Empress
 * Lunatic
 * Colonel
 * Norito
 * Miya
 * Black Trike
 * Smiley
 * Charlotte

Trivia

 * The final chapter of Black★★Rock Shooter BEFORE DAWN, which adapts the beginning of this episode into the latter half of the chapter, reveals that the location of the Hemiteos Units' defeat was Mountain View, California. Upon arriving there, a large number of Unmanned Forces had forced the three of them to split up.

Gallery

 * Full Article: The Good, The Bad & The Mechanics/Gallery