Black★Rock Shooter (TV Anime)

Black★Rock Shooter (ブラック★ロックシューター, Burakku Rokku Shūtā) is an anime series based on the Black★Rock Shooter Concept, and is the second animated project to do so.

Development
The anime series is produced by the animation studio Ordet and directed by Shinobu Yoshioka. The series appears to be heavily related to the concept of the Black★Rock Shooter OVA, which involves two girls whose friendship is tested when they are dragged into an alternate world. The series is released in the noitaminA timeslot and the first episode aired on February 2nd, 2012. The series has a total of 8 episodes.

All main characters from the OVA reappear in the anime. The human characters, Mato Kuroi (Kana Hanazawa), Yomi Takanashi (Miyuki Sawashiro) and Yuu Koutari (Kana Asumi). . The other selves, Black★Rock Shooter, Dead Master, Strength, and Black★Gold Saw also reappear in the anime. These characters have been redesigned for the anime, which is particularly noticeable with Yomi and Dead Master.

Aside from the OVA characters, several new characters appear in the anime. New human characters include Saya Irino (Mamiko Noto), a school counselor, Kagari Izuriha (Eri Kitamura), a childhood friend of Yomi, and Arata Kohata (Manami Numakura), a student that attends the same school as Mato and Yomi. A new other self named Chariot also appears in the anime.

Insane Black★Rock Shooter also makes her very first appearance in a BRS series as the main antagonist.

Trivia

 * The anime seems to be corresponding to the flow of the Major Arcana cards of a tarot deck starting from the Fool card all the way to the world and ending back on the fool again. Asides from the first episode where the first 5 cards of the deck, namely, the Fool, the Magician, the Emperor, the Empress, and the Hierophant are seen present, each episode represents the flow of 4 cards where the first card is the ending card of a previous episode. There are cases where the meanings of certain cards in the episodes are the representation of a reversed card.
 * Asides from Chariot and Strength who have names corresponding to the respective Arcana card, it could be implied that Dead Master, Black Rock Shooter and Black Gold Saw have small representations in the deck, with Dead Master representing the Death card, Black Rock Shooter as the Star card and Black Gold Saw as the Devil Card.
 * The order of the cards in each episode do correlate to an event that also occurs in Mato's world.