Black★Rock Shooter (song)

Black★Rock Shooter (ブラック★ロックシューター, Burakku Rokku Shūtā) is a song written by ryo of supercell and performed by Hatsune Miku. The song features huke's eponymous character, with a music video hosted on Niconico since June 13, 2008.

History
huke uploaded the illustration to Pixiv and his personal blog on December 26, 2007. The illustration inspired ryo to compose a song based on the character, surprising huke, who recognized ryo's previous works such as "Melt", when ryo contacted him for a collaborative project.

Music composition and lyrics were both produced by ryo, while huke as a new member of supercell provided artwork and animations for the video. The whole project took approximately half a year to complete. Although huke did not provide explanations behind his character's creations, ryo managed to write the lyrics solely based on his drawing, which would closely match huke's feelings on how he recovered from artist's slump via Black★Rock Shooter.

The music video was uploaded to NicoNico (then known as Nico Nico Douga) on June 13, 2008, which surpassed one million views by October. On April 11 2010 the video reached its 3 million views milestone. As of August 2021 the song "Black★Rock Shooter" was still among the top 30 of the most viewed Vocaloid songs on NicoNico.

Other media
"Black★Rock Shooter" is a playable song in several Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA rhythm games by SEGA, including Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA f (PlayStation Vita), Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F (PlayStation 3), and Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone (PlayStation 4). Hatsune Miku:Colorful Stage! will also include the song as part of a collaboration project with Black★★Rock Shooter DAWN FALL.

The song is also playable in several Bandai Namco's Taiko no Tatsujin rhythm games, such as Taiko no Tatsujin 14 and Taiko no Tatsujin (2011) on arcade,, Taiko no Tatsujin Wii: Minna de Party Sandaime on Nintendo Wii, and Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum 'n' Fun! (also known as Taiko no Tatsujin: Nintendo Switch Version!) on Nintendo Switch, with the last one available as part of a paid downloadable content.

Gallery

 * Full article: Black★Rock Shooter (song)/Gallery

Trivia

 * The song also serves as the opening theme for the Black★Rock Shooter TV anime series.
 * All of the episodes 2012 TV anime series are named after parts of the song's lyrics.