Black★Rock Shooter (TV Anime episode)

Black★Rock Shooter is the fifth episode of the anime series of Black Rock Shooter. It aired on March 2, 2012 (Japanese) and April 9, 2012 (English).

Synopsis
In the morning, Yomi slowly brushes her hair.

In the strange other world, Black★Rock Shooter continues to fire at Dead Master's many minions. Meanwhile, Dead Master and Black★Gold Saw look on. Seeing that Black★Rock Shooter is winning, Dead Master sends her two skulls after her. They bond together and create a humanoid figure out of the corpses of the minions. Black★Gold Saw recedes into the liquid and vanishes.

Mato walks to the Takanashi residence with Yuu, apologizing for making her come along; Yuu says it's fine as long as Mato comes to practice regularly. Mato rings the bell and Yomi's mother comes over the intercom; Mato starts to speak, but, recognizing her, Yomi's mother immediately tells her to go home.

However, Yomi herself comes out onto the balcony. She greets Mato and Yuu and thanks them for picking her up. Mato starts to show concern about what her mother had said, but Yomi says it's okay and they walk off.

They walk to school awkwardly, with Yomi far in front of them, and nobody saying anything. Yomi turns around and notes that Mato is wearing the blue bracelet she made. Yomi turns to Yuu and tells her she also made her a bracelet, which matches Mato's; Yuu thanks her.

At practice, Mato feels something is off about Yomi, and Yuu says she thinks she knows. She pulls out the bracelet that Yomi made her - which is orange with a greenish-black streak - and says that she thinks Yomi put her hair in the bracelet.

When they are making collages in class, Mato sees Yomi hold up scissors to her hair and start cutting it. Mato pleads for her to stop as the class looks on, perturbed.

At Yomi's house, Yomi's mother looks sadly at Yomi's room, which is in tatters.

Yomi's mother ends up taking Yomi home. At school, the boys talk about how freaky Yomi was, while Mato looks at her desk sadly. She quietly protests in her mind as the class gossips about Yomi. Kagari walks up to Mato and asks if Yomi broke, saying that her heart has died. Incensed, Mato slaps Kagari. Kagari thinks on this and holds her face as Mato leaves the room.

Yuu enters Saya's room, asking if she had heard about what had happened. Yuu accuses Saya of doing this to Yomi, but Saya only says she gave her advice. Saya says that it'll only hurt for a while, because hearts regenerate the quickest when they're wounded, and then they'll never be hurt again.

Shocked, Yuu walks outside, and looks around. The shot pans back, revealing that Yuu does not have a shadow.

At home, Mato reads her book, Li'l Bird Li'l Bird Colorful Colors. She continues telling the story, saying that when the bird's wings grew dull from taking in all of the colors, they eventually became black, and the bird fell and died. She remembers what Kagari had said about Yomi's heart dying. She also remembers the dream she had, and wonders where the girl she had always seen had gone, and about all of those girls she keeps seeing, during which she has another dream.

Dead Master watches as the area explodes and Black★Rock Shooter finally flies through the air towards her. Black★Rock Shooter grabs Dead Master's scythe and begins to fight her. Black★Rock Shooter is wounded, bleeding a black-blue blood, but continues to fight. At the end of her dream, Mato protests against what Black★Rock Shooter is doing, saying that if Black★Rock Shooter continues like this, she might die.

Mato immediately wakes up and, refusing to accept this, starts to write on the book, writing an ending where the bird only thought she was falling, but then opened her eyes, found the white beauty of her wings again, and flew to new worlds. Mato starts to write anything she can come up with, including the bird getting married, and getting a perfect score on a test, as long as it is a happy ending, but drops the pencil and begins to cry.

Yomi is absent the next day. Saya calls to Mato as she is walking by her room and invites her in. She gives Mato black tea, and claims she hates coffee, because unless you put in lots of milk to make cafe au lait, it's actually dirty water. She says that coffee is good in many ways, however, and asks if Mato wants to save Yomi. Mato says that although she doesn't know what Saya means by "save", she does want to save her. Saya says that if so, Mato should die for her and strangles her - however, she quickly lets go of a shocked Mato, and says that she was kidding.

Completely shocked, Mato runs away, and Saya calls after her that "something special" is waiting at the art room and she should go check it out. She mutters to herself that she doesn't need to kill Mato today.

Mato runs away, wondering what happened to Saya because she used to be so nice. Mato drops by the art room, and says that she's a friend of Yomi; the others in the art club tell her to take a painting to her, because they don't want to keep it there. They show her the painting of Mato crying blood.

Mato thus comes to the conclusion that she was responsible for breaking Yomi, and this bothers her, to the point where she gets grazed by a ball in basketball practice. Because she is bleeding a bit, she is greeted by the manager, a girl Mato has never met - and Mato asks where Yuu is. The others ask who Yuu is, and claim this girl has always been the manager. Even Arata, when she comes over, does not know who Yuu is. The others worry over her as Mato runs off.

Mato remembers all of her memories of Yuu as she walks by, though Yuu's face is obscured in the shots, and Mato realizes her memories of Yuu are hazy. She runs to where she remembers Yuu's house to be, only to find a completely blank space there.

She is startled by Yuu on her right, who asks Mato if she wants to save Yomi. Yuu, for undisclosed reasons, is lacking a shadow. Yuu tells her that the world where a different Mato fights her grief really exists, as Dead Master and Black★Rock Shooter fight in that world. Yuu warns Mato that Mato's other self is shouldering all of her grief, and at this rate, she will be destroyed, but if that other "Mato" dies, Mato will be freed from her grief.

Yuu explains that this was what happened to Arata and Kagari, and that the death of their "other selves" cut off their attachments to the world and thus their grief. If the other Yomi dies, Yomi will be cut free of her grief. Yuu also warns Mato that because Mato is the primary cause of Yomi's current grief, if Yomi's other self dies, her feelings for Mato will die.

As she says this, Black★Rock Shooter gains the upper hand in the fight and aims at Dead Master.

Mato protests that it doesn't make sense, because grief isn't something that can be taken away in a simple fight. Mato says that grief should be resolved by talking and explaining points of view, not fighting with violence, and that relying on others for it is wrong.

Yuu says that she feels the same way. She says that she thinks of Mato as someone important. She says that she had no friends until she met Mato, and asks her if she really wants to save her Tiny Bird, if she wants to talk to her and resolve her differences that way. Mato says yes. Yuu says that it will be very painful, and tells her to come closer.

Their foreheads touch, and Mato falls unconscious. Mato finds herself in a strange middle-world, and Black★Rock Shooter's voice asks her if she is willing to do this, because she must face all of the pain and suffering she's gone through, and stop running from it. Mato affirms it, even after the voice asks if she is really sure. She shouts that she wants to save Yomi, and her left eye begins to glow with a blue flame.

Mato suddenly finds herself within Black★Rock Shooter, seeing Yomi within Dead Master, and the blade stabs Dead Master's. As Black★Rock Shooter's face remains calm, Mato begins to plead, "Why..."

In the real world, Mato's body is screaming and crying, as Yuu holds her hand and apologizes profusely, saying it was the only way, and sending her apologies to a certain name: Black★Rock Shooter.

Suddenly, the flame in Black★Rock Shooter's eye glows red, and it mixes with the blue flame. Her eyes turn purple. The white star breaks.

Characters
By order of appearance
 * Yomi Takanashi
 * Black★Rock Shooter
 * Dead Master
 * Black★Gold Saw
 * Mato Kuroi
 * Yuu Koutari
 * Yomi's Mother
 * Kagari Izuriha
 * Saya Irino
 * Strength
 * Arata Kohata
 * Insane Black★Rock Shooter

Unanswered Questions

 * What is the supernatural nature of Yuu? Why has everyone suddenly forgotten her?
 * Yuu might be the actual Strength or Strength doesn't have any other human counterparts at all.
 * How could Yomi have known how to paint a picture of Insane Black★Rock Shooter?
 * How did Yuu know about the other world.