Black★Rock Shooter (TV Anime Character)

"I'm going to keep fighting. I have to embrace these wounds, this pain. Because my fight won't end... until my world does."

- Black★Rock Shooter in Let's Go Beyond This World

Black★Rock Shooter (ブラック★ロックシューター, Burakku★Rokku Shūtā) is the incarnation of the Black★Rock Shooter character in Black★Rock Shooter 2012 anime. She is the other self of Mato Kuroi.

Appearance
Black★Rock Shooter has blue eyes and long dark blue hair tied into spiky asymmetrical high twintails (the right being shorter than the left). She wears a hooded black trench coat adorned with single white stripes down the sleeves, a small white star in the front, and a larger star on the back. The tails of her coat are attached by three zippers, two horizontal around the waistline and one vertical down the lower half of her coat. Her open coat reveals a bikini top and a pair of hot pants with a black and white belt worn in a cross-shaped manner over another belt. She also wears knee-high boots with white soles, the underside of which has a star on the footprint.

Her blue eyes have a circular pattern with white pupils in them.

Personality
As Mato's other self, Black★Rock Shooter represents her self-sacrificial personality to the extreme in the form of someone who takes the worst feelings of other people and strikes them down in cold blood. Whereas Mato sets aside her own feelings to help other people, Black★Rock Shooter stops at nothing to destroy the other selves of the people Mato comes into contact with, effectively ending the pain that those people and their other selves feel. Initially, Black★Rock Shooter reflects Mato's desire to help Yomi Takanashi become independent of her relationship with Kagari Izuriha by saving Dead Master from Chariot, though later she treats Dead Master the same as the other selves whom she stops at nothing to destroy.

Black★Rock Shooter understands her purpose as an other self very well. She believes Mato wanting to feel her own pain or claiming not to hurt people is hypocritical, because by hurting Mato to show her the pain that Black★Rock Shooter goes through on her behalf, she's only hurting herself. Nevertheless, Black★Rock Shooter has the same love for her human counterpart that all the other selves have for their human counterparts, and she vows to continue fighting and bearing pain in the Hollow World.

History
Prior to the beginning of the series, Strength encountered Black★Rock Shooter and the two of them fought purely on instinct. While they were fighting, Strength was pushed back and fell off a cliff behind her. She nearly died from the fall, but then she heard Yuu Koutari's voice, allowing her to feel emotions for the first time and sense how much Yuu was truly suffering. Knowing that she could take Yuu's pain with her if she were to die, Strength planned to let Black★Rock Shooter kill her so Yuu could forget her pain. Strength found Black★Rock Shooter mercilessly slaughtering other selves, but she did not go through with her plan and left without being noticed.

Black★Rock Shooter first appears at the beginning of How Much More Do I Have to Scream?, where she lays atop a ledge in an area of the Hollow World. She gets up as massive spikes unfold in the vicinity around her, and she turns around, sensing one of the eyes of Black Gold Saw watching her from the abyss below. A massive King Saw erupts from the abyss, just missing Black★Rock Shooter, who summons her ★Rock Cannon and fires at the eye of Black Gold Saw. Later, Black★Rock Shooter sits atop a pipe-like structure, looking back at the eyes of Black Gold Saw watching her from afar. She puts her hood up and leaves to head off somewhere.

On her way, a trail of green mist moving the opposite way catches her attention. Black★Rock Shooter follows the mist towards an opening that leads to a pink-colored area of the Hollow World, where doll parts and sewing buttons among various other items lay strewn about. Eventually, she finds a doll house in the sky that is revealed to be the source of the green mist trail. Then, a voice saying to go away echoes in the area, making Black★Rock Shooter wary. She is about to continue exploring when a large legged-vehicle runs her over and pierces her with its legs. The vehicle turns around to attack Black★Rock Shooter again, who narrowly dodges but is caught up in spikes that suddenly protrude from the wheels. The vehicle pins her down after she is sent flying, and Chariot personally lands on Black★Rock Shooter's body, tossing macarons on her face as Kagari's voice saying to go away echoes again.

Black★Rock Shooter is able to get free later, and she summons her ★Rock Cannon to fire at Chariot's vehicle. She attempts to directly shoot at Chariot, but chains appear to intervene and restrain her against a wall, preventing her from fighting back. Black★Rock Shooter looks to her side and sees Dead Master as the one who summoned the chains. She looks up to see the eye of Black Gold Saw looking down on her, and then looks ahead of her to see Chariot raise the legs of her vehicle and directly impale her with them. Black★Rock Shooter silently screams in pain as she looks up at Black Gold Saw watching her from above.

She continues being attacked by Chariot and her vehicle into Dawn Envelopes the Sky. Black★Rock Shooter attempts to run as macarons are fired at her, launching her into a curtain just ahead of a ledge that Chariot's vehicle runs off of. She takes this opportunity to again attempt to shoot at Chariot, but chains intervene and restrain her once more, this time bringing her face-to-face with Dead Master. Dead Master attempts to crush her with the chains binding her, but Black★Rock Shooter reverses the chains to bind Dead Master instead and kicks her away. The impact reveals a heart-shaped scar above Dead Master's chest, and Black★Rock Shooter relents once she sees the scar. Suddenly, a large group of spiders carry Dead Master away, and Black★Rock Shooter gives chase, leading her to the house in the sky. Black★Rock Shooter breaks into the house to find a grotesque doll in a chair, with spiders crawling out of its face. She breaks open the doll with her bare hands and discovers a chained-up Dead Master within it. Just as Black★Rock Shooter is about to reach out to her, Chariot intervenes on her vehicle and attacks Black★Rock Shooter again.

As they fight, the conflict between Mato and Kagari in the real world intensifies with Yomi in the middle of it. Chariot's vehicle fires a massive wave of macarons, prompting Black★Rock Shooter to transform her ★Rock Cannon into a gatling gun to break through the wave. The overwhelming firepower destroys Chariot's vehicle, but Chariot takes to the battlefield herself to continue fighting Black★Rock Shooter. Chariot is evenly matched with Black★Rock Shooter, who takes out her Black Blade to fight up close with her. However, Dead Master begins to pull of the chains binding her to a stone heart in the sky, killing the spiders around her and distracting Chariot. Black★Rock Shooter takes the opportunity to break Chariot's wheeled legs under the weight of her shield. In the real world, Yomi gains the confidence from Mato to persuade Kagari to change, leading to Dead Master breaking free of her chains and shattering the stone heart in the sky, causing the destruction of Chariot's world. Black★Rock Shooter and Chariot look up as everything begins to be swallowed up with Chariot herself nearly swept up in the destruction.

But before any of the other selves even realize it, Black Gold Saw suddenly appears and halts the destruction of the area around them. Black Gold Saw then drives Dead Master into a fissure and vanishes soon after. Black★Rock Shooter takes a defensive stance against the King Saw that she left behind before realizing Black Gold Saw was gone. The King Saw vanishes as well, and while Black★Rock Shooter is distracted, Chariot makes one last effort to stab Black★Rock Shooter, who turns around in time to behead her, igniting the blue flame in her eye as she does so. As the debris surrounding them rushes forward, Kagari screams in the real world.

In Tears Held Back Threaten to Spill Over, the Incomplete Girls created by Black Gold Saw sense Black★Rock Shooter approaching. Soon enough, Black★Rock Shooter breaks into Black Gold Saw's area of the Hollow World, and her entrance causes debris to fall on and kill a number of Incomplete Girls. The remaining Incomplete Girls are killed by Black★Rock Shooter herself, who fires at every one of them. Black Gold Saw escapes, leaving the Incomplete Girls behind. The only one of their kind left alive by the end is Arata's "Other Self", whom Black★Rock Shooter offers her hand out to. Arata's Other Self trembles in fear of her and backs away. Eventually, Black★Rock Shooter ignites the flame in her eye and beheads Arata's Other Self, causing Arata Kohata in the real world to scream and pass out.

In The World I Once Dreamt Of Closes, Black★Rock Shooter appears in Dead Master's area of the Hollow World, heading for the vortex of chains where Dead Master lays deep within as Yomi's darker feelings continue to grow in the real world. After Yomi breaks down, the vortex of chains explodes, giving rise to numerous pillars, legions of skeletal soldiers, and a throne for Dead Master that all make up her world. Dead Master steps forth and sends one of her skulls to knock Black★Rock Shooter away. As Dead Master and her army of the dead loom before her, Black★Rock Shooter summons her ★Rock Cannon and fires.

Black★Rock Shooter's battle against Dead Master's army of the dead is well underway in the next episode, Black★Rock Shooter. Her ★Rock Cannon has been transformed into a double gatling gun relentlessly firing upon the advancing army. A giant soldier attempts to crush Black★Rock Shooter with its hammer while she is immobile, but Black★Rock Shooter transforms her cannon back to its default form and destroys the giant soldier. As the soldiers show to be no match for Black★Rock Shooter's fighting prowess, Dead Master sends her two skulls after Black★Rock Shooter. The skulls use the innumerable skeletal soldiers to form a massive body beneath themselves and attempt to slam Black★Rock Shooter with its hands. Unbeknownst to her, Black Gold Saw observes the battle from afar.

The continuation of the battle is seen by Mato in her dream. Black★Rock Shooter manages to destroy the giant formed by the skulls and the army of the dead, leaving her to clash directly with Dead Master. Mato cries out for them to stop fighting and wakes up from her dream. Later, as Yuu Koutari tells Mato about the Hollow World and the other selves, Black★Rock Shooter continues to fight Dead Master until their battle comes to a head when she stabs Dead Master. Moments before this happens, Yuu sends Mato's consciousness to the Hollow World, where Mato hears Black★Rock Shooter's voice (though she does not know who the voice is) ask her if she really wants to save Yomi, for it means she must face all the pain and suffering she has run away from. Mato declares she wants to save Yomi and ignites a blue flame in her eye.

Mato then finds herself within Black★Rock Shooter, and from her perspective, sees Yomi before her. However, she is horrified to find her stabbed before her eyes. Dead Master screams, causing the destruction of her world to swirl around herself and Black★Rock Shooter. As Dead Master's body slides off Black★Rock Shooter's blade and falls to the ground, Mato is traumatized by the sight, and her unconscious body in the real world cries. Yuu holds her hand and apologizes profusely to Mato, saying it was the only way. She then apologizes to Black★Rock Shooter, who is consequently affected by Mato's mental trauma. As a sign of this, the blue flame in her eye merges with a red flame and turns it purple.

Spikes then penetrate into Black★Rock Shooter's body as she spills purple-colored blood and undergoes a gruesome transformation into Insane Black★Rock Shooter. She remains in her insane state until Let's Go Beyond This World, where Mato (who manages to separate herself from Black★Rock Shooter and take on the latter's appearance in her normal state) summons a gigantic ★Rock Cannon that fires a rainbow-colored blast at Insane Black★Rock Shooter, annihilating her and returning her to her normal state.

Black★Rock Shooter, now back to normal, stands atop a cliff, looking down on Mato and Yuu Koutari around the dying Strength. She smiles at Mato as the latter looks back at her and realizes that Black★Rock Shooter and the other selves choose to fight out of love for their human counterparts. After Strength's body breaks apart and dyes the sky of the Hollow World with a million colors, Mato briefly sees Black★Rock Shooter leave, and thanks her as her consciousness returns to the real world. Black★Rock Shooter's voice tells Mato never to forget that she is loved.

In the post-credits scene, Strength comes back to life in her own body. Behind her, Black★Rock Shooter dons her coat, and she turns around to hear Black★Rock Shooter vow that she will continue fighting and bearing the pain in the Hollow World.

Abilities
Black★Rock Shooter is shown to be an incredibly proficient fighter. Wasting no time in her movement, she takes in every aspect of whatever fight she is currently in and learns to adapt to it. She can wield both her signature weapons, the ★Rock Cannon and the Black Blade, at the same time or either of the two alone with ease depending on the situation. Black★Rock Shooter can further adapt to the fight by transforming her ★Rock Cannon into a gatling gun and use its relentless firepower to break through projectile or army fodder. Upon landing the killing blow on her opponent, a blue flame emerges from her left eye.

Her own endurance appears to be immense, even for other selves. One of the most notable tests of her endurance was when Chariot ran her over with Mary and impaled her with the vehicle's legs multiple times; Black★Rock Shooter was able to survive the assault. Her endurance carried over into her insane state and increased to the point that she almost completely disregards the injuries she receives, even the ones she gives to herself.

Trivia

 * Her blood is blue.
 * Part of Black★Rock Shooter's character artwork shows her without her jacket or gloves on (along with slightly different blue eyes). In the anime, she is always shown wearing her trademark jacket.
 * The TV Anime incarnation of Black★Rock Shooter appears in a collaboration with the game Lord of Vermilion Re:2. Her illustration in that game is attributed to Sanzigen.

Gallery

 * Full article: Black★Rock Shooter (TV Anime Character)/Gallery