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Some months ago, I watched the trailer to Black Rock Shooter for the first time. In short, I was blown away: the art was pleasing, the song it featured (also called Black Rock Shooter, released by Supercell) was both memorable and impressive, and the story at its simplest description was not hard to guess from only that preview: two high school girls, friends at some point, locked in battle after one turns evil. Needless to say, I was expecting this to be epic, and I think it's safe to say that I was not alone. However, I'm afraid that Black Rock Shooter simply did not ... live up to the hype.

Story:
The story presented in this OVA was a simple one, though it definitely had potential. Despite this, the story is weak, and one of the main areas in which the OVA fails to shine. Why? It's not that the plot turned out to be rather poor. It's also not because of unbelievable characters. And not specifically due to rushing either. I feel like the story was lacking because of the focus and presentation. For the better part of 50 minutes, we are watching a somewhat boring slice-of-life school drama, in which two girls become friends and then grow apart. Inserted somewhat awkwardly, at intervals, are scenes of Black Rock Shooter standing, running, or fighting with the mysterious antagonist. The "slice of life" portion of the story is dull, and tells a story that we've all heard before without (in my opinion) doing it in a way that is very entertaining. The scenes in the bleak other world manage to hold the attention a bit more, but are not all that they could be due to the lack of information on what exactly is going on and because of the actions of the characters who appear there.

Characters:
The characters in the slice of life portion are likeable enough, but as typical high schoolers, there's nothing too special about them. They had appropriate emotions throughout and I was able to sympathize with them, so I am pleased. But again, nothing is specifically interesting about them, or at least there is nothing interesting about the way they are portrayed. As for their counterparts in the other world- while they wear cool clothes and have nice big weapons, they lack personality, unless you count the occasional evil smile, courtesy of our antagonist. It doesn't help that they're practically emotionless and don't say a word while they're around each other. They have no backstory, no (given) reasons, and just sort of exist. They lack any identity outside of "good" and "evil" which, as I stated before, contributes to the overall dullness of the story. Keep in mind however, that another OVA will most likely be produced, in which case those two will probably be fleshed out much more. Though, looking at this as a standalone project, I am not too impressed.

Art:
The art was very good, and consistently good, so I don't have much to complain about. The character designs were perfectly acceptable, and in the cases of Black Rock Shooter and Dead Master, simply awesome. The other world is animated very nicely as well, barren and bleak and depressing, and most of all impressive. Same goes for the antagonist's fortress: I got a real sense of despair from looking at that place. There were a few small issues that while noticeable (by me at least) did not really effect the nice quality of the OVA: For one, you may notice that whenever the characters turned their heads, the profiles were a bit...off. I wouldn't say they were drawn poorly, but a little weird. Too thin perhaps. And secondly, the animation during the fight scenes was sometimes all over the place, so it was at times hard to focus. But other than those minor things, the animation I saw was fine.

Sound:
Not much to say about the sound. The pieces were good enough: the somewhat classical bits during the school scenes fit well, and portrayed nicely how it feels to hanging out with a close friend, and conversely, how sad it is to loose one. A very "slice of life" feel. The music played during the scenes with the other world were great, perfect battle music. Very intense. I personally did not like the ending song, but I definitely wouldn't say it was bad, just not my taste. All in all, the music was good and blended well with the scenes they came with, but there was nothing that stood out to me as being particularly amazing. On a side note, I was a bit disappointed that the song featured in the trailer was not featured in the OVA, except for a couple of non-vocal cover versions. But this was something personal, and did not change the overall quality of the music.

Enjoyment:
It was a bit hard for me to enjoy this. As I said before, the slice of life scenes were very "typical" and not particularly appealing, and the scenes from the other world were entertaining, but I would have been happier if I could have gotten more elaboration. I understood the story, but I can see how some people might not have gotten everything completely. I'm disappointed that most of the story took place in "reality", as it was a bit boring for me. I thought this was going to be more of an action/adventure, so I would have liked more scenes with Black Rock Shooter. Overall, I can say that I was entertained for the most part, but I definitely felt that more could have been done with the story.

Overall:
I'm giving this OVA a score of 6. It was acceptable, but it didn't blow my mind like I thought and hoped it would. It was ok, not great. It did not live up to the hype. While I will not say that Black Rock Shooter was all bad, the project as a whole has left me with mixed feelings, but mainly disappointment, as perhaps I expected too much of this. Don't get me wrong- you may possibly enjoy this. But while Black Rock Shooter managed to be watchable, it was nothing more than average, at best.