Black★★Rock Shooter: Dawn Fall

Grain_of_Salt★ 3

Black Rock Shooter, where did you go? Never has that line been more true. I guess this adaptation definitely evoked this line of the song, by destroying everything else. I really don't feel this is fair to call a BRS story, as it really feels like a subpar light novel (which it was) that only got greenlit by attaching itself to the BRS identity. None of these characters, plot, or setting has to be a part of BRS, and as a consequence of that none of this feels like it is. This show is an absolute edgelord nightmare of mediocre writing. In early episodes it tries itsbest to be gritty and dark, throwing around copious curses, death, and rants about sex as well as repeated on screen rape. None of this serves any purpose other than trying to establish this as edgy, though once it goes away in the second half I found myself missing it because a desperate attempt at shock value, while crude and unnecessary, was still more entertaining than the run of the mill second half plot full of the same tropes and archetypes acted out by characters with no likeable traits or interesting personalities. Again, despite being called Black Rock Shooter, most characters and premises in this story are entirely new, and maybe I would've been slightly more forgiving if this wasn't trying to milk marketability from the heyday of late 2000s anime. What the story adds sure isn't GOOD but if it tried to stand on its own maybe it would've been forced to do something interesting. Granted the characters we do take from BRS are so devoid of anything that originally made them likeable, to the point that we even renamed them based on tarot cards (since Strength already was a tarot card). Not only is it weird to want to drag an IP through the dirt for clout, it's even weirder to then not even call the lead character her own name 90% of the time. And in universe the justification is equally dumb, saying that Empress and Death are passable names for orphan children. Again there's just no valid reason for the changes regardless of the quality. The show is CG, which does knock it down in a lot of people's eyes. In its defense the CGI is completely passable, and the weaker parts are masked by fog and dim lighting like a Marvel movie. That being said the designs themselves are completely average at best with nothing standing out or interesting, and the redesigns for the established characters are downright criminal. When Black Rock Shooter, Dead Master, and Strength had their intros I couldn't help verbally crying "what have they done to you?" Redesigns aren't foreign to this franchise as it had a lot of fandom power in its prime, but the problem is these designs are downgrades both visually and in expressing character. The music commits the taboo of disregarding the old OP (yes it plays in the final credits but that's to be expected and a slap in the face being attached to this nonsense) and what replaces it is unoriginal butt rock. I enjoyed hearing ZAQ for the first time in a while, but the song shouldn't be attached to Black Rock Shooter. The OST reminded me of forgettable Marvel movies to the point I was convinced I heard some Disney Marvel copyrighted sound effects. This could be entirely possible considering Disney was involved and this was exclusive to their streaming service. (God, I can't imagine a child stumbling upon the edgelord first episodes after watching Lion King or something, did Disney not see the script before greenlighting?) I had many problems with both other adaptations of Black Rock Shooter, but as early as five minutes into this show I was apologizing to Mari Okada for being so harsh. For all its flaws and weird choices it still felt more like BRS and had much more to appreciate. Those adaptations had heart and understood the show needed to stand on its strength of emotion, this story feels like a military otaku grabbing figures and smashing them together. With this iteration there's nothing to appreciate or take away other than the...I guess bragging rights to have seen the true train wreck of the franchise that was a mistake from earliest conception to completion. The voice cast does their best to inject some humanity and there are enough competent choices or moments if you watch closely that I'm sure much of the staff also tried their best. But this was never going to work no matter how much effort was put in, and many of the decisions made only hurt it more.

MaiGalaxy★ 7

Hello and good day to you BRS fans and readers and anime lovers and video game fans. I am writing this review to give you a FAIR review for the anime, which a LOT of BRS fans are claiming this version of BRS is crap and saying lines like "what have they done to BRS?" Its trash and bad etc. Clearly those BRS fans never saw more than 1 of the BRS anime and certainly didn't bother to play BRS: The Game when it came to the US many years ago on the PSP. Let me just say this, BRS is like many series likeMegaman and Sonic the Hedgehog for example. What do I mean by that? I mean, it doesn't stick to 1 setting, nor 1 timeline/universe. Perhaps it'd be better to say its like all them DC and Marvel etc. Super Hero series in the US. See, BRS: The Game was a story set in a post apocalyptic world where Aliens invaded Earth and the Humans are fighting back against the Aliens. BRS having just been awakened helps fight alongside the humans to fight off the Alien invasion and try to save the human race which is almost extinct...If some of this sounds very familiar thats because this anime is closer to the game's story in terms of setting than it is the previous 2 anime series however, despite this, some of the same themes from past anime series are still here. (Hope and despair and not giving up) Make no mistake though, the anime is NOT telling the game's story, the two stories are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. Just as one example for this anime that's not a spoiler, instead of Aliens from the game its an AI that humans created thats trying to kill humanity. BRS' origins are also completely different between the two and, as said before, each BRS series, whether anime, game or otherwise has different characters who yes, may share the same name as another character in another universe, but are not the same character at all. BRS is one of a handful of those individuals who shares the BRS name. Now that you know this, I want you to go into this with an OPEN MIND should you decide to watch any BRS anime, especially this one. This one has some cliches yes but those don't ruin the anime or hinder it and it is my hope that BRS fans will be more open minded in the future. This anime doesn't deserve the low ratings which are, imo, over reactions and thus unfair and unjust ratings just because its nothing like the 1st two anime series and I DOUBT the mobile game thats set to release this year (barring a delay or cancellation...) will be like what BRS fans might be expecting from a character and story perspective too. Fyi, I HIGHLY recommend playing BRS: The Game if you are able too, its a great game and has 2 endings, maybe more I forget but 2 for sure endings as there may've been a 3rd ending being a bad ending, I forget (Look up a spoiler free guide for how to get the endings, I forget how to get the endings) If nothing else I believe the game has playthroughs on Youtube though its more fun to actually play if you can vs. watching the game being played Back to this anime, despite a few cliches (emphasis on a few, not many), its been interesting and good and I love the mystery the anime had but I have to say the anime needed 1 more episode but that aside, I rate it a 7.0 out of 10. Its a GOOD anime and a GOOD adaptation of BRS and again, they've done a similar story for BRS with BRS: The Game on PSP but as stated before, both the game and Dawn Fall anime have very different stories and characters and endings too. So many fans calling this not BRS when it is very much so BRS. BRS' CORE theme is hope in the depths of darkness and despair and BRS is typically that hope. How this plays out in Dawn Fall is interesting and BRS isn't alone in trying to save humanity. There are some twists you may not see coming, for example in my case I did not see why Lunatic, aka Artimis, aka the AI trying to wipe out humanity, is trying to wipe out humanity. She chose the perfect name for herself alright, Lunatic suits her both in her craziness and in the reference to the moon with the luna in her name. I won't spoil why she's doing this, that's for you to find out as it was one of many mysteries. I enjoyed BRS: Dawn Fall, just wish it got 1 more episode to tie up some loose ends... and I really enjoyed the mystery aspect BRS: Dawn Fall had, it, alongside the characters are what helped to bring this story, the characters and world and their reality to life and considering what kind of story this is, that's a MUST and they nailed it. It is my hope, you will look past the negative reviews and misguided beliefs on who and what BRS is as this review has tried to point out who and what both the character and the series BRS is/are. Many don't like the slight changes in her design for example, thats nothing new, she always gets changes to her design and so on with every adaptation yet some people make it sound like they butchered both her design and story of BRS when they did not and her design is close enough to all the other BRS characters. Dead Master's design changed a lot here, that is true, but again she is not the same Dead Master as in previous BRS series and I actually liked this Dead Master. What I'm trying to say is, its better if you go into this with an open mind instead of a closed off one and if you like mysteries you might just enjoy BRS: Dawn Fall, long as you have an open mind. This review was brought to you by a BRS fan whose seen all the anime pretty much and played BRS: The Game, for whatever that's worth to you. Its my hope this info and my review will help you have a more open mind to this anime and thus a more enjoyable experience.