Trivia / Black★Rock Shooter

• Acting for Two: The girls and their respective other selves are voiced by the same actors, both in Japanese and in English.
  • Mato Kuroi / Black★Rock Shooter / Insane Black★Rock Shooter (Kana Hanazawa and Xanthe Huynh)
  • Yomi Takanashi / Dead Master (Miyuki Sawashiro and Suzie Yeung)
  • Yuu Koutari / Strength (Kana Asumi and Dani Chambers)
  • Saya Irino / Black★Gold Saw (Mamiko Noto and Natalie Van Sistine)
  • Kagari Izuriha / Chariot (Eri Kitamura and Kayli Mills)
• Adaptation Sequence: Character art by huke —> Music video by Hatsune Miku —> 5 minute PV —> OVA movie —> PSP video game —> 3 separate manga titles —> 8-episode anime series —> Various miscellaneous merchandise and works such as toys, models, a web mini-game, and a Japan-only Android game.
• All-Star Cast:
  • The 2012 anime has Kana Hanazawa, Miyuki Sawashiro, Kana Asumi, Mamiko Noto, Eri Kitamura, and Manami Numakura.
    • Likewise, the English dub has Xanthe Huynh, Suzie Yeung, Dani Chambers, Natalie Van Sistine, Kayli Mills and Anairis Quiñones.
  • The video game adaptation has Maaya Sakamoto, Masaki Terasoma, Mai Nakahara, Tomokazu Sugita, Yōko Hikasa, Yoshimitsu Shimoyama, Hiroshi Kamiya, Asami Shimoda, Yosuke Akimoto, Kenji Hamada, Mitsuaki Hoshino, and Katsuhisa Houki.
• Cross-Regional Voice Acting: The English dub for the 2012 anime primarily uses Texas-based voice actors, but also has Xanthe Huynh (Mato and Black Rock Shooter), Kayli Mills (Kagari and Chariot), and Anairis Quiñones (Arata), who are all based in Los Angeles.
• Fandom Life Cycle: An extreme case of a Stage 6b —> Stage 2. Once one of the most popular anime franchises of the early 2010s, being Referenced by... many pop-culture anime and games at that time, while also having numerous fan works on sites like Pixiv. Now it has since fallen into obscurity, being converted into a Cult Classic at best. It doesn't help that the English dub of the series was released after the franchise has faded from the public's conscious, though it did regain interest on the series.
• Late Export for You:
  • Dawn Fall was only available on certain international feeds of Disney+ outside the United States (including the Japanese Disney+), with the US not receiving the anime until Hulu began streaming it in the United States six months after the Japanese debut ^note This happening in an era where almost every anime is simulcast concurrent with the Japanese release.
  • While the 2012 anime was licensed by Australia-based Siren Visual, it didn't reach the US until December 14th, 2020, when Discotek Media licensed the TV series and announced that the show will be dubbed in English by Sound Cadence Studios and would eventually release it on Blu-Ray in 2021.
• No Export for You:
  • In an unusual case, the game is unavailable in Canada despite releasing in the US (this may be an industry first). There are also several countries in Europe that could not get the game, despite the game seeing a release in the EU. Being digital-only, simply importing the title from the country next-door isn't an option for people in these countries.
  • Black★Rock Shooter Arcana is only available for Android devices in Japan.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Black★Rock Shooter THE GAME has Maaya Sakamoto replace Kana Hanazawa as the titular character, the latter of whom voiced BRS in the 2010 OVA. Hanazawa would later go back to voice the character in the 2012 anime.
  • For Dawn Fall, Black Rock Shooter is voiced by Yui Ishikawa, Dead Master is voiced by Saori Hayami, and Strength is voiced by Megumi Han. Likewise, the English dub has Courtney Lin as Black Rock Shooter, Dawn M. Bennett as Dead Master, and Anzu Lawson as Strength. This is because the dub is recorded at Roundabout Entertainment in Burbank, California, while Sound Cadence Studios, which produced the dub for the 2012 anime, is located at Dallas, Texas, though they did open a studio at Los Angeles.
• Playing Against Type:
  • The other world characters in both English and Japanese are alternate versions of their human counterparts, which is why Mato Kuroi and Yuu Koutari both fit the usual archetypes of their respective actresses.
  • Kana Hanazawa and Xanthe Huynh normally play characters that are cheerful, sweet-hearted, or sometimes quirky. Their role as the titular Black★Rock Shooter, a stoic, merciless Anti-Hero, is among their rarer roles (especially Huynh).
  • Kana Asumi and Dani Chambers are usually typecasted as chipper Genki Girls, but Strength is not one of them, instead being emotionally repressed and murderously violent, especially in the 2012 anime.
  • Meanwhile, Eri Kitamura and Kayli Mills, whose roles usually consist of confident and amiable young girls or mature women, play the sinister Creepy Child Kagari Izuriha/Chariot.
• Sequel Gap: Dawn Fall is possibly one of the most bizarre anime announcements in the 2020's solely for the fact that it is coming out 7 years after the last major BRS-related media and a very long time after the franchise passed the peak of its popularity.
• Similarly Named Works: Before the Nightmare can either refer to the prequel Light Novel spin-off of Devil May Cry 5 from 2019, or the ending theme song of the Black★★Rock Shooter: Dawn Fall anime from 2022.
• Sleeper Hit: Who would have known, this franchise started off its popularity with a song! Although it actually started with huke's character art, it became a hit on the internet (mostly in Japan) after the Hatsune Miku music video was released on Nico Nico Douga. And that was way back the late 2000's, where Nico videos rarely even get millions of views.
• What Could Have Been: In the anime, Chariot's eyes are a bit more light orange than the yellow of her original concept art.

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