Well this is late, nevertheless I found this show to a bit short of my own expectations. BRS T.V. was nothing like its OVA counterpart. I absolutely loved the OVA, but unfortunately the T.V. series tried a bit too hard to explain the reasoning behind the girls in the dream world.
Before I dive into the usual grading of its strong and weak points, I just want to make a few comparisons between the T.V. series and the OVA.
I watched the OVA in BlueRay and was left in awe at its quality art style and awesome battle scenes. Unfortunately the T.V. series did not keep up with the OVA for quality, which I can fully understand, but the battles between the girls in what I like to call the "dream world" were very dissatisfying. I was actually pretty shocked with how different Dead Master and Yomi were; they were practically different characters between the OVA and the T.V. series. Dead Master was bad-ass, and had all sorts of awesome fight scenes during the OVA, however she participated in almost no battles, and had this helpless emo look about her in the T.V. series.
One of the best things about this show was how it was able to create a story and conflicts between the characters themselves.
Black Rock Shooter had some god awful fight scenes, they really lacked the flair that was in the OVA, and it seemed like she was immortal. It was quite the change of tempo finding out how Kuroi ends up being the villain herself, fighting against Insane Black Rock Shooter to find redemption for putting all of her misery and pain on her counterpart. From the information I gathered from watching the show, the girls in the real world push a percentage of their pain and suffering onto the girls in the dream world, forcing them to fight it out to resolve the personal pain of the girls in the real world. The school counselor ends up being portrayed as the villain, since she would attempt to bring pain and misfortune upon the real girls, so that their counterparts wouldn't suffer instead. Because Kuroi is oblivious to misfortune and doesnt ever want to see it or feel it, she forces all the pain onto her counterpart, which is Black Rock Shooter. This selfish act on Kuroi's part, forces Black Rock Shooter to run rampant, killing off the girls in the dream world, and thus, mentally breaking the girls in the real world.
Strength ends up being the best character of the show, she came in a bit late, but you can practically tell she was very similar to Homura from Puella Magi Madoka. The biggest twist was how Strength was actually living in the real world while Yuu battled in the "dream world". Yuu ends up being the center of attention for the explanation of the girls in the dream world and real world, she ends up saving Yomi and becomes the most important character, making everyone else's issues seem like useless conflicts.
Gold Black Saw ends up being the most bad-ass character with her awesome character design. Not only was her counterpart the strange school counselor, she was also the very foundation of the conflicts between the girls and she became the connecting link between the girls and their dream world counterparts. Yomi/Dead Master were the weakest characters after the Kagari arc. I will admit, Yomi was pretty awesome going insane, and even gave me some much needed thriller moments early on, but she quickly dies off and becomes a weight to the show, and don't even get me started on Dead Master, she was absolutely useless. It was very sad seeing how this Yomi/Dead Master were so different from the OVA versions.
Chariot/Inori were pretty strong characters, she was the initial villain in both worlds and even played a key role as the main conflict between Yomi and Kuroi. I was pleased with how well she developed and made progress as a character, she was even the key example of what happens when you kill off the dream girl counterpart, loosing an emotional connection in the real world. Finally we have Black Rock Shooter herself, Kuroi was a great character in the OVA but unfortunately she becomes rather bland imo. I had more fun watching the other characters develop around her, but there was never anything particularly about Kuroi that made me interested in her.
Characters: 7/10
The characters were all over the place, some were great, some died off and weighed the show down, and some were useless in either the beginning or end. I gave this a 7 because of how well the producer created an entire story and all the conflicts with just the girls and no other source of evil or conspiracy, it was about using the characters conflicts to find the secrets of their other selves, and become a better person.
Plot: 7/10
The plot was completely developed from the characters themselves, which is fantastic, however it was very hard to understand what was going on until the final two episodes.
Setting: 7/10
Even though the quality and art lacked in comparison to the OVA, the show had its own unique worlds full of color that related to each character. I felt that the characters were unattached from their environments. Aside from Strength and her rubix cube world, each character had its own wonderful world, but it felt like it made no difference as they could have easily fought in any location.
Fighting: 5/10
The fighting was pretty bland, with only a few moments that met my expectations I felt they could have done a lot better, except for the battle between Insane Black Rock Shooter and Strength, that was the best fight imo.
Overall 6.5/10
~Djr7
All my ratings are based on the show itself, just because this receives a higher/lower rating over others has nothing to do with it being better/worse over others.
