This is a list of characters from the Black Rock Shooter franchise, which consists of an original video animation, a manga series by Sanami Suzuki, a PlayStation Portable video game by Imageepoch, and a 2012 anime television series.
Main characters
Black Rock Shooter, known as BRS or Rock for short, is the eponymous character of the franchise. A mysterious girl with black hair in twintails, one longer than the other, and she has two scars on her torso and her hip. Her left eye burns with a bright blue flame. She wears a pair of knee high black boots, a black bikini top, black shorts with a light gray belt, and a black hooded jacket with a long back with a white star on the back. She carries two weapons, a rock cannon that can fire rapid shots or more powerful charge shots, and a crooked katana.
In the OVA, she is a resident of the Other World who merges with Mato in order to rescue Yomi who was possessed by Dead Master. In the TV series, she is Mato's dark persona who fights against other inhabitants, regardless of its impact on the other world. In Innocent Soul, she resides in the world of Hazama, a place between Heaven and Earth, and her job is to purify stagnant souls whose regrets caused them to become trapped in this realm and become demons that attack other souls. In the game, she is a clone of White Rock Shooter, created to help combat the alien invasion currently wiping out the human race. However, it takes this clone 16 years to mature in her chamber before awakening, too late to save humanity from destruction. In Black Rock-chan, she is a chibified version of herself who is looked after by Dead Master.
Dead Master is an antagonist character who appears in the OVA, the anime television series and the Innocent Soul manga. Similar to a Gothic Lolita costume, Dead Master's clothing consists of a black dress and a black bolero; her dress extends down to her thighs and is accented with a white ribbon attached to her waist. She also wears a pair of leggings and a pair of black pumps. She wears a pair of black gauntlets on each hand. She has two black horns made of black vertebrae. She uses three weapons in her battle with Black Rock Shooter. Her primary weapon is her "Dead Scythe", which has multiple short scythes under the main scythe blade and a vertebra-like feature at the end of the handle. Her secondary mid-range weapons are her chains, whilst her two "Dead Skulls" function as her third set in both long and close-range combat.
In the OVA, Dead Master is a form of jealousy that possesses Yomi when she becomes jealous of Yuu's friendship with Mato. She is defeated when Black Rock Shooter, fused with Mato, hugs her, banishing her from Yomi's body. In the anime television series, Dead Master is Yomi's darken persona, who sports glasses and a wedding veil. Initially a captive of Chariot and then Black Gold Saw, her true power awakens when Yomi's jealousy and loneliness reaches its peak. Dead Master is inevitably killed by Black Rock Shooter, just as Mato had merged with her, causing Yomi to forget about Mato and Mato to break down, leading to the awakening of Insane Black Rock Shooter. However, she is revived after Yomi manages to regain her memories of Mato. In the Innocent Soul manga, Dead Master is a Black Star sent to free stagnate souls. Having died in a car crash in her former life, Dead was told by Ram that if she ate enough souls, she would be able to come back to life and reunite with her fiancée. When she learns this was a lie, she breaks down and becomes a stagnated soul herself who is forced to be killed by Rock. In Black Rock-chan, she serves as a guardian to both Black Rock-chan and Strength.
Anime characters
Human world
Mato is the main human world character. She loves basketball and is just starting junior-high school. She became fast friends with Yomi Takanashi on her first day of school. She joined the basketball club at her school and, despite her short stature, plays the game exceptionally well, earning her the nickname the "First Year Ace" by her older club members, a nickname she is embarrassed to be called. She lives with her little brother Hiro and her mother. She has an affinity for things with stars on them as is reflected in her room decor and clothing. She also carries around a blue cellphone with a star shaped strap on it. After Yomi goes missing, she merges with Black Rock Shooter in order to search for her in the other world.
In the anime series however her interests are focused on the multi-colored bird from her favorite children's book, "The Little Bird of Many Colors." Her cellphone in the series, instead of having the star shaped strap, has one of the little bird with multi-colored wings. Her personality is connected to this bird via story form in the series and it explains her mysterious attraction to the story. Wanting to stop Black Rock Shooter from killing all the other world characters she is sent to the other world by Strength to stop her, but arrives too late to save Dead Master. The shock of seeing Dead Master's death causes her break down and inadvertently turns Black Rock Shooter into Insane Black Rock Shooter and she becomes trapped inside her. But thanks to her friend Strength she eventually manages to regain control and separates from Insane Black Rock Shooter becoming Black Rock Shooter in the process and starts to fight with Insane Black Rock Shooter. Although she is severely injured in the fight she, along with the other otherworld personas, manages to defeat Insane Black Rock Shooter.
Yomi is the other main character in the anime. She is a quiet and good-natured girl that in the same grade as Mato with a talent for volleyball. She recently moved into Mato's neighborhood after having been in Germany She and her family have moved around a lot during her life. After having a chat with Mato on her first day, they become fast friends and become very close, as shown by Mato buying her a star shaped cellphone strap similar to hers. After Mato joins the basketball club, Yomi joins the volleyball club so they could be together more often and learned she is actually quite good at it. After Mato befriends Yuu in their second year, she becomes jealous and lonely, eventually leading to her being possessed by Dead Master. Shortly afterward, she goes missing which leads Mato to go in search for her in the other world. In the TV series, she is the member of the school's art club who takes an interest in Mato after she offers her friendship. However, she is intimidated by Kagari, who doesn't want her to make other friends, and she is left in a very fragile mental state even after Kagari's recovery. After Mato and Yomi manage to help Kagari break free from her dependence on her and she starts attending classes once more, Yomi's mind starts to break down in fear of the growing distance between her and her friends, a situation aggravated by Saya who tells her that she would be hardly missed anyway. She ends up forgetting about Mato when Dead Master is killed by Black Rock Shooter in the other world. However, she soon manages to regain her memories of Mato which brings Dead Master back to life and helping Mato in the other world as Black Rock Shooter to defeat Insane Black Rock Shooter.
Yuu is a supporting character in the anime. In the OVA, she is put into Mato's class after Mato and Yomi were put into different classes at the beginning of their second year in junior-high. Shorter than Mato, she could not play basketball due to her height, so she settled on becoming the basketball club's manager and first aid person. After befriending Mato, she became slightly possessive of her, even saying that Yomi's disappearance is nothing to worry about. In the TV series, Yuu serves as the strongest connection to the other world. Having been seriously bullied in her youth, she was befriended by Saya. Due to the overwhelming emotional pain in her heart, she was able to make a connection with Strength. Preferring the idea of a world of fighting to the harshness of reality, she switched places with Strength. She reveals her true colours during her fight against Insane Black Rock Shooter, not wanting to return to reality. Although she is sent back to the real world after Strength passes away, she is able to make friends with Mato and the others.
A student counsellor at Mato and Yomi's school. Despite claiming to offer advice to help students dealing with their personal issues, sometimes she has the habit of performing moral harassment and put great stress on them in order to awaken their other world counterparts. She is usually seen preparing, drinking and serving different brands of coffee to her guests. After befriending Yuu in high school, Saya comes to learn of the other world from her, learning of her link to Black Gold Saw. After Yuu and Strength switched places, she became determined to protect her, as well as to prevent the impact Black Rock Shooter has on the real world.
Yomi's childhood friend and neighbour. When she was younger, she was hit by a car while chasing after Yomi, and while nothing was broken, she became dependent on Yomi, which soon developed into an obsession to stop her from making other friends. After Mato and Yomi manage to help her break free from her dependence on Yomi, Kagari returns to school and soon starts making her own friends. However, she loses memory of ever needing Yomi's help as a result of Chariot's defeat at the hands of Black Rock Shooter. However, like Yomi, she eventually regains her memories of depending on Yomi. Remembering this brings Chariot back to life, who then goes on to help Mato as Black Rock Shooter in the other world defeat Insane Black Rock Shooter.
Mato and Yuu's senior in their basketball club. She has a habit of holding back her own tears in front of others. She had a persona created by Black Gold Saw resembling a trembling girl in a grey hooded cloak, implied to be a persona not fully matured, who was killed by Black Rock Shooter, causing Arata to forget about the boy she had a crush on. However, like the others, she manages to remember her feelings, bringing back to life her other world persona.
Other world
Strength is Yuu's darken persona in the other world. In the OVA, She wears black ankle boots and thigh-high stockings, with a shackle around her left ankle. She has white hair, white eyes, and a vertebra-like tail. Her clothing is a black dress with a large white flame-embroidered hooded scarf and her fist insignia on the breast. Her main weapons are two large, black "Ogre Arms" that she wears over her arms and are as big as she is. Strength's design changes slightly in the anime series. Her eye color is changed to orange, her dress sports a white trim and wilder flames, her tail is larger and more bony, and her are stockings are white.
In the TV series, she gained emotions when she established a connection with Yuu just as she was about to die following a fight with Black Rock Shooter. When Yuu preferred to live in Strength's world than reality, Strength was forced to switch bodies with Yuu. Because of this, "Yuu" in the real world so does not cast a shadow. Strength inserted false memories of herself into Mato to make it seem like they'd been friends for a long time, though she eventually came to like Mato herself. She has the ability to put herself or others into a comatose state, sending their mind into the body of their darken persona. At the series conclusion, she disappears into the wind, returning Yuu to her original body, although she revives later on to continue fighting.