Black Rock Shooter (band)

Originally, Black★Rock Shooter was a character created by an artist known as huke, among plenty of other material that he uploaded to his Pixiv profile. One fateful day ryo, leader of Vocaloid synthesizer band Supercell, approached huke to create a song after having been inspired by his work, while also inviting him to join the creative team of the band. This way, the two collaborated on a music video, with huke making some small adjustments to Black★Rock Shooter's design and creating the version known today.

Once uploaded on Nico Nico Douga in 2008, and soon after on YouTube, both the song (preformed by Hatsune Miku) and character became a massive success (on the internet anyway).

Tropes found in the original song and illustrations:

 * Adaptation Expansion: And how. From a drawing of a girl to a Vocaloid song to a 5 minute PV to a 50 minute OVA with backstory and names and, meanwhile, an RPG game, then a manga, then a companion anime series to the OVA.
 * Alternate Continuity: All adaptations take place in their own universe, with only the character patterns and general personality being constants.
 * Astral Checkerboard Decor: Almost all of huke's drawings take place in some checkerboard landscape. In one part of the PV, the sky is checkerboard.
 * Badass Longcoat: The eponymous character.
 * Bare Your Midriff: Black★Rock Shooter.
 * BFG: One of Black★Rock Shooter's weapons, a minigun-like weapon called the ★rock Cannon.
 * BFS: Black★Gold Saw's sword.
 * In the 3D PV, Dragon Slayer has one too.
 * Great Black Sword also has one.
 * Breaking the Bonds
 * Chained by Fashion
 * Character Title: Black Rock Shooter
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience:
 * Black★Rock Shooter: Blue.
 * White★Rock Shooter: White... or Magenta, take your pick.
 * Insane Black★Rock Shooter: Purple.
 * Dead Master: Green.
 * Black★Gold Saw: Red.
 * Black★Matagi: Purple.
 * Black★Devil Girl: Green.
 * Strength: White.
 * Dark Magical Girl: They all have "Dark" themes, but Dead Master follows the profile the closest.
 * Dark World: The ruined checkered landscape.
 * Elegant Gothic Lolita: Dead Master.
 * Girl with Psycho Weapon: BFSes, BFGs, katanas, scythes, miniguns...
 * Girlish Pigtails: Black★Rock Shooter.
 * Good Scars, Evil Scars: B★RS has two very prominent scars. One on her right hip, stretching from right above her pelvis around towards her back and a smaller straight one right below her left breast. Both scars are somewhat stitched up looking.
 * In Name Only: An interesting case with the adaptations in that it's not so much They Just Didn't Care, but there's so little information provided about anything in the original PV that the interpretations become widely diverged from each other.
 * Katanas Are Just Better: The black blade.
 * Light Is Not Good: White★Rock Shooter.
 * Lucky Charms Title: Just look at how often the black star appears in this page!
 * Sinister Scythe: Dead Master's weapon of choice, Dead Scythe.
 * Also, Death Scythe, the character, has one with skulls on the handle.
 * Small Girl, Big Gun: Although probably not as extreme as other examples. The ★Rock Cannon is only as big as its wielder, though there are figurines depicting the ground cracking under its weight.
 * Black Matagi, for one, has a gun that's larger than she is tall.
 * Same does for Maid Gunner.
 * Underworld Vulcan has a gun/cannon thing that is wrapped around her, just so she can be able to move while using it.
 * For crying out loud, EVERYONE has a huge weapon! A big ass scythe, a huge robot, a big saw... why bother listing?
 * Stripperiffic: Short shorts, a black bikini bra and an unzipped jacket (which falls off in one scene)!
 * Case in point: Insane Black★Rock Shooter is even more covered-up than regular one.
 * Spotlight-Stealing Squad:
 * B★RS / DM / IB★RS, and even before the animated movie, B★GS. Though it appears STR is receiving much fan attention as well. However, it is the mentioned four who continue to overshadow B★M and B★DG, even though the illustrations of Black★Matagi and Devil★Girl were uploaded a mere few weeks after Black★Rock Shooter.
 * Speculation wise it is likely the said three were designed around the same months, with the release of the song being the contributor for the titular characters popularity.
 * Sword and Gun: B★RS's weapons.
 * Technicolor Eyes: All of them have neon-type bright eyes with a ring pattern (although the latter is due to huke's Signature Style).
 * Undeathly Pallor / Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Nearly all the characters have solid white skin and black hair.
 * White-Haired Pretty Girl: STR, WRS.
 * Zettai Ryouiki: A large amount of the "other selves".