Dead Master (デッドマスター) is the antagonist in the Black★Rock Shooter OVA and the manga series Black★Rock Shooter ~Innocent Soul~.
Appearance
Original Concept
Dead Master is a girl with wavy dark green hair, straight bangs, and neon green eyes. Her outfit shows resemblance to Gothic Lolita style. She wears a black dress and a black bolero; her dress extends down to her thighs and is accented with a white ribbon on the waist. She wears a pair of leggings and black pumps, and black gauntlets on each hand. On her head are of long horns that resemble vertebrae, with each tip made out of three tips joined at the end. She also has a wings which sit low on her back, that look like a thick zigzag.
Her weapon of choice is a large scythe named Dead Scythe. Most of the time she is accompanied by two floating skulls, each with glowing green cavities, which she uses to attack.
Black★Rock Shooter (OVA)
In addition to her general appearance as Dead Master, her wings are somewhat thinner and smaller. Her eyes have a concentric circle pattern, a trait she shares with other characters in the OVA. She is described as being 162.5cm tall, while her human counterpart, Yomi, is close to 160cm tall.
Black★Rock Shooter ~Innocent Soul~
Dead has the appearance of a female teenage adolescent (who appears somewhat more mature than Rock) with pale skin, green eyes, and wavy black hair. She wears a white sleeveless half-shirt, a black tie decorated with a star, a white skirt with a striped belt, claw elbow gloves, black leggings and black pumps. Her horns and pair of small wings are black.
Her weapon of choice this time is not her Dead Scythe, but a three-pronged sword.
It is presumed she beared a striking resemblance to Yomi Takanashi in her former life.
Black★Rock Shooter (2012)
Her hair is somewhat less wavy, and wears green-framed glasses. She also wears a bridal veil over her head. Her black horns and pair of wings are bright green, as well as the tips of her much larger claws. She still wears her Gothic Lolita-like dress, though it is now more dark green than black. Her sleeves are larger with green frills at the ends, and her skirt is longer and larger with white frills. Her leggings are also frilled at the ends, which are held by green rose-like ribbons. She also now wears cross-laced ankle ribbons, and green-heeled footwear.
Personality
Black★Rock Shooter (OVA)
She is showy and sinister when trying to kill Black★Rock Shooter and shows great skills with her scythe. She makes a large show of threatening, wicked smiles, and while she is quiet, she is silently taunting her enemy. She also makes hissing noises when agitated.
Black★Rock Shooter ~Innocent Soul~
Dead's personality is quite childish, carefree and joking. Despite being a Black Star, Dead seems to have negative feelings to her job of collecting souls (saying that the purified souls disgusted her). When she fights she shows calm and wit that lets her use the lamentations of her enemies against them. She has a strange attraction to Rock, which is evident whenever she is around.
In her former life, she was a more sweeter person who loved her fiancé, and was possibly a somewhat forgetful person, judging by some of her lines in the penultimate chapter
Black★Rock Shooter (2012)
She is somewhat sympathetic, while at the same time very brutal when she fights. She appears to be under the influence of Chariot, and after being freed from this, is captured by Black★Gold Saw, becoming antagonistic towards Black★Rock Shooter after both she and Yomi lose control.
Plot
Black★Rock Shooter (OVA)
She sits on a throne at the beginning of the OVA in her castle, apparently expecting Black★Rock Shooter. They fight after Black★Rock Shooter extends her hand to her, rejecting the offer to go with her. Making a show of her nature, she tries to make herself threatening to her enemy throughout the battle.
She gains an advantage when she manages to trap Black★Rock Shooter in chains, but Black★Rock Shooter gains enough strength to break the chains. She makes the same hand gesture, but Dead Master, again rejects her offer, and backs away, but starts to fall off of a ledge. Black★Rock Shooter catches her and holds her in an embrace.
Unable to handle this, the Dead Master escapes the body of Takanashi Yomi, whom she had been possessing, and dissolves; the reason is unknown, but it is likely either due to having left Yomi's body or the "affection" having damaged her in some way.
Black★Rock Shooter ~Innocent Soul~
- Main article: Dead
She is seen stalking Rock and Ron for unknown reasons. She later takes an unconscious Rock from the battlefield after fighting the soul of Hanako Nakamura. Dead thanks them for their effort and ate Hanako's soul, which astounded Ron.
Dead later wakes up next to Rock in a room and takes her on a tour of the place where purified souls are taken to Heaven. After reaching the area where souls are purified, Dead stole a soul and fled. She led Rock to a dungeon where they kept the souls of those who could not be purified and freed one of them. Rock started a fight, but strange memories flashed through her mind and left her helpless. Dead fights the hostile spirit and defeats the spirit, only to leave to places unknown afterwards.
Dead is later seen harassing a stagnant soul by the name of Kaede, and Rock and Ron confront her and drive her away. They find that instead of being relieved that the ravenous Dead is gone, Kaede has fallen in love with the tainted Black Star. Kaede's powers of illusion amaze Rock, and she wishes to see what other things love can do. On cue, Dead reappears to reclaim her prize, claming that the lost soul is "hers".
However, she is surprised when Kaede confesses love to her. Dead immediately reacts with disdain and decides to leave, but is stopped by Rock and thrown at Kaede, resulting in a collision. It is revealed through the collision that Kaede is in fact a girl. Angry and hurt, Kaede traps Dead in an illusory bottle, almost drowning her. Rock rescues her, and Dead discusses with Kaede, and they finally end up kissing. Kaede is devoured by Dead through the kiss, who then leaves, but not before telling Rock to "continue being delicious as you are".
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 fiancé. When she learns this was a lie, she breaks down and becomes a stagnated soul herself.
As a stagnant soul, Dead's conscience faded into recollection of her former life, and began destroying the surrounding area, along with multiple Black Stars. As she attempted to attack Ram, Rock defended her, and fought Dead to bring her back to her senses. As her wings were blasted off, she came back to her senses, and explained to Rock about her former life with her fiancé, and how she cannot return because she cannot acknowledge her emotions, saying that she would've truly died. Immediately, she hugs Rock while allowing her Black Blade to kill her. As Dead dies, she states how she can finally see her fiancé again, and will always be with him. She finally disappears, stating her last words "I'm home", and allowing Rock to have her purified soul.
Black★Rock Shooter (2012)
While Chariot is torturing Black★Rock Shooter, Dead Master is seen watching. She eventually accosts Black★Rock Shooter and ties her in chains, but Black★Rock Shooter reverses this. Black★Rock Shooter suddenly ceases her attack when she notices a heart-shaped scar, identical to the one carved into Yomi by Kagari. However, a swarm of Chariot's spiders surround her and carry her away, with Black★Rock Shooter chasing after.
She is locked up within a doll inside a house in the sky, but Black★Rock Shooter finds her. The moment she reaches for her, Chariot attacks, and the falling apart of the floating house reveals that Dead Master is chained to a large heart-shaped stone in the sky. However, as Yomi faces Kagari, she pulls the chains down and breaks the stone. The chains recede into the sky, starting the destruction of Chariot's world.
She comes down and looks and joins Black★Rock Shooter as Chariot is being sucked into the void, but suddenly Black★Gold Saw appears. She saves Chariot and cuts into the ground, creating a fissure that drags Dead Master in, separating her from the others.
Black★Gold Saw apparently holds Dead Master captured, leading to Black★Rock Shooter tracking them both down. Due to Yomi's instability in the real world, Dead Master also goes into turmoil and surrounds herself in chains, eventually summoning a castle and several minions. She then begins to battle Black★Rock Shooter.
After a long battle Black★Rock Shooter stabs Dead Master with her Black Blade, seemingly killing her. The emotional stress of the events turns B★RS into Insane Black★Rock Shooter.
Later Strength is shown dragging her body away; what happens to her is not shown in that episode.
It is later revealed she is in the abyss that Chariot was in and seems to begin reawakening to life when Yomi's memories of Mato start to return.
In the final episode, Dead Master is shown in her own world, and is heard quoting her own feelings along with Black★Gold Saw and Chariot and how their only wish is to protect their human counterparts. After Insane Black★Rock Shooter's defeat, she, along with Chariot, come back to life, resulting in Yomi regaining all her memories of Mato. She is seen with Chariot, Black★Gold Saw, and the hooded figures together as the worlds of each respective other self merged into one.
Abilities
Dead Master is completely fluent in moving her Scythe about, and at the same type can command (at will) the 2 large skulls she posseses that are constantly by her side. Alongside those skulls, in the 2012 anime series, it is seen that she is the "master" of a lair filled with many skeletons; she can also control them at will. In the Innocent souls manga, she can have a green flame shoot from her right eye. Her wing can attack an enemy, too.
Trivia
- Dead Master is one of three characters in the Black★Rock Shooter series who uses a scythe. The other two being White Rock Shooter and Death Scythe.
- In Black★Rock Shooter THE GAME, there is an armament called "Dead Master" which is modeled after her.
- One piece of artwork of her shows her with normal hands and a mechanical scythe.
Gallery
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