A fantastic movie for casual viewers, while more experienced viewers might find the cliche familiar plot boring.

The review will have 6 Sections: - Animation - Audio - Characters - Story - Enjoyment - Spoiler Dedicated Section

Each section aside from the Spoiler Dedicated Section will get rated from 0 to 100 and the overall rating will be the average of those 5 scores.

This will be the format for all my reviews.

# Some Links Before We Start - Anilist Page - Crunchyroll - Official Website

# Trailer

# Synopsis After Isurugi Rikka's family is murdered for her father's research, to get her revenge Rikka abandons her name to become a ninja just like her ancestors. But when she meets another troubled girl named Mia, Rikka finds that revenge can be a very difficult choice. Can Rikka keep her vow for revenge when she finds new truths? Or will her newfound friends be more important after all?

# Animation BLACKFOX is animated beautifully by Studio 3Hz, the animation is bright and colourful. The fight scenes are very fluid and at the same time, you always know exactly what's going on with the characters. I am personally not familiar with any of Studio 3Hz's previous work, but the animation quality of BLACKFOX tempts me to go and watch some of their other series.

There is a CGI robot in part of the film, which especially feels clunky and doesn't move properly in the environment. I believe BLACKFOX would have benefited as a whole to not use any moving/lifelike CGI such as what's in the anime. It would have looked so much better to be traditionally animated. Although it probably saved them a lot of money since BLACKFOX was intended to be a series, and only transitioned late in development to be a film. If there were any other CGI elements in the movie, I didn't spot them so...

The Animation is on par with many famous series and while it may not rival some of the more famous animated series (such as several works by Ufotable or Kyoto Animation for example) but it definitely stands its ground against most series.

87 / 100

Name: A fantastic movie for casual viewers, while more experienced viewers might find the cliche familiar plot boring.
Item: BLACKFOX
Rating: 72
Author: HannahElsayne

# Audio The audio was nothing special. But in that, the use of music was, for lack of a better word, correct. By that I mean the music was designed to draw out specific emotions in specific scenes/situations, and it did just that. Not so good that it would merit high praise (like Made In Abyss for example) but it was always on point with the mood. It may not seem like much, but music quality in anime lately has declined generally (with exceptions of course).

The voice acting was done very well, Ayake Nanase who voices Isurugi Rikka the main character, does an exceptional job of bringing her character to life. Every line has some kind of feeling in it, however subtle. Although I was much more impressed with the voice of Mia, Haruka Tomatsu. Her voice portrays Mia's complicated emotional state perfectly, especially towards the climax.

Overall, the voice acting was exceedingly good, while the music was simply there, good enough to not be noticed, but not amazing enough to be noticed (if that makes sense >.< ).

74 / 100

# Characters The characters were mostly ok. Rikka, Mia, and the AMD Series Robots were excellent and believable characters, however, I found that Professor Lauren's madness was not very developed. The focus in BLACKFOX's characters was mostly in the relationship and interaction between Rikka and her friends Mia, Oboro, Kasumi, and Madara.

In particular, the relationship and emotions between Rikka and her murdered family, Isurugi Allen and Isurugi Hyoe. While Rikka loved her father and grandfather, it shows that she develops a great respect for her grandfather Hyoe, attempting to follow in his footsteps and become a ninja. Whereas inversely she had an immense amount of love for her father Allen. Somehow Studio 3Hz manage to put a large amount of precedent for Rikka's personality and the reason behind her actions in the first 15 minutes alone and then setting up her development throughout the movie in the next 10 minutes.

Aside from Lauren who felt slightly incomplete as a character, almost all the characters are great. They are introduced into the story in a good way and then develop through their interactions with Rikka. Slightly higher character development and better design than I had expected considering the genre and plot.

78 / 100

# Story The plot is very "cookie-cutter". In that I mean it's a very commonly used plot and doesn't have any large differences from anime of similar genres. For more casual viewers, the plot is fairly decent. But more seasoned anime viewers will pick out the easy to predict plot and might even be bored by it.

I think that Studio 3Hz's focus was heavily on character development rather than the story. I believe that the story is built around the character's development. If you can look past the fact that the story is cliche, it is well-executed and everything feels like it's progressing the story, even if only by small amounts.

There isn't much to say about the story, if you've seen an anime of a similar genre, then you are probably very familiar with the plot already and should just focus on the characters and animation.

54 / 100

# Enjoyment I am personally a semi-casual anime viewer. I watch anime in waves of binging and then I get bored and wait a couple of weeks before finding new series. Seasonal anime is usually the only thing I watch (and not many because I don't like most of them) except for now and then when I go and find a classic to watch for the culture.

Because of this, I didn't notice the bland, predictable plot and I quite enjoyed the movie. The movie does have small bits of comedy sprinkled here and there to make the film feel more lively. But I think if you like deconstructing anime, and especially if you enjoy riveting stories, then BLACKFOX is maybe not for you.

I would definitely recommend this to casual viewers or anyone looking for some anime to pass the time without watching trash.

70 / 100

# FINAL SCORE
# 72 / 100

Thanks for reading my review. If you want, have a short look at my list (which I'm currently updating) and suggest something for me to review next! I would very much appreciate feedback as I would like to get better at reviewing anime. Thanks for reading this far xoxo (* ^ ω ^) beyond this point is the Spoiler Dedicated Section so read that either if you want my complaints about BLACKFOX >.< or if you've already seen it.

# Spoiler Dedicated Section Firstly, the hologram projection and suit towards the end of the film that Rikka finds. Like how is it still sitting on the bench after the raid? Maybe I missed something but I doubt the assaulters would have left it there.

Secondly, the suit design itself. It looks great right up until butt jets... Why? Why are there butt jets? not really a complaint but it sticks out to me so yeah why butt jets...

Thirdly, I wish there was more information about Lauren's research. They sort of just go "hey supernatural powers because... science". Even a couple lines of dialogue to vaguely explain away why no one else has discovered this technology or why no one knows about it. Surely Lauren would have had to report his research to GRADSHEIM right?

other than that my only other complaint is the battle drone... why CGI? It doesn't look right in the setting, with that style of animation. And also, when Rikka is fighting Mia at GRADSHEIM, how is it she manages to dodge what appears to be lightning. And while it's believable that this mysterious power moves slowly, why is it then when she lost control due to the collar, almost none of that power was aimed at Rikka even though I can only assume the collar was trying to get Mia to kill Rikka.

the end and stuff xoxo