Black Lagoon - Reviews

Right, it's confession time for me. If you have been reading my reviews than you may have noticed that I tend to rip the anime a new one. There is a reason for this though and it has to do with the fact that I can't turn my brain off when watching anime. I can't ignore the stupid shown in the anime and this is a problem as most anime are very stupid indeed.

In this case I'm not talking about a 90 pound girl catching a multi-ton cruise missile and throwing it back. Yes, it is stupid but it is a stupid that I'll allow. It's anime. Things like this are normal here and I'm pretty much fine with it. It annoys me to be sure but I will not rant about it.

So, having explained this lets rip into this anime shall we? Just a heads up: There will most probably be spoilers. The more I hate an anime the more spoilers there will be.

ART: I really like art like this as I've had it with the massive eyes from the 80's. I would say this anime style is more realistic but there is some slapstick humor in there that may put some people off. Case in point is the episode where a villain gets a torperdo to the face and you get to see his goofy expession as he dies.

SOUND: Opening song gets you right in the mood with heavy gitars and dito vocals so there is no mistaken that you are in for a ride. Closing song is very subdued in comparison and I kind of liked the contrast between the 2 songs. Voice actors did a good job overall.

CHARACTERS: Main character is Rock. He is a Japanese office worker who gets stuck in one of the shittiest places on Earth. Despite his surroundings he tries to keep his values and get along with his new co-workers.

Revi is a halve American, halve Chinese woman who has had a very bad childhood. She is called 'two hands' for her habit of dual wielding pistols which she uses with deadly effect. Her relationship with Rock is a bit of love/hate as she doesn't really agree with his viewpoint on life.

Lagoon Company is basically a 4 man crew who runs operations from an old patrol boat. Dutch is an African American who served in the Vietnam war and stuck around in Roanapur. He is the brains and the director of the company. Revi is his muscle and Benny is the information expert. Rock is the latest addition to the company.

STORY: Roanapur is a human cesspool of a city that is run by crime. After an unfortunate run-in with pirates, Rock, finds himself stuck between a rock and a hard place. Essentially left to his fate by his company he decides to attach himself to the Lagoon Company and quicly finds himself in Roanapur where he must adapt to survive or die like so many before him.

RANT: I liked this anime a lot but I'll also admit that this anime has some issues. If I have to guess as to why I like this anime I would have to say that it is because of the strong female characters. I have a massive soft spot for those.

Whenever I play a RPG game and I get a choice I always play as a female character. It is a preference that is personal and has nothing to do with sexual overtones. I love creating a female character that kicks all kinds of ass so when I get an anime that has a whole host of them.....

As mentioned this anime has problems and the biggest one is tone. This is a graphiclaay violent anime and people get murdered in horrific ways. Nothing and nobody is spared from this violence and it is at times brutally shown.... And then we have screwball comedy thrown is there as well.

The tonal shift between violence and comedy can be a bit jarring at times. This is intentional and for the most part it sort of works. I can, however, completely understand that people will be turned off by this and immediately stop watching this anime. I highly recommend you watch a few episodes online before deciding on getting this series.

The story is another matter entirely though as there really isn't one. There are a number of story arcs running through the series. The tonal shift I mentioned earlier really comes into play here as one arc goes very dark and the next is screwball comedy.

Main focus of most arcs is Rock though. You get most of it through his viewpoint and moral compass. As the anime goes on you get to see him struggle the most and through him you get to know the others.

As I said this is not for everyone but I liked it a lot. I gave the story an 8 but this is kind of hard to judge since there is not a main arc to be seen. Some arcs are amazing while others are meh.

Awesome Animé, full of action, but not very gory and messy, but stil very good. It is funny in some moments... this is a serie you cant stop watch after the first episode ;)

This is a Review of both Black Lagoon and Black Lagoon: Second Barrage. The scores I set are after thinking on both of them as one series.

"At the entrance to the gulf, a Buddha statue that's supposed to bring peace to the world stands in ruin. Beyond that lies the port of immorality, Roanapra. From the overland entrance to the town, there's always a noose, hanging for some unknown person. Beyond that lies the city of pleasure, Roanapra. At one time I was a salaryman in Tokyo, now I'm a pirate here."

Black Lagoon is about a guy named Okajima Rokuro, aka Rock. As he said, He's a Japanese businessman who is on his way to make a delivery when his boat is boarded by pirates. Thats right, I said pirates. I did a little research and it turns out pirates still exist. Mostly in places of ill repute, much like the setting of our show. Anyways, these guys kidnap Rock and bring him along with them. Rock meets his new best friends: Dutch, one of the coolest black men to ever grace anime, Benny, the blonde jewish hacker, and Revy, one of the most insane gunslinging girls ever to come out of New York. "And they go and have zany adventures." I'm gonna have to copyright that statement one of these days.

I believe that this is a good time to point out that out of these four main characters, only one of them is actually Japanese. The other three are American. Dutch is an ex military guy who lived through Vietnam, Benny's a Floridian, and Revy's a Chinese American from New York.

Now, I'll start with something I noticed on my rewatch of the series. Its something you notice after you have watched anime for a while, and it's a thing called stock footage. I'll give an example. There is a battle going on, and the main character uses his special attack. You then notice that this is the exact same clip as the last time he made this attack, and the time before, and the time before. The characters are talking, and apart from the words being different, the pictures are the exact same as the last conversations they've had, except in different order. Now, stock footage is usually done to cut down animation costs. If you've already got something done, why do it again a hundred times when you can just reuse what you have?

Now for the relevance. It doesn't seem like Black Lagoon has any stock footage in it whatsoever. The gunfights are so different, and the characters are ever changing, so there doesn't seem to be more than a few scenes that are reused in the entire show. Now, I consider this a mark of quality. If you take the time to animate all parts of a show, and not just throw together old clips, the show will have a quality that displays your hard work. No gunfight is the same. The characters are doing stuff while they talk, and this stuff changes dependent on the situation they are in. DUring a time of relaxation, Revy is cleaning her gun. Dutch is at the helm, and Rock is smoking. These are not the only things they do, all the time, forever; it varies depending on their mood. I could go and find examples, but its really early in the morning. I believe this little fact makes this anime that much better. I've seen a review that called some of the animation mediocre, and I'll agree, that some scenes are not as well done as they could have been, but the fact that there was little to no stock footage involved goes a long way in my opinion.

Right, now for the story itself. It starts out with the kidnapping, and leads into other adventures. The show takes an almost "story a week" approach to itself, showing a story arc for an episode or two, then ending it for the next one to begin. However, I can't quite call it a "story a week" show, because the characters are changing. In a "story a week" show, the characters really don't grow or change based on thier experiences, due to the fact that there is no telling what episode you are watching, and if you're watching the show in order.

I'll give an example. Spongebog Squarepants has no character development that is not promptly forgotten by the next episode. This is because there is no central plot to the show, just a retarded sponge who works at a fast food joint for a crab who believes that money is the opposite of the root of all evil. There is only the episode and the jokes of that show, there is no past, no future, just the present joke.

With Black Lagoon, they have their short story arcs, but they always impact the characters in subtle ways. Revy doesn't fully accept the new guy Rock and has to overcome that. Rock has to deal with his new job and coworkers, Dutch has to deal with how Rock will affect the attitudes of his employees. Everyone grows and changes over the course of the anime, and by the end of the first season, you see a definite level of trust between them that wasn't there before.

This brings us to the characters. I believe that this is where the show shines the most. Our little band of pirates are complex and very well developed, and I would not hesitate to put Revy up with Faye Valentine, or Rock right next to Spike Spiegel. The way these characters grow and develop throughout the series is something that you don't see very often in anime, outside of shows like Cowboy Bebop.

The sound score is one that I am up and down on. To sum up my thoughts, I'll just call it appropriate. The situations they put music to were all very good for their pieces, especially a scene early on in the series when Revy puts on a pair of headphones and listens to the same music playing in the background... while she kills people. The OP and ED also were hard to catagorize, because they seemed to show different sides of the anime. The OP had a good beat, psyching you for the fight scenes, and really showed an upbeat, action show. The ED on the other hand, was very slow, dramatic, and some could say depressing. It seemed to represent the half of the show where things get serious, where not everything is a sugarcoated as some would think. Two parts of the whole, representing the different sides of the same thing.

Now, I'll stop praising and start nitpicking. Fortunately, I have very few nits to pick. This anime is one of has one of the dirtiest scripts I have ever seen. Everyone is cursing left and right. Of course, the setting almost demands it, working in the hell hole of the criminal underworld. So I really can't complain overly much about that.

However, I can complain about how they ended the show. The second season ends with us thinking that it will go on, that the story isn't done. This is true. The story wasn't done, and was continued in the Manga. Now, this leaves us with a few questions, such as, what happens to the gang after Rock and Revy get back? How will they deal with this new development in their relationship?

These are all questions that we ask about Black Lagoon, but what I have to give the show credit for is that they didn't go to filler. Too many shows decide that since the anime is about to outstrip the manga, it's filler time. Black Lagoon didn't take this route, but rather ended it when they ran out of material, and put the anime on hold until the writer has the next part of the story done. Will we actually see a Black Lagoon Season 3? Maybe. I can't say. What I can say is Bravo, Black Lagoon, for not falling prey to filler arcs.

Now, these are some of the few complaints I have about Black Lagoon, other than the fact that the fact that the third season hasn't come out yet. So, I say that this show was one of the better ones that I have seen, and will most likely remain a favorite in the same way that Cowboy Bebop has.

• 

  For the time worth watching this, people have been describing this as the younger sister of “Cowboy Bebop”, being the anime equivalent to the big action blockbuster Hollywood movie (The Rock, Bad Boys, any 80s’ action flick you can think of) with the many details of graphic violence, excessive cursing and language, sexuality thrown in there and a bit of inspiration some such filmmakers as Quentin Tarantino & John Woo, although the former did a bit of anime in his venture (yes, you should know what I’m talking about).

  The story follows a team of pirates/mercenaries known as Lagoon Company, which smuggles goods in and around the seas of Southeast Asia in the early to mid-1990s. Their base of operations is located in the fictional harbor city of Roanapur in southeast Thailand (somewhere in the Amphoe Mueang Trat district, likely on the mainland north/northeast of the Ko Chang island or on the island itself).They transport goods in the 80-foot (24 m) Elco-type PT boat Black Lagoon. Lagoon Company does business with various clients, but has a particularly friendly relationship with the Russian crime syndicate Hotel Moscow. The team takes on a variety of missions—which may involve violent firefights, hand-to-hand combat, and nautical battles—in various Southeast Asian locations, even going as far as Phu Quoc island of Vietnam and when not doing much, the members of the Lagoon Company spend much of their down time at The Yellow Flag, a bar in Roanapur which is often destroyed in firefights.

  

  Now for the characters of the show, it does have a very vast range of characters but sometimes that showcase as little as they can. Rokuro Okajima, or Rock, is the main protagonist of the show as the Japanese salary man who is so bored and displeased with his daily life and no one exactly gave a shit about him. Actually, when the company he worked for send him out to deliver a package and he gotten captured, they just abandoned him as he was expendable to them. Aside from being captured, Rock manages to keep his mild-mannered and humble attitude throughout the whole show, which is in contrast to our next character, Revy, also known as “Two Hands” (at least she didn’t swing chains). She is one of the most foul-mouthed, merciless, sadistic and fatal characters of the show and that really got the show in drive. Hell, most of the opening sequence is practically her being showcased in action and while she often gets irritated by Rock in the first season but she is protective of him as the series goes along.

  The other members of the Lagoon Company include Dutch, the black leader of the company, who is more of the easygoing and relaxed members and last, there’s Benny, the tech specialist member who in his past gotten into the mafia and would’ve ended up dead if Revy didn’t saved him. Now, I would like these characters to have backstory in the show but unfortunately, it’s being taken up by the former two characters of the series, which really disappointed me considering they seemed like interesting characters to know…maybe they might be in the manga, though.

  

  Like I said, there was a wide variety of characters in the show that will probably be too many to mention and name drop like Balalaika, the boss of Hotel Moscow, one of the many gangs that are mentioned in the show and not only she is very skilled at what she does but practically a character that makes her presence to be feared. There is also the Hong Kong Triads lead by Mr. Chang and his top assassin Shenhua; The Colombian Cartel, The Church of Violence, The Aryan Socialist Union (Neo Nazis.) and The Washimine Group (Japanese Yakuza), who are more heavily-involved towards the end of the show.

  The show is total 24 episodes, with the first and the second season called “The Second Barrage”, and I will say that the second season has more of a storyline while the first is just random missions with little storyline aside from the main one and yet for some characters like Roberta and her arc makes me crave for more of her (luckily, there is an option for that) but the vampire incestuous twins Hansel and Gretel didn’t feel organic to the series or even to most of the plot. They could’ve been thrown out of the show entirely and not much of a difference would have been made.

  

  As for the animation, the credit all goes to Madhouse for the many use of blood, detailed fight scenes and gun battles, chase scenes, beautiful scenery, and for the opening and ending sequences, which the music for both worked well. The OP theme, “Red Faction” by MELL will get your blood pumping as the show begins, although singing it….I would not suggest if you get the lyrics and the ending music….yeah, music, it’s not much of a theme but many people complained about it being slow, depressing, and drags down the tone of the series…..maybe it does but most of the time when the show have its serious moments, it’s appropriate to rather end on that note rather than just generic hard-driving rock music. The ending music for episode 15 was actually one of my favorites but the last ending theme music was more of a “meh” to me.

  

  Now, as for the dub from Geneon/Ocean, it is a bit 50/50, on the one hand, the dub fits more naturally than the sub, considering its flair is more international and some characters speak English naturally, performances from Brad Swaile, Maryke Hendrikse, Brian Drummond & Dean Redman, which from him I will say this: “Finally, a black character in an anime is voiced by an actual black guy.” This is a good thing, people. But, unfortunately, some of the voices either irritated or creeped me out like the voice of Hansel and Gretel really had me freaking out a bit, considering I heard them before on a show that in a conscience that I’m not telling you….well, one of the actresses was the voice of Nurse Witch Komugi. Garcia just seems annoying and grating whenever he speaks and whoever voiced Shenhua has the worst and slightly offensive Chinese voice I have ever heard. It sounds like that fake accent most people would put in a black-owned hair salon and that’s about as Chinese as the Panda Express.

  FINAL VERDICT: By all means, Black Lagoon is worth seeing and definitely worth buying. This could be one of the few anime that I see Western culture getting into, maybe not as much or iconic as Bebop but still. It has a very in-your-face tone mixed with dark comedy and sometimes even darker drama once it gets more storyline driven. Your friends will love this but I wouldn’t recommended seeing this with family or kids…..unless they into that, too.

as big fan of this series i love what they done with this arc.
they delete all comedy content from the manga and make minor changes, and what we see now is masterpiece.

Sounds
the ost in this anime is Fire ,and this arc no doubt is fantastic I LOVE IT.
10/10

art
this anime is always known of wonderful animation back days, this arc is worth the wait
this gorgeous animation is in next level.
10/10

characters
at this point we all know all the old characters and how great they are.
for the new enmy so far they only 5 eps we can't talk too much here.
but for what we see is well done characters.
10/10

story
with 4 to 6 chapters adapt per episode and what we see until now make the story phenomenal.
10/10

overall 10/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 10