What's say let's take a walk on the wild side? Or rather a boat ride, perhaps? The high seas are always a fun topic for just about any medium, and boy do we have plenty of that here for you today. Straight from Southeast Asia and the South China Sea's criminal undercurrent, come a veritable smorgasborg of dark hilarity and violent awesomeness. You can find every sort of thug in the city of Roanapura, from the yakuza, to the Russian Mafia, and even freelance mercs, and if you want more excitement, you can go out for a ride and catch some pirates, or possibly... well I'll tell you about the other things later. I kid you not, this short anime is chock full of pulse pounding action and fun surprises as the Lagoon company tears its way through the Thai underground with their old PT-boat, in search of the golden mercenary standard: Profit. So get out your cutlass pistols, and strap on your AK-47, we're taking a ride on Black Lagoon.
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The Black Lagoon: Pirate ship, delivery vessel,
and home to the craziest crew in the South China Sea. |
I first heard of this anime when I saw the first two episodes, once again, at the anime club I was part of in college, and I found myself howling with the rest of the club at the dark humor and totally on the edge of my seat wondering what would happen next. Now that I've had the chance to see the entire first season, I can safely say that it is well worth your time, as long as you aren't too hung up on watching folks getting shot. (Please note that once again, I do not actually condone violence, it's fun in fiction, but in real life... just don't do it.) Originally,
Black Lagoon was based off the manga of the same name by Rei Hiroe. It was produced by Studio Madhouse and ran for 12 episodes on various networks in Japan during the spring of 2006. It also has a second season, referred to as "The Second Barrage", as well as an OVA that is currently in production, but since many folks seem to treat these as separate projects, we're focusing on the first season here. Should you care to look for it in the states, it's currently licensed by Geneon Entertainment.
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Rock: Within the last twenty minutes, I've been kidnapped,
forced into a drinking game with a psycho,
and shot at by mercs hired by my own company.
Why shouldn't I look stressed! |
Our story begins in the least innocent of ways, as Rokuro Okajima, our Japanese protagonist (soon to be known as Rock), gets kidnapped by the crew of the converted PT boat, the Black Lagoon, when they come for a pirate operation to liberate a disk of his company's information that he has been charged with. At first glance, it appears that they'll hold him for ransom and that'll be the end of it, but then things go awry as his company decides they don't care enough about him for a rescue. At that point, the now ex-salaryman decides to join the crew of the Black Lagoon as he really has no where else to go, and he's sick and tired of living on his former company's terms. Now teamed up with his former captors, the steady handed Dutch, the gunslinging sociopath Revy, and their intel guy Benny, Rock spends the rest of the series attempting to stay alive and contribute to the Lagoon Company's work as a delivery and freelance company for the South China Sea's crime bosses.
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Be glad this isn't a close up shot.
You might get more than you bargained for in this city. |
This anime did a really great job making the world believable not just on the level of environment, but even down to the technical detail in the art style. The world itself is a feast of interesting things to look at, especially in the city of Roanapura, which is the Black Lagoon's home base. Though there are a couple of points where frames are reused, the city has this feel of being some sort of wild western (yet still Asianized) town where shootouts are common and the law is only as powerful as the money in your pocket can bribe it to be. The first time you see the city, Rock gives a short narrative about the place to build it up, and it works really well, since he goes into the city's quirks along with its glaring flaws. Even so, there's enough mystery about the place to make you curious about it, but not enough to distract from the plot. It's handled the way someone often approaches a city when they have somewhere they need to go in a hurry. The more obscure things melt into the background, there for the mind to caress, but not enough to be distracting. Like the mysterious noose that hangs on the bridge for some unknown victim. It calls the mind to wonder who it might be for, yet it's not important enough to make you angst over it. The visuals out on the boats are equally interesting. For instance, there's a point early on where the crew needs to hide in this river after being chased by some ex-military mercs in a helicopter and they come to a dead end with a very nice waterfall.
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From left to right, Benny, Rock, Revy, and Dutch,
looking somewhat the worse for wear
at the end of their first mission together. |
While some of the characters are definitely stereotypes, they do have their own kind of life to them that makes them a bit different from the standard molds they represent, and in some cases, make them their own. For instance, Rock is an ex-salary man, but at the same time, he's made of much harder stuff than he first appears to be. There are several times where he's stared down the barrel of a gun pointed at his head and actually managed to intimidate the person threatening him (I even felt a little freaked out by it sometimes as he becomes better at this little skill). As one would expect of a person who had been attempting to climb the corporate ladder, he's great with accounting and appears to have a nack for negotiating. He may not be the best gunslinger, but his surprising inner strength makes him a really relatable character, especially since he likes to compare the stuff that's happening to spaghetti westerns and famous movies. (There's even a terminator reference in there that's totally hilarious as they use it again almost immediately afterward.) He's often paired up with Revy, the pistol-wielding near-sociopath after officially joining the crew. That pretty much sums up her character entirely. She loves violence and often approaches life with a psychotic grin and a cigarette. Though woe betide you if she shows any weakness in front of you. There's also Dutch, the Vietnam veteran and owner of the ship, as well as Benny, the Jewish american who runs the detection equipment. You can't help but think they have stories, but they don't go into great detail about them. It's okay since the anime is short, and that's not the focus, but the fact you can tell it's there is still a good thing.
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| Do not cross Roberta. Really. Just... don't. |
I definitely enjoyed the supporting characters and the antagonists too. If you watch
Detective Conan (Japanese version), you may recognize the voice of Vermouth's seiyuu, Mami Koyama who does the voice of Balalaika, a Russian Mafia boss on good terms with the Lagoon Company, in the Japanese dub. She does a good job at making Balalaika a very competent and believable mob boss, seeing as she knows how to use just enough of an allure in her voice to keep it feminine while still radiating power. It's awesome to hear. Many of the other supporting characters are equally awesome, like Mr. Chang, the Chinese Tang leader who hires them later in the series, and Shenhua, the Taiwanese assassin who favors blades over guns and seems to have a rivalry with Revy. Both of them are frighteningly competent at what they do. The group also goes up against some of the craziest antagonists I've ever heard of. Early in the series, they go up against some ex-military mercs and that doesn't sound so bad, but then there's the Neo-Nazis later, and after that, there's Roberta. Let me tell you about Roberta. If anyone could make being chased around by a Columbian catholic girl in a maid uniform scary, she did it. I am dead serious when I say this. Suffice to say, there was a reason Rock compared her to the terminator. She packs some serious heat, with a suitcase that's full of pistols as machine gun rounds and umbrella that doubles as a shot gun, this ex-revolutionary guerrilla turned family caretaker is enough to give Revy a run for her money and she does it convincingly. It's probably one of the more exciting chase and fight scenes in the series, aside from the last one, which I won't ruin. ^^
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| Gotta have a cool head for tea-time in Roanapura. |
As the series is so short, it is naturally very lean on filler, in fact it's almost non-existent. Every episode is important for something, which I definitely like. I also really liked how dark humor is often used alongside the serious moments as well as how the writers are very aware of the story they're telling. Like in the first episode, right after being kidnapped at gunpoint by Revy, Rock is sitting next to Dutch on the boat talking to him and he reflects how he must be succumbing to Stockholm Syndrome because he's started thinking that Dutch is the only friend he has in the world at the moment. Later, things get really funny when the group is at this bar in Roanapura and after being goaded by Revy because she doesn't think he could hold his liquor he yells at her not to mock a Japanese Businessman and after a few angry lines about being forced to drink at corporate functions, he takes her on and chugs a whole pint of stuff down without breaking a sweat or succumbing to intoxication. In fact, a lot of the dialog between Rock and Revy is hilarious to listen to as their characters play off each other beautifully, even in the fight scenes where he's often ducking for cover and she's running into the gunfire with wild abandon and yet artistic precision. But seeing them out of the fight is fun too, like in one episode, their checking in with some of their delivery clients and Rock shows he has a knack for negotiation by talking tea with a gun-dealing reverend mother of a church, while Revy is pistol to pistol with the reverend mother's bodyguard. (It is an awesome scene to watch.)
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| Revy, doing what she does best: Kill. |
The fight sequences are perhaps the main attraction of this title, and boy are they exciting. From the PT boat's incredible face-off with a military helicopter in the second episode to the final chase (which is really really crazy, trust me! There's pot involved, it has to be!) the sequences are really well done and exciting and you can tell that the artists put a lot of work into making them good. However, the big genius image-wise is perhaps the computer graphics that were used for this project, and what you don't see about them. Like in a lot of the action scenes, computer graphics are used to smooth the appearance of some frames and make the movement more fluid. However, it is so well done that I didn't even notice until I actually saw that they had a CGI company in the credits and started looking for the evidence. I don't mean to brag, but I have great faith in my attention to detail and if I can't tell the difference, that's a darn good job. This shows especially well in the shipboard scenes where Revy is running up and down the PT Boat shooting up all the enemies on other ships. If you know, you'll recognize it, but it didn't even cross my mind until later that it couldn't have been anything but standard frames. Now that is some seamless artwork. The background music was also really well done and captured the mood really well when it needed to. I found the intro theme, "Red Fraction" by Mell, to be different, but enjoyable as it did an excellent job illustrating the dangerous, high-stakes world you're about to enter. The voice talents are all pretty good in both English and Japanese, so you won't be disappointed either way. Viewer discretion is advised however, which means you probably don't want to show this while there's kids around, but I'm sure you could figure that out.
There may not be an end to the story, but I get the feeling that was because by the time they finished it, the Second Barrage was on the way, so it wasn't really necessary. But even without that, it still felt like a complete story as by the end, Rock has proved himself an equal within the company and a valuable asset. Because of that, I can't say I have any real complaints. If I did, I'd just be nitpicking. Overall, this anime was fun and enjoyable. Though it was definitely violent, bloody, and geared towards the crowd that prefers an adrenaline rush, it didn't hit the line where it became unnecessarily disgusting. I would definitely recommend this anime, especially if you like shows with heavy combat. And that's the tiger's two cents.
Images taken from Black Lagoon.
