Black Lagoon & Black Lagoon: Second Barrage

Black Lagoon (ブラック・ラグーン) and Black Lagoon: Second Barrage are 12 episode action anime titles based on the manga Black Lagoon. They aired on TV in Japan in 2006 and 2007 respectively.

    Tokyo salaryman Rokuro Okajima finds himself in south East Asia delivering a disc for his employers to a business partner. Unknown to him the disk contains secret information that can get his employer in a serious amount of international trouble. Known to various groups of pirates in the South Seas is his whereabouts and the contents of the disk. An interested party hires a small band of pirates known for their expertise to kidnap the Japanese businessman and his package. Rokuro’s ship is attacked by the bandits and he is captured by the Lagoon, a 3 person crew operating out of Thailand. Rokuro’s company agrees to meet the demands for the package but when they don’t plan to do anything for his release he decides to join the pirates instead of returning to Japan. The captain of the ship, Dutch, agrees to bring the green horn into his crew, much to the dismay of Revy, the muscle. The final member, techno wizard Benny doesn’t object and the dress shirt clad Rock (as he is dubbed) is a member of the crew. He must now live outside of anything he has ever experienced before and remove any moralistic boundaries he once possessed to survive the harsh Asian underworld, pursuing the life of a pirate.

    The Lagoon Company is based out of the fictional town of Roanapur in Thailand, a place that caters only to criminals. Rock, who is use to restrained civilization must adapt quickly to the Wild West atmosphere of Roanapur. Their jobs include kidnappings, package delivery, package retrieval, escorting clients and more. Rock must determine if this is the life he wants to live and if he has what it takes to do the job while also maintaining a balance that keeps him from becoming an uncivilized animal like those around him. At the same time the entire Lagoon Company must continue to skate a fine line between working for the various faction in Roanapur, such as the Russian and Chinese mafias.

    This is a well done action series that is filled with guns, explosions and carnage. The animation is high quality and the fast paced action leave’s no time for boredom. While the show is a mindless action vehicle the writing is well done and the main characters are developed to the point they need to be. The opening and ending theme songs are entertaining and the music in the series as a whole is worth while. If you are a fan of violence and death this is a great series to watch, if you are squeamish stay away. The many side characters are unique and memorable, such as the nuns of the Church of Violence, a Catholic church in the town that deals in gun running. The biggest problem I had with the first season/series was the second to final story arc. The main protagonist in the arc at times takes on Terminator qualities as she survives a high speed car crash and massive explosions, always to remain right on the Lagoon Companies tail. The arc was good but too far fetched for the series in my opinion.

    The second season/series, Second Strike, turns up the dial on mayhem and twisted characters. Parts of Roanapur’s underworlds specialties come to the surface to show that it is more grisly than you thought. One particularly disturbing arc deals with young twins; products of a cruel war torn country, who have been hired by someone to take out the Russian mafia. These sociopath murderers leave a bloodbath in their wake as they attempt to take out one of the toughest women in town. The most disturbing is their past, the events that made them psychopathic killers in the first place. The series ends with Rock and Revy going to Japan to broker a deal between two Yakuza clans. Rock, faced with the chance to return to his past life, must decide once and for all if he wants to continue down the road of damnation or if he can salvage his soul and return to the mundane world.

    The second season is actually more enjoyable then the first season. We already know most of the players so we don’t have to waste time being introduced to them. The stories take on a more serious tone then before and the action gets ratcheted up significantly. I give the producers credit for trying, but in the scenes when Revy is speaking English it can be both embarrassing and confusing given the voice actors poor skill in the language. This happens frequently during the Japanese arc to show that she isn’t speaking Japanese when dealing with the natives. When she and Rock are speaking to each other it is in Japanese, voice actor wise, even though story wise they are speaking English to each other. It adds some realism to the story and some of her interactions in the arc reminded me of Ghost Dog when the main character and the French man talked to each other without understanding each others words. Plus it makes for some great Engrish one liners. They only thing I can say on a down side with the entire series is that it just ends. I have not read all of the manga so I don’t know how much more there is story wise, but from what I have read it covers the manga pretty faithfully. 

    There was a 3rd continuation of the series as a 5 part OAV subtitled Roberta's Blood Trail, which once again introduces the character I had the biggest problem with. All of Black Lagoon has been readily available in a variety of formats in North America, so enjoy if you have not seen this excellent action vehicle!