Alternative TitlesEnglish: Black Lagoon Japanese: ブラック・ラグーン
Information
Type: TV
Episodes: 12
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Apr 9, 2006 to Jun 25, 2006
Duration:
24 min. per episode Rating:
R - 17+ (violence & profanity)
L represents licensing company
StatisticsScore: 8.351 (scored by 26099 users)
Ranked: #1302
Popularity: #47
Members: 40,068
Favorites: 1,597 1 indicates a weighted score
My Info
Popular Tags
action comedy drama guns |
SynopsisOkajima Rokuro is a Japanese businessman in a town full of Japanese businessmen. His normal day consists of social drinking with clients and being kicked around by his bosses. He finally gets a break though, as he's sent by his company to the tropical seas of Eastern China to deliver a disc. But his boat gets hijacked by a band of mercenaries hired to retrieve the disc. Rock (as he is newly dubbed by his captors) catches the interest of the only female merc Revy as she thinks he's worth a ransom, taking him hostage. However, the disc that was stolen has a terrible secret that's unknown to Rock, which causes massive confusion and chaos for both him and his kidnappers. |
Related AnimeAdaptation: Black Lagoon
Sequel: Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage
Characters & Voice Actors
Staff
Reviews
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tehnominator
84 of 113 people found this review helpful
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12 of 12 episodes seen
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| Overall |
9 |
| Story |
8 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Character |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
Forget the eye patches, peg legs, and talking parrots--there's a new breed of pirates sailing the seas.
Black Lagoon is an action packed anime about modern day mercenaries known as the Lagoon Company who smuggle goods and take up other jobs that would be considered highly illegal. You give them a job, they work. Just be sure to pay them and pay well. From the very opening credits alone, you know that Black Lagoon is about money, blood and guns. The story hits you hard and fast when in the first actual scene, you watch a young Japanese business man getting punched in the face and being held at gunpoint by the Lagoon Company. A series of events occur while he's held in captivity in which he decides that he's had it with the boring, thankless job he had back in Japan.
He's done with being helpless, he's sick of nobody giving a damn, he's fed up with himself, his boss, and his empty apartment. He's had it with the nine-to-five life. He wants out, and wants in the Lagoon Company. And they accept. The rest is, as they say, history, as Rock sheds his salaryman lifestyle (though curiously, not his salaryman clothes) and becomes a member of the Lagoon Company alongside Revy, Dutch and Benny.
Black Lagoon's plot is given in arcs. Each arc is set with two or three episodes detailing one of the Lagoon Company's jobs in which they get into tons of scrapes. However, Black Lagoon's storyline is not some pointless shoot 'em up following the fun escapades of pirates. This stuff is scarily real. These people aren't out there to have fun. Their scrapes are constant near-death experiences. They do a dirty job, and they get the dirt that comes with it.
The art for Black Lagoon is extremely good. There are a lot of details in it, even if the character design comes off as simplistic. The area in which the anime is set, Southeast Asia, is beautifully drawn. A significant number of scenes occur in the ocean or in some body of water, and they are illustrated splendidly. You won't get a blue mass that just looks like the artists dumped their paint and called it a day. No, each frame has enough detail in it ranging from the creases in a loose tie to the shimmer of the ocean under the fiercely burning sun. The animation is excellent. There are countless fights, chase scenes and a lot of movement in Black Lagoon and each is carefully animated. The point-of-views and art direction are extremely well done. There are scenes shot at various angles, providing a lot more flair to the action that is seen.
From the tense pop beats of the OP to the weary, melancholy ED, Black Lagoon is littered with a pieces of a score that suits it. The ED theme song especially reflects the true mood and atmosphere of the anime and the characters' feelings as well.
Probably the best thing about Black Lagoon is the cast. The Lagoon Company is an unusual group made up of even more unusual people. There are the Americans, Benny and Dutch. Benny is the series' "smart guy". He's the brain behind Lagoon Company specialising in getting information and technology. He often provides dry wit during the show, and seems to be one of the warmer, less edgy characters. Dutch is the leader of the group, and experiences speaks for itself as he manages to get jobs, deal with clients and provide tactile advice and orders. He is a hard character to crack into, and his history and training shows that like a true leader, weakness is never acceptable. Even if that weakness is being open and letting people know him better.
Rock, who is the protagonist, changes throughout the anime without changing too drastically. You can take a man out of the office, but you can't take dozens of years of living law-abidingly and working hard while following the rules out of a man in one fell swoop. Rock learns his new trade and tries to apply his methods towards it. And while he is a voice of reason for the rest of his teammates, especially Revy, his characterisation isn't that of a preacher, professing the immorality of their methods. For the Lagoon Company, you can call him the PR man. He prefers peaceful ways to conduct illegal business, though his hopes are often dashed when he sees that a gun's barrel makes more noise than a mouth can. It's admirable, though, that he's the sort of guy who doesn't prefer to shut up about things, even if one voice is more powerful and resounding than his.
And then there's Revy.
She's a Chinese woman who has a bad mouth, a bad attitude--you can't help but falling in love with everything she says and does. Watching her is like watching poetry in motion. If that poem is about killing people, of course. She is probably the deepest character in the anime, having warped but realistic philosophies about the world around her. Life has never been easy and it has never been pretty for her. All she knows is violence and death. So why not turn it into a profession? She is the muscle for the Lagoon Company, recklessly though skilfully wielding her weapons and getting the job done. But she isn't just some tough talking gunner with no heart. In fact, the reason she is comes across coldly is due to an embittered mentality and her wanting not to just be left to die without a cause. She lives knowing that someday, she could die from doing what she does. And if that's how it will be, then it should be doing something she's good at with people who she actually can tolerate being around.
Lots of shoot-outs, explosions, fights--this anime is bursting with enough energy to make you feel exhausted just by watching. From the most intense game of 'chicken' ever seen to fighting Neo-Nazis to deadly servants, Black Lagoon is truly an excellent anime with a lot of well-crafted action scenes and consistently complex characters. It also has a lot of detail that many anime ignore, ranging from little extras in terms of the artwork to scenes with deeper meaning, such as the silent smoking of cigarettes between comrades.
This has been probably the most enjoyable action series I've seen to date. There's dark humour, great fights, characters who you'd just want to get a beer with.
Black Lagoon is a great series. Don't pass it up. read more
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Washi
60 of 88 people found this review helpful
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12 of 12 episodes seen
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| Overall |
8 |
| Story |
7 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Character |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
One word that keeps propelling itself to the forefront of my head when I go to describe this show is: ‘refreshing’. Generally, I tend to avoid those anime which are blatantly action-oriented, because an action anime series so often means that it will be generically shounen, or be some kind of absurd mecha-combat series; very rarely can I find an action series which does not fall to those and other traps, and Black Lagoon is one of them. From its premise to its execution, the show provides thrilling action sequences, from boat and car chases, to messy fisticuffs and bullet-spamming gunfights, the show covers all typical action bases you could expect from hollywood, but which, for one reason or another, anime rarely delivers. Although its depiction of battle features the usual problems of character shielding and the Stormtrooper effect, overall the show is very much grounded in reality, with no magic or science-fiction elements whatsoever. I found this refreshing because, typically, the only anime you are likely to find set in present-time reality are slice-of-life, revolving around dramatic or romantic themes. So Black Lagoon was a great change of pace; a hollywood style action/adventure shoot ‘em up but with a darker and more thoughtful approach to themes and characters (as is often found in mature anime) - it’s a splendid mix.
The production values for the show are certainly excellent, some of the best to have come out of 2006. It shines during the action scenes, which are very fluid and detailed, but overall has no real flaws other than the occasional lapse in consistency. The character designs are all attractive and original. The music is not something that impressed me; there isn’t a lot of score music in the show (which is slightly refreshing given anime’s habbit of blasting violin and choir over every scene), and what it has is fitting, but not really memorable.
The characters are well defined, although I felt the focus given to the characters was rather strangely distributed; Revy and Rock (the two main characters) aside, the rest of the Black Lagoon barely garnered any attention, and their involvement was so greatly reduced by the end of the series that you had to wonder why the show was even named after the group. I am not kidding that the majority of the villains the group encountered received considerably more character exploration than either Benny or Dutch (the other two Black Lagoon members). I understand the importance of giving depth to the antagonist perspective, but I got the feeling that the original creator just kept falling in love with the antagonists he introduced, and neglected the protagonists in order to delve indulgently into the villain’s pasts and characters. The best example would be Hanzel and Gretel, the goth-loli twins and their arc. They were given so much background, and such a poignant send-off yet had so little effect on any continuing plot, or on the characters.
Revy was certainly an interesting character. I’ve seen the hardened, indifferent criminal stereotype before, but Black Lagoon takes Revy to the next level and actually glorifies her as colourfully maniacal. It makes the show fun to watch because you never know how to feel about Revy; sometimes you’ll side with her and cheer her on, or feel sorry for her, but then the next moment she’s slaughtering innocent people for enjoyment. Essentially she’s a juxtaposition of ‘cool’ and ‘reprehensible’. Rock is a character who is much easier to make a connection with, in fact I like to see him as being the representative for the audiences perspective on the show as it traverses the challenging lands of immorality. He is described in the show as being ‘in the twilight’, neither living under explicitly righteous terms, nor wholly endorsing the injustice of the underworld. This allows him to be constantly critical of the actions of those around him, but from an intelligent objective position (ie he does not decry their actions through blind morality). His criticisms of the actions Revy and others around him take make for the most profound and thematically crucial dialogue in the show, and despite his outwardly plain personality, also make him a fascinating and important presence in the show.
This brings me to the real crux of the matter: the show is really about the criminal mind, and the life of crime in all its forms. It paints an alluring portrait of the attraction to such a life, but never forgets to challenge that attraction by showing the kind of sacrifices one has to make of their humanity. It shows crime as a dangerously beautiful thing, and also shows it at its most sickening. All the exciting action is secondary to this. In conclusion, Black Lagoon should be watched by all action fans, but is a step above most shounen series due to its challenging and, at times, risqué foray into the heart of the criminal world. It is for mature audiences, because, despite having such character and being so colourful about murder, it is also very dark at times. There are flaws in the way it is paced, and the way some of the characters are neglected, but it has some very sharp dialogue, and is regardlessly entertaining thrill read more
Recommendations
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bounty hunting, guns, great characters
Pretty laid back, lots of fighting. All in all very similar to Bebop.
both have some great gun fights,the dark backgrounds of the main characters
Black Lagoon is just a down to earth copy of the true classic Cowboy Bebop.
Lot's of high energy action. The cast are pirates instead of bounty hunters.
Black Lagoon is similar to Cowboy Bebop in that both series have a crew of characters who go from job to job trying to make ends meet, they both have at least 1 or more characters who come to terms with their past in some way shape or form and they both are full of action packed gun blasting fun that will leave you saying "Wow, how awesome was that!"
A little bit of a warning though, there is ALOT of swearing in Black Lagoon so watch with care. Go ahead and give it a shot.
The similarities between these two anime are not so apparent, however they do share quite a bit in common. Both shows are about a rag tag bunch of pirates (or bounty hunters, same thing, right?) who make their living dong dangerous things. Both shows are episodic in nature, and are very character driven. While not on the same par as Bebop, Black Lagoon is no slouch when it comes to character development, which is a bit of a surprise from a show whose immediate goal is to deliver as much blood, action, and gunplay as possible (which Bebop also has quite a bit of). Revy, BL's resident badass, has her own distinctive charm, much like Spike. While Bebop is easily the better show (well, it's better than most anime, so it's not really fair to compare), Black Lagoon is entertaining in its own right and is worth a look from Bebop fans.
Same gun-toting badassery, same motley-crew antics, same moments of, "holy crap, that's actually well-done characterization."
Stylish and gritty violence. Both share a lot of gunfight.
Similarities are overwhelming. Crude comedy, a bald leader of the group who used to be in the civil service, a hot girl with a bad attitude, a technical genius, and a ship hideaway. Also similar are the violent scenes, and guns, guns, guns.
Both have interesting episodic plots and doing jobs for money with guns and action.
Black Lagoon is a story about a band of modern pirates who do their dirty jobs to survive in a very harsh world. The characters in this series are amazing and just like in Cowboy Bebop, they are rich with both positive and negative traits which make them so alive. The story is also laid out in a similar way: the series is split into short adventures which are gently connected by the main storyline and you find out more about the main characters as you go along.
Its pretty obvious at times that Black Lagoon had gotten some inspiration from Cowboy Bebop, BL even has a similar feel to CB as well.
So if you seen CB or BL and you are looking for more some the same action awesomeness, this series is a great pick. Highly recommended!
Two great show's about freelancer's. The character's are rich and contrast well. And both are filled with great stories and ton's of action. You'll be curious about each event episode by episode while trying to figure out the character's involved over the entire show.
Guns, Bounties, Mercenaries, Hot Chicks, Bad Ass Buff Guys, what else do you look for in shonen Anime?
Amazing, exciting, and gritty anime which focus on a crew composed of 4 people (bounty hunters in CB, modern pirates in BL) and their adventures and jobs at the edge of legality.
The main characters are quite similar: there’s the hot and dangerous beauty (Faye/Revy), the computer genius (Ed/Benny), and the ship’s owner/leader (Jet/Dutch).
Both anime have large amounts of action, badassery, guns, violence, black humour, mafia, plus awesome characters, great animation, and good music.
Also, both anime have an episodic nature: most of the episodes have a different story with several characters joining it, but without forgetting the protagonists' past and troubles.
If you love one, you’ll adore the other.
Same cybern-western atmosphere and action.
Bounty hunter themed with action, comedy, and seriousness.
Gunfights and humour. Cowboy Bebop is about a bounty hunting in the future and space and Black Lagoon is about illegal business and stuff.
Both have some crazy-#*%$ bounty hunters that are AWESOME! Also have some great action scenes and well-fleshed out characters in both.
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Both are action-packed mafia-related series with great characters.
If you liked the non-stop action and eccentric/intriguing cast of characters in Baccano! I have a feeling you'd definitely like Black Lagoon. Sure, it doesn't have quite the focused storyline Baccano! had, but it is well worth watching nonetheless.
Say it with me, guys: Lots! Of! Violence!
Besides that, both of these anime have a similar feeling about them. And they both deal with characters who don't exactly have the best of morals...
Bad guys fighting other bad guys... mafia.. xD
High levels of action. Lovable rogues.
Both involve extreme blood and violence.
Both have sadistic characters and mafia.
In both there are non japanese characters.
Mafia, violence, guns, black humor. In both you’ll find great and crazy characters, torture, blood, badass females.
Both are action packed anime, and have great music and animation.
Also, in both anime there is a majority of non-japanese people (the series itself are not set in Japan, after all), and basically no one in these anime can be considered “the good guy”.
Blood, guns, gangsters...both shows have them in ample supply, though the settings are different.
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Opening Theme"Red Fraction" by MELL
Ending Theme"Don't Look Behind" by EDISON
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