Ranked #284

Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail

The move from that of a televised anime series to an OAV format did its fair share of good for the crew of Black Lagoon. By allowing them to work without worrying about censorship, they could get the violence as visceral and hyper-sexualized as possible and create a no holds bar bloodfest the likes of which anime has rarely had before. Going into this, it should be perfectly evident from the name what you’re in for: A tale of carnage caused by everyone’s favorite former guerilla warfare enthusiast maid, Roberta. And boy does it deliver.

Our tale starts with a public bombing orchestrated by a contracted group of US Marines killing the head of the Lovelace family in Venezuela, leaving the family heir Garcia orphaned and under the care of his maids. At this point, we also learn of Roberta’s career prior to her joining the Lovelace family as a maid, where she was a revolutionary in a group that ruthlessly killed anyone that got in their way.
After the marines kill the head of the family, Roberta goes to Roanapur for revenge in what is easily the most entertaining OAV series to come out in recent memory.

Roberta’s Blood Trail follows the titular supersoldier maid on her quest for vengeance, involving everyone in Roanapur and several outside forces in a drug fueled battle that could escalate in an all out war to end all that Roanapur is. It’s not a complex story that’ll shake the very foundation of storytelling, but it has its fair share of intrigue, particularly with Rock participating and running the course of actions from the sidelines. Revy and co take a back seat to Roberta as far as plot focus go, and it ends up all the better for doing so.

If this OAV does have a weakness, and it has plenty of noticeable ones, it’s the constant shifts in perspective between the groups going after Roberta and Roberta herself. For two episodes, this creates a narrative that’s spread extremely thin, developing nobody and raising more questions than are answered. You have Roberta on her own, the marines and drug trafficking forces hounding her, Revy and the group of psychopathic mercenaries that she contracts to help her, Garcia and Fabiola on a mission to bring her back with them, Rock scheming while occasionally contacting Mr. Chang and berating him with passive aggressive language, Balalaika and her cohorts…

If you think that’s a long list, that’s because it is, and it gets hard to follow in some parts. Everything gets resolved, but many of the factions seemingly drop off before being brought into the game again just to be eviscerated by either Roberta or Revy and her group.

Even with Roberta as the main character, there’s effort made to characterize some of the bit players a bit more, which in the end does more harm than good. Roberta’s given plenty of time to develop, and that time is relished completely due to the utter insanity of Roberta (Even almost killing her master in a hallucinogen induced hysteria) being an utter treat to watch. However, it’s when they begin to delve into Fabiola’s hypocritical stance against unnecessary violence and Rock’s slow transition from victim to influential figurehead for Roanapur that the cracks start to form and widen.

In a story with such a large number of groups, you’d expect a lot of memorable faces to make appearances. And fortunately, you’re entirely correct. The only three noteworthy survivors of the manhunt for Jane are along for the ride (Za Uizaado, Shenhua, and Sawyer), Balalaika and her crack team join in on the hunt for Roberta, and Garcia is back from Season One to bring Roberta back. Even Eda the corrupt nun is along for the ride, reporting to her higher up as events unfold.

It’s a colorful cast that’s a delight to watch as they shoot, impale, slice, and run their way through Roanapur’s back alleys and slums to find the berserker maid. Even if none are characterized exceptionally well, they lay their parts well as far as entertainment and badassery go.

Black Lagoon has never been one to make a point, but has never been afraid to give the otherwise gleefully murderous cast the occasional moment of somber introspection. It’s these slow moments that really let the gravity of the situation sink in, from Revy’s monologuing about her past on the sunken sub in the first season to Fabiola arguing with her over her corrupt ways.

Even Roberta occasionally takes a break from her rampage to reflect on the ramifications of what she’s doing, or just how her past has caught up with her.

Despite how much they add to the series, I don’t think that these moments are always implemented properly. Very often they’ll follow an intense, engaging fight where the characters won’t even have a moment to clean off the blood that has sullied their outfits. It’s not much of a gamebreaker by any means, but in a show that’s almost fetishistic with the level of action that it uses, it can seem a bit out of place most times.

The only ones that ever really feel appropriate are when Fabiola and Revy butt heads over each others’ personalities. The two have a volatile chemistry that makes their anger fueled arguments a marvel to behold. What’s even better is these escalate each time as they learn that the other isn’t going to budge in their stance.

On the animation front, Black Lagoon’s always been a step above average. The environments always look lush yet sinister, helped by fantastic lighting and keeping things from remaining completely static. The characters are rarely off model and are animated very fluidly. It helps that the violence is done very smoothly, making the bloodbaths that give the fights life even more enjoyable than they would be if done even just a little more poorly.

Being an OAV and thus having a larger budget, things are done to even better effect. With the lack of censorship helping things out even more, the team finds itself able to do stunts with viscera of multiple varieties that would make even the most avid horror fan give pause.

The music is a hard bumping, hard thumping soundtrack of electronica and hard rock, each episode opening with a remix of the delightfully Engrish Red Fraction by MELL and each episode ending with an orchestra version of Johnny Comes Marching Home, pumping you up for the next episode of blood and butchery. The seiyuu cast is appropriate, well rounded, and excellent in almost every case, special mention going to Roberta and Lotton “Za Uizaado”.

The best, or least fortunate part depending on your tolerance for it, is the distinct lack of groan-worthy Engrish. It was amusing in Second Barrage, but ultimately came across as too clumsy to take seriously. By eliminating that entirely, Roberta’s Blood Trail lent itself an air of somberness that Second Barrage ultimately failed to attain in the last arc.

Black Lagoon: Roberta’s Blood Trail is a competent, compelling, and superbly well coordinated OAV that does much to impress. It has plenty of flaws, particularly in the middle with all the different groups after Roberta and the violence never catching a break, but it ends on a very satisfying, open ended note that leaves enough room for more seedy goodness in a possible sequel.
If you like action series or have watched and enjoyed Black Lagoon before, Roberta’s Blood trail will be right up your alley. If not, as long as you have no objection to sexualization and violence in overwhelming amounts, Roberta’s Blood Trail will be well worth your time.

Of course some prior knowledge through the anime or manga will be beneficial to enjoying it, but I think the idea of a Terminator-esque maid making mincemeat of an entire town of criminals is an interesting enough premise on its own.

It’s a fun, occasionally nauseating watch with more than a little wit helming it, and I for one enjoyed nearly every second of it. And if you’re anything like me, you will too.
read more

The quality present in the original Black Lagoon anime series is taken up to a whole extra notch with this no-holds-barred OAV series. What I first thought would be a casual revisiting of a character notable seemingly only for fetish fuel turns into an in depth look into why Roberta earned the name "Bloodhound." Blood has been spilled, and Roberta's out for revenge, and with no television censorship to worry about, this series is free to show Roberta's Blood Trail in all of it's violent glory. The entire crime ring of Roanapur, from the Hong Kong Triad to the Hotel Moscow, to the Italian Mafia and the Colombian Drug Cartel, rallies together in a rare display of cooperation to deal with the war Roberta attempts to start in Roanpur against the US Grey Fox Unit. Garcia, the new Lovelace family patriarch, along with a new gunslinging maid, Fabiola Iglesias, have arrived in Roanpur to find Roberta, and appeal for the aid of the Lagoon Company, and Rock specifically, whose misfortune in taking on lost causes is starting to wear heavily on his partner, Revy Two Hands.

All the famous characters make their return in this OAV series, and it even throws in a few new ones, including Fabiola Igelsias, whose impish, yet hot-blooded, tomboyish and proud personality strangely reminds me of Edward Elric from FMA. She brings a much needed, yet strangely believable cuteness factor to the Black Lagoon mythos. Not to be outdone, our protagonist, Rokuro "Rock" Okajima, seems to have caught his stride in the city of Roanapur. Rather than the stumbling and out of place businessman, he's reached a level of stoic compromise with the city he lives in, and manages to score a few badass points with some brilliant strategizing and planning. He stands in stark contrast with Revy, who lives in complete coexistence with the vice of her surroundings, and even craves the adrenaline rush of a good firefight. She stands in even greater contrast with Fabiola, who refuses to sink to Revy's level, and constantly butts heads with her. All of these characters are outdone, however, by Roberta herself, who undergoes a complete transformation (or perhaps the better word is "regression") into her old trench digging, rough and tough mercenary persona who can simultaneously no-scopes and pool-cue 50 caliber sniper rifle while standing on a street sign. Despite the badass exterior, we see her begin to fall to the depraved depths of her own personal hell, popping nervous system stimulant pills and speaking to the ghost of one of her former marks.

The artwork is everything I've come to expect from Black Lagoon - even the filler scenes are a bite above what the average anime series - even those with big studio budgets - have been able to produce. With all 5 OAV's played back to back, the whole series will seem more like a two and a half hour movie than a mini-series. As this is an OAV series, expect to see more blood and nudity than in the series, though in the scene with Rock and Revy in episode 2 in particular, this actually has a much more pronounced effect than it would have under TV censorship.

A remixed version of MELL's "Red Fraction" opens each episode, and ends with a marching band chorus of "The Ants Go Marching," and both have very different effects. While the familiar opening emphasizes the principle characters, it is the ending theme that harkens to Roberta's shadowy past (and really, a lot of characters' pasts) and how they are now marching to the beat of their own drum in a different world while still attempting to stay true to their former beliefs.

I've always been a Black Lagoon fan, so seeing the series get a kickstart such as this is thrilling. Viewers who are unfamiliar with the Black Lagoon series might not be able to appreciate the main characters or Roberta's backstory, but that should not take away from identifying with Roberta herself, or the motivation of the other characters to either stop her or help her. This is very much an adult show, however, and not just in a fan service kind of way - a good deal of scenes are gruesome and downright hard to watch at times, and I wouldn't recommend this show to viewers under the age of 16. But anyone who appreciates war movies, gangster movies, or any kind of shoot-em-up movie will definitely get a kick out of Roberta's Blood Trail. read more