Spotlight Character: Revy (Black Lagoon) MAL Character Information Page: Revy "Two Hands, Rebecca" MAL Favorites: 2248 For the next week I would like to have everyone familiar with this character discuss what they think makes it an exceptional character. What attributes make it stand out in the ocean of interesting characters that exist in the realms of anime and manga. Unlike the other two subjects I will not force this conversation to fall into any set structure. Characters that are nominated typically get here because they are adept at breaking the existing character moulds and defying definition. Because of this freedom I encourage everyone to do their very best to stay on topic and keep any and all debate civil. Have fun and I look forward to seeing what everyone has to say about this character. RESULTS OF THE YOU DECIDE POLL Revy was NOT inducted into the club's Character list: 22 Yes - 29.7% 52 No - 70.3% 24 Do not know this character - 22.8% of the total number polled 7 Abstained - 6.6% of the total number polled |
santetjanOct 26, 2009 10:48 AM
| You do not beg the sun for mercy. |
| She's a Chinese-American girl who lived as orphan and seems to have a background in working for law enforcement. Now she's just insane gunman who's amazing at what she does. She makes the show and acts as the foil to the main character, Rock, in almost every aspect. She's unforgiving and cruel, but there might be hints at a softer side to her, if you were to use industrial drilling equipment to get there. |
| Most kickass female character ever. Incredibly entertaining, and her dub is so damn awesome so yeah. |
| Hmmm, the only memorable character in Black Lagoon. That's not saying much. Still, the show is mostly enjoyable for her. Incidentally, I'm male. Also, I'm too young to be a salaryman. So the escapism value of Black Lagoon greatly drops for me. That's not meant as berating, there's nothing wrong with escapism. But I guess she's bipolar enough for entertainment purposes. So I'll vote yes on her because of novelty value. It should be noted that CANAAN does everything Black Lagoon does, but better. It should also be noted that I wouldn't vote yes on any character for CANAAN. But I wouldn't vote yes on Black Lagoon itself. CANAAN, on the other hand? In a heartbeat! |
| She's really bad, and remains bad until the end even with her development with Rock. Genuine bad girl. |
"One way, Jesus, You're the only one that I could live for! You are the way, the truth and the life. We live by faith and not by sight... " |
| Out of all the attempts to achieve the "bad-ass, gun-tout'n chick" character, Revy is by far the most successful! |
| When thinking about it for a bit, casting a vote on Rebecca here is less clear-cut of a matter than I first thought. When considering whether she is a 'good' and/or 'well-developed' character in and of herself, the answer would be a clear 'no': as a character, she's rather flat and single-minded, with little to her but being gung-ho and bad-ass, and the occasional mandatory moment of reflection. As an exemplar of a archetype or concept, though, Revy manages to outshine the competition, most importantly by actually not developing: she's a full-blown person who knows what she wants and likes and acts on it - whether that's agreeable is a different matter. By not opening up overly much to the token Japanese main (like Kenzo Tenma probably only added for the Japanese public to identify itself with the series) she stays true to her type, which makes her more tightly designed than most of her would-be peers. Two things in particular I consider to be rather well portrayed. For one, there's the submarine scene where she explains her background to Rock. Annoyingly, it's another assault of the miserable childhood-cliché, but the scene is saved by Rebecca being, thus far, the only character of her type to not only state that she wants no pity for it but stay true to that statement, and by the fact that this past was divulged not as a statement of how most people are blind to reality, wouldn't know what goes on in the dark and whatnot, but during a conversation on the concept of 'value', making her mentioning her background a part of an argument instead of a revelation in itself. Second, there's her relation with Dutch. There's a history and understanding between the two that they won't bring up (or at least haven't thus far) and Revy, being utterly incapable of keeping herself in check when giving in to her most violent side, is wholly reliant on Dutch to do it for her - and both know it. Thus far, there hasn't been any reason to go into that knowledge more deeply, but her character does manage in this way to add some extra tension to the story. On the downside, there's mostly her being used as almost something of a slapstick character, in particular with regard to her (friendly?) rivalry with Sister Eda, which 'comic' effect generally completely ruins any lingering mood. Her being quick to anger and quicker to live the easy life, while true to form, also gets somewhat old, at which points the limits of the character type really shine through. I'm undecided as of yet. Give me a solid reason to vote yes or no. |
| You do not beg the sun for mercy. |
| I dropped Black lagoon after 9 episodes. Yes there were only 3 more episodes left and I refused to watch them simply because I got bored of everything in that anime including Revy. I'm the type that can not stand the anime that try to show their characters as normal human beings living in normal physical world while doing crazy stuff that would contradict the very basic laws of nature and logic ruling the same world. This does not make them look cool to me, it makes them look like superhero wannabes that are rejected from the fantasy world cause they try to be too "real" for that world. That aside, Revy has all the cliche in the bad-ass-gun-wielding-chick world attached to her. Her sad background, her potty mouth, her being a short tempered chick with a sexy body, wearing skimpy clothes and not to mention her big bust and so on. These are the elements that have been used to create so many female characters in action movies and anime over the years. Well it's true that most of the audience of this genre are male and fan service is a part of the business but it really is disappointing that they haven't tried harder to come up with some fresh ideas. Even when they try to make her different in some ways it doesn't feel right since she's not a deep enough character to begin with therefore the effort looks clumsy and fails before it begins. I do admit that this cliched idea still works to attract so many audience to a character but I'm afraid it does not work for me. |
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| ^ my thoughts exactly, except I only watched around 4 episodes so I didn't want to be the first to say. I really cannot see anything that's particularly spectacular about Revy. I don't dislike her; she seems like a natural fit to the Black Lagoon cast, but she is a long ways away from unique or interesting. The idea that fanservice is heavily ingrained into her design doesn't help either. It seems like the depth in her character is solely the past, or the reason she is the way she is. The rough childhood part is basic, been-there-done-that, but would have worked if her actions themselves weren't so simple. She's a "role player" character, the type that's eccentric, exaggerated, but one note. There just aren't any nuances in her personality, which, alone, doesn't exclude her from being memorable, but with the fact that her very design is a pretty stiff cliche, I don't really understand her popularity. |
| @kokuro & ace5237: I understand what you're both saying, and I agree. But this is just about her as an individual character. Would you be able to add a few words on her as a character within her specific character type? Or would you argue that the entire character type is not one that should be inducted? |
| You do not beg the sun for mercy. |
| Hmmm...I'm still pretty neutral about Revy but I don't think her design is cliche. Just look at all the knights and the princesses we see, they pretty wear similar outfits. But I can't say it much better than: Revy is a bad girl, she's given a bad-mouthed speech, she kills people with guns and enjoys it, she wears sexy bad-ass clothing, she smokes... Yeah, she's more of a role player. Her character is focused her being a "killing machine" rather than to show personal problems. It really isn't an issue because Rock is the one for that role. Then this is where it splits off: people would say, "if she's a killing machine, she's hollow, fanservicy and lacks a complex psychology that drives to her motivations." But in another perspective: "it is always a practice to show a past of a character to gain sympathy from their situation, well Revy's already fucked up, and doesn't give a shit about it." The second one is a double edged portrayal, either she is shallow, or she just amplified her bad girl archetype. Sorry...pretty neutral about her, but I do think she's a good design for that kind of series. |
"One way, Jesus, You're the only one that I could live for! You are the way, the truth and the life. We live by faith and not by sight... " |
| @Santetjan: Well in my opinion a character needs to be able to present something original about them once you strip them off of all the Generic characteristics they have in order for them to be note worthy. My problem with "Revy" is that I've seen her type so many times and her character is way generic to be considered note worthy or even come close to it in my opinion. The creators of Black Lagoon have relied on the cliched ideas of the genre way too much. So much that I can describe Revy in a few words without missing anything. If I go to some anime fan and say "Bad-ass-gun-wielding-chick" they would be able to imagine the generic type which is not far from "Revy". Well to be exact there are two types of these characters. Cool ones with brains and ones with short tempers so I might have to add short tempered to the description and it's all done. Even her relationships with other characters are cliche. Take her relationship with Dutch for example. A pair we've seen in many action movies and anime. One short tempered person with destructive powers and one more logical person who's good friends with them and comes to stop them from doing something too reckless but not before the short tempered bad-ass character has kicked some butt for the fans to enjoy! Nothing's new about her. Balalaika has more originality than Revy if you compare them to each other. She's just the purely generic character I described in my previous post. She's there to attract the audience who's drawn to those overused but interesting ideas and characteristics. |
|
| @kokuro: Clear. Thank you. And you're right, of course: archetype (notwithstanding whether it denotes 'stereotype' or 'epitome') generally shouldn't be enough for a character to be noteworthy in and of itself. Re-reading for once what I weekly copy-paste at the top of a character spotlight thread: 'Characters that are nominated typically get here because they are adept at breaking the existing character moulds and defying definition.' I think we can all agree on whether Rebecca here fits the above description. |
| You do not beg the sun for mercy. |
santetjan said: @kokuro & ace5237: I understand what you're both saying, and I agree. But this is just about her as an individual character. Would you be able to add a few words on her as a character within her specific character type? Or would you argue that the entire character type is not one that should be inducted? I feel like a character that stands out would either be mostly original in concept, basic personality, demeanor, and other surface level details, which as we all agree, Revy is not. Or, the character can belong to an archetype that's often seen in Anime, but show rare and/or interesting nuances. I'm sure Revy is unique in many respects, and every Anime character is if you get into the details, but the general over-the-top, borderline psychotic thought processes she has just suggests to me she wants to stay snug in her very defined role. Don't get me wrong, I like Revy. In fact, I saw the first episode of Black Lagoon a very long time ago, and hated it to no end. I only picked up 4 or 5 episodes because I saw the submarine scene where Revy talks about her past. danceljoy said: Yeah, she's more of a role player. Her character is focused her being a "killing machine" rather than to show personal problems. It really isn't an issue because Rock is the one for that role. Then this is where it splits off: people would say, "if she's a killing machine, she's hollow, fanservicy and lacks a complex psychology that drives to her motivations." But in another perspective: "it is always a practice to show a past of a character to gain sympathy from their situation, well Revy's already fucked up, and doesn't give a shit about it." The second one is a double edged portrayal, either she is shallow, or she just amplified her bad girl archetype. I don't know if this is referring to me, but I'm not saying she's there only for fanservice, or to play to a fetish. I'm saying that's a big part of her design. Her rough childhood certainly adds a little something, but that doesn't automatically make her especially deep. In fact, it's pretty common to give one-note characters a backstory that "explains" them. As an example of someone I might vote for who's similar; Real Mayer from Ergo Proxy. She seems vaguely similar at first, though much less sadistic. She's tough, stubborn, pretty badass, but you see many different facets of her personality expressed, not just explained by flashbacks or stories, in the way she treats her robot, vincent, and in her own mood swings. I've only seen about half of the first season, and maybe Revy does mellow out, become more human later on, but so far i definitely have not seen it. |
ace52387 said: I don't know if this is referring to me, but I'm not saying she's there only for fanservice, or to play to a fetish. I'm saying that's a big part of her design. Her rough childhood certainly adds a little something, but that doesn't automatically make her especially deep. In fact, it's pretty common to give one-note characters a backstory that "explains" them. I actually don't read in depth other posts first to remove to avoid influences on my opinion to make contrasting views. But if now I have read your post it did look like I was referring to you. ace52387 said: I've only seen about half of the first season, and maybe Revy does mellow out, become more human later on, but so far i definitely have not seen it. *Sigh* you didn't even finish the series... But I have to admit that I agree with many of the things you say. You have a nice analysis nevertheless. Anyway, personally, now I do think Revy doesn't deserve to be added because she won't be a good representative in a college debate about "How can anime be deep?" Revy is an awesome, bad-ass chick that gives Black Lagoon sexy, sadistic violence. But there isn't anything more she could offer, rather, what we discuss is what she obviously have and what she lacks- she has potential to evoke certain issues on the world of bad people, especially with her background, but she just stays as a good, very bad, bad girl. |
danceljoyOct 23, 2009 8:34 AM
"One way, Jesus, You're the only one that I could live for! You are the way, the truth and the life. We live by faith and not by sight... " |
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