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Let me put this to you for a moment... what would happen if George Romero did his classic 'Night of the Living Dead' as an anime? Well, you would get this, a fascinating but bloody horror anime series.

It first started out as a nice spring day in Japan as school begins. But within one hour, the whole world is seized in a pandemic which causes normal human beings to become cannibalistic zombies... and a few of them invaded school. Now we find a bunch of normal high school students, and a few of their teachers, in a life-or-death struggle to ... survive.

As the series progresses, the personality conflicts of the students as the danger mounts come to light, which ranges from cliquishness, to outright hatred stemming from long-standing issues from the characters. Now throw the possible end of the world on their backs, and you see them magnified a thousand fold! If you liked 'Night of the Living Dead', then this is a must. But if you happen to be a bit on the squeamish side, you might want to pass on this one.

Okay, I've got something to ask of you. Suppose on the worst day of your life (which was, at that point, not too good anyway) turned-out to be the one that changes it for the better? Well that's the case for Rokoru Okajima, a put-upon salaryman who, while in the South China Sea, gets kidnapped by a group of pirates.

This group, the Lagoon Company, is a varied lot. The owner of the company, Dutch, is a USMC deserter who bought an old WWII-era PT boat with the money he got as a mercenary, named it 'Black Lagoon'. Benny is the group's ... tech-head, a graduate student who ended-up on the bad sides of BOTH the F.B.I. and the Italian mob! And HIS rescuer happens to be the muscle of the group - and the one who kidnapped Okajima - Revy, a Chinese American beauty who also happens to be a homicidal killer!

Anyway, Revy kidnapped Rock (as the company later calls Okajima) in the hopes his company would pay a ransom for his release. But it later turns out the disc Rock was carrying to Borneo had plans for nuclear weapons - and his company hired a mercenary company to kill the Lagoon Company - and Rock! A heated chase follows, with the Lagoon Company coming out on top, but when the disc was returned to his company (with a generous 'fee' paid-out to the Lagoon Company's client, the Russian crimelord Balalaika), Rock decides to quit - and joins the Lagoon Company!

Thus begins Rock's life as a pirate in the corrupt city of Roanapur. His clean-cut looks seem to set him apart from the rest of the city, despite Revy's efforts to have him loosen-up. And his tightly-held morality often contrasts with Revy, who constantly threatens to kill him - which she acts to the contrary! And all through this, Rock and the Lagoon Company have to face threats like rival pirates, neo-Nazis, a killer maid, jihadists, psychotic children hit persons - as well as a return to his native Japan for business... the type of business that involves shootings, deaths, and constant danger! So get ready for the ride, kiddies!

Girls and guns - a combination that can't go wrong! In the mean streets of Chicago, Illinois, Rally Vincent, a beautiful young woman with a mean aim, and "Minnie" May Hopkins, her streetwise explosives expert partner, do their best trying to keep the city clean by rounding-up bail jumpers.

This anime, a good vision of Kenich Sonoda's manga, is unique because of the production team's eye for detail, making many trips from Japan to get accurate locale scenes - even going as far a visiting the Illinois Police Academy and an actual gunshop, a rarety in gun-controled Japan.

The only sad thing about this ... that it's not a FAITHFUL version of the manga - no Misty Brown or Goldie Muso. But hopefully, with the release of the manga series 'Gunsmith Cats BURST', that might change.