Black Lagoon

Salaryman Rokurou Okajima spends his days trying to climb his company's corporate ladder, until one day when a business negotiation in Thailand goes awry. During the botched deal, he falls hostage to the Lagoon Company—a band of ruthless pirate mercenaries. Left to the whims of his captors after his managers refuse to pay his ransom, Rokurou does the unthinkable: instead of begging for his life, he joins the very crew who kidnapped him.

Now a member of the group, Rokurou must adjust to his new residence in the dissolute hellscape known as Roanapur, a city where corruption and crime run rampant, and even the smallest slipup could cost him his life. If not for one of the many crime syndicates on the island, Rokurou also constantly finds himself at odds with his brash, gunslinging colleague, Revy.

As Rokurou struggles to abandon his past—and with more than just the profits from the Lagoon Company's illegal trading on the line—he must quickly find the resolve to make tough decisions in high-stress situations while keeping his humanity intact.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Revy Main

Toyoguchi, Megumi Japanese

Okajima, Rokurou Main

Namikawa, Daisuke Japanese

Dutch Main

Isobe, Tsutomu Japanese

Benny Main

Hirata, Hiroaki Japanese

Balalaika Supporting

Koyama, Mami Japanese

Roberta Supporting

Tomizawa, Michie Japanese

Eda Supporting

Karasawa, Jun Japanese

Chang, Bai Ji-Shin Supporting

Morikawa, Toshiyuki Japanese

Shenhua Supporting

Sasaki, Yuuko Japanese

Leigharch Supporting

Oomori, Akimasa Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Ogura, Mitsutoshi Producer

Matsuo, Ryouichirou Producer

Okamoto, Junya Producer

Reviews

Sep 16, 2007

Washi

Recommended

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

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Aug 21, 2013

azuslu7jpg

Mixed Feelings

Black Lagoon is an action fan's dream come true, but those looking for characters and plot might be a bit turned off.

As always, my reviews are spoiler free.

I avoided this anime for the longest time, since I am generally not a fan of this kind of action series. After a year or so of procrastination, I finally got around to watching it. Here are my thoughts on the series as a whole (including Second Barrage and Roberta's Blood Trail OVAs, but not the odd Omake Spin off).

Story - 5/10

Make no mistake about it: Black Lagoon is an action series through and through. It's gunfights galore, ... with some explosions and hand-to-hand combat thrown in to spice things up. All this action comes at the expense of an intricate and well thought out plot. I can forgive the show for this, however, since story telling is not its goal. The story of Black Lagoon (and sequel/OVAs) has two good things going for it, though.

1. The story may be simple, but it is still coherent. There are no huge gaps that you are expected to just accept.
2. The story keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time, despite having no intellectual value whatsoever.

With this in mind, come for the action, not the plot.

Animation - 6/10

Black Lagoon does not have particularly great animation, but it doesn't really detract from the show. Colors are bland, character models are a bit simple while managing to be inconsistently drawn at points, and the gun models were often cringe-worthy. With that said, character movements are fluid throughout the action scenes (so most of the show), so I will give it a little extra credit there. Roberta's Blood Trail is slightly better done, in my opinion.

Sound - 7/10

I loved the opening, Engrish and all. The gunfire was good as well, and the backing soundtrack matched it well.

Characters - 5/10

This is another area that had to be sacrificed to make room for action. Few characters other than Rock, Revy, and Balalaika get more than a minute or two of development. Another contributing factor may be the large cast of characters that make up the show, not allowing any particular one to get much time on screen. This results in characters being pretty one dimensional, with the exception of the three mentioned above. Rock's character develops a bit over the series, but it is nothing to write home about. Revy and Balalaika have their pasts explained, which helps the viewer to better understand their actions, but neither develop at all over the course of the series.

The only other notable characters are the Vampire Twins of Second Barrage. While I won't go into spoilers, they were some of the most interesting and tragic villains I've seen in a series of this nature.

Enjoyment - 7/10

While I don't normally enjoy plotless action series, Black Lagoon was an exception. I was kept on the edge of my seat the whole time, and watched episode after episode soaking up the shear fun and absurdity of it all. If I enjoyed it, it would be any true action fan's dream come true. If someone did not care as much for plot and characters as I do, this show could be much higher ranked for them.

Any fan of action series should not hesitate to watch this series.

Other Thoughts

While I nearly always prefer watching a show raw or subbed, I can assure you that the dub for this series is superb (after the first few episodes, while the characters get into their roles).
While the show has a lot of violence, it is seldom very graphic (there are a few exceptions). However, the profanity in the English dub is harsh and frequent.

Omake has absolutely nothing to do with the series, and you can skip it without missing anything.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Feb 27, 2008

Huntsman

Not Recommended

This review is for the entire bad series.

Had potential but was a let down.

When I first read about Black Lagoon, and read that it was a story about a group of mercenaries based in the modern world. A grounded tail with no space travel, superpowers or the like. I thought it would be a nice change, and the animation looked good. It did start of good in the first three to four episodes, but then things began to go down hill. Most episodes went no where, other anime did episodes like that. Cowboy Bebop had many, but they were fun and still had meaning behind ... them. Black Lagoon on the other hand had no point. Then there was the final episodes. What a major disappointment, what were they trying to tell. What was the point of the series. It went no where, the characters weren't interesting, the story wasn't very good. Over all a bad show.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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