The story is the weakest point in Black Lagoon. To put it simply, there is no story. The Lagoon Company is a group of thugs that went into piracy because there isn't anything else in life that they accept as a job or that will accept them. So the Lagoon Company undertakes missions for various bosses. And that's just what every episode entails. It's either a continuation of the previous mission because it wasn't able to fit in with the first episode or the episode is a introduction to a new mission. The pacing of an episode could hurt or help this anime. For example the pacing for most episodes is very fast. To a person that likes a lot of fast action this is great news. But for a person that likes an anime that takes its time the fast pace could make this anime less enjoyable.
The animation is absolutely beautiful. This is where Black Lagoon shines. Everything, and I really mean everything, is drawn so cleanly it's like you can reach out and touch the characters. The water was my favorite thing about the art. The animals in the water were animated like they were real and the look of it is incredible. It's just amazing how well the animation for this anime is.
When you can have the opening song get on my iPod, you got something going on. I really mean it. I added the OP to my music. It's that great. The gunfights sounded like they were happening outside of my house. Everything felt really real about the sound.
The development of the characters, mainly Revy and Rock, is pretty good for a 12 episode anime. In the beginning Rock was absolutely nothing much to the series, but after a couple of episodes, his whole character seemed to have changed. I mean, he was even able to stand up to Revy. And don't even get me started on Revy. She changed so much throughout the show, it was just amazing. The only bad thing is that we didn't see enough of Dutch or the computer techie, Benny. Other than that the characters were great.
I enjoyed this anime. There were a lot of good action spots. I think my favorite episode was episode 9, when the maid that kills a lot was chasing the Lagoon Company through the streets. I just thought that was really well done and it kept me tuned in. This was a very good anime. I think if there was a story behind it and a couple more episodes I would have liked this anime more. Other than that it was really good and deserves a look.
