Who would have thought that a stereotyped crime drama would become a philosophy showcase? Guns, murder, mafia wars, and the like are all tied in to Nietzsche, Kirkegaard, Sartre, and Heidigger. It made the show a bit uncomfortable to be honest, with a shoot-em-up bang bang action thriller confronting itself, and ourselves in the process. The show casts aside morals, but unlike most shows where we justify it with an “oh, it's just the enemy” sleight-of-mind, this show rubs its amorality in our face. Bloodbaths are taken just a little too far, outside acceptable hollywood. The characters were such interesting characters, never falling to the temptation of merely being either a philosophical model or a stock anime character, but always having a life, conflicts, and past that complicate and interest. None of the characters are meant to be all that likable (except maybe the protagonist), and despite this I found myself completely attached to them. The style was brilliant too, being a direct homage to Quentin Tarentino and all others in his lineage, and it had a kick ass opening song. Despite such a great opening song (and a good closing), the sound suffers from terrible accents when the characters try to speak english. Black Lagoon is a strange out-of-nowhere flash of brilliance, a intellectually sophisticated mainstream action show, but little surprises like this are why I consider anime to be more than a time waster.
