Thoughts on "Black Lagoon" (Series Spoilers)

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nemo09

New member
Noticed there was some discussion on Black Lagoon in a thread here and seeing as how I marathoned the entire series the other day, I wanted to put in my two cents and stir up some discussion.

First let me say this: It was an awesome show. It had a lot of nice things going for it: action, interesting characters, gun fights, the works. Love how much of the series is put in Rock's perspective for the most part, as he is the everyday man dipping his toes into the world of the dark and gritty. My favorite arc has to be the craziness that is the Loveless arc. Love the crazy maid, Roberta (voiced by Tabitha St. Germain) and the whole madness that ensued. Many of my favorite characters are the women of the show: Eda from the Ripoff Church is a hoot, love "Chinglish" (Shenhua) and for some reason, I find myself weirdly interested in Sawyer, the chainsaw wielding "cleanup" assassin.

As much as I love the show, I must say it really takes a lot out of you emotionally. I mean, by the end of Season two, I had one thought in my mind: People suck. There are hardly any happy endings on this show, apart from maybe the whole Loveless affair and the arc with Greenback Jane. Sure, the heroes survive, at least physically, but there is always sort of a downside. The arcs that really got to me are the beginning and ending arcs of season 2: The Hansel and Gretal eps and the ones in Japan.

Those twins... man, they were all sorts of messed up. The whole shared multiple personalities thing and thier lust for killing at such a young age creeped me the heck up. At the same time, you actually felt sorry for them after you learned what kind of crap they lived through. Balalaika spared no punches with them, making me pity them even more. You wished they had a second chance but at the same time, you know that maybe they are broken beyond repair.

The other arc that got to me was the yakuza thing in Japan. Yukio delving into a life no one wanted for her was sad and it was even sadder when Rock figured out why she ultimately did it: to be with that sworRABman that protected her. Gah, the ending of that arc had me to near tears and it pissed me off what Balalaika sent to Rock after the fact.

Speaking of Balalaika, she is a real, cold hearted ... well, I can't use that language here but she really pisses me off as a character. You sorta look at her in awe at how much power she wielRAB but at the same time you're disgusted by how she uses it and how ruthless and blood thirsty she is. I guess its a testimant to how good the writing is on this show.

Overall, I loved the series, but it may take a while before I watch it again. It wrentched my gut a lot of times, was well written, well animated and just good action. So, comments?
 
If they follow the next, and a current manga storyline, El Baile de la muerte, then the third season who going to put the first two season to shame.

That is what you think.

Look up, "El Baile de la muerte", online.
 
Watched it last spring in club. Crazy, fun and never a dull moment. I would love for there to be a third season.

Rock and Revy make a good duo. The rational everyman nicely balances out the gun-toting psychopath.
 
One of the best shows of the past few years, full of action and that decadent 80'sesque charm that modern shows tend to lack.

The world could use more shows like this. When's Season 3?
 
Hmm, I didn't feel drained at all when I finished Black Lagoon or its sequel. Rather, I felt invigorated. Here were two series which were gritty, had well-directed action sequences, had some grin-inducing black comedy, and surprisingly displayed some interesting characters in-between the high octane moments so that the series wasn't just mindless action. All of this helped by the English VA performances, obviously.

Remeraber when Roger Ebert said that after he sees a great movie, he's cheered up for weeks? That's how I felt with Black Lagoon; at the time, after watching a string of "decent, but not great" and downright bad series, it restored my faith that TV anime CAN be good, and can be engaging.
 
I personally found Black Lagoon to be a highly entertaining series. Unlike some other people, here, I honestly didn't really "feel" either emotionally drained or any strong emotions at all, really. Its first and foremost an action anime. While the plots of its arcs aren't exactly a strong point of the series, its interesting characters are what really sets it above the average/standard action anime. I found all of the characters of the Lagoon company to be very likable and enjoyable, and I really love the character development that both Rock and Revy go through. The supporting characters can also be rather interesting, and even if you don't learn more than tiny bits about their own personal back-stories, you at least get a sense of most of them having more to themselves than what they may appear to be on the outside. I also appreciate the dark style of humor that this series offers.

And, of course, seeing as how it IS primarily an action series, the well-animated, highly engaging, and bad-ass action scenes certainly help to make the experience all the more entertaining.

I will say that I'm not really crazy about the music in this series, but it doesn't really need great music to make it enjoyable, since its already a brutal blast, IMO.
 
1. Amen to that!

2. I wish I could tell you, but I don't know that answer myself. Though you can find the latest manga stories of Black Lagoon online.
 
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