Ani-Mania: ‘Black Lagoon’ Review

On the bridge outside the city of Roanapur, there’s a noose left hanging for some unknown person. No one knows who put it there, or why. Maybe, it’s there as a warning — a warning that once you set foot in the evil city, that once you walk its streets, you can never go home again. You can’t go back because you’re already dead.

Black Lagoon pulls no punches. It’s the kind of show that makes you want to drink, cuss, and blow stuff up. I first heard about it from a friend, who enthusiastically described this great new show he’d found, saying it was like Cowboy Bebop told from the criminals’ point of view. I’m always skeptical of that kind of description — it seems like everything is always “the new this” or “the next that”, but never lives up to the comparison. This time, my friend was right. Black Lagoon is a masterpiece.

The series is a crime drama at heart, telling the adventures of the Lagoon Company, a rag tag bunch of outlaws who make their living by running a torpedo boat, and taking on odd jobs from anybody willing to pay. Unlike the futuristic world of Cowboy Bebop, Black Lagoon is set in a very grim and gritty present day, in Roanapur, a Thai version of Sin City, and the last stop on the road to hell.

Our window into this seedy world comes in the form of Rokuro Okajima. “Rock”, as he comes to be called, is a Japanese salary-man, trying to get by in the world of Japanese business. That all changes when some

unsavory dealings his company is involved with lead to him getting kidnapped by the Lagoon Company. The hostage negotiations go horribly wrong, and Rock, with no where else to go, ends up joining his captors.

Dutch is the head of the Lagoon Company, and captain of the ship. Revy, also known as Two Hand for her ability to wield both of her 9 mm Sword Cutlass pistols at once, is the resident weapons expert. As a gunslinger, she provides some much needed firepower. Benny, a hacker who accidentally ticked off the mob and the federal government at the same time, handles all of the electronic systems.

Revy steals the show. Anime is rife with would be tough-chick stereotypes, but Revy is the genuine article. Ultra violent and unapologetically vulgar, she leaves both Rock and the audience with a sense of guilty admiration for her ability to kill, and to turn a phrase so blue even a sailor would blush. Some heroines need a jiggle counter. Revy needs a body count.

She also supplies much of the dramatic tension, in the form of her uneasy relationship with Rock. From the moment he arrives on the ship, his very presence seems to irritate her, and Revy never misses an opportunity to strip the varnish off of Rock’s pre-conceived notions of the world, and make him look at how dark it can really be. At the same time, Rock is the only person who can challenge Revy and live to tell about it. He represents a totally different world to her, and while that world may not be a place Revy feels she can ever belong to, on some level she wants to protect it, or at least some part of it. He forces her to confront herself. Together, the two forge an unlikely friendship that gives the series another layer of added depth.

The series boasts a solid cast. Rock is voiced by Brad Swaille, who played Light in the recent hit, “Death Note”. Revy, meanwhile is voiced by Maryke Hendrikse, who also voiced Susan in Cartoon Network’s Johnny Test! But there’s definitely nothing TV-PG here. Dutch is played by Dean Redman. Brian Drummond, another Death Note veteran, rounds out the cast as Benny.

The soundtrack, while not as varied as the jazz repertoire of Bebob, still works very well. It’s themes give a definite feel to the show. The opening song, “Red Fraction”, is a rocking tune, and is the debut single of j-pop sensation, MELL. MELL, who is a senior member of I’ve Sound, will be appearing next month at Otakon in Baltimore.

While the show is anything but PC, the cast of characters is incredibly diverse. Rock is Japanese. Dutch is an African-American Vietnam War Vet. Benny has a Jewish-American background, while Revy is of Chinese-American descent. Balalaika, the scarred beauty who heads up Hotel Moscow, is from Russia (probably without any love), while Roberta, a bodyguard who figures prominently in one of the story arcs, is latino. It gives the show a very dynamic feel that enhances its realism.

And speaking of realism, one of the most impressive — and most disturbing — things about Black Lagoon is it’s sense of authenticity. The action may be over the top at times, but many of the details are real. The places the characters live, the situations they find themselves in, the weapons they carry, the organizations they belong to — these are all real, or else they very easily could be. It leaves us in the audience with the unsettling feeling that, while Roanapur itself is a fictional city, there really ARE places in the world where things like this DO happen. Like Rock, we could be drawn in, but more frighteningly, we, too, might find ourselves willing accomplices, unable to help but admire the mayhem and destruction.

Currently the show spans two seasons, Black Lagoon, and Black Lagoon the Second Barage. Each season can be found as individual volumes, or collected in one package. The season box sets include four discs in a metal case — Revy would probably destroy anything else. The ending to season two is one heck of a story — I lost sleep over it because I simply had to know what happened next — but it doesn’t really feel like much of an ending to the show. That may not be a problem, however, as a third Black Lagoon is reportedly in the works.