This week is a week of reviews. Next week if I have time I'll do a weapon update blog, as I've recently acquired a flail, Sasuke's Grass Cutter sword, a bo staff, and a large bowie knife for my girlfriend so yeah. Eventually I'll also have to do part two of my Smash Bros fanfiction style blog as well as more elemental top tens. This time however you will be getting reviews, please remember the next two reviews will be Captain America and Avengers. Let's begin with the Black Lagoon review.
WARNING spoilers WARNING
If you are looking for an overall plot, you won't find one. The anime is sorted into smaller arcs, and while the arcs aren't bad, there is no real overlying story to look for. The first arc begins with a Japanese business man being taken hostage by the Black Lagoon shipping company. Black Lagoon is attacked by the guy's business, the man is renamed Rock and ends up saving the crew and joins them. There are several arcs after that, one small one with a gang trying to kill Black Lagoon, a Nazi U-Boat Black Lagoon is trying to raid when present day Nazis come looking into the boat, vampire children mercenaries with bounties on their heads, a counter fitter who has every crazy ass mercenary in the city after her, a clumsy maid who turns out to be a former killer, doing work for Mr. Chang, and a trip back to Tokyo for Rock while the Russian mob wipes out parts of the yakuza family. Yes, all this happens within 24 episodes so don't expect too many episodes on any of the arcs.
Are these individual stories any good? Well in a way they are. Some of them are slightly crazy yes, and on paper they aren't that great. That being said, the characters introduced in the arcs make the story. Still don't expect too many twists and turns in any of the plots. As said, alone the plots are passable, not great but not horrid enough to hurt other categories either.
So while the plots are lack luster, the characters are incredible. Unless looking at it professionally you probably won't notice the lack of plot because these characters are that good.
Rock is a Japanese business man at the start of the series. He is kidnapped, and kind of snaps when his bosses decide to let him die with Black Lagoon. Rock snaps after being pushed around so much and helps Black Lagoon win the fight with a helicopter with a crazy plan. Despite that Rock is mild mannered and is used well as the negotiator for Black Lagoon keeping the body count down and doing the paper work. Some times he is ignorant of the way things are, and sometimes he picks up on things quicker then even the Russian mob does.
Revy is the other main character. At times the series will follow her instead of Rock. Revy is a mercenary working as the Black Lagoon's muscle, however while she hates Rock at first due to her own past, she eventually grows protective over him and gets jealous for him. She is Chinese American and a serial killer with a sadistic streak as well as the most foul mouthed person in the anime though she seems to grow out of it a bit near the end of the anime. All this being said, she is incredibly good with her guns and good at swimming as well. She is seen with Rock often as the two become close.
Dutch is the employer of Black Lagoon. He is intelligent and great at calming situations down, most situations being Revy's anger and wrath. Dutch works well with his employees and actually cares about them, and he also can keep calm in nearly any situation as long as his dock isn't burning down. He is a great character but I'd have liked to see more of him during Second Barrage (season two).
Benny is the Jewish computer nerd of the group. He is nice and entertaining at times but rarely seen outside of his work.
Balalaika is the leader of the Russian mob in the city. She has plenty of scars and works her mafia men like a military, turns out she is ex military. When she runs an operation she runs it in a way all her ex military goons understand. She is also cruel and sadistic in her own way. She is seen a lot in the anime, and when she is seen, expect her to either be going to war or dishing out wisdom in her own cruel way.
Mr. Chang is seen twice. He is probably the guy to trained Revy in gun combat as Chang is the leader of the Triad in the city. Chang is shown to have a truce with Balalaika and seems to be a reasonable guy and great with guns.
Hansel and Gretel are twins. They eat flesh and blood for fun, they are children but they are also killers, they were abused and they seem to love each other in a creepy incest vibe. Everything about them is offensive to the brain and they start out Second Barrage so beware of them. Great characters none the less, only appearing in that arc, but dang will they hurt the brain.
There are a bunch of other mercenaries and types, all of which are entertaining either really funny or a complete killer in some crazy way, sometimes both like Chinglish (an offensive nick name for a woman with a heavy Chinese accent and a love for knives). Seriously there isn't a character in the anime that isn't well written with the knack for crazy that is Black Lagoon. Oh I haven't even gotten to the church... never shoot that the church in the city, they will shoot back and they won't be as nice.
There are some issues here. The action is great. Seriously, the action is probably the best part of the anime and it will keep you going. There are moments that Revy is scary, she is homicidal. That is fine. There are moments to make you cringe. But when Rock feels disgusted or hurt by how evil the world is, I just can't relate. I don't know if I'm numb to it like the other characters are, but it just doesn't feel real to me. I hear what he is saying, but sometimes his shock doesn't do it for me. That is a huge problem as through the first season and the final arc of the last season he is the main character. Revy seems more relatable at times and since she takes over for two arcs and is a main character in every arc, this is probably pretty good but still Rock could be better. The other characters are relatable when they are suppose to be related to emotionally, and Rock is a great character, his emotional pull just doesn't do it though. Still, everything else works.
See what I meant about the incest vibe? There isn't really a bad episode in the bunch. The animation was almost perfect (keep in mind I was watching through Blue Ray through an HDMI port). Nothing about the fights were overly confusing, the animation flowed nicely, and no episode was too confusing. If you begin the anime in the middle of an arc you won't be lost for very long. No matter which episode you run into, you can probably watch it and enjoy it without seeing all the episodes before it. This is pretty good in a way (though it is due to the simple and easy plots the anime works with). Nothing wrong here at all.
Chinglish is enough to give this a pass at least. She is funny, but then can go bad ass in a second despite her hilariously bad accent. Revy's language and insults near the beginning of the anime is enough to give this anime a pass at least. The fight between Roberta and Revy is enough to give... look if you need anything more for me to justify the creativity go look into episode 17 and 18 as there are five crazy characters attacking Black Lagoon in an epic battle, and they are really weird, crazy, and awesome all at the same time... as long as you don't mind a pyro talking about how his wife cooked.
Just a note, while this anime is creative this anime is incredibly offensive as well. Revy stomps on groins of men, there is a lot of violent shooting deaths, language that could make a sailor blush, heck the third arc has Nazis in it talking about how they hope Dutch's race is wiped from the Earth (Dutch being of African descent). Seriously this anime is suppose to bother the hell out of you and it does a great job. It is a great reflective view between practical and honorable while being as offensive and action packed as can be. Just letting you know.
Overall this anime has interesting but plan arc plots and Rock's emotional relation could be leagues better, but the characters, creativity, and episode quality are nearly perfect, and emotional pull and plots aren't bad. Overall this anime has a few issues but these issues also give it character in a way so go figure.
If you have a light stomach for swearing and bloodshed among generally screwed up things, then this is not for you. If you think you can handle it lock your room door so mommy doesn't walk in on you and give it a try. I do recommend renting or viewing online first, but the best part is you can use any episode and still know what is going on so yeah, try episode 17 as a start, as it is one of the better episodes though they are all pretty good. The final arc is the longest though, I recommend that one from the beginning for various reasons though you still wouldn't be lost too much if you watched like the final episode. I highly recommend trying this anime if you have the stomach for it.