Rachel and I recently watched Black Lagoon, Volume 1. Geneon promoted Black Lagoon pretty well at Anime Central and Anime Expo this year. I think it’s a pretty big release for them – next to Hellsing in terms of being the ‘next big thing‘. That means the show has some pretty big boots to fill. So is it any good? Well, yes it’s good. But what about the whole ‘Hellsing’ thing? That’s an interesting answer that I’ll get back to later in the review. In the meantime, check out the slogan for Black Lagoon:
Filled with scenes of heroic bloodshed, Black Lagoon is action incarnate! – The Official Black Lagoon Website
Now I don’t know how you feel about the above quote (see above), but it scared me a little. And by scared, I don’t mean in a ‘werewolf jumps out of the woods in front of me at midnight‘ kinda scared. No, I mean more of a ‘can I handle action incarnate?‘ kinda scared. Well, it turns out that yes indeed, I can handle ‘incarnate action’.
We watched volume one via English dub. One of the ‘big deals’ about the series has been how the English voice cast is great with the accents and all that. So I demanded 
we watch it dubbed (gasp)! Since the series doesn’t take place in Japan – and there’s only one Japanese character in the cast – I don’t feel too guilty. I will apologize to the Japanese voice actors – all of your hard work was lost to me with this one, so I’m sorry! But it’s OK, because I’m currently watching The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya with Japanese subtitles! So the balance of good versus evil has been maintained…depending on your point-of-view.
Action Incarnate
As you may already have suspected, this is going to be an unusual ride of a review. We watched Shawn of the Dead again last night, and then I followed that up with the original cut of Superman II, so my brain might be a little mixed up. Let’s see how it turns out anyway, OK?
Story
The main story centers on the four mercenaries (kinda like the A-Team): Revy, Rock, Dutch and Benny. They call their business ‘Black Lagoon’ (Creature from the Black Lagoon is NOT a member). Their main client is the Russian mob group Hotel Moscow. The Black Lagoon company takes all sorts of jobs like gun battles, fistfights, explosions and occasionally a boat-versus-helicoptor fight!
Black Lagoon Versus The A-Team!
Black Lagoon started out as a manga created by Rei Hiroe. Thankfully they decided to turn it into an anime series. Not to imply that I have followed the manga for years. But I’m sure fans of the manga would say ‘thankfully’, so I am glad. ‘Thankfully’ there is a manga series too. Because I liked the anime and was hoping there was a manga too.
Volume One Episodes
Volume contains the first four episodes of the series:
- Episode 01: The Black Lagoon – It’s a great intro episode
- Episode 02: Mangrove Heaven – High-level action, followed by more action. Watch for the boat-versus-helicoptor fight!
- Episode 03: Ring-Ding Ship Chase – One of the coolest scenes from the show featuring Revy jumping from ship-to-ship, shooting people
- Episode 04: Die Rückkehr des Adlers – A nice historical flashback episode. This episode helps give the show a deeper feel than the previous episodes.
Characters
Who are the characters? They’re basically the ‘heroes’. You’ll see various baddies in the first volume, but you don’t need to keep score yet. It’s easy to jump into the first few episodes, since it’s all about introducing the team. So I encourage you to meet:
- Revy – She’s a volatile combination of spunky, deadly, crazy and hottie. She’s really cool during the gun battles.
- Rock – He was a Japanese business person who was kidnapped by the Black Lagoon crew. Watch as he suddenly, like Anakin Skywalker, switches sides and becomes one of the team members!
- Dutch – He’s the leader, who seems pretty level-headed and cares about the crew. I think he makes the team look more lik heroes than criminals.
- Benny – As the ‘electronics expert’, he’s the computer guy.
That was a quick transformation!
Production
Production on this show is almost (but not quite) on par with Hellsing: Ultimate. I realize that Hellsing has a much bigger budget, but this show looks great.
Character Design
Remind you of Pulp Fiction?
Very strong character designs throughout the show. Character lines are crisp and clean, colors are solid and every character has personality. Some of the expressions and camera angles make it feel a bit like Hellsing: Ultimate.
Music
I though the music was a great fit for the show. It’s energy fit well with the action.
Likes & Dislikes
I liked the overall production (attention to detail, quality of the animation, etc.). I disliked some of the Russian mob plot, but it seems like they’re building something there. I’ll have to watch additional episodes in order to say for sure.
Conclusion
Overall I enjoyed the first volume of Black Lagoon. Even though this was the first four episodes, the series jumps into high gear right away. Each episodes has something unique to offer and it’s nice to see such high-quality in the production.
Earlier, I mentioned something about ‘filling Hellsing’s boots’. What did I mean by that? Well, Rachel and I were watching it and we had Hellsing: Ultimate fresh on our mind. I think it was episode four where they start dealing with flashbacks to World War II. It felt very ‘Hellsing-ishy’. Which was cool, because then we started talking about how the whole Black Lagoon ‘world’ could fit into Hellsing’s ‘world’. Anyway, I just wanted to mention it because it was an interesting though. Let me know what you think in the comments!
Rating
3.5 outta 4 gummies!
Some Additional Reading
If you liked Black Lagoon or want to learn more about it, I encourage you to check out a few of these resources:
The two official sites -
Official Japanese Black Lagoon website
Official Geneon English Black Lagoon website
The main characters even have their own MySpace.com sites (great job, marketing team) -
Revy on MySpace.com
Rock on MySpace.com
Dutch on MySpace.com
Benny on MySpace.com
Read our interview with Black Lagoon’s US producer Satoshi Fujii during Anime Expo 2007.
Comments/Questions?
I hope you enjoyed my review. So what did you think about Black Lagoon? Does it feel more ‘western’ to you, or can you still see it’s Japanese roots?
Yes, it’s a good series overall – it’s NOT very ‘intellectual’, but it’s more of what action movies used to be; over the top, energetic, and fun to watch as long as you didn’t let the plot get to you overmuch and enjoyed the character interactions. You get hints of characters’ backgrounds which flesh them out a bit more (except Benny – he’s pretty much the same throughout the series), but it’s the character’s interactions with each other, as much as with the enemies and allies they encounter (read: action-packed fights) that drive the show.
Good review, though I really could have done without the dub bashing. Oh, and the Haruhi Suzumiya dub is very good.
Good stuff, Dave. You know, I’ve been meaning to check this one out, but I’m still working on Basilisk and Ergo Proxy. As soon as I finish those, I ‘ll definitely pick up Black Lagoon.
And yah, I never really enjoy plots involving Russian mobsters. Dunno. Maybe Yakuza stories tend to be better fleshed out?
Nice review! Very…interesting perspective. I saw a lot of Black Lagoon during AX as well, but I didn’t pay much mind to it. The way you compare it to Hellsing makes me maybe give it another thought. And Geneon’s dubs usually aren’t half-bad, so…yeah.
Haesslich – I agree – it’s characters x action that makes the series work.
Anne Packrat – Overall, I’m about 50/50 when it comes to the dub/sub issue. I like to pick on both of them from time to time. ^_^
Chris – Thanks! Yeah those two series (Basilisk and Ergo Proxy) are great ones. In terms of Russian mob vs. Yakuza, I think the Russians almost always turn out more ‘cartoony’.
Rae – Thanks. Yeah, the whole Hellsing thing kinda changed my perception of the show a little.
Chris: The Russians aren’t very ‘cartoony’ here. They’re… well, you’ll learn more about them later in. And we do get Yakuza in the second season (The Second Barrage), which feels more like they chopped the whole series into two bits to air a few months after each other.
Also, that’s when we get to see a bit MORE of Rock – which is a good thing in this case, since we don’t get much of his background, and a few more scraps of his own show up there.
Um… spam?
And as far as subs versus dubs go – there’s an arc in the second season which has Balalaika speaking English with someone else translating it for her… which means a lot of Engrish all around. Granted, the characters are supposed to be speaking English the whole time, but they actually went out and did the Engrish route with the seiyuu reading out her lines like something out of Moe-tan. With very mixed results; it was understandable, but that’s all that I can say about it.
I wonder how the dubs will handle that – will she be speaking in Japanese?
Good review…
Note: mild spoilers follow…
In addition to the action, I liked the show’s existential feel, which really is accentuated in the second season. Also, as Haesslich has mentioned, you will get a lot of the Russians’ background in the second season as well. As for the first season, be on the lookout for the arc which features the “combat maid”…the Russians have a small, somewhat amusing (if a bit sadistic) role and you will learn a little more about their history.
Haesslich – I’ve removed that spammer. He snuck through our filter.
Regarding Russians, I’ll have to check out a few more episodes. Sounds like they fit into the big picture more than in the first four eps.
mochi – Sounds like things really take off in the second season!
Things do pick up, but that’s because most of the characters have been introduced and the relationships set up; it’s the way that the first season ends which allows the Second Barrage to pick up steam without having to drag by laying the foundations for the character’s relationships with one another.
Also, look for all the homages you can find in this series – part of the fun’s looking for where the manga-ka (and then the series animators) have put in tributes to other movies.