Review of Black Lagoon

Black Lagoon is a fantastic blend of batshit craziness and emotional profundity. Aside from the action-packed entertainment and just being cool as hell, one of the most captivating things about it is its underlying joy of severing ties with what makes you miserable. I'll start by saying that the series is strangely relaxing. No one from the main cast really seems to give a shit; gruesome violence is treated like it's nothing, and plot armour saves everyone's asses. In life-or-death situations, it is ultimately crude and black humour that prevails, not allowing pathos to completely take over. The influence of the Western "coolness" has definitely contributedto Black Lagoon having such a paradoxically laid-back atmosphere despite being one big gorefest. The sheer amount of cultural and historical references the characters keep making shows how savvy the author is (and just how much of a history freak he is, lol). In the span of 12 episodes, you will hear about old Westerns, Charles Whitman, the Nazis, Star Trek, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, just to name a few things. You just have to appreciate how rich the metatextual layer is and how everything is the embodiment of the envisioned aesthetic.

Speaking of references, how cool is it that actual Southeast Asian territories are used as story locations and that other nationalities play major roles in the story? The first element especially excites the hell out of me, being a geography nerd. Watching the gang navigate through different countries and seas just hypes me up for what part of the world they are going to visit next. My love for linguistics gets an outlet as well, as there are moments indicating linguistic diversity between the characters, like Shenhua's accent or Takenaka switching languages. Not many anime series bother with thoroughly delineating their setting like that, so huge props there.

And what lies beneath this cool aesthetic is a genuine yearning for life, becoming a pirate being the catalyst for change. As Rock's familiar way of the salaryman is replaced with the uncertain yet liberating path of an outlaw, so does hopelessness give way to self-fulfilment. Within the first 2 episodes, Rock understands that the only possibility of him ever feeling satisfied with his life requires abandoning the artificial happiness he had been systematically forced to pursue. Chasing a higher position in an intrinsically flawed environment blinded him to his inner self. Upon freeing himself from the corporate hell, Rock begins to manifest his repressed desires; that is, first of all, freedom, but also living a proud life according to his moral values. And surprisingly, he makes for an actually competent outlaw thanks to his emotional intelligence and deep conviction, even showing signs of cult leader-esque empathy.

There are tons of profound conversations that provide inclonclusive ethical dilemmas. Without spoiling anything, I'll just mention one of my favourite themes in Black Lagoon – the constant clash between Revy's and Rock's personalities. While Revy represents pragmatism, opportunism, and brute force, Rock stands for idealism, introspection, and a strong sense of morality. Neither is more correct than the other; both have their own views that stem from different experiences. That's also why, apart from the purely ideological standpoint, their upbringing constitutes this dichotomy as well. Revy has always been a part of the underworld, having to do whatever it takes to survive, whereas Rock is an outsider who makes a conscious choice to become a criminal. He thus has to deal with an additional challenge of having to prove that he's "one of them," albeit without sacrificing his values.

Once you stop fruitlessly trying to win someone else's game, you can start playing your own. Unless you have the Russian mafia above you. Then, I guess, you still don't control shit.