Review of Black Lagoon

The Lagoon Company is a "delivery" company that operates in the South China Sea. While they do in fact deliver cargo to and from destinations, the business is as legitimate as Al Capone going to the bank to "make a transaction". They are made up of their leader Dutch, a black ex-U.S. Vietnam veteran, and Captain of the PT boat Black Lagoon; Revy, a Chinese-American sharpshooter from New York; and Benny, a Florida post-grad electronics expert. Our main character is Rokuro Okajima, a mild mannered Japanese office worker still very low on the totem pole at his employer. His company is smuggling information on nuclear weaponsand Rokuro is unwittingly given the job on holding the discs with the information for the trip. The boat he is on is captured and Okajima is taken hostage by Lagoon. His employer decides not to pay a ransom to get him back and hangs him out to dry as part of their cover up. He is declared dead by his employer, and they send mercernaries to kill him and the Lagoon company. Rokuro's quick thinking saves them from the trap. His employer buys the disc back from Lagoon but when they offer to take him back Rokuro decides to stay abroad having had his life back home destroyed. The Lagoon Company feels sorry for his plight after he saved them, and take him on as a sailor-in-training/gopher employee. The first half dozen episodes have the classic fish-out-of-water premise as Rokuro (who now goes under the name "Rock" with his new employer) tries to prove his worth in a career field he doesn't always agree with morally.

The art is slightly above average for the most part, and occasionally the show did surprise me with a different visual styles for a fight or flashback scene. The music wasn't fabulous, but it wasn't bad either. I've heard the complete soundtrack and it had a couple gems on it, but they get used a little too often in the show itself. That's nothing I haven't come to expect after watching Full Metal Alchemist and Bleach, though. Voice acting was fine, too. I've heard the dub and it's not terrible but I felt Dutch's English VA sounds too young and lacks the deep gruffness the original did, among other little tweaks. This remains a show I prefer to watch subbed.

If you're read the Wikipedia entry for Black Lagoon, it goes on for awhile about Existentialism philosophy used in the show. I'm sure this is true, but it really wasn't much of the focus as far as I could see. Black Lagoon was a classic action/adventure. Lots of guns and swearing and pretty girls and evil men. In fact, I think it was a slight parody of the genre. The violence was seemed to be a little bit over the top (in a Sin City sort of way) and the characters made references several times to Hollywood movies. Revy usually wears a pair of Daisy Dukes and tank top while doing acrobatic flips and shooting wildly, or lounging around in unladylike poses. With a couple other ruthless female characters you get a "girls with guns" sort of vibe from the show at times, but overall it was more a trash-talking, ass-kicking good time. The story arcs (each 2-3 episodes long) aren't very deep in their plot but are given a light coat of real-world politics and history.

For a summer-blockbuster popcorn-film experience: I recommended it.