Review of Black Lagoon

Black Lagoon is the grimy, gritty, obscene, but somehow endearing tale of a group of mercenaries on board their ship the "Black Lagoon". Do not look here for plot and purpose... the epidodes wander at random and have little cohesive theme. However, the character development is superb, and the dark, brutal world that the series paints is exciting and engaging. The series focuses around Revi "two-hand", the gun-happy assassin-girl of the gang. She takes a young buisnessman (nicknamed Rock) on board the Black Lagoon as a hostage and he ends up joining the rag-tag crew when his company betrays him. Rock tellsthe story of his life on the run with the stern and calm captain "Dutch", the lanky and careless technician "Benny Boy" and, most importantly, his struggle to win the friendship of bitter and violent Revi.

Although the main characters seem heartless and cruel, you can't help but become attached. The interplay between Revi and Rock is brilliant and not sappy. However, the series would have been much improved if it had been given more direction and plot. Interesting characters like Balalika (the russian mob-boss) float in and out of the story with little consequence. Althogether, the show left me a little unsatisfied at the end and I was eager to check out the "second barrage." Unfortunately, the second season was even more plotless than the first.