Review of Black Lagoon

This show is brilliant. In short, if you've watched Gurren Lagaan, watch Black Lagoon. If you haven't, watch a trailer for Gurren Lagaan, then watch Black Lagoon. The story kicks off with a bang with a businessman, known from the second episode onwards and from here on as Rock, is kidnapped by a mercenary/pirate group known as Black Lagoon, which consists of Dutch, Benny and Revy. Black Lagoon are contracted to do mercenary-like missions, usually by either a russian mafia made of ex russian special forces headed by a woman called Balalaika (which is a kind of russian orchestra, I just found out) or aChinese Triad group. And that's it. Normally, something like this which is just action and violence wouldn't draw me in, stuff like Die Hard, Rambo, Taken, films like that don't interest me, wonton violence doesn't draw me, but Black Lagoon gains merit because of Revy, Dutch, Benny, the chinese triad boss and two characters, an irishman and chinese woman, in the final episode. They are the best part of this show.
And why, you may ask? They are simply bad-ass. Dutch, Revy and the triad boss all know how to use a gun, and the camera angles and music just make them seem a one-man army. Words just can't describe the bad-assery these characters emit. However, Revy is above Dutch and the triad boss slightly. She is basically Black Lagoons Yoko Litner (search her up if you don'tknow her!) Sarch Revy in deviantart, you'll see what I mean.
Now, the only bad parts of the show, the Garcia arc and Rock. The Garcia arc basically was the son of a tycoon was kidnapped, these kidnappers were taken over by Black Lagoon, and Garcia was used as a bargaining chip. The thing was, despite Garcias maid being Revy's nemesis (and so you can imagine a fight scne between them, in fact it's probably on youtube. Oh, yeah, garcias maid is an ex-guerilla mercenary), after 7 or so episodes of high-octane action, this arc was SO boring. And Garcia is, personally, one of the most hate-able characters because he is a winy, little kid. Sure, he's been kidnapped, but he says that doesn't fase him, so he's just winy for NO REASON. The other problem is Rock, as a businessman his role was to wipe his boss' ass, and as part of Black Lagoon he's just as unimportant. I wish another Dutch or Revy character would've replaced him
OK, to wrap this up quick, the art is beautiful, both the in-show animation and the opening and ending, and, speaking of the opening and ending, the music goes hand-in-hand with it, and the opening of Black Lagoon, along with Mirai Nikki to name one a very few, is one of my favourites.

Considering all this, it gives me pleasure to give Black Lagoon a brilliant 8/10, just shy of 9 because of Rock and the Garcia arc. Even if, like me, you're not much of an action/violence person, watch this for the characters!