Review of Black Lagoon
Nuns, Nazi’s, soldiers, maids, terrorists, ninjas, this anime truly does have every possible type of antagonist. It’s truly bombastic and doesn’t have much pre-tense of creating a believable World. It isn’t long before we see our cast of heroes go driving up a ramp and flying 80 feet into in the air in a gunboat on a collision course with a Hind D attack helicopter. It goes without saying you shouldn’t be expecting realism. If all of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s action movies where packed into an anime this would be it. Expect to see platoons worth of soldiers mowed down by little more than our heroineand a couple of handguns all whilst striking poses, and at the same time being shot at and missed hundreds of times from just meters away.
You should also expect cigarettes to be smoked and liquor drunk with noiristic levels of cinematography. Oh yes and guns galore all shown in fetishistic detail, our heroine’s chromed twin 9mm Beretta’s with ivory grips and skull symbols get a great deal of screen time along with every other weapon and military vehicle imaginable. As for the story well there actually is one being told in between the explosions and one-liners and it centres on the characters themselves.
In this anime only two characters are actually fleshed out, and even they have their backstories from a book of cliché’s. The two are Rock and Revy. Revy is basically an angstier female version of Arnold Schwarzenegger who tries to solve her internal conflicts through wanton carnage. Her arc revolves around her past as a tough kid growing up on the rough streets being forced into a life of crime and making her own code to live by. Rock gets himself somehow embroiled in a corporate conspiracy when he is sent to deliver a package and is nearly killed in the process before meeting our team of misfit mercenary pirates led by the Morpheus clone; Dutch. Due to Rock’s background as a corporate wage slave he is the subject to Revy’s uncontrollable rage, as Rock loses his humanity by his association with the pirates Revy begins to regain part of hers. As for Dutch well there isn’t much that can be said he is the typical cool bald headed sunglasses wearing, muscled black dude. He acts as a commander says wise things when the plot demands it, and is like an impromptu father figure to Revy at times.
As for the music there are two extremes adrenaline fuelled action riffs and somber melodies. The soundtracks sets up the gore-filled action sequences and gives our characters a touch of humanity afterwards as they stare angstily into the Ocean whilst cruising on a gunboat at night smoking cigarettes under the moonlight. The voice acting is great, this is one of the few times where I can recommend the dubbed version over the subbed. Rock is the only weak voice here, his emotional range is a lot narrower than it ought to be given the intense situations he often finds himself in. Dutch plays the part of the cool black dude with no range whatsoever. Dutch does get fleshed more in the OVA but not by much.
The one thing this anime is both let down by and excels at is the facial animations. It exceeds with Revy and is let down by everyone else. Revy can steal a scene just by stink-eying someone from the backseat of a car or snarling for the 50th time that episode but the rest of the characters have no memorable expressions to speak of. They simply aren’t as animated as Revy and consequently you forget them pretty much immediately. The lighting and shadowing are a cut above average for a 2006 anime. The backgrounds whilst not poor quality are definitely less detailed then they could have been. If our heroes visit the same bar 3 times we won’t have any recognisable feature to remember from that bar. If they go to a military camp all we get for detailing is a few tents and boxes. Out of all the locations the most detailed is the interior of our heroes’ gunboat and even that doesn’t have a single personal touch unless beer cans and cigarette butts count. Fortunately the focus isn’t on the environments but on Revy pulling off action poses midair whilst dodging a hail of bullets. The action sequences are usually dynamic enough to hold your attention just don’t expect there to be any realism. The budget went on explosions and bullet wounds not on carefully choreographing scenes in a way that would make them appear plausible.
Whilst this anime is mostly style over substance it manages to pull off the style well enough to warrant a view. Due to the blistering pace at which we swap in and out new characters and locations every episode ends up having a high point. I highly recommend this anime to anyone whether your new to the medium or a veteran of it.
Original Review:
http://thatsterror.com/anime-review-black-lagoon/