Review of Black Lagoon

Note: This will be a review of the series in its entirety, namely both seasons and the OVA. Overview: "Black Lagoon" is an action anime that seems heavily inspired by the works of Quentin Tarantino and the Coen brothers. Before and while I was watching the series, I found a number of people say it was just too awesome, with some even saying it was better than "Cowboy Bebop" and "Trigun". Having watched it myself, my opinion is that, while it's certainly great as an action series, it tries too hard to be more than that, ultimately suffering from a serious identity crisis. Story & World (6.5/10): "Black Lagoon"is set mainly in the fictional Thai city of Roanapur, a practically lawless wretched hive that has been a haven for criminals for decades. Rokuro Okajima, a salaryman from Japan has been kidnapped by a group of pirates called the Lagoon Company, who just happened to be onboard a ship that they raided. Soon enough, he discovers that he has been abandoned by his boss in Japan, who had him declared dead to cover up a smuggling operation that he was unknowingly a part of. After helping the Lagoon Company out of a tight spot, Rock, as he's now called, joins them as a member, seeing the life as a pirate as a chance to start fresh, something a guy in his situation sorely needs. The story follows Rock and the other Lagoon members (Revy, Dutch and Benny) as they tackle jobs given to them by various criminal organizations, while at the same time fighting criminals who are much worse than they are.

The basic idea of Roanapur is that it's the real world, not only because there's no supernatural elements to speak of (a rarity for an action anime) but everywhere you look, you see things that happen everyday in real life. People take whatever they want at the expense of others, often without consequence. Trying to be the hero fails far more often than not, mentally ill people are sometimes beyond saving and weak teenagers standing up to experienced adults ends only in failure. Despite all of this, the story and world fail to really engage because they're just not believable. Simply put, any chance for realism goes flying out the window by the end of the first episode, in which Revy guns down an entire group of thugs using only a pair of pistols. It reaches new levels in the third episode, in which she kills several ships worth of enemies. Later, we're introduced to a maid who has a gattling gun built into a briefcase and can keep up with a moving car followed by a whole bunch of insane women such as a Taiwanese girl with throwing knives and a mute girl with a chainsaw.

It's like the show is trying to tell two stories at the same time; one an over-the-top action movie from the 90s and the other a brutally honest drama about the horrors of reality, the latter of which seems to there just to try and cover up the fact that the show is anything but realistic. Also, Rock is frequently given lectures by the others about what he needs to do in order to survive, and yet none of the main characters are ever at any risk of being killed off for good, especially not Rock, who despite being one of the weakest members survives so many life-threatening situations it's not even funny. Furthermore, the crappy conditions of Roanapur are shown to us many times throughout the series and, while hints are given, none of the characters really sit down to talk about exactly how it got so messed up. You sometimes get the impression that the show just doesn't know what it wants to be, even though it's obvious that it's trying to be a straight action series.

Art & Animation (8/10):
"Black Lagoon" looks, for the most part, normal. The animations are very smooth and and the fights are highly chaotic but the art is quite average and not anything special. It is very good-looking overall but there are plenty of better looking anime out there. Considering the first two seasons came out in 2006, this isn't surprising but the OVA came out five years later and doesn't seem to look any better, which is a problem.

Sound & Dialogue (8.5/10):
The music of "Black Lagoon" is generally good, but not fantastic. Aside from the opening and ending themes and a few tracks here and there, most of it is quite average and just goes unnoticed. The voice acting is solid, delivering a truly fantastic dub with very fitting voices. Considering almost none of the series is set in Japan (aside from an arc that takes up the whole latter half of the second season), it is highly recommended that you watch the series in English. The dialogue is mostly very good, though some may be put off by the excessive amounts of swearing.

Characters (7.5/10):
As I mentioned before, Rock is unbelievably lucky. Throughout the series, he ends up in every crazy situation you can think of and manages to come out of all of them with barely a scratch, as well as surviving the wrath of the deadliest fighters in the series. At one point, he has a gun pointed at his head and manages to avoid being shot by simply moving the gun to the side, getting only a scratch and suffering no permanent damage. I'm no stranger to the guy who can survive anything (I've played the "Uncharted" games) but Rock takes that to a whole new level, especially since he's just a negotiator with no fighting skills of any kind. It gets to the point where you just stop caring about what's going to happen to him, as you know that, one way or another, he'll manage to wiggle his way out of it somehow.

Elephant-thick plot armour aside, "Black Lagoon" nonetheless has a pretty fine cast of characters. Rock and Revy essentially serve as contrasts at the beginning of the series- she's a nihilist while he's a wide-eyed idealist, but as the series goes on, Revy starts to improve as a person due to Rock's influence, while Rock gradually becomes more amoral due to Roanapur's influence. It gets to the point that, by the OVA series, Revy is the one calling Rock out for his actions, when it's made clear that he's been in Roanapur for far too long. As rash as Revy can be, she's still a pretty difficult person to hate once you learn about her incredibly tragic past, which is generally hinted at in flashbacks. And regardless of what I may have said before, seeing her take on so many guys at once is pretty damn awesome, especially when it's accompanied by her dark sarcasm. This makes her easily my favourite character.

Besides Rock and Revy, we also have the Lagoon leader, Dutch, who is best described as the cool, badass type. He never panics and is the only member besides Revy who can (or is willing to) use a gun. The last member, Benny, is the computer specialist and unfortunately the least fleshed-out of the main cast. Simply put, he's introduced in the very first episode and essentially gets no development at all until the third episode of season 2, when it's finally made clear what kind of character he's supposed to be. There's also a very large supporting cast, most notably Roberta, the maid I mentioned earlier who works for a rich Colombian family. She first appears in the first season and returns as the focus of the OVA series. She acts as something of a foil to Revy and the two lock horns more than once, with the results being very brutal. She is definitely the best character in the series after Revy and Rock, to the point that I almost wished she showed up more often

Enjoyment (7.5/10):
When it's just being an action series, which is actually more often than not, "Black Lagoon" is a very fun series to watch. Almost every episode has some kind of great fight scene and a lot of these are very intense. Unfortunately, there are some arcs that end quite weakly, with the last one of season 2 pretty much going downhill in the last two episodes, though the OVA series made up for this. There are also a lot of depressing moments, particularly in the second season, and they can be pretty heavy-handed to say the least.

Overall:
"Black Lagoon" is a very good series that unfortunately takes itself far too seriously. It takes the typical premise of a Quentin Tarantino film and tries to present it as something realistic with really forced drama, almost as though Rei Hiroe forgot what made the series good and tried to convince us that this crazy city filled with superhuman women is a place that could actually exist. Because it's not drama you watch "Black Lagoon" for- you're in it for the action, and on that score, it definitely delivers.

Score:
6.5+8+8.5+7.5+7.5=38/50=7.6/10