Review of Black Lagoon

This review includes my optics on the ,,Black Lagoon" anime as a whole - not the first season only. I do believe that ,,Black Lagoon" is an inclusive proposition. It does not contain bright elements of japanese popculture like these you can see in Isekai like collecting harems or bright character designs in general. It's pretty ambitious but also contains half measures, which you will surely notice analysing a world construction of this anime. I would personally call ,,Black Lagoon" one of ,,bigger" titles, similarly to e.g ,,Shingeki no Kyojin"- titles, which are ambitious enough to grow beyond fiction with problems they represent through theirplot. When Rock(a main character of the series) cannot bring himself to accept a harsh reality and then receives an answer like ,,you can't look directly at these things", then you surely grasp what I mean here. The world of ,,Black Lagoon" certainly gives a great scenery to display such problems like fatality, lack of justice through the civilisation development and a problem of being lost as a person(it has to be highlighted here that this one is also delicately delivered trough a display of the Japanese guy among characters from other nations - delicately exactly because he is a solid representation of stereotypical japanese clerk, a drudge who lives only to fulfill environement's expectations, which as a whole as well shows an inteliligence of the japanese storywriter).
A short story introduction will be something like: Rock, a stereotypical japanese clerk is spending his average life on fulfilling expectations of others(parents, boss), being a serious drudge. One day he gets kidnapped by a small group of pirates during some delegation and soon his life gets completely reversed. This is a turning point of his existence and that is when the real show begins - the show displaying changes of the mediocre human's personality by gaining a true self-knowledge through relations with ,,the other side of the coin" of seemingly a peaceful and simple world - a mafia, post-war reality.
,,Back Lagoon" succesfully displays unmeaningfulness of a unit in the tremendous world machinery consisting of brutal arrangements behind a transparency. What this anime does succesfully is also managing to not make this wholle bloody ,,killing everybody around" action grotesque and hilarious. ,,Black Lagoon" preservers a class here, but it is not perfect. Half measures are visible when a character named Revy, for example, is killing like ten or more people all alone with immaculate confidence(which iis at least cool to watch, especially with her great character design and expression). Still, believe me - it is definitely acceptable and fine, things still can be serious with this show.
Character designs are decent, not original which makes the anime inclusive for an inexperienced viewer. A main exception from the rule here is Revy, the main heroine of the series. Looks of hers are 10/10 for me - a simple, not generic design. The simplicity fits other characters like Rock really wel tool. By the way, the generic design of Rock has its meaning as well, characters like Dutch and Balalaika are really cool too. Additionaly, an originality and exceptionality of womens' designs in the show patterns their significant traits: Revy is expressive and wild for example, so she does not wear too much, has loose outfit and is cool in general. That is what you call a good and a conscious device.
An overall mood ,,Black Lagoon" deploys is immersive and significant. Thanks to a fundamental requirement plot and animation fulfill(the action and animation is not grotesque for the most part) this anime lets you forget the whole real world - here it has its own complex universe and problems which are not less important and complex as those of ours. A music this title has, combined with a good animation and dialagoues plus a good character development creates sincerely moving and inspiring composition.
But the character development is a little bit problematic question in this anime's case. ,,Black Lagoon" manga is still ongoing. There are many events this quite old anime was not able to depict as it did not catch up enough through its two seasons. Nevertheless, the development of earlier mentioned Rock and Revy is coherent and simply interesting. The anime focuses especially on the Rock's personality and values change. There is quite a lot about Revy as well since the development of those two characters is based on a development of their relationship at the same time. There we have characters like Dutch, who does not manage to get his real time in the part of ,,Black Lagoon" manga story that the anime covered. However, also Balalaika, who does not get too much time still receives quite a good and subtle development(really great character by the way, the display of a russian mafia in the japanese style can be truly interesting and puzzling).
A pace of the show is well routed. Producers of ,,Black Lagoon" seem to knew what they were doing on this matter, but its all on a cost of anime lacking development of characters like Dutch who are getting their time in the manga later on. The pace is dynamic and quite well-versed, though it perhaps can even appear too fast for some viewers, but it is still fine.
A summary: ,,Black Lagoon" is one of my favorites. That is obviously led by personal emotions and associations I have. Nevertheless, what I wrote in my review is objective. This anime contains many virtues thanks to which is immersive. I am sure it is one of anime titles which can give viewers chills on many occasions, also giving possibilties to experience a real katharsis sometimes. A great anime in general, for me somewhere inbetween top mal action series like Snk or ,,Fullmetall Alchemist " and more mediocre ones like ,,Kimetsu no Yaiba". When it comes to the ambition of the plot, it shows a similarity to series mentioned above, but contains less quality when it comes to the world structure which is not so original and advanced. The world utterly patterned on ours but in japanese style with its popculture elements is too little to get a 10 or a 9 score on most viewers' lists. What has to be said certainly though, is that BL is one of the best realisation of a gun-fighting action type anime out there, displaying a strong bond of similarity with ,,Jormungand"- the other genuinly interesting proposition of the kind.