As soon as you pop in the disc and watch Black Lagoon’s opening melody of flashy snippets of violence and broken English, one can’t help but feeling this is going to be another mindless shooter anime. However, with its grimy atmosphere, top notch writing, and characters which completely drench with awesome, Black Lagoon will not let itself be written off.
The series kicks itself off with a bang…or punch for that matter, right to the jaw of Rokuro Okajima. This young Japanese businessman has the luck of getting his ship hijacked on an important business trip to Southeast Asia. The pirates get what they came for (a disc of very volatile information), and decide to take Rockuro (or “Rock”, as the pirates decide to dub him) with them as well. The pirates, calling themselves the “Black Lagoon Company”, think they might as well get a little bit of pocket money for a ransom if they can get it. With this, Rock finds himself joining the nefarious underground “delivery company” with Boss Dutch, mechanic and computer hacker Benny, and combat specialist Revy aka “Two-Hand”.
Revy herself basically becomes the poster girl of the series, whose profanity ridden, confident attitude is a very nice change of pace from the damsel in distress/ harem character archetype. When she’s first introduced, one can’t help but feel that there’s not much depth to her gun toting antics. However, as the series progresses and her damaged past reveals itself, it creates a great deal of empathy and depth to a character who just appeared to be a violent bitch. This usually reveals itself through various encounters with Rock, whose suburban and sheltered personality completely contrasts that of Revy. This makes for some very interesting conversations, delving into issues such as survival, existentialism, and environmental perspective. This is when the English dub really shines, pulling no punches when it comes to profanity, and having the voice actors really giving it their all. Needless to say, the script is written incredibly well, with interesting dialogue and unique character development. For an example, feel free to watch this clip which includes Rock and Revy, well, let just say they’re having a grumpy afternoon:
As for the action scenes, this is one part of the series where it’s having a little bit of an identity crisis. It just can’t seem to decide whether it wants over the top shoot ‘em up (battling with a terminator-esque maid), or realistic gunplay (commandeer defenseless cargo ship). Still, it manages to have more than enough action for any adrenaline junkie without it being absolutely ridiculous. That’s not to say there isn’t gore, however. There is more than enough execution shooting, snitch torturing, and cold blood murdering to go around. Just don’t expect overly flashy scenes to be the staple of the show.
The animation differs as well, with some shots being absolutely gorgeous and detailed and some seeming almost completely static. It never becomes distracting, but it becomes easy to notice the transition after a beautifully rendered gunfight. There is some CG thrown in as well, and works well in the few instances that it pops up (usually with gun close-ups and shell casings). As a whole, it looks pretty damn good.
While not ground-breaking, with its coarse-language, graphic violence, and downright awesome characters, Black Lagoon is certainly something to check out for anyone who wants an action anime with a realistic and gritty atmosphere.
Story: A
Animation: B
Sound: A-
Overall: A-
No comments:
Post a Comment