Black Lagoon

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Black Lagoon
Revy, weapons specialist
ブラックラグーン
(Burakku Raguun)
Genre Action, Adventure, Gangster, Pirate, Heroic bloodshed, Seinen
Manga: Black Lagoon
Authored by Rei Hiroe
Publisher Flag of Japan Shogakukan
Serialized in Sunday GX
Original run 19 April 2002 – ongoing
No. of volumes 6 (as of November 2006)[1]
TV anime : Black Lagoon
Directed by Sunao Katabuchi
Studio Madhouse
Network Flag of Japan Chiba TV, Gunma TV, KBS Kyoto, TV Nagoya, TV Saitama, Tokyo MX TV
Original run 8 April 2006 – 24 June 2006
No. of episodes 12[2]
TV anime : Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage
Directed by Sunao Katabuchi
Studio Madhouse
Network Flag of Japan Chiba TV, Gunma TV, KBS Kyoto, Sun TV, Tochigi TV, Tokyo MX TV, TV Kanagawa, TV Nagoya, TV Saitama
Original run 2 October 2006 – 18 December 2006
No. of episodes 12[3]

For the horror movie, please visit Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Black Lagoon (ブラックラグーン burakku ragūn) is the name of a Japanese manga and an anime TV series created by Rei Hiroe.[1] The story follows a team of mercenaries known as Lagoon Company, who smuggle goods in and around the seas of Southeast Asia. Their base of operations is located in the fictional city of Roanapur in Thailand, and they transport goods in the PT boat Black Lagoon. Lagoon Company does business with various clients, but has a particularly friendly relationship with the Russian crime syndicate Hotel Moscow. The team takes on a variety of missions - which may involve violent firefights, hand-to-hand combat, and nautical battles - in various Southeast Asian locations. The members of Lagoon Company spend much of their down time at The Yellow Flag, a bar in Roanapur.

Black Lagoon premiered at the Tokyo International Anime Fair in March 2006 and began airing on 8 April 2006 in Japan, the series airing its final episode on 24 June that year.[2] The second season (called Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage), started airing in Japan on the 2 October 2006 and ended on December 18, 2006.[3] It has been licensed for release in North America by Geneon Entertainment with a release date of May 22, 2007.

Contents

[edit] Characters

Main article: List of Black Lagoon characters
  • Revy provides the muscle for the Black Lagoon. She's good with guns, but not with people. She is of Chinese descent and grew up in New York. Revy is exceptionally skilled with using firearms in battle. She enjoys killing her enemies and seldom stops to negotiate. While merciless in battle, she later in the series proves out to care more for Rock than she shows.
  • Rock is a Japanese salaryman who joins the crew of the Black Lagoon after they kidnap him. Rock doesn't fight but is an excellent negotiator and translator. He is often scared by the methods Revy can use to achieve her goals.
The members of Lagoon Company, from left to right: Benny, Rock, Revy and Dutch
The members of Lagoon Company, from left to right: Benny, Rock, Revy and Dutch
  • Dutch is the leader of the Lagoon "trading company". He captains the PT boat Black Lagoon, and coordinates his crew. Although he seldom participates in battle, he is still a deadly adversary, stemming from his time as an American soldier in the Vietnam War
  • Benny is an electronics genius. He serves as the Lagoon's technical expert. Like Rock, he finds himself unable to participate in the deadly shootouts Revy and Dutch engage in. Neither of them feel capable of shooting a human being.


[edit] Anime episode list

The first season of Black Lagoon consists of episodes 1 to 12. The second season consists of episodes 13 to 24 and is labeled Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage.

Main article: List of Black Lagoon episodes


[edit] Media

Main article: List of Black Lagoon media


[edit] Anime

[edit] Style and themes

Black Lagoon includes a considerable amount of graphic violence, often involving violent gun fights and spectacular physical feats in battle. Many of the characters who are most skilled with weapons (mainly guns) are women, thereby bearing a similarity with "girls-with-guns" genre. The anime is drawn in a relatively realistic style, featuring very few exaggerated facial expressions. It instead focusing on powerful depictions of the many gunfights and shootouts.

An example of the style used to depict the gunfights, here showing the character Roberta
An example of the style used to depict the gunfights, here showing the character Roberta

A distinguishing motif of the series is that it no distinction is made between the moral question of right and wrong. Rather, it shows the events from the different perspectives of the characters and how they justify their belief in what is right and what is not. A good example of this is from episode 5 of the anime, where Revy tells Rock a story from her childhood, revealing how she regards the belief in God and love as "emotional bullshit."

Revy from episode 5 where she displays her strong disbelief in love and justice
Revy from episode 5 where she displays her strong disbelief in love and justice

A review of this moral conflict expressed the matter in this way: There is only a case of perspective, and how one justifies his or her actions to be the morally correct one. Its like trying to define which grey is blacker than the other [1]

While Revy is depicted as being the tough, uncaring gunfighter, Rock is almost the exact opposite, and a central theme in the series is Rock's struggle for deciding whether he should remain with Lagoon Company - a criminal organisation - or return to his ordinary life of a law-abiding citizen. Especially in the first season, this conflict between Rocks and Revy's views on crime and moral is important.

The series also touches on other themes, like modern Nazism, the power struggle between various criminal syndicates, and outright sadistict killing. Black Lagoon also makes numerous cultural references (see below).

[edit] Cultural References

  • The beer drunk in Black Lagoon is called Heireken. The logo and color of the beer can strongly resemble the Dutch beer Heineken. Dutch's name may have something to do with it. Also, there are spoofs of Budweiser beer cans drunk and floating around Benny at times.
  • The helicopter gunship piloted by the Extra Order mercenaries was a Mi-24A Hind B. "Extra Order" itself is a parody of the actual mercenary force Executive Outcomes.
  • A poster released to promote the second season of the show parodied the "Come play with us" scene from The Shining.[1]
  • There are many references to American pop culture in the series. Roberta's fighting skills, mainly her running and the stabbing of the Plymouth Road Runner's trunk with her combat knife in the last few episodes of Black Lagoon's first season are a homage to the Terminator 2 movie. Likewise, the name of the reporter Jake Chambers on Revy's TV screen in Episode 11 is a nod to Stephen King's Dark Tower novel series. He is a central character, having the reporter's same name, who happens to be a proficient gunfighter. Other Dark Tower references are in episodes such as "The Dark Tower" and "The Gunslingers" which are names of two books in the series.
Revy and Shenhua have a Janken match.
Revy and Shenhua have a Janken match.
  • In episode #14 and #15, the names of the Hotel Moscow Visotoniki squads "Jodorowsky" and "Polanski" are references to movie directors Alejandro Jodorowsky and Roman Polanski.
  • In episode #11, there is a poster in Revy's room which reads "The Wild Punch". The name and art on the poster are a reference to the film The Wild Bunch, which Rock also refers to in Episode 2.
  • To determine who gets to kill pursuing guerrillas in episode 12, Revy and Shenhua have an informal Janken match to decide.
  • In the opening sequence, Revy's Beretta has the writing "9mm SWORD CUTLASS". In Romeo + Juliet the guns had names such as "Sword 9mm".
  • Many characters in Black Lagoon are prone to use more or less obscure comparisons:
    • Dutch compares Garcia Lovelace to a Claymore mine.
    • Rock thinks of Roberta as the Terminator.
    • Dutch, in episode 18, talks about giving the bounty hunters a ride of their lives that Tuff Hedeman won't be able to ride the bull (referring to their PT boat).
    • Benny thinks his hacking skills are comparable to Kevin Mitnick.
    • Eda mentioned to Revy that Greenback Jane could be able to outrun the bounty hunters and do a touchdown (implying her escape) like Brett Favre.
    • The Yellowflag Bar is often compared to a Wild West Saloon in various western movies.
    • Dutch compares the shootout with Roberta in the Yellowflag bar with the Battle of Khe Sanh.
    • Yukio refer to Ginji and herself as Bonnie and Clyde.
      • In the same scene, Yukio mentions robbing banks in Bolivia. In the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Bolivia is where the title characters flee to, and where they end up robbing banks.
  • When Ginji and Revy approach the bowling alley, a sign above the door reads "Hirano Bowl." This is a reference to the mangaka Kouta Hirano, whose works feature many motifs shared in Black Lagoon.
  • After Rock introduces himself, Takenaka began to make references during his self-introduction, including the 1965 movie Abashiri Bangaishi, which was among the many hints given to viewers that he was a dedicated Japanese Red Army member before hiding in the Philippines after escaping from Lebanon.
  • Balalaika is named after the Russian instrument.
  • When Ginji mentions the words Sukeroku and Ikyu, he is referring to the kabuki play Sukeroku Kuruwa no Hatsuzakura. Sukeroku, the protagonist, arrived in the teahouse to face Ikyu, which was similar to Ginji and Yukio's attempts to face Hotel Moscow and Balalaika, which they failed to do.

[edit] Trivia

  • The Thai writing on Revy's gun in various parts of the anime refer to a Thai gun manufacturing company [specify]
  • The butterfly shown in the garden of the Loveless Mansion is a homage to the logo of Edison, the band who performed songs on the Black Lagoon soundtrack.
  • The 'Fujiyama Gangsta Paradise' arc showed that most of the characters throughout the series actually speak English, with the Japanese simply being translations done for the audience. While the English voice acting in the anime is heavy in japanese pronunciation, nearly all occurrences of English and Russian lines in the manga are accurate.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Japanese

[edit] English

To Be Announced

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Black Lagoon (manga) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia. Accessed 2006-12-05.
  2. ^ a b Black Lagoon at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia. Accessed 2006-12-05.
  3. ^ a b Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia. Accessed 2006-12-05.

[edit] External links


 v • d • e Black Lagoon
Episodes: Black Lagoon (Season 1) | Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage (Season 2)
Characters: Revy | Rock | Dutch | Benny
Hotel Moscow | Roanapur Gangsters | The Church of Violence | Citizens of Roanapur | Bounty Hunters/Mercenaries | U-1234 Crew and Passengers | Neo Nazis | Terrorists | Yakuza | Lovelace Family | Other Characters
Media: Manga | Music
Other: Rei Hiroe
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