wswaniawski - 2014-08-26 00:28:20

Black Lagoon is an epic action anime. The plot is simple. The main character (Rock) is captured by the Black Lagoon company and he liked his kidnapers so much that he choose to stay with them. So the story just follow Rock and the Black Lagoon company collect bounties . With murdering maids and vampire twins thrown into the mix as time goes on.

If you liked the review please recommend it and follow me

valentin.oconnell - 2014-08-16 22:31:37

I finished this anime around January of 2014 and wrote up my thoughts elsewhere so I'm mostly supplanting those thoughts here. Hopefully I've proofread it a bit more and I've also added other thoughts after looking back on it months down the road. So if this particular write up seems different than the others it's because I'm mostly re-posting those thoughts.

Story:

Black Lagoon is the story of an everyday salaryman named Okajima Rokuro who gets tangled up with a group of individuals who acquire things and deliver them by any means possible. If they brush up against the law then it’s no worry for them and it’s just part of the trade. Though his encounter with these individuals he comes to the decision to become a part of this group and takes on the name “Rock.”

This particular anime has a whole bunch of gun fighting so if you’re looking for some blood then this one shall not disappoint. I didn’t particularly have an idea of what this anime would be like before hand other than the notion that I knew he would join a bunch of mercenaries and things happen. Perhaps it's because I've watched a good many series but I couldn't help but feel that the whole plot seems familiar, and didn't stand out at all. It's a bit hard to explain but I couldn't shake that feeling.

Animation & Sound:
Note: I am simplifying scoring on these sections.  

1 - if I noticed it was bad
2.5 - if I thought it was fine
5 - if I noticed it was good 

As I am not an expert on animation as a whole I can only give you my overall feelings which is not conducive for a 1-5 scale. I will be scoring the sound in the same way because I am more focused on the story and overall enjoyment in my scoring. 

Character:
While I did say this anime has a bunch of gun fighting the real draw (for myself anyway) is probably the character interaction between Rock and Revy as they clash many times during the series. Personally I didn’t really care much for the gun fighting for the most part, since they were all kind of “samey” they all sort of play out the same way. The only instances that were different were the first battle before Rock joins them and near the end where Revy is joined by another to wreak havoc.

Aside from Rock and Revy the main characters we are introduced two are Dutch and Benny. Dutch is the leader of the Black Lagoon company and serves mostly to be the level head of the group and to make the large decisions. Rock having the more subtle or less violent solutions and Revy wanting to go guns blazing. Benny is the tech guy of the group and he doesn’t play too much of a large role as far as I remember, most of the time he was there just to have a crew member voice their thoughts to the audience.

I remember I first chose this anime because a whole bunch of people liked it and it was rated very highly by very many people. As for myself, while I don't particularly like it, I don't see anything really to dislike so much either. Granted the plot at times for me seemed slow if there was any at all so if you really just want a shoot 'em action anime without much to think about then perhaps this will be a good fit for you.

jakubowski.ulices - 2014-08-12 08:59:10

Three words to describe this series. Bloody good fun!!!

pglover - 2014-03-09 06:08:30

The story for Black Lagoon is pretty standard and cliche. A group of misfits going out to do some missions for money is pretty much the simplified version of the series, but it does it well to keep me hooked on it on a nightly basis. Too put it simply, here's Black Lagoon in a nutshell:

http://youtu.be/DKwaPSkjXp0

All jokes aside, the premise is very simple to understand and no direct progression for it (except for season 2, but that's another story for another time), but at the same time, keeps you hooked into what's going on. What the story does do it give you more insight about the characters: why they do what they do and how they keep doing it.

Most of the characters in Black Lagoon are a very interesting bunch. Each holds different set of ideals on why they do what they do and how they approach a situation, but the standout goes to Revy. She is the epitome of in-your-face and doesn't give a flying f*ck as long as she can use her guns.

The animation is quality especially during it's gunfights, that's all I can say, lol. Studio madhouse doesn't skimp out on the gore for you, so if you're not into absurd violence up the wha-zoo then unfortunately this isn't the anime for you. This is also where the sound is at its best. The different sound each weapon possesses makes the gunfights stand out even more. The amount of detail into giving each firearm its own unique sound is impressive to say the least.

I thoroughly enjoyed this series up to its latest OVA, Roberta's Blood Trail. For those interested in more, the manga is finally ongoing after a two-year hiatus. Also something worth noting is that Black Lagoon will be premiering in Toonami in, I assume, late-March 2014 (I'll have to double check that...). As for me, I'll be sitting, waiting, hoping for a third season, but it's a long stretch.

kyle46 - 2014-02-14 21:30:37

There's been a recent trend in modern anime that is hard to avoid: the sunny and happiness trend. In the world of anime most of us are accustomed to, the characters are generally happy people, the colors are bright and beautiful, and though the action that exists is always good, the conflicts seem like they will always end in the right and just way. But that, unfortunately, just isn't the full picture of the world. The world is a terribly unjust place, with crime, betrayal, and general evil running rampant all over it. And anime needed something to portray that. Something big. Something Ballsy. Something so off the walls fucking insane that it just slaps you in the face and shows you exactly what the world is like. Ladies and gentlemen, Anime needed Black Lagoon. Something to show us that the world isn't sunshine and daisies, but that the world is fucked up. And so, let's dive into the dark and exciting world of Black Lagoon.

Rokuro Okajima is a very simple and boring man. He lives in Tokyo, where his life consists of paperwork, brown nosing his boss, and occasionally going out and drinking with his work buddies. His life is calm and simple. However, one day, he is sent to deliver a disk that is of the vital importance to his company, and is intercepted by the members of the Lagoon Company. A shipping and smuggling company based out of Roanapur, Thailand, The Lagoon Company apprehends Rokuro, takes his disk, and takes him hostage. After discovering that the company essentially left him for dead, Rokuro joins the Lagoon company, and is rechristened Rock. The show revolves around them and the many criminal jobs they perform in the dirty underbelly of the city. What I like about this show's story is that it shows a large variety of criminal activities, but it doesn't glorify them or make them seem like a higher form of life. Though Rock may feel much more liberated after his transition into the world of the illegal, the other members of the Lagoon Company and the people around them always describe their illegal activities as a means to an end, and nothing more. Though the show's story is well done, my biggest issue with this show lacks a real centrality of plot. There are a variety of arcs, but none of them feel like they're headed towards a greater goal. Another issue I have is that the characters feel generally static, which hurts the show a lot, given the amount of room they have for development. However, I do have to give a lot of credit to the script writers for this show, in both english and in japanese. The writing feels very natural, yet at the same time, they give the show a very somber tone, which I quite appreciate. So, with all that in mind, I give the story category a score of 9/10

To start, we have Rock. Rock is the epitome of a stereotypical western japanese man. Though his stature may be minute, and he may be one of the worst to have in combat, he is wicked smart, absurdly loyal, and is very hardworking and dedicated to his job. Rock acts very straight, tight, and professional, as he treats his work in the criminal underworld as if it were his job. His practice of always wearing a tie displays this perfectly: It doesn't matter what it is, this is my job, and I'm gonna do it. Rock is the biggest example of someone who feels incredibly static to me. While he shows a few moments of change, the show makes great pains to show his inexperience and his lack of real qualification to be a criminal. What I really wanted to see more of in Rock was the side that chose to rebel against the life he came from, that side which hated being a suck-up and loved being a criminal. Alas, we can only dream. Next on the list, we have Revy, who redefines the idea that Bitches Be Crazy. Revy is trigger happy to an excess, has a fuse shorter than a chipmunk, and is as foul mouthed and moody as they come. Revy is an expert Marksman, jumping into fights with nothing more than her twin cutlas pistols, and coming out unscathed with five or six dead behind her, at the least. Revy is one of the few examples of change in the show, especially in regards to her feelings about Rock. She goes from seeing him as a useless, ignorant and annoying child to a capable person, who is an asset to her, as well as to Lagoon Company. These two characters take up most of the spotlight, however, they aren't the only main characters. Lagoon company is lead by Dutch, a large, intimidating, yet strangely kind black man, who is an incredibly talented leader and fighter. He's very similar to Jet from Cowboy Bebop, except much more Mellow and conserved. Rounding out Lagoon Company, we have Benny, the team's techie. To be totally fair, Benny doesn't do a ton. He kind of exists as the person to say "Hey, there's a torpedo on our radar mate!" However, for his relative non-impact on the story, he's a very interesting character. Finally, one cannot talk about Black Lagoon without talking about Balalaika. The burn-faced leader of the Russian Crime Syndicate, Hotel Moscow, Balalaika is one of the coolest leaders anime may have ever seen. She is always constantly calm, yet is at the same time overwhelmingly threatening. Despite the fact that she is rarely on screen, you can see her working and manipulating everything around her, and you can see her organization controlling everything around her. In all honesty, these descriptions should easily be enough to tell you how much I love this show's characters. Characters get a 10/10

It has been said before, and I'm happy to say it again: Madhouse is amazing at what they do. The studio has never failed to make something look truly amazing before, and Black Lagoon is no exception. The show animates it's batshit insane moments perfectly, and doesn't skimp on more stationary sequences either. This show easily shows off what Madhouse can do with a kickass concept and budget. Something better than the animation, however, is the character designs and the coloring. The Character designs are very realistic, despite a heavy focus on the chest area for the females, and make the characters feel more realistic than before. However, the colors in the show impress me the most. Despite the show taking place in a very bright, tropical place, the show's colors are muted and give you a sense that this world is very very very dark and deep. So, to put it simply, animation gets a 10/10

Black Lagoon's musical score runs the gambit from intensely paced, action like pieces to much more somber music along the lines of the above piece. The soundtrack never failed to impress me with the variety and the fittingness of it's tracks, but few tracks really smacked me in the face as being balls to the walls amazing. However, credit where credit is due for making a soundtrack that feels as if it should be part of the environment around it. On the subject of sound, we come to the cornerstone of Sub V Dub, and it is here that I am at an impasse. I am fortunate enough to have loved the acting in both the subs and the dub, with absolute props to the voice actors for rock in both languages: Brad Swaile and Daisuke Namikawa. Daisuke felt very in tune with Rock as a character, and was able to portray both sides of him very well, while brad managed to make the cool tones we remember from Light Yagami and made them semi-innocent and yet seemed as if he understood everything around him. I would recommend the Dub for english watchers, just because it's your own native language, and because of the number of times the word fuck is used, which is a huge bonus for me, but honestly, It's a toss up. Excellent acting across the board. Black Lagoon's sound gets a 9/10

Black Lagoon is awesome. Everything about it is pure balls to the walls awesome, and it revels in that fact. Many people will talk about this show and will say "oh it's just crazy bitches," or, "oh, it's just unrealistic action," and to an extent they are right. While most of those concerns have to do with the second half of the story, The Second Barrage, there are some crazy bitches, and some unrealistic action. But at the same time, there's a veil of darkness that covers the world of Black Lagoon, that symbolizes just how screwed over these people are. The violence in the show doesn't show any signs of ending, hell, they show it as more of a part of life than anything else. And it's that pervasive miasma of violence that makes Black Lagoon so different than anything else, and what makes it so exceptionally enjoyable to watch. Despite that, there are still flaws with this show. It's an exceptionally well made work, but a few issues with static characters and a boring-ish soundtrack keep it from being absolutely perfect. However, I loved this show, fucks and all, and I'd be hard pressed to find anyone that doesn't.

bertrand04 - 2014-01-04 00:13:44

Black Lagoon grabs your attention and shows you what an action anime should be. Simple, Violent, and Fun.

fahey.wilfredo - 2013-08-26 18:54:41

A review of season 1 (and some of S2) of Black Lagoon.

So after finishing 999 and Ever 17, my brain felt more broken than Shinji inside an EVA. So I decided to "run away" from all these problems, turn my brain off, and go with a classic and fun anime. Now when you think of old western films, you think of one person, Quentin Tarantino. This man is the king of action films from movies in the 90's like Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, to movies made today like Inglourious Bastards and Django Unchained. This guy is so influential to the audience of this genre that he even inspired an anime that pays homage to the greats like Tarantino and even the Coen Brothers. And that anime is the show Black Lagoon, animated by Studio Madhouse, responsible for other great anime like Trigun, Death Note, Highschool of the Dead, and the film Redline.

The story follows our main protagonist Rokuro Okajima who finds himself kidnapped by the Lagoon Company who were after the confidential disc he was carrying on a ship. After bonding with the Lagoon Company, and being given the name "Rock," he ultimately helps the crew escape from a mercenary hired to kill them all and receive the disc, and decides to become a permanent member.

I will go over the members of the Lagoon Company later, however it should be noted that like most western films, there really isn't much of a story. This show (like a lot of Madhouse anime) is known more for the action, the characters, and the animation. The story basically follows the jobs that the Lagoon Crew are given and how they always manage to get themselves out of the crazy situations they find themselves in. Because there really is no overarching plot, its hard to judge the story, since this show is completely character and action driven. There really isn't much to say about the story, other than it never gets in the way for what you really want to see, which is the action and the character interactions.

This show primarily follows the four members of the Lagoon Company with some characters getting an episode or two of screen time. However, the four Lagoon members are really the only ones worth mentioning, at least for season one.

Rock

The main protagonist of the show, Rock was initially a "yes-man" always sucking up to his boss and being slapped around by him. When he was first kidnapped he was an extreme wuss who always complained about why this had to happen to him, much to the annoyance of the Lagoon Company. Luckily this bratty attitude does not last long as Rock quickly makes himself useful and helps the Lagoon Company to survive a very bleak situation. When given the chance to go home, he decides against it and stays with the Lagoon Company who've warmed up to him. Now, Rock is more of the business man of the group as he handles the money for the group and is the smoothest talker, usually helping to get himself and Revy (I will talk about her in a minute) out of a situation when guns aren't the answer. Rock is a good main character and is probably the most level headed of the group. By no means is he a badass, but he never makes himself feel too useless to the rest of members who each specialize in their own certain skill. Overall, great main protagonist who develops (especially with Revy) as the show goes on.

(Its EXACTLY what it looks like)

Revy

Revy is the field girl of the group and is also the main heroine of the show. At first, she has a "Rocky" relationship with Rock (OH HO HO HO HO), but after a certain point they both warm up to each other and develop some great chemistry. Revy grew up in the slums (due to spoilers, I won't say more), and because of her past, ends up developing a persona that has a need to shoot and kill all her enemies. One can tell when she enters this "psychotic crazy-bitch mode" when her eyes change into these dead eyes.

(There they are)

Usually when she gets like this, the Lagoon Company know the best thing to do is to stay out of her way. Basically, Revy is your classic Femme Fatale, she smokes and drinks, wears skimpy clothes, and is always dragging Rock into one dangerous situation after another. Although her personality is far from seductive, I'm completely fine with that since that probably would've hurt her character more than helped. She's also an extremely moody character, but can usually be cheered up by giving her a new gun.

(Its like Christmas)

Overall, she's a great heroine and definitely my favorite character from the show. She's loads of fun and always steals the show when she's on screen.

Dutch

The leader of the Lagoon Company and the most balanced member. While his leadership skills are unparalleled by anyone else in the crew, in terms of skill, he's the most balanced character. While not as good a smooth talker as Rock, or as good a shooter as Revy, he constantly keeps the group together and if it comes down to it, can shoot or talk himself out of almost any situation. Usually when Rock isn't there, he's the only one that can keep Revy level-headed when she starts going berserk in battle. He's the typical leader and also has some great moments in the show, but if there's one complaint, its that he doesn't have much of a back story.

Benny

The last member of the Lagoon crew and the tech guy of the group. Like Rock, he doesn't use a gun and prefers to stay out of any gun fight. While he is the smartest character of the group, he usually shows some naivety and needs to be lectured by the leader, Dutch, when things usually get tough. As for back story, he is a graduate of the University of Central Florida and was recruited by Revy when she saved him after he managed to "piss of the FBI and the mafia at the same time." There really is not much left to say as his character doesn't have much depth, but he's still a good character and can only add to the conversations.

There are a few reoccurring side characters, but they really aren't worth getting too far into, just know that they are also great characters as well.

In Season 2, there is a character that gets much more screen time and her name is Balalaika, high ranking officer of Hotel Moscow. Since this is a review of season 1, I won't say much, but know that her level of psychotic bitch puts even Revy to shame.

Repeating from what I've said earlier, this anime was produced by Studio Madhouse who was inspired by the crime-themed western films. As for the actual animation itself, its pretty good. While the gun physics aren't as smooth as Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, they still do their job really well. The animation itself is very fluid and I love the color this show uses. While most shooters today just seem to be full of brown and gray, this show uses all the colors to help paint a nice looking picture. Unfortunately some of the unimportant characters look too bland and the blood at times can look really lazy. However, when it comes to the gun fights, the show looks great.

Overall, the show looks great and while it wasn't the best animation I've seen for a show with guns, it did its job very well.

Like an action flick, you would expect some high intensity music from this series. And you would be exactly right. During the action scenes, they play rock music that definitely helps set the mood and gets the blood pumping. Nothing in this soundtrack is mind-blowing, but the music only helps to make the scenes that much better. However, I love the opening of the show. Its complete cringe-worthy Engrish, but that just makes me love it more.

There's one really strange thing about the soundtrack however and that's the ending theme. Its so somber and feels so out of place and just overall, plain depressing. I don't hate it, but I don't like it either. They should have just went with an ending that sounds action oriented like the opening does.

As for the show, DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND WATCH IT DUBBED. Yes they may curse just as much in the sub version, but to hear American voice actors do it just feels so much more natural. And if you're scared that you're going to hear the same voice actors that you hear in almost any Funimation dub, don't, because I seen quite a number of dubs and I don't recognize even half the voice actors in this show (other than Brad Swaile of course). Special shout out goes to Revy's voice actor Maryke Hendrikse who has one of the best performances I've ever heard by a english voice actor ever. In fact, it was so great that I can put it up there with other amazing female voice performances like Brina Palencia as Holo from Spice and Wolf.

I'm just going to make this clear now, if you don't enjoy action flicks with A LOT of swearing, guns, blood, and the occasional nudity (not Revy sadly) then you probably will not like this show. If you're looking for a great story with deep emotional characters you won't find this here either. If you're looking to turn your brain off and look for a fun time, then you're looking at the right show. I enjoyed the hell out of it as it gave me a chance to just relax and enjoy something fun without having to dissect far into its story.

Currently the complete series is licensed by Funimation and can be found on Amazon for the REALLY low price of around $30 and on rightstuf for around $32. I would highly recommend buying this show since its one of the cheapest anime available and just a great overall watch.

Edit: After watching Season 2, I'd have to say that the second season is better than the first in my opinion. The show gets more serious with some really great arcs, while developing the relationship between Revy and Rock. Dutch and Benny get kind of shafted which was kind of my only complaint, but not a major one as characters like Balalaika get much needed screen time.

(Thanks to Youtube users qcfrosty and DarthOliptius for their videos.)

colby.beatty - 2013-08-20 03:01:37

As always, my reviews are spoiler free.

MAL-era import review; please excuse my lack of experience.

I avoided this anime for the longest time, since I am generally not a fan of this kind of action series. After a year or so of procrastination, I finally got around to watching it. Here are my thoughts on the series as a whole (including Second Barrage and Roberta's Blood Trail OVAs, but not the odd Omake Spin off).

Story - 5/10

Make no mistake about it: Black Lagoon is an action series through and through. It's gunfights galore, with some explosions and hand-to-hand combat thrown in to spice things up. All this action comes at the expense of an intricate and well thought out plot. I can forgive the show for this, however, since story telling is not its goal. The story of Black Lagoon (and sequel/OVAs) has two good things going for it, though.

1. The story may be simple, but it is still coherent. There are no huge gaps that you are expected to just accept.

2. The story keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time, despite having no intellectual value whatsoever.

With this in mind, come for the action, not the plot.

Animation - 6/10

Black Lagoon does not have particularly great animation, but it doesn't really detract from the show. Colors are bland, character models are a bit simple while managing to be inconsistently drawn at points, and the gun models were often cringe-worthy. With that said, character movements are fluid throughout the action scenes (so most of the show), so I will give it a little extra credit there. Roberta's Blood Trail is slightly better done, in my opinion.

Okay, I won't say anything else about animation!

Sound - 7/10

I loved the opening, Engrish and all. The gunfire was good as well, and the backing soundtrack matched it well.

That Engrish.

Characters - 5/10

This is another area that had to be sacrificed to make room for action. Few characters other than Rock, Revy, and Balalaika get more than a minute or two of development. Another contributing factor may be the large cast of characters that make up the show, not allowing any particular one to get much time on screen. This results in characters being pretty one dimensional, with the exception of the three mentioned above. Rock's character develops a bit over the series, but it is nothing to write home about. Revy and Balalaika have their pasts explained, which helps the viewer to better understand their actions, but neither develop at all over the course of the series.

The only other notable characters are the Vampire Twins of Second Barrage. While I won't go into spoilers, they were some of the most interesting and tragic villains I've seen in a series of this nature.

Enjoyment - 7/10

While I don't normally enjoy plotless action series, Black Lagoon was an exception. I was kept on the edge of my seat the whole time, and watched episode after episode soaking up the shear fun and absurdity of it all. If I enjoyed it, it would be any true action fan's dream come true. If someone did not care as much for plot and characters as I do, this show could be much higher ranked for them.

Any fan of action series should not hesitate to watch this series.

Other Thoughts

While I nearly always prefer watching a show raw or subbed, I can assure you that the dub for this series is superb (after the first few episodes, while the characters get into their roles).

While the show has a lot of violence, it is seldom very graphic (there are a few exceptions). However, the profanity in the English dub is harsh and frequent.

Omake has absolutely nothing to do with the series, and you can skip it without missing anything.

mittie44 - 2013-07-27 04:58:52

An action series with serious story, Black Lagoon delivers gorgeous animation alongside an interesting and thoughtful story. The characters all are unique and have their own ways of life that results from rich backstory. Excellent visuals and incredible sound. The atmosphere and storytelling style is executed in a way that draws you into it's world, yearning for more each time. Excellent, and quite honestly, almost perfect.

akonopelski - 2013-07-07 09:22:03

Black Lagoon is an action series, people have guns, people use guns, people die, pretty standard sounding, but everything about it works and creates a truly brilliant experience thanks to it's memorable cast of characters.The setting focuses on Southeast Asia where the Lagoon Company who are a team of mercenaries that specialise in smuggling goods. A lot of the time is spent in a fictional town in Tailand which is very run down and gangster run, it actually give a bit of a break from the almost perfect cities a lot of series are based in.The actual story is divided into small arcs made up of two or three episodes, they start with the introduction arc where we get to find out about the characters then goes onto various others where we get to see characters from all over the world including Russia, Germany, Columbia and Japan.The art is very basic and not too much detail is drawn and some of the characters got slightly disformed in certain scenes but it never ditracts from the show, saying that the backgrounds were really nice, the animation is top notch and every scene is animated nicely, it even shows the slightest amounto of movement when a cigerette is burning and the motion of boats.The sound for this show is sensational it really fits the setting, the opening is a great techno song with rather vulgar/agressive lyrics which adds to the flavor of the Anime, the ending is a slow sad feeling song, now it may seem weird after the opoening song comments but this also gives a great meaning to the show, although the opening shows whats on the outside and in the present of the show, the ending gives a feeling of what the main characters pasts were like and maybe gives the true feel.Black Lagoon along with shows like Cowboy Bebop and baccano give us one of the best English dubs out there, every actor gives a great performance and we are treated to a variety of accents including those mentioned earlier we also have Chinese and Irish and they make the show even more fun to watch.The characters of the show are what drives this show, they make everything fun as there is not one bad character, Revy is a foul mouthed girl-with-guns trigger happy type with a harsh past and Rock is a white collar type and doesn't like to get mixed up with the action but has a good mind and fights with words, these two really bounce off each other and make up for what the other lacks. One thing i noticed is most of the action comes from females, it seems that if you are female you are most likely more badass than all the guys. Dutch, Benny and Balalaika are fun and each have their own style as well as all the antagonists and minor charactersBlack Lagoon is one of those shows that you can easily sit back and just enjoy, your not going to get any heavy drama here, your also not going to get a huge complex plot thats hard to keep up with, the cast of characters, the setting and the incredible voice acting make it one of the most enjoyable action shows.