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Everyone has their guilty anime pleasures, and the completely amoral and exceptionally violent Black Lagoon has quickly become one of mine. The first half of the series ended in a suitably explosive fashion, and the start of the second half doesn't see any drop in pace. There's a killer on the loose in the lawless
port city of Roanapur. Ok, the place is overrun with killers, criminals
and psychopaths normally, but this is different. This time the killer is
targeting operatives of Hotel Moscow, the Russian mafia group led by the
ruthless Balalaika. The killings threaten to destabilise the fragile
balance of power in the city, which sees Hotel Moscow operate alongside the
Triads, Italian Mafia and South American drug barons. Needless to say,
Balalaika is on the warpath, and she is not someone you want to be on the
wrong side of. The city is on edge, and a hefty bounty is put on the
killer's head, leading Revy to team up with Sister Eda from the Rip-Off Church
for a spot of bounty hunting. However, Balalaika isn't about to let anyone
else get in on her revenge, and Revy could be on course for a showdown she can't
win. Meanwhile an American mafia group is having trouble with a Jane, a
counterfeiter who's perfectionism has led to her failing to meet her delivery
date. After her employers kill her assistant as a warning, Jane decides to
make a break for it and goes to the church for assistance. Luckily the
church she goes to is the Rip-Off Church, and they don't take too kindly to
people shooting at them! The church gives her a safe haven but her former
employers aren't going to give up easily, and hire a motley collection of
assassins to capture her. With the likes of knife-wielding Triad operative
Shenhua and exceptionally creepy Sawyer the Cleaner on her tail, does Jane stand
any chance of getting away? |
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Despite the series' skewed morality and frequent violence, it must be said that the episodes on this volume step things up a notch in the disturbing stakes. Murderous children, torture and child abuse are prominent themes, made no less unsettling by the fact that most of it takes place off screen. The murderer terrorising Roanapur is swiftly revealed to be a duo of creepy Romanian kids nicknamed Hansel & Gretel, orphaned children warped by years of sexual and physical abuse into mentally disturbed psychopaths. Their gender-bending, |
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gothic creepiness really sets them apart from the other enemies that Revy & co have had to face, and it's a demonstration of how good the series is that you kind of sympathise with them despite the horrific acts they commit. It's also interesting that Black Lagoon has established a strong enough supporting cast to largely shift the focus away from the Lagoon Company and on to Balalaika without any drop in quality.
In fact it gets even better, with Balalaika once again demonstrating
just how terrifying a character she really is. Single minded,
ruthless, scheming and colder than Siberian permafrost, Balalaika has
got to be the scariest woman in anime, something that's confirmed in her
eventual revenge. That you want her to succeed is even more scary.
The thing you find after watching Black Lagoon for any period of
time is that its moral compass is so skewed that it affects your own.
Almost every character in it is a murderous, completely amoral criminal,
but for some reason you end up wanting them to succeed. Where the
series has always impressed me is the way it makes you realise this,
shaking you up with a shock just when you start sympathising with a
character, but showing you their good sides too. Balalaika may be
ruthless, but she is incredibly loyal to her men; Revy may be a
gun-toting psycho, but she is a reliable ally and really looks out for
Rock. It's this dichotomy within most of the major characters that
keeps the series interesting, plus it never stints on the action, and
this volume is no exception. There's more gunplay than Robocop,
with Revy and Eda unleashing hell whilst Gretel is no slouch with a
massive machine gun, and seeing Triad boss Chang in action once again is
worth the wait too. However, it's Balalaika's militaristic
approach to her group's operations that really impress, and demonstrates
why her group's so strong. |
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The three episodes that cover the Hansel & Gretel story arc are superb from both an action and drama point of view, really drawing you in to a tense plot. However, the final episode on the disc does what anyone who's got the previous volumes will be familiar with, and that's leave the volume on a cliffhanger just when everything's about to kick off! The last episode is very much a fish-out-of-water story, with Jane - a foreigner in Roanapur for the first time - running away from a mafia group also in Roanapur for the first time. This means that |
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Jane is ripe for manipulation by the aptly-named Rip-Off Church, and the mafia have bitten off a lot more than they can chew when they decide to shoot at Sister Eda and Revy! Their initial attacks failing, they turn to a host of local talent including Revy's deadly one-time ally Shen-Hua. However, it's Sawyer the Cleaner that steals the show, a sinister, unblinking nutter who speaks with the aid of a vocaliser and, as a flashback shows, is right at home dismembering people with a chainsaw. But we don't get to see any of them in action as the volume ends! Noo! Despite the somewhat frustrating ending to the volume, Black Lagoon 2nd Barrage vol 1 is another excellent instalment in a hugely entertaining series. It continues to be refreshingly adult, gloriously amoral and unashamedly foul-mouthed, with more action and over-the-top gunplay than you can shake a stick at. The first three episodes on the disc adds a level of horror to the action, with a more serious subtext than some of the previous episodes had. This gives it an extra edge and depth that you may not expect, whilst the final episode on the disc - despite the disturbing Sawyer - is actually quite funny in a gangster-flick way. On paper it doesn't sound like it, but it's got a great vein of black humour running through it that provides the perfect light relief following the Hansel & Gretel story. Once again Black Lagoon pushes its own boundaries and remains probably the most entertaining and action-packed series I've seen this year, superb! Extras: Even less than before, a couple of trailers and a clean version of the Twins closing sequence. Ratings Feature:
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