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Title:
  Black Lagoon & The Second Barrage Box Set

UK Distributor:  Kazé

BBFC Certificate:  18

Suggested Retail Price (SRP):  Ł39.99

Episodes:  1-26 (of 26)

Audio Options:  English, Japanese, French, Italian, Dutch

Subtitles:  English, French, Italian, Dutch

Release Date:  7th July 2012

Reviewer:  Rich (Webmaster)
 

It doesn't seem all that long ago that MVM released Black Lagoon and Black Lagoon 2nd Barrage in the UK.  In fact it's been just two and a half years since MVM's DVD box set of both series hit the shelves, and now Kazé and Manga are releasing both series again - but this time on both DVD and Blu-Ray.  The two series are being released in separate Blu-Ray sets and are delayed till the end of the month, but on DVD we're getting both series now in a single set.

Black Lagoon follows an ordinary Japanese office worker who ends up at the mercy of modern day pirates while on assignment in the South China Sea.  The man, Rokuro Okajima, was tasked with delivering a disc to one of his company's offices, but the disc contains details of his employers' shady dealings and the Lagoon Company - a trio of smugglers for hire consisting of the enigmatic Dutch, trigger-trigger happy Revy and computer expert Benny - have been hired by the mafia to steal it.  Revy decides to kidnap Rokuro as well in the hope of some ransom money, but on learning that the disc has been stolen his managers leave him for dead and hire mercenaries to retrieve it.  With his old life gone Rokuro, nicknamed Rock by his captors, isn't about to roll over and die for his employers and instead helps the Lagoon Company escape, impressing Dutch enough to offer him a job.  Now the latest member of Lagoon Company Rock has to try and settle into his new life as an outlaw in the dangerous city of Roanapur, a city only stopped from descending into utter chaos by an uneasy truce between the Russian, Chinese, Colombian and Italian mafias.  The Lagoon Company are the go to team for smuggling, gunrunning and hijacking, and to everyone's surprise Rock's corporate skill set proves to be quite an asset to his new employers.  However, he is still a toothless fish in a sea of sharks, out of his depth and standing on a tightrope between his new life and the one he left behind.  He has yet to fully embrace the darkness but can he survive long enough to decide whether he wants to? 
 

 I really enjoyed Black Lagoon when MVM released it, and its appeal has not dulled over the last couple of years.  The majority of anime released in the UK falls under the 'shonen' umbrella, which generally means that they are aimed at a young teenaged male audience.  Black Lagoon is different.  The target audience for this series are men in their 20s and 30s, people who - like Rock - are office workers looking for escapism.  I fall into that category and it's quite refreshing to see a series which is aimed at my age group, it's gloriously over

the top, pretty un-pc, overly violent and often quite far-fetched, but it's also great fun.  It's fun in the same way that gangster films and 80's action films are fun, it's not big or clever but it's exciting, and features plenty of colourful characters and awesome action set pieces.

But explosions, gun battles and shady dealings are not all Black Lagoon has in its armoury.  Each story arc in the series has some interesting points to make about morality, rehabilitation and the directions life can take, and the story is not afraid to pause to ponder about the consequences of the characters actions or their flaws.  The characters have all been abandoned by society, some in more obvious ways than others.  Rock is left to die for the sake of his company, Russian mafia boss Balalaika's military career was left in tatters by the fall of the Soviet Union, Revy was a Chinese American street urchin who killed and stole her way out of the gutter and Benny was an ace hacker who was rescued by Dutch from the clutches of the FBI.  They all have stories to tell, and these stories are only really touched on in these two series, in fact most of the focus is given to the enemies.  Over the course of the series Dutch, Revy, Benny and Rock have to cope with Neo-Nazis, terrorists, rival smugglers, hired assassins, psychopathic children and a killer maid, not to mention the many mafia groups who they are often caught between.  The stories sometimes have an undercurrent of dark humour, largely from the memorable cast which ranges from drug-addled Irish getaway driver Leigarch to creepy chainsaw-wielding 'cleaner' Sawyer, but also retains the power to disturb as well as entertain.  This is most apparent in the story of Hansel & Gretel, two young Romanian orphans who have become unhinged killers after years of abuse and violence robbed them of both their childhood and their sanity.  Their story, which sees them brought to Roanapur to combat Balalaika's mafia organisation Hotel Moscow, is frequently unsettling and doesn't pull its punches, something which can be said of the series as a whole.  It never shies away from showing how dangerous or ruthless the characters are, which makes Rock's general normalness seem all the more unusual.
 

This is often the problem.  The series is really obviously wish fulfilment fantasy for single office drones.  Rock is an ordinary salaryman in a big Japanese corporation, generally getting crapped on by his bosses until an exotic and mysterious woman drags him away to a life full of danger and adventure.  Suddenly he is surrounded by beautiful, dangerous woman and rogues and he quickly earns their respect and trust, his everyman charms winning over even the jaded heart of the psychopathic Revy.  He not only survives in the bullet-ridden

hellhole that is Roanapur, he thrives but not a lot is really said about his personal morality or ability to cope with the death and destruction he's exposed to in his new life.  It's one of the creepiest aspects of the story that Rock goes from being squeamish about looting a WW2-era submarine to dispassionately watching a someone being dismembered with a chainsaw from his bedroom window.  It's a shame that more focus isn't directed on his moral decline, as when he is questioned by the other characters - from career terrorist Takenaka to yakuza schoolgirl Yukio - the series really gets interesting.   

Black Lagoon is something of a unique series as far as UK anime goes.  It's an adult story with a modern-day setting that eschews the usual blend of fantasy, sex and horror most adult anime relies on.  Its moral compass is decidedly skewed, with most of the 'heroes' being career criminals, ruthless mafia bosses or hired killers, but it couples some of the best gunplay and action anime has to offer with some solid drama and strong storylines.  Some of its subject matter can be disturbing, but it never goes down the route of titillation and balances the shocks with dark humour and plenty of excitement.  The animation is great and the characters designs strong, whilst the English dub is excellent, although I do wonder why they didn't make more use of accents considering the nationalities of the characters.  For example some of the Balalaika's men have Russian accents, but not all of them, and Balalaika herself doesn't.  This seems a bit odd, and there are also some occasions where there aren't any subtitles for characters speaking in other languages, for example the yakuza in the final story arc.  It's a shame as little things like this, and the surprising lack of extras, takes the shine off what is otherwise an excellent series which is unlike anything else currently available here.  I'd still highly recommend it, but it will be interesting to see what is on the Blu-Ray versions.

Extras

None, which is extremely disappointing considering MVM's earlier release included clean open/end sequences, trailers, TV spots, a making of featurette and even the Japanese music video for the opening theme.  It looks like the extras were the price paid for all those language options.

Ratings

Feature:   Extras: N/A
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