Black Lagoon

Studio(s): Madhouse
Related: Black Lagoon: Roberta’s Blood Trail

You know, I really feel like I wrote about the Black Lagoon (BL) TV series… somewhere, but it’s not on my MAL. I’ve been condensing some of my anime reviews into single pages, and I didn’t like the shitty Blu-ray bonuses having their own entry. What could I do, combine it with Roberta’s Blood Trail? They weren’t from that release! It’d be like lying.

So instead, here’s just a ‘lil thing to justify a Black Lagoon landing page. I’ve yet to read the manga this show is adapting, and I probably will at some point, considering it’s unlikely to ever be adapted in full, partially due to its glacial publication pace. I watched the whole franchise back in October 2017, so coincidentally, we’re almost right on the eight-year anniversary!

It’s been a while, so my memory won’t be the sharpest, but my real point was that I got to this classic anime rather late. I started it as something of an obligation; deference towards its status, you know? I wasn’t expecting to especially like it, as I’m rarely the type to go for fiction that’s squarely in the action genre. Plus, I have a genuine, major distaste for the look of early digital anime, and Black Lagoon is very much that.

But fans of BL can rejoice: I think it’s quite a good series. It’s not a favorite of mine or anything, but I think it stands out as perhaps the best example in syndicated anime as to how to construct a dedicated action show. Your average shonen series is mostly action, but they still spend a considerable amount of time on drama, comedy, and/or adventure, so I don’t really consider them to be in the same category. If it helps, it’s like the difference between Indiana Jones and The Terminator. The former is more of a mix of genres than the latter, which is laser-focused on intense action sequences.

And so is Black Lagoon. What really stood out to me about the show—what really makes it a cut above its peers—is how well-storyboarded every scene is. It’s the kind of thing not many people consciously recognize, but it’s often what makes or breaks action media. There’s many reasons why you can have the typical car chases and shootouts be worlds apart from each other in quality.

Black Lagoon has incredibly dynamic action with frequent cuts, transitions that are logical and easy to follow yet kinetic, and the plotting with where characters and objects are positioned provides an implied visual narrative to the progression of any sequence. Without exposition, you know where people are, what they need to do in their environment, and what obstacles will hinder them.

It might sound obvious, but I can’t overstate how many anime series don’t clear this fundamental line. It’s far harder and more expensive to draw visuals that convey this information than it is to animate a still image of someone’s mouth moving. Black Lagoon is directed with all the craftsmanship you would see in a Hollywood production, and that’s incredibly rare in TV anime.

While I still don’t think the digital coloring does the show any favors with its typical flat, texture-less “fill,” the show does have other good qualities. The dub was produced by Geneon USA, who knocked it out of the park. I’m making the bold assumption that a lot of the dialogue was adlibbed, as it contains no shortage of American parlance and idioms, and while I prefer accuracy in most cases, I can’t deny that the script was likely improved by Geneon.

In Geneon’s dub, characters speak in a contemporary English tongue and use language appropriate for their setting and background. In particular, there’s superfluous (and often creative) cursing, which could be read as attempting to look more mature and appeal to teenagers or what-have-you, but I think it’s generally more organic for a show about no-bullshit, enterprising, underground criminals.

Like, they’re literally bad people, and bad people say bad things. The only non-hypocritical stance one could take on them not using harsh language would probably have to extend to all media portraying what’s considered to be poor behavior in real-life as “cool” or desirable. And I just don’t stand by that position.

I think every adult can decide for themselves what media they want to engage with for any reason, but in exchange, certain topics shouldn’t be off-limits as a rule. Yes, there are slurs in Black Lagoon‘s dub—because trashy people use slurs. It makes the cast and their world feel more true-to-life and empathetic as a result. Empathy doesn’t exclusively come from positive associations. I can enjoy Black Lagoon and still believe you shouldn’t ever call people slurs. Pretty easy position for me to hold, personally.

If everyone was just shouting “fuck” constantly, that would be one thing, but the alchemized insults and trash talk liven up what probably would have otherwise been standard, repetitive, flavorless expletives. If any future dubs are too afraid of backlash to use as harsh of language, I’ll be disappointed, but it’s probably a given.

I also find the show’s use of fanservice to be humorously tasteful relative to a lot of anime. The characters are all adults, which is nice. But also, despite every woman being stacked to the nines, it’s not that misogynistic—at least by my reckoning. I’m not saying Black Lagoon is some gold standard of progressivism, but it’s nice to see something sexually-charged in a classically exploitative fashion without removing the agency of its female characters. It’s voyeuristic, but the fanservice rarely comes at the expense of depowering its cast.

Most gratuitous things, like bikini spreads or something, are kept to extraneous promotional material and not put in the show directly. There’s no “beach episode” where Rock faceplants into Revy’s tits, for instance. Black Lagoon feels more honest in it seemingly just liking hot chicks, and I don’t think there’s anything necessarily wrong with that. Again, I’m not saying the show is perfect or even feminist; I’ve just seen anime that I think are far more condescending to women than Black Lagoon—even anime with less titillating character designs. I think many Gundam series are more sexist than Black Lagoon, to be quite honest.

Oh, and I can vaguely recall enjoying the second season, The Second Barrage, slightly less, but I can’t remember my reasoning. I know part of it was my disappointment with some characters being sidelined—Dutch in particular, who was one of my favorites from the first season. The character development for Revy was great, at least. I think there might have been diminishing returns on the initial premise, and the dialogue might have suffered somewhat from more limited character dynamics (due to the increased focus on Rock and Revy).

The OVA, Roberta’s Blood Trail, has some good moments in it, but it’s so obviously compromised by having to adapt so much material in such a short amount of time. I hope any future adaptations (if any) get all of the funding they need to avoid that.

Give this series a watch if you want competent bullshit.

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Black Lagoon Extras

AKA: Black Lagoon Omake / ブラック・ラグーン オマケ
Format: Special (7 3-minute episodes)
Studio(s): Madhouse
Originally Published: October 26, 2017 (12:00 AM)

These Blu-Ray bonus features will test how quickly they can get you to hate the Black Lagoon series in only three minutes. They nearly got me.

Black Lagoon is a pretty cool series that I would recommend to any fans of the action genre. These Blu-ray bonus features are not. These are stupid. Really stupid. Goes the predictable route of casting characters in opposites roles of their positions and demeanor of the original series, and much of it is supposed to be funny just because you’re seeing all your favorite characters acting like total opposites. Hilarious!

Comedy is funny when it subverts the confines of its setup. When you simply turn the setup on its head and expect that to be funny in and of itself, it doesn’t work because you’ve created an entirely different entity from the original material. And with that separation of expectations, the punchline fails. if that’s too theoretical to accept, then heed this: this just isn’t funny. Props for adapting material from the manga, I suppose, instead of the studio creating their own original terrible jokes.