Black Lagoon

Black Lagoon was one of the first few anime I had heard about when first getting into the medium as it was (and still is) considered a classic series. One of the aspects that stood out to me before watching it was it's dub after seeing many clips. The profanity was a massive draw as most anime don't dub in a crazy amount of swearing. After reading the synopsis, seeing the massive amount of praise and it's status as a legendary action anime I went in with high expectations. And after finishing the first season of this series, can I say that it lives up to those lofty heights? Unfortunately, no, but that doesn't mean that I can't recommend this series still in 2020.

Black Lagoon's draw comes from its promise of balls to the wall action with a light tone and plenty of swearing. And for the most part, it delivers. Whenever there is action it's fantastic. The gun fights are kinetic with a great sense of style and ferocity in its animation. There's even some great boat chases early on in the series that were a great time. The biggest problem however is the rate at which this show decides to have cool action scenes. For a show like this to work well, at least one per episode would be enough to keep the viewer constantly entertained but for a fair few episodes this season it does not hit that quota, even when there are many opportunities for it to. Now I don't want to sound whiny because it was obviously to conserve budget and because they couldn't adapt every exciting part of the manga into every episode but the amount of uninteresting dialogue kills the momentum of many episodes, especially early on. Honestly, this show is fairly average but with the added bonus of the great action scenes it is elevated. Of course, judging a show purely on its action is absurd especially when the main sources of entertainment for me come from the characters, namely Rock and Revy.

Rock is a great lead and acts as the perfect straight man for the group but Revy really steals the show for me (and many others). She’s crass, crazy and a total bitch and I love every second she’s on screen. She’s the perfect nutcase character because of how much life she brings to an otherwise standard show. She works well even in serious moments, which is another compliment I have to give this show. It’s ability to go from batshit insanity one second to a more melancholic, contemplative tone works very well in its favor when dealing with its more interesting characters. Not every show can pull that off well and Black Lagoon stands as one of the more successful ones. The best example of this in Black Lagoon isn’t even in this season, actually the first three episodes of The Second Barrage which is so far my favorite part of this show (along with Roberta’s arc in Season 1).

So, this review, like Revy, has been pretty bipolar so far so I want to finish by saying that this is a good show that I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone that’s interested but still did disappoint me by inconsistent nature to keep me entertained. Most arcs this season are honestly pretty average, only Roberta’s arc being a notable standout as it’s easily the highlight of this season. Thankfully, despite how middling some of the early stuff is, the cast more than makes up for any major misgivings. Revy is a lovable nutcase and Rock provides some great leverage to the insanity that happens on-screen. The show is also beautiful to look at as well, holding up stylistically better than some anime that came out even this year. A lot of passion went into this anime and you can definitely tell in how well it’s crafted from scene to scene. Wow, this review really is bipolar. I hope this review helps articulate my thoughts on this show because the problems I have with it don’t seem large but definitely affected my overall enjoyment so I’m interested if anyone else had a similar experience. If so, feel free to message me. If you love this show and aren’t happy with this review, contact me as well and maybe you can change my mind on some of my issues. Overall, this is a good show that I recommend but it’s legendary status might be a little outdated now. I wouldn’t call this show a must-watch but it is a good time if you know what you’re in for. Watch it dubbed as well, the voice acting is great and the profanity adds a lot to the pulpy, ultra-violent action that this show is known for.