BLACK LAGOON: THE SECOND BARRAGE (VOLUME 3)
February 3rd 2009 01:57
Category: Videos
Based on the original manga by Rei Hiroe
Director: Sunao Katabuchi
Screenplay by: Sunao Katabuchi
Producers: Jun Nishimura, Mitsutoshi Ogura & Junya Okamoto
Starring: Brad Swaile (Rock), Maryke Hendrikse (Revy), Dean Redman (Dutch), Brian Drummond (Benny), Patricia Drake (Balalaika), Lalainia Lindbjerg (Yukio), Michael Adamthwaite (Ginji) & Mark Acheson (Boris)
Produced by: Shogakukan/Black Lagoon Project
English Version produced by: Geneon Entertainment in association with Ocean Productions Inc
Released by: Madman Entertainment
Running Time: 100 minutes Rating: MA 15
First let me say there is no creature or actual ‘monster’ involved with this particular body of water, instead the focus is on a whole different kettle of fish. My first encounter with the Black Lagoon was via the medium of the Madman Entertainment website when the series got its first DVD release here in Australia and naturally they were quite keen to make something of it with promos on their site. At the time though I didn’t pay it any heed being more focused on Hell Girl and Death Note at the time. So time flowed on by and I focused on other anime features and manga before eventually one day picking up this particular volume from my local library. Fate, circumstance, the will of the Force, call it what you will, it seems that the Black Lagoon was seeking me out, seeking to be cast beneath the eternal emerald gaze of the Green Lantern.
This would have to be one of the most, if not the most, violent anime I have ever seen. I thought Hellsing Ultimate was at the top of the pops for the violence stakes but Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage certainly gives it a run for its money. Now as far as the name of the series goes, the Black Lagoon is a ship used by the members of the Lagoon Company, a mercenary outfit based in the fictional city of Roanapur located somewhere in Thailand. Being mercenaries for hire naturally the Lagoon Company gets involved in various enterprises of a somewhat questionable nature for various shady employers. Roanapur is a city that makes Obi Wan Kenobi’s statement “…you’ll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy” sound like the civic motto.
Naturally anything that has a mercenary company in it is going to involve some serious in your face action and Black Lagoon certainly doesn’t hold back on that. As I said it gives Hellsing Ultimate a run for its money in the violence stakes although unlike it or a great many other action anime there isn’t the same degree of scenery destruction and carnage found in Black Lagoon, its violence is on a personal scale. But when your storyline involves mercenaries, yakuza, street thugs and ex Soviet special forces now turned Russian mafiaoski you certainly cannot expect a dissertation on the virtues of Zen Buddhism and inner harmony now, can you? Although I would not be surprised if someone took that angle in making a show, but that is not the focus of Black Lagoon.
Strangely in this volume of the second season, hence the phrase “The Second Barrage” in the title, the city where violence meets booze, Roanapur, takes a back seat to events. Instead the primary focus of action is Japan, the Land of the Rising Sun and its capital Tokyo. Although with the first opening moments of the DVD it is not Tokyo we see but the Soviet Union back in its heyday of geopolitical influence in the 1970s. Here we see a young Balalaika, a young eager Soviet girl contemplating a future competing in the Olympics and restoring some honour to her family name. It seems though such is not to be the case and the next time we see Balalaika it as an officer commanding soldiers in some war zone, possibly Afghanistan, under heavy fire. Rather than letting herself and her man remain in such a dire situation she commands one of her men to give the sniper rifle and takes out several enemy combatants allowing for a sudden charge on the enemy by her unit.
These are part of a series of flashbacks that Balalaika has whilst in a car travelling to a hotel in Tokyo where she and her loyal soldiers are planning a campaign against the Washimine yakuza family. It seems that Hotel Moscow, the Russian mafiya outfit based in Roanapur is intent on making serious inroads into the Japanese underworld and they have ordered Balalaika and her comrades to make war on the yakuza, the Washimine in particular. A skilled, ruthless combatant and commander Balalaika is admirably suited for this job, the only problem with her operations is that when tact and diplomacy is required she has no one in her forces who knows the language or the societal norms of Japan, enter Rock, the former salaryman now member of the Lagoon Company.
Rock with Revy as his backup and bodyguard has been brought along to serve Balalaika’s interests whenever negotiation and diplomacy are required in her campaign. Naturally though Rock isn’t content to remain simply an observer, he has a stake in this particular show, involving the new head of the Washimine family, Yukio. General Douglas Macarthur is often quoted as having uttered the famous lines “War is Hell” no doubt focusing the cost in human life and carnage caused by the conflict waged by opposing forces. What he never bother mentioning is how tragic, how heart rending the damage caused by war can be and frankly how much of a stain it is upon human nature, a seemingly flaw that is never truly rendered inert despite all our best intentions. Even though the war in this volume is not that of nations its tragedy is no less for its limited scope, what the real tragedy is that when the dust finally settles Rock is completely unaware of what it is that he has lost, a side player in the conflict he has unfortunately through his ‘good intentions’ brought about the very thing he was trying to prevent.
As someone else once said “…the road to Hell is paved with good intentions” but Rock has little realisation that this is exactly the case. That rather than remaining objective, standing in the twilight, he has in fact began the long slippery slide downwards. A complete contrast to Revy his partner on this escapade, she knows how it all stands and can read the situation far better than he. Black Lagoon Project have not only produced a taut tight action anime they have created what could be considered as a Shakespearean tragedy/drama in the scope of its intrigue and drama, the darkness of the human soul laid bare for all to see and like life there is no happy ending. I have to admit that despite this being such a finely produced work it was a bit depressing, possibly not everyone’s cup of tea or sake unless you’re someone who enjoys existentialist philosophy, mega violence and high drama/tragedy such as the Bard would have weaved in days of yore.
Director: Sunao Katabuchi
Screenplay by: Sunao Katabuchi
Producers: Jun Nishimura, Mitsutoshi Ogura & Junya Okamoto
Starring: Brad Swaile (Rock), Maryke Hendrikse (Revy), Dean Redman (Dutch), Brian Drummond (Benny), Patricia Drake (Balalaika), Lalainia Lindbjerg (Yukio), Michael Adamthwaite (Ginji) & Mark Acheson (Boris)
Produced by: Shogakukan/Black Lagoon Project
English Version produced by: Geneon Entertainment in association with Ocean Productions Inc
Released by: Madman Entertainment
Running Time: 100 minutes Rating: MA 15
First let me say there is no creature or actual ‘monster’ involved with this particular body of water, instead the focus is on a whole different kettle of fish. My first encounter with the Black Lagoon was via the medium of the Madman Entertainment website when the series got its first DVD release here in Australia and naturally they were quite keen to make something of it with promos on their site. At the time though I didn’t pay it any heed being more focused on Hell Girl and Death Note at the time. So time flowed on by and I focused on other anime features and manga before eventually one day picking up this particular volume from my local library. Fate, circumstance, the will of the Force, call it what you will, it seems that the Black Lagoon was seeking me out, seeking to be cast beneath the eternal emerald gaze of the Green Lantern.
This would have to be one of the most, if not the most, violent anime I have ever seen. I thought Hellsing Ultimate was at the top of the pops for the violence stakes but Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage certainly gives it a run for its money. Now as far as the name of the series goes, the Black Lagoon is a ship used by the members of the Lagoon Company, a mercenary outfit based in the fictional city of Roanapur located somewhere in Thailand. Being mercenaries for hire naturally the Lagoon Company gets involved in various enterprises of a somewhat questionable nature for various shady employers. Roanapur is a city that makes Obi Wan Kenobi’s statement “…you’ll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy” sound like the civic motto.
Strangely in this volume of the second season, hence the phrase “The Second Barrage” in the title, the city where violence meets booze, Roanapur, takes a back seat to events. Instead the primary focus of action is Japan, the Land of the Rising Sun and its capital Tokyo. Although with the first opening moments of the DVD it is not Tokyo we see but the Soviet Union back in its heyday of geopolitical influence in the 1970s. Here we see a young Balalaika, a young eager Soviet girl contemplating a future competing in the Olympics and restoring some honour to her family name. It seems though such is not to be the case and the next time we see Balalaika it as an officer commanding soldiers in some war zone, possibly Afghanistan, under heavy fire. Rather than letting herself and her man remain in such a dire situation she commands one of her men to give the sniper rifle and takes out several enemy combatants allowing for a sudden charge on the enemy by her unit.
These are part of a series of flashbacks that Balalaika has whilst in a car travelling to a hotel in Tokyo where she and her loyal soldiers are planning a campaign against the Washimine yakuza family. It seems that Hotel Moscow, the Russian mafiya outfit based in Roanapur is intent on making serious inroads into the Japanese underworld and they have ordered Balalaika and her comrades to make war on the yakuza, the Washimine in particular. A skilled, ruthless combatant and commander Balalaika is admirably suited for this job, the only problem with her operations is that when tact and diplomacy is required she has no one in her forces who knows the language or the societal norms of Japan, enter Rock, the former salaryman now member of the Lagoon Company.
Rock with Revy as his backup and bodyguard has been brought along to serve Balalaika’s interests whenever negotiation and diplomacy are required in her campaign. Naturally though Rock isn’t content to remain simply an observer, he has a stake in this particular show, involving the new head of the Washimine family, Yukio. General Douglas Macarthur is often quoted as having uttered the famous lines “War is Hell” no doubt focusing the cost in human life and carnage caused by the conflict waged by opposing forces. What he never bother mentioning is how tragic, how heart rending the damage caused by war can be and frankly how much of a stain it is upon human nature, a seemingly flaw that is never truly rendered inert despite all our best intentions. Even though the war in this volume is not that of nations its tragedy is no less for its limited scope, what the real tragedy is that when the dust finally settles Rock is completely unaware of what it is that he has lost, a side player in the conflict he has unfortunately through his ‘good intentions’ brought about the very thing he was trying to prevent.
As someone else once said “…the road to Hell is paved with good intentions” but Rock has little realisation that this is exactly the case. That rather than remaining objective, standing in the twilight, he has in fact began the long slippery slide downwards. A complete contrast to Revy his partner on this escapade, she knows how it all stands and can read the situation far better than he. Black Lagoon Project have not only produced a taut tight action anime they have created what could be considered as a Shakespearean tragedy/drama in the scope of its intrigue and drama, the darkness of the human soul laid bare for all to see and like life there is no happy ending. I have to admit that despite this being such a finely produced work it was a bit depressing, possibly not everyone’s cup of tea or sake unless you’re someone who enjoys existentialist philosophy, mega violence and high drama/tragedy such as the Bard would have weaved in days of yore.
| 40 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
