Black Lagoon 14

Hansel and Gretel switch Big Bro and Big Sis costumes and roles. OMGWTFLOLITRAP!? The first body count for the episode are some stray dogs (someone call the SPCA! LOL). I'm not familiar with the manga so I am glad that this series is being animated. There has been criticism that the girls are not drawn as beautifully as in the manga (but surely not as bad as in the Suzuka anime?) and that criticism probably valid.

Yet I do enjoy the anime very much due to the atmosphere it conveys through imagery and metaphor backed by great music. In the first season, I had expected merely a brainless babes and guns anime but it dwells, without pompousness or pretentiousness, on some serious themes - the grimness of a dog eat dog world, the fetid corruption of the human soul, how easy and casual violence becomes in the state of nature. The mix of children's snacks and ammunition is both incongruously grotesque yet chillingly appropriate given the vampire twins' modus operandi.

Black Lagoon 13

It's a dark and rainy night in Roanapor and gangsters are getting butchered by the Aizen twins. Yes, I know it's the first episode of Black Lagoon Second Barrage but the title gives the episode number as 13 and it's even got the same OP/ED so 13 it is. My listening comprehension was only about 30% so looking forward to the fansub. Fragmented summary blah blah and Balalaika-centric screenshots ahoy!

Black Lagoon 12

Revy and Shen Hoa rescue Rock from the jungle camp but he's been seriously unsettled by his conversation with Takenaka. After plenty of pushing and shoving, the two ladies deal with most of their pursuers and make it in time for the delivery to the CIA in the American base. 64 large screencaps and scene comments follow:

Black Lagoon 11

The Lagoon company get a job from Zhang (?) to deliver a briefcase to an island but are chased all the way from their office by a small army. Revy and Rock reach the island but Rock (and the briefcase) are captured. Revy meets up with the getaway crew, which includes the fifth hot killer gal in the Black Lagoon universe - terrible accent though. We are shown that the briefcase's contents are missing and the militia's Japanese consultant terrorist, Takenaka, starts to interrogate Rock. 114 screencaps follow:

Black Lagoon 10

Revy awakens and takes on Roberta in the container yard - resulting in a Mexican standoff until Balalaika intervenes. Hotel Moscow has also defeated the Manisera cartel. Much sentimental blah blah between Garcia and Roberta. To placate Revy, Balalaika oversees a fistfight between pirate girl and meido. It results in another draw but both are finally flat on their backs. The episode ends with Rock becoming seriously worried by Balalaika and Hotel Moscow. Eighty screencaps (as usual, mostly Revy and/or Balalaika) and scene comments follow.

Black Lagoon 9

Meido Roberta breaks out the heavy artillery against the Colombians and the Lagoon crew take over. Garcia's happy memories of Roberta are shattered by her skilled exercise of bloody violence. It's not long before Revy goes head to head with Roberta, with the former getting knocked out cold as a result. The Lagoon crew flee into town, towards their boat with Roberta in hot pursuit. Meanwhile Balalaika mobilizes her troops to go to the aid of Dutch. Cliffhanger ending with Roberta clinging to the back of the company car and we see her eyes for the first time. 50+ screencaps ahead and not a single one of them of the meido! LOL.

Black Lagoon 8

Lots of dialogue and little action as this episode sets up the pyrotechnics of maid vs Lagoon company in the next episode. Quite a few nice scenes so I was quite happy. Rock in charge of the handing/taking over of a shipment of guns to a Panama-flagged freighter. They get a new passenger, Garcia Lovelace, whom the crew is supposed to deliver to (??) the Colombian mafia After talking to the boy, Rock smells a fish and persuades Dutch to find out more. Big Bossman turns to Balalaika - my listening comprehension isn't up to scratch so will need to wait for the subs to ascertain what's the complication.. Meanwhile, the boy's recollection about his meido is interspersed with the arrival of said meido Roberta to Roanapra. After an extremely conspicious search for underworld information, she arrives at the Yellow Page bar. A gang of Colombians, alerted to her search, come to confront her as the Lagoon crew arrives and witnesses how Roberta is no ordinary maid.

Black Lagoon 7

Dutch deliberately sends Revy and Rock on errands together despite/because of their simmering tension from the submarine episode. We get more impressions of the Black Lagoon underworld with Pimp Daddy Blaxploitation, Larry Flint Balalaika and the Sisters of Battle. Rock skillfully salvages the negotiations with the nuns but the tension boils over during dinner. Revy nearly kills Rock but he fights back effectively and gives her a piece of his mind. Revy finally realizes that she's been too harsh on him and has a certain responsibility towards him as she was the one who forcibly dragged him into her world. They smoke the peace pipe, quite romantically, in the back of a police car.

A GREAT episode IMHO. Rock displays the quick thinking that saved the Lagoon crew in Ep 2, tactful diplomacy and negotiation skills (in addition to general administration) thus adding real value to the gang and plenty of spine without spite to stand up to Revy's constant bullying. So many anime series feature whiny male leads (the classic example being Shinji Ikari; current numba wan irritant, Vincent Law, who is totally ruining Ergo Proxy for me) who would not even warrant an episode of time if not for the fact they have some kind of special ability. Sometimes I wonder if the anime studios are creating self-inserts that the audience can empathise with, thus perpetuating the stereotype that (male) anime fans are all losers? It is *so* good to see an ordinary-type male lead not being pathetic, making useful contributions to his group and standing up for himself. About 70 large screencaps and specific scene comments follow:

Black Lagoon 6

Revy and Dutch rampage through the enemy ship, slaughtering the neo Nazis. However Revy gets carried away and has to be reined in by "Big Boss" Dutch. It turns out their employer is also the neo Nazi patron, a former SS officer who wants to the painting to be recovered because it contains the final piece of a puzzle. The neo Nazi leader realizes that he's been used as the former SS officer is merely after wealth and no intention of reviving the Third Reich [edit after watching subs: considers that the American neo-Nazis have failed their test of admission into the Nazi inner circles. Alfred and Dutch have frank exchange of views before] Dutch tells the ex-Gestapo to go to hell before smashing the phone; he and Revy then blow the neo Nazi chief away. As they await their pickup by Benny and Rock, Revy tells Dutch that she doesn't hate Rock but that she can't, afterall, partner with him.

There was plenty of action but two scenes in the ship battle really stretched my suspension of disbelief to the point it made me grumpy about the whole episode. But I didn't feel so cross the second time round especially since Ep 7 has really raised my impression of this series. Over 30 large screencaps and specific scene comments follow:

Black Lagoon 5

Dutch manages to evade the missiles and camps out of range of the neo-Nazi mothership. The neo-Nazis are depicted in all their buffoonery with exaggerated speeches, displays of emotion, military ceremony and very awful singing - before lowering a submersible towards the sunken u-boat. On board, Revy is looting the corpses and Rock expresses his unease. Revy has a Hamlet moment. She described belief in God and love and all these sort of things to be foolish. The only thing one needs in life are money and guns; if Rock gets in way, she'll kill him. Her life must have been really beyond fucked up for her to be the person she is today. They find the painting but the neo-Nazi boarding party arrives and in the gunfight, they make off with it.