Black Lagoon - The Second Barrage: Volume 2

Introduction

The Second Barrage got off to a flying start in the previous volume, with a three-part story that exceeded anything that had come before. The Romanian twins storyline was always going to be a hard act to follow. Wisely, this second volume doesn't waste its time trying to exceed past glories, and instead offers us something completely different. We were back to the lighter side of things with the final episode of volume 1, when a hapless counterfeiter wandered into Roanapur, and that's a story that needs resolving, but this is also a good spot to pause and reflect on what has come before. We begin a story that I have been looking forward to more than most; Rock and Revy go to Japan. They tell me it's unseemly to salivate over a DVD.

The life of a salaryman, or white-collar worker isn't an easy one. Years of hard competitive education just to get your foot on the first rung of the corporate ladder in a big firm. As the lowest of the low, you get the toughest work, and all the abuse from the higher ups. You spend years of your life, make sacrifices of your family and free time, pledging eternal loyalty to the company, all in the hope that one day, you'll be the one doing the abusing instead of being abused. Then, while acting as a courier, you're kidnapped by mercenaries for the sensitive data disc that you're carrying, disowned by your superiors as an unfortunate loss, get caught up in battles and gunfights with the mercs your company send to retrieve the disc, and start a new job as a pirate. Okay, so that doesn't happen to your average Reginald Perrin, but it does happen to Rokuro Okajima, in the acclaimed anime Black Lagoon. Four more episodes of The Second Barrage are presented here on this MVM disc, chronicling the further adventures of Dutch, Revy, Benny and Rock. While this is the second season of Black Lagoon, it continues directly from where the first left off, evident in the episode numbers.


17. The Roanapur Freakshow Circus
Janet the counterfeiter has ditched the dubious protection of Eda and Revy, and has found a nice little hotel room to hide in while she figures out her next move. She doesn't have long, as Elvis has hired a whole collection of Roanapur's finest scum to get her back. But Eda has her eyes on those perfect forgeries, and she has a plan that will have Janet eating out of their hands. A little misdirection, and some imaginative graffiti, and soon Janet is looking for Eda and Revy's help once again, only this time the price has gone up. The bottom line is that Janet needs a quick way out of Roanapur, and Black Lagoon happen to have a pretty zippy torpedo boat. It's just that Dutch and Benny have gone fishing, which leaves Rock, Revy, Eda and Janet trapped in the dock, while a motley collection of mercenaries look for a place to dispose of a hefty arsenal.

18. Mr Benny's Good Fortune
The bullets fly, and the flames rise. Our anti-heroes are surrounded, the walls crashing down around them, and some of Roanapur's more notorious lowlifes are looking to shoot, stab, slice, dice, mince, burn, roast, chainsaw, and maybe even do some unpleasant things to all who stand in between them and Janet. But Dutch has seen his precious dock being incinerated, and he's not in a charitable mood.


19. Fujiyama Gangsta Paradise
It's been a year already, but Rock finally heads back to Japan. It's business of course, as Balalaika's Hotel Moscow outfit has an opportunity to get a foot in the door of the Japanese underworld, when Mr Banda of the Washimine group needs a little firepower in dealing with his rivals the Kousa group. Rock's accompanying them as an interpreter, and Revy is tagging along as his bodyguard. It looks to Revy that Rock is back where he belongs, as he slots back into Japanese society flawlessly, while she's a square peg in a round hole, rubbing everyone the wrong way. When Rock takes her to a New Year's festival, she's about to skin the guy who runs the rifle derby for 'cheating', when a big guy called Ginji who's the unofficial fair security steps in. She was just about to have fun, when Ginji's charge Yukio arrives and defuses the situation. When Yukio and Rock hit it off, it seems even more obvious that Rock belongs back in Japan, while she has more in common with the disreputable Ginji. Meanwhile Balalaika has declared war on the Yakuza.

20. The Succession
Hotel Moscow are getting out of hand, and Banda is beginning to regret allying the Washimine group with them. Tempers are fraying, and the so-called allies are coming to blows. One of his men beats up on Rock just to provoke Revy, and Revy decides that she should have brought her guns to Japan after all. When Balalaika steps up a gear and moves onto abduction, Banda realises that he has to stop what he has started. But before putting his plan into effect, the leadership of Washimine has to be assured. The next leader of Washimine happens to be the daughter of the previous one, a studious, well-mannered, friendly girl named Yukio. Yes, that Yukio.

Picture

Black Lagoon gets a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer, which is as good as it gets without it being a native PAL source. The image is clear and sharp, detail is excellent, colours are consistent, and I didn't notice a single compression artefact. It's a good thing too, as Black Lagoon has some of the best animation I have seen in a television anime. It's fluidly and dynamically animated, the attention to detail is astounding, especially with the military equipment. This may be the anime of choice when it comes to gun porn, with Revy's Cutlasses getting special attention. It's an action packed show, with plenty of gunfights, explosions and chases to be getting on with. The character designs have had a lot of thought put into them, and are particularly effective with a cast of grizzled and battle worn mercenaries. CGI texture mapping comes into its own here, as I doubt the plethora of scars and tattoos adorning some skins could have been possible were they animated traditionally.

Sound

An action packed show needs a suitably expressive soundtrack, and my preference of the DD 2.0 Japanese doesn't disappoint, with plenty of directionality to the sound design, especially when pro-logicked up, while keeping the dialogue clear and audible. Translated subtitles are provided of course, along with a signs only track. Unfortunately, and apparently a legacy of the Australian release from Madman, the 5.1 English audio has been dropped second series, replaced with a vanilla stereo track. Given the action nature of the show, this is a bit of a blow, and to add insult to injury the 5.1 audio track is mentioned in the end credits. I'll never be a fan of English dubs, but Black Lagoon's is near passable, with some impressive performances. I think the English language actor chosen for Dutch is perfectly cast, and if some other performances are a little too typical of dubs, they don't detract from the show.

There are cool scenes in the third and fourth episodes where Rock is translating between Balalaika and Banda. In the Japanese version, Banda speaks Japanese and Balalaika broken j-English, which Rock translates into Japanese. It's all subtitled. For the English dub, they keep Banda's original Japanese dialogue, while Balalaika gets dubbed into more understandable English, and this time Rock translates Banda's words into English. It's a really neat way to accomplish the dub.

Extras

Jacket picture, animated menu and trailers for the Utena Movie and Shana, with the series trailer for Black Lagoon.

Conclusion

Black Lagoon is the best action anime show out there right now bar none. If you have a fond place in your heart for those old action movies from the eighties, full of absurd characters and even more absurd action, then this ought to be a compulsory purchase order of an anime. It's full of brutal action, gunfights and explosions, it's darkly comic, deliciously profane, yet it also goes out of its way to develop the characters and tell a damned fine story to boot, and… I've said all this before haven't I? This is the fifth time that I'm raving like an afflicted lunatic about this awesome show, and I'd be surprised if you aren't tired of reading the same things again and again. Frankly, it's infinitely more fun to just sit down and watch the show, than to be subjected to another one of my longwinded sycophantic cut and paste gushes for a further ninety minutes of animated perfection. So I'll keep it short-er.


After the utter bleakness of the Vampire Twins arc, what was needed most of all was a little frivolity, a dose of comedy to lighten the mood. We get that and more with the conclusion of the Greenback Jane storyline, as Revy and Eda put into practice their get rich quick scheme, and the hapless Janet gets caught in the crossfire. Every disreputable lowlife in Roanapur is after the reward, and Revy, Rock, Eda and Janet are soon wearing target signs. It's interesting to see the variety of scum they have to evade, and the copious action scenes and gunfights are varied and entertaining. It's also good to see the return of Shen Hua, while a couple of new characters are colourful to say the least. Sawyer, whose day job is torture, dismemberment and disposal, gets out of the surgical gear for the evening, and brings her chainsaw with her. She's survived having her throat cut and her larynx destroyed, and cuts a menacing figure, as long as the batteries in her voicebox hold out. There are some hilarious moments in this arc, one particularly obnoxious character gets a death scene worthy of a James Bond villain, and we find out that Revy subscribes to the Tuco Ramirez school of combat, 'If you're going to shoot, shoot, don't talk.' And in the middle of the mayhem, someone manages to fall in love. This story is notable also, as for the first time in the show, Benny gets a little character development and growth.


The final half of the disc is given over to Rock's return to Japan. It's another entertaining tale of gang warfare and escalating violence. There are some interesting new characters introduced, and it's just as entertaining as the rest of the series. It's not as fast paced, or as comic as the preceding story, instead opting for the slow build-up and story development. This is a more serious tale, with a gradually building tension as the various plot elements are unveiled. That isn't to say that it's devoid of the comedy, as seeing Rock showing Revy around, a fish out of water if ever there was one, offers plenty of culture clash comedy moments. Also there is a tremendously cute scene is a playground as Revy encounters a bunch of kids playing Cowboys and Indians. There is also the expected awkward moments as Rock returns home, and has to see where he fits in, if at all, after a year of hanging out with a bunch of disreputable mercenaries and smugglers, regularly ducking bullets, and being anything but a salaryman. But I couldn't help feel as if there was something of a lost opportunity here. I would have just loved it if Rock had encountered his former employers, the company that threw him to the wolves in episode 1, and just punched their lights out. Ok, it would have been utterly trite and clichéd, but a show like Black Lagoon isn't averse to a good cliché.


My adoration for this show still verges on the indecent if you're wondering. What I want to know is, what are you doing reading this, when you could be watching it instead?