Anime compress a wide variety of themes. But, we are pretty accustomed to a lot of clichés (pretty, hot teenagers in school uniforms; swords and wings, the search for a stronger foe), not that we dislike them, only it's nice to explore new ways of story telling. Black Lagoon its a series that draws not only the standards of anime, but china movie flicks, spaghetti westerns and south American drug movies. Forget about the pretty girls and the "tsundere/yandere/wherever-dere" archetype (that is rather dull), who can't work without his "oni-san/sempai/kun": in here, women are strong, will-filled, completely independent and have a very, very bad mood. No swords/wings: in here is about guns, pistols, shotguns, bazookas, missiles...and machetes (well, a couple swords in last episodes, but absolutely no wings). Search of the stronger? Nah, forget it: this is about money...lots of money. Paying homage to great visionaries (sigh!) like Quentin Tarantino, John Woo,... we view the ways of living/survival of a "delivery company" in the eastern seas of Asia (no Japan? yeah: almost NO-JAPAN). From recovering lost art, to dealing with human trafficking, serial killers, we witness the drug wars in the eyes of former "salaryman", now turned mercenary/diplomatic/translator for the Black Lagoon company. It's in his eyes that we witness the low ranks of the human race. IN our screens wheel dance a lot of bizarre-dark characters, with twisted ways of living (the Chinese knife-fighter, the Venezuelan soldier turned maid, the Gun- dealer nuns...), and, our protagonist, we will try to understand them... but this not a humanist story, there are no answers here, just questions: How he/she has landed in rock bottom to be like that? But, the same characters will stop any questioning as they shoot each other... if you analyze beyond the action you'll find some very sinister and deep concepts. Some episodes can be hard to swallow (for example, the Vampire Twins episodes are extremely emotional, easily can put your faith in humanity at test). If you ignore this, and only focus on getting a good time, this anime will fulfill your expectedness: action, explosions, and lots of adrenaline...
Review of Black Lagoon
