Anime: Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage

Rather than being a distinct sequel, The Second Barrage really is just a second half to Black Lagoon. The story here focuses more closely onto Rock, our former office worker lead, as he struggles to find his place among the pirate crew he's taken up with.

We start beautifully, with the first mini-arc being a stunning, heartbreaking tale of a pair of child soldiers, managing to render them both thoroughly sympathetic and utterly terrifying. This is Black Lagoon at its very best, showing real human responses to a situation where there simply isn't any good outcome available, only bad and worse ones. The series' usual high quality, real-camera-style animation is maintained throughout, and while I'm usually in favour of more experimental styles, it does make a real aid to immersion; I found myself forgetting The Second Barrage wasn't live action, more than once.

This dramatic arc is then balanced by an even more action-focused one centred on a counterfeiter, but while this certainly provides enough fights and explosions to hold the eye, the lack of more emotional depth here is a disappointment. An attempt is made to pull some focus onto Benny, a borderline-main character and the ship's hacker, but ultimately he simply isn't interesting enough to talk about, and unlike with Rock and Revy's excellent dynamic, there's no other character he really plays off against.

But worse is to come as we come to the series' second half, which is a single longer arc. One of Black Lagoon's big strengths was its international feel, with the Japanese Rock having to fit in with a more varied crew in a city very different from his homeland, but they couldn't resist returning him to Japan for the finale. And while Rock falls deeply into angst over whether to return home, seemingly putting a lot more emotional weight on this than matters of life and death, the more physical plot dives straight into cliché. For its piece of awesome finale badassery, Black Lagoon gave us a guy who would jump his boat to torpedo a helicopter; The Second Barrage gives us a samurai who can cut bullets with his sword. The tale of clashing Yakuza families and the young not-quite-innocent girl drawn into acting as head of one of them isn't badly told - in fact, as such things go it's quite a good piece of storytelling - but it's thoroughly trite.

Of course this is an action show, so on some level it doesn't matter - certainly those just here for the gunfights won't be disappointed by this last arc. But Black Lagoon was previously more intelligent, even original in its missions; to see something so simple for the big finish is a real disappointment. Similarly, Rock's increasingly stupid efforts to protect a girl who clearly neither wants nor needs it, and his blinkered one-dimensional emotionality, are a huge let-down for what had previously been a very well-rendered character, who balanced his distaste for violence with a sensible pragmatism about his crew's actions. And while it's always pleasant to see him interacting with Revy, their relationship seems to have stuck a little, with the writers seemingly unsure how to advance it any.

More than any of this, though, the voice acting takes a nosedive. While this probably worked fine for the original Japanese audience, the supposedly native-English-speaking characters speak with barely comprehensible Japanese accents. It's simply too jarring to accommodate, ruining one's ability focus on events, and makes the whole second half of this show a cringeworthy experience.

Seen as a whole, Black Lagoon is still a very good series. But the final arc is a real let-down, betraying many of the show's greatest features, and ended up being little more than the overdone action show that most of Black Lagoon manages to be so much more than. Which is a real shame, because without it, the consistently superb presentation and beautiful emotions of earlier arcs would make it one of the all-time greats.

The second season of Black Lagoon is really a story of two different anime; the underwhelming, uninspired first six episodes, and the spectacular, engaging last half of the show. The former is a 5, while the latter is very close to a 10.

The returning characters and excellent opening are largely the same as the first season (mentioned more in my review of that season), which is a good thing. The art is as stylish, vivid, and colorful as ever, and adds a definite flavor to all the gun battles.

Now, there are three different story arcs, each completely independent of one another; the murderous twins, Greenback Jane, and the Yakuza fighting back in Japan.

The series starts off with the Romanian siblings, two eight year olds with white hair carrying a mini-gun and an ax larger than they are themselves. These two little children love to kill, and are so dangerous that they wreak havoc upon Roanapur, killing dozens of high-level, powerful gangsters, including those from Hotel Moscow.

Now, I understand suspension of disbelief, and I realize that the gun-wielding heavies in the Black Lagoon universe are supposed to be bizarre, unorthodox characters, from chain-smoking nuns to chambermaids wearing glasses, but this is absurd.

Even in the Black Lagoon universe, it doesn't make sense for two FRAIL CHILDREN to single-handedly cut through droves of gangsters and expert gunmen like so much confetti. The only way to pull this off is to inject humor, but there is none of that in the first three episodes.

The emotional melisma surrounding the end of this arc is both unnecessary and poorly executed.

Next up is Greenback Jane, a straightforward action arc about a counterfeiter on the run, with all of Roanapur's deadliest criminals after her, and only Eda and the Black Lagoon company around to protect her.

It's mostly action, with several funny scenes, and little character development, an Eda flashback aside. It's decent fare, but I found a few key moments disappointing. Without revealing any spoilers, there are several notorious gangsters fighting against Eda and Revy.

A few of the less important ones die, but the main ones, with significant backstory, curiously survive, only one with serious injuries of any kind. Now, I understand they wanted to save them for Season 3, but it's anti-climactic, a cheap device from the creators.

In the ruthless Black Lagoon universe, when two heavies battle it out, one should die.

Finally, we come to the last six episodes, which cover Hotel Moscow's quest to destroy several Yakuza families in Japan, quality time spent between Revy (fully-clothed even!) and Rock near the latter's home, as we are also introduced to a cute schoolgirl named Yukio and honorable swordsman Ginji, who can slice bullets in half.

This might very well be the best story arc in the entire series, Seasons 1 and 2, and corrects many of the things I disliked about the earlier episodes.

If you read my review for the first season, one of my biggest complaints was the character of Revy, that she was a character with no depth or reality, and was boring and stupid to boot.

Well, by the end of Season 2, she has been transformed into a much more understandable and most importantly, FUN individual.

No longer is she hysterical, crazy, nor does she talk as much ridiculous shit. She's far more competent, rational, and even her character is developed, as we see her interacting with children, and she shows genuine compassion and love for Rock.

The overall character development in these last six episodes is excellent. A lot of attention is paid to Miss Balalaika, as she cements her status as the coolest, most competent criminal in the series. Her blend of stoicism with charm, humor, and the ability to do whatever is necessary to crush her enemies is entertaining to watch.

Even the minor characters, like the violent, insane Chaka, with facial piercings, blonde hair, and a purple suit, are well done.

He is a neat reference to Kakihara from "Ichi the Killer", minus the love of sadomasochism.

The story itself drags a little with overly abstract, emotional dialogue, but it's not terrible, and is at least relevant to the central theme, which concerns the transition and choice between criminal or peaceful life.

The last six episodes make up for the beginning of the Second Season, but not enough to propel it into "great" status.

Highly recommended for anyone that enjoys action and a fast pace to one's anime, as well as unusual personalities.

All in all this anime was simply magnificent, and im glad to see that i am not the only one that thinks so. this show is a politically driven existential action drama.

Dont u just love it when an anime breaks into ur top 10 list?? reminds me why i love this medium in the first place. The best thing about the show are the monologues and dialogues the different characters have regarding their actions and convictions.

I swear, this anime is more poetic that it is action... So many great moments of social commentary, as a black man i love seeing social commentary in anime... its always interesting to see how the japanese view other folk. The conversation between the Nazi and Dutch over the phone in episode 6 is just phenomenal. and how the nazi when given a gun still choses to shot Dutch because he's black is just priceless. I also love how Hiroe Rei interweves other issues such as racism, revolution in Cuba, the fall of the soviet union, the war remnants of the middle east, and the tragedy of romanian orphans in the 80's. Simply magnificent.

The sad thing is that some ignorant folk will dismiss this anime as just being action, or no story, or all style without substance... meanwhile the mangaka is not trying to tell a whole story, he is simply using pirates' experiences to give insight on contemporary issues that plage developed countries and 3rd world countries alike and how these issues can break people mentally and emotionally.

Revy a chinese girl from the U.S. who was definitely a gangbanger at too young an age, Dutch a Vietnam vet who can never be the same after seeing such horrors in that jungle. Benny a kid who grew up in the suburbs and messed up with the wrong kind of folk. Balalaika a war heroine who has given up her humanity for power, and Rock a regular guy lost to the world and himself.

The residents of Roanapur are an embodiment of what happens in a society were all our fears and inhibitions counteract. And Rock the hero of our story is the one man in the twilight that can testify on the evil and good of man in a screwed up world.

John Woo does anime?
This review is based on Black Lagoon 1st and 2nd barrage for there are no distinct differences between the two. The only difference I can think of are that there are more gore and the revelation of the theme in the second one.

Black Lagoon is a show full of blood and action with a hint of fanservice. It was refreshing to watch something like this after watching so many kid shows that contain tasteless fanservices and over-done slapstick comedy or kid's "sci-fi/fantasy samething I've seen million just like it" shows. Still, the show contained many flaws and inconsistencies (maybe I am just looking for them).

The biggest problem I had with Black Lagoon was its serious/realistic tone that it carried but then featured outrageous characters and situations. John Woo like action where all the movements are exaggerated are fine with me, but when the characters like Maid-erminator or 11 year old twin killers were introduced, it seemed ridiculous to me. There were also few inconsistencies (e.g. in submarine, there were supposed to me no oxygen left, but the protagonists just walked right in there and breath, talk, and smoke just fine).

Although this show is action genre, the action seemed dull most of the times. The protagonists usually walked straight line and rarely tried to dodge the enemy bullets since none of them know how to aim, and the protagonists killed hundreds of enemies easily.

The animation was superb, "Almost" comparable to Ghost in the Shell SAC. The character all looked unique and their expression detailed (the clothing design could've used little more work, but then I am not a fashion guru). The backgrounds were detailed as well.

The sound was also well done. All the necessary noises were present (guns going off, bullets hitting floor, screaming in agony, etc.) The seiyus were also very professional, except for the few characters that had to deal with corny script. I liked Revy's voice, almost sounded like Ryoko from Tenchi (not the same seiyus). The notable voices are Rock - Daisuke Namikawa (numerous anime shows, games, and film dubs) and Revy - Megumi Toyoguchi (Winry Rockbell - Fullmetal Alchemist). The OST fit well with this show even though I don't like loud music too much.

Since the show revolved around each missions, there weren't much of plot. Only driving force of the show was its theme and character development. Black Lagoon focused on the theme of "the grass is always greener on other side." Because of greedy human nature, humans always want to experience both sides: the boring and monotonous but safe/normal path and the exciting and adventurous but dangerous/evil path. One can't idle in between the two and expect to solve everyone’s problems with one's idealistic views. The life isn't fair and must deal with each situation realistically. Some people wants to live in other way of life that they never experienced before, but can't since that's the only life they know. Also there's a theme of judging the degree of good and evil. Depends on each person, what is good and what is evil varies on their experience.

The last half of the second season resembled little more like God Father. I wished the whole show was more of this way since it was the most entertaining part. The other stories showed little of certain characters past while the "God-father" part actually developed the main characters a lot. The earlier shows also portray the reasons for certain individuals to become evil whether they were driven into it by their tragic past or because of their strong beliefs and desires to change the world.

Overall, Black Lagoon was entertaining just because it’s different from many anime, but because of its several dull action scenes and flaws, I can't say its warrants a high rating. I recommend this show to anyone who like John Woo films with lots of blood and gore with overly exaggerated characters.

Having watched this second season of Black Lagoon, I cannot decide whether it is better than the first season. A big plus for this season is that it has more of an overarching plot, and contains various recurring themes, especially in the final 5-6 episodes of the season (about the nature of Rock and "the night", the underworld that he has become a part of).

The story for this series focuses mainly on Revy and Rock, especially once they go back to Rock's hometown in Japan with Balalaika (Rock serves as her translator).
Thus, there is a major dose of Rock/Revy relationship development. The ending is very good, and the entire feeling of the gang warfare between the Russians and the Yakuza was extremely well done. All in all, the story in the second season felt much more coherent than the story(ies) in the first season.

Some new characters were introduced in this season, such as Gin and other members of the Japanese Yakuza, and there is much more focus on Balaliaka, and Hotel Moscow in this second season. Though we don't find out anymore information on Revy's past, we do find out some about Balaliaka's and Rock's pasts.

The development of Rock and Revy's relationship was extremely interesting, as was Rock's struggle between accepting his place in the underworld and nostalgia at being back in his hometown in Japan.

The animation is stellar, just as it was in the first season. There are no flaws to speak of; action scenes are fluid character expressions are perfectly created (especially in the eyes), and the backgrounds are varied and detailed. The soundtrack and voice actors are similarly well done. However, the "English" spoken by Balalaika, Revy, Rock, and others during this season is atrocious. Subtitles were neccessary even during the "English" speaking parts because of how bad it was.

I would definately reccomend this second season to fans of the first, and reccomend this anime in general to fans of action anime. This is an extremely enjoyable anime that I have rewatched many a time, even though it has just barely been finished. I am hoping already that there is a third season or sequel to this entertaining anime.

Overall, this show left me with a rather mixed impression. A few great moments and a generally professionally done series are certainly not helped by what I consider one of the most botched endings in anime. So:

---- The good:

- Animation: pretty decent. If you have seen the first season (and you should have, if not do that first) you know what it is like, so prepare for more of the same.

- Sound: Same OP/ED as season 1. Sound effects are nicely done, and voice acting is OK. (note to translators: it would have been nice to see subs when the characters speak in English as well, their accents are rather thick).

---- The not so good:

- Characters: Rock and Balalaika get a little development, as do perhaps one or two side characters in some story lines, but that is it, and it is not much.

- Story: this is where it is most uneven. The story consists of 3 disconnected arcs (3+3+6). The first one being quite amazing, boasting one of the most emotional moments I've seen in anime. Unfortunately, it all goes downhill from there -- the 2nd one is on the level of an average Season 1 story, and the 3rd starts well but soon any logic in many characters' actions disappears, culminating in an even more unreasonable ending. And since this is the longest, and the last, story arc, the impression inevitably carries over to the entire series. Surely this is probably what the manga has, but just swapping the first and third story arcs around would have changed my impression a great deal.