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Black Lagoon : Special EditionReviewed by Chris Hori
This is the story of Lagoon Company, a group of freelance pirates who operate out of Thailand. The group consists of 4 people: Rock, the group’s negotiator and an ex Japanese salary man, Revi, a gunfighter, Benny, the tech guy, and Dutch, who leads the group. The group works for whoever can afford to pay their prices, though they often deal with the group Hotel Moscow, a Russian Crime Syndicate. The series is only 12 episodes long, which cuts the filler down to a minimum. This is a great thing because it leaves only the important scenes that you want to see. With that said, Black Lagoon is just far enough over the top to be wonderfully entertaining, but not so far as to be ridiculous. The animation is done in a realistic style, so there are no scenes of exaggerated facial expression, or deformity. Also, the anime has fluid gunfight scenes and fast paced action. The animation quality, in terms of frame rate and color, is very well done. Even in scenes where the characters are performing over the top actions, the animation strives to keep the same feel of realism that helps to keep the mood going. The audio is something that I must praise and chastise Geneon on. On one hand, Geneon did a good thing: the dub work is very acceptable. I can watch Black Lagoon in either English, Japanese, or Dutch, and he still sounds like the giant black man that he is. The background, including the soundtrack, is nice all around and I have no complaints about anything… until Revi starts to swear. In Japanese, Revi has a tendency to swear, a lot. However, rather than simply swearing as an attempt to be cool, this actually matches well with the brash nature of the character and I had no problem with it; I even enjoyed her colorful language as it added to the over the top (but not too far) feel of the anime. The subtitles keep Revi’s foul mouth (for the most part) intact. However, the dub work has been heavily edited to tone down Revi’s colorful language. This is what I have a problem with. While I understand Geneon is attempting to market it to a wider audience, the fact that they translate the swearing in the subtitles seems a bit hypocritical. While it weakens the character a little, it by no means changes anything about the quality of the anime. I simply disagree with this mixed message that Geneon is putting out regarding what is and is not acceptable in anime. The American bias is that anything animated is for kids, and clearly this mentality was an influence in changing the dialogue of the character. I don’t see why changing the dialogue on the dub and not the subtitle would affect the rating of the anime, thus this is something that was done to appeal to the general public rather than the ratings board. The box clearly states it is 16+ due to strong language and violence so I am simply a little disappointed in the choice by Geneon, but I can understand their reasoning. As for the Special Edition Box, it seems Geneon got a discount on the slim metal cases. These are the same cases used in their Hellsing Ultimate release, but this is a good thing. The metal cases are of good quality, and when I purchased my copy I got the metal case and the original DVD case packaged together. The metal case has enough space for all 4 discs (3 discs for the anime and an extra disc with features and trailers). The case itself is black with Revi’s two handguns in the background and the Black Lagoon logo in red on the top. I was particularly happy with the look and functionality of the case. My final praise is that Black Lagoon is 12 episodes long. Long series such as Bleach or Naruto tend to have lots of filler for the purposes of taking up time and episodes. They waste time with a lot of characters staring each other down, and long winded descriptions. The mangas with 26 episode series’ are better because they have far less time to waste. They have one or two filler episodes but besides that they can get through two stages of the story before you get an end. With 12 episodes you don’t have any time for silly filler or staring contests. You get to the story and action right away and it doesn’t stop until the end. Other examples of short anime series include The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (14 episodes) and Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team (11 episodes). Both of which I highly recommend. More Screenshots :
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Director:
Sunao Katabuchi
There is a second anime series called ‘The Second Barrage” (again 12 episodes long) which is being made for Black Lagoon. There are many more stories that can be made into the anime… hopefully all with the same quality, and Revi’s foul mouth! I definitely recommend Black Lagoon: Special Edition.
