Black Lagoon - A stylish shoot em' up that will satisfy the most die hard action junkie anime fan.

A walking doormat by the name of Rokuro Okajima is taken hostage by a pirate group named the Lagoon Company. After pretty much proving his worth to the team. He's soon made into a member and renamed Rock. The Lagoon Company is a pirate group that consists of three members. The leader is the African American male Dutch, the computer specialist Benny, and Revy the female loose cannon also known as "Two Hands". Rock, who is clearly a man out of place struggles with his new life as an outlaw. The Lagoon Company's purpose is to transport goods for different entities. The goods range from weapons to kidnapped individuals.-summary

Now without a doubt the action is pretty much what makes this series tick for the most part, and you get plenty of it in the form of high speed chases, both cars and boats, fist fights, and wild exaggerated gun fights. There is no shortage of violence in this series and it definitely looks cool. The high production values byStudio Madhouse provides the necessary eye candy.

The animation can be pretty fluid delivering some of the most entertaining and fast paced gun fights, with some beautiful artwork to back it up. Despite some mild inconsistencies with the visuals, they still deliver for the most part. The soundtrack has its moments and the faster paced songs does its job enhancing the action scenes, while others have more of a bland feel that really did nothing for me. The opening theme song is a good rock track called Red Fraction performed by Mell, which opens up the series on a high note. Now as for the languages, well anyone who claims that the English dub is terrible, or isn't on par with the Japanese sub which is also good, just plain has something against English dubs altogether. The English cast steals the show and I'm not the only one who said it.

Although good for the most part, I did find the action to be somewhat corny at times. Revy who is the team's designated wrecking crew appears to be way too unstoppable. The brain has to be turned off during some of her action scenes. This isn't exactly a problem since the series aim is to be an over the top action fest anyway, but at times I did roll my eyes. Other characters are later introduced to get in on the action which was very much needed, and most of them are a welcomed addition, in which, they help provide some outstanding action scenes on their own. The additonal characters are a whos' who in coolness, such as the sexy blade wielding chinese girl Shenhua, and a woman named Roberta who's character is clearly paying homage to The Terminator, so I give the show more credit.

The series is also packed with comedy that is mainly found in the dialogue which contains a lot of profanity and some funny lines. The comedy hits the mark a majority of times. One scene in episode five literally came out of nowhere and is just too damn funny for words. The series first half is pretty much plotless, with mostly all of the episodes either being stand alones or two parters. But, there was never a boring moment for me. The latter half of the series is broken into three unrelated chapters.

Black Lagoon is an action series at its core, but it's not completely mindless as it examines existential and atheist themes, which makes a whole lot of sense using them together because the themes are pretty much related. The themes are pushed hard by the two characters Revy and Rock. It works very well between these two distinguishing their characters as polar opposites. I will also add that even though Revy is the muscle here who drives the action. I found Rock to be a lot more interesting because he doesn't come off as an annoying cornball. The biggest problem that I can think of in this series has to be the sudden very dark turn it takes in the second half. Where as in the first half the series appeared to be somewhat light entertainment. The latter half takes itself very seriously and introduces some very dark storytelling with tragic endings. Some viewers may have a problem with the change.

Black Lagoon is a very violent series, with lots of foul language, themes that can offend some, and even some very light sexual situations. I only recommend this series to those who are not easily offended, and to the die hard action fan. The series is 24 episodes with a 600 minute run time.


Pros:

-Stylish
-Well developed main characters
-Good opening song

Cons:
-Action scenes can be too cheesy at times
- Inconsistent artwork
- BGM is decent