Black Lagoon, vol. 1-4 (Rei Hiroe)
Feb. 21st, 2009 02:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chomijiThe Black Lagoon is a World War II–era PT boat — small, sturdy, fast, and maneuverable. Her crew, mercenaries and couriers of illegal goods, are stoic, tough African-American Vietnam vet Dutch; quirky blond Jewish-American tech/mechanic Benny; and psycho curvaceous Chinese-American gunwoman Revy (short for Rebecca), also known a Two-Hand for her ability to use a gun in either hand or both. During the first volume, their number increases by one when they obtain Japanese salaryman Rokuro - now known as Rock.
Rock is the reader's POV as the story follows the adventures of the Black Lagoon crew all around the teeming criminal underworld of Southeast Asia, with the fictional port city of Roanapur, Thailand, as their base. Kidnapping, arms smuggling, recovery of treasure from wrecks, murder, terrorism, exotic and disgusting porn, mayhem of all sorts, drugs — it's all part of Rock's world now. And although he's still often repulsed by what he's helping to accomplished, he proves surprisingly adept at coming up with outlandish but effective schemes to wreak havoc on the Lagoon squad's enemies.
Volume 4 takes a different turn as Rock and Revy accompany the elegant, way-beyond-ruthless Russian mob boss Balalaika on her mission to the yakuza in Japan. I miss Dutch and Benny and hope that the group will eventually be reunited.
In many ways, this should be only a guilty pleasure. It's violent as all get-out (rather like Blade of the Immortal with modern weapons), and scantily-clad buxom women are all over the place. One reviewer noted that most of the female characters are stereotypes in one way or another. But somehow the vibe is, in its way, bizarrely liberating. The women aren't any more exaggerated than the men, IMO, and they're often the more interesting characters.
Black Lagoon, vols. 1-4 (review) |
Revy is typically dressed in a halter and cutoffs so short that they qualify as lingerie, but in fact, it's a plausible action outfit for someone aboard a ship in tropical waters: this model is the best view of her get-up I've been able to find. You'll notice she's in no danger of popping out of her top, despite her curvy figure, and get a load of the footwear: no high heels for this lady. Balalaika is as scary and sociopathic as any mob king, and with her sharp suits, disfiguring scars (her criminal rivals callously call her "Fry-Face"), and almost-plausible background in the Russian military in Afghanistan, she makes an inspiring anti-heroic leader. (I also like her disgusted world-weariness in the scene where she's having to review porn tapes for business purposes.)
I wasn't going to go into more of my favorite characters above the spoiler line ... Eda!! She so makes me think of a female Gojyo in the scene in the bar when she's ogling Rock. Shenhua! And her knives! I wonder if we're ever going to see either of them again?
I'm not sure what I think about the new story arc that's starting up. Yukio and Ginji have a bit of a Rin-Manji feel to them, but without the humor. (Revy is actually much more like Manji than anyone else in Black Lagoon is.) And because Dutch and Bennie are back in Roanapur, there isn't nearly as much of the team dynamic that I like so much.
Warning: the "Hansel and Gretel" plotline in vols. 2-3 involves child pornography. The subject is definitely not glorified, but it's very disturbing. It's also easily arguable that the Muslim terrorist Ibraha (vols. 3-4) is an unfortunate stereotype, although I don't know that he's any worse than anyone else in the story. You have been warned.
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Date: 2009-02-21 07:50 pm (UTC)SHENHUAAAAAAA (She makes her return in the arc after the one in Japan, sans the crack-smoking driver, but with a host of new and interesting mercenaries.)
Balalaika is ridiculously cool. *continues to fangirl*
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Date: 2009-02-22 06:09 am (UTC)I'll be glad to see Shenhua again! No Eda, though, huh? She's such a skank, but funny.
Yes, the situation in the current arc looks pretty serious. Even Revy is less wise-crackin' - that bit where she calls Rock "my master" was both disturbing and touching. And yes, the whole Hansel and Gretel arc was sick and sickly funny and very, very sad.
BTW, do you happen to know how the manga compares with the anime? Another commenter was wondering.
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Date: 2009-02-22 08:22 am (UTC)[pile of fangirly goo here]
Hmmm. I've only seen the first few episodes--I have no patience for streaming shows unless they're Western shows--but it seems pretty faithful. As in, faithful to the very word. The only divergence I saw was that in the first episode, I WTFed a little because they were somehow on a river and there was no danger of the Black Lagoon dying a slow and painful death on a reef. But there was still jumping a boat in the air and shooting a torpedo at a helicopter, so I'm not inclined to think too hard about it.
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Date: 2009-02-24 03:29 am (UTC)Oooh, nice stuff to anticipate!
Hiroe does some of the crackiest extras I've seen so far - it's like he's really conscious of the sort of thing people like to get up to in fanfic.
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Date: 2009-02-24 03:40 am (UTC)...but the extra with Yukio and Ginji is really not funny, considering. When I was binging on Black Lagoon, it was sort of a kick to the head.
(Black Lagoon extras ... a kick in the head)
Date: 2009-03-10 02:56 am (UTC)Garggh, I meant to answer this ages ago.
Anyway, I haven't got very far into the Yukio & Ginji arc, but I can see it's shaping up to be tragic, and I imagine a joke wouldn't be received well. It's funny that the author wouldn't realize ... .
Re: (Black Lagoon extras ... a kick in the head)
Date: 2009-03-10 03:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-25 01:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-22 06:21 am (UTC)Actually, what she's wearing on top is kind of interesting, now that I look closer. It's like an exercise bra-top or the top of one of those two-piece swimsuits that fall between a bikini and a tankini in coverage. It seems to give her reasonable support, and it has a racer back.
In the current arc, in Japan in the winter, she goes for a modified schoolgirl look, with a shearling coat over a short pleated skirt, black turtleneck and black tights, and tall winter boots with cowboy-ish detailing (not black, oddly enough).
My brain fries at the thought of a meeting between Balalaika and Sanzo! Yes, he could get that way, eventually ... but Balalaika has seen much more, and worse, things than Sanzo has. I also guess that she has about 10 years on him. But there is a bit of a resemblance, yes.
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Date: 2009-02-24 03:15 am (UTC)Hee, no, they don't - but Revy's outifts are plausible enough that the mangaka might have actually thought through the support issue. He leaves the sillier getups to the incidental characters, like Shenhua, who takes out crowds of mercenary soldiers with knives while wearing what seems to be a cheongsam. (At least she actually gets blood on it.)
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Date: 2009-02-22 01:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-22 06:27 am (UTC)Oooh, not a question I can answer on my own - I don't tend to watch video media much at all. Some reviews/comments out there (scroll down for comments) say that the anime is better, but the comments may be coming from folks who prefer anime to manga anyway.
(Black Lagoon)
Date: 2009-02-24 03:17 am (UTC)OK - one of my other commenters says: "it seems pretty faithful. As in, faithful to the very word. The only divergence I saw was that in the first episode, I WTFed a little because they were somehow on a river and there was no danger of the Black Lagoon dying a slow and painful death on a reef. But there was still jumping a boat in the air and shooting a torpedo at a helicopter, so I'm not inclined to think too hard about it."
Re: (Black Lagoon)
Date: 2009-02-24 03:20 am (UTC)Re: (Black Lagoon)
Date: 2009-02-24 03:23 am (UTC)Ah. Sorry about that!
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Date: 2009-02-22 05:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-22 06:31 am (UTC)Oh, it is, it is! I'm trying to remember who first recommended it to me ... and failing. It had been on my "to try" list for a while, but it only started coming out in English this past year.
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Date: 2009-02-22 06:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-24 03:32 am (UTC)XD
Enjoy!
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Date: 2009-03-10 08:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-10 08:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-28 02:57 am (UTC)Yeah, it's surprisingly cho-friendly!
I'm terrified that Balaika is going to go over what TVtropes now calls the Moral Event Horizon and do something awful, though.
I'm current to chapter 37...
Date: 2009-04-17 10:55 am (UTC)wow.. I really did upon this unequivocally interesting to learn. thanks because your succour with t
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