Black Lagoon, vol. 12 by Rei Hiroe

The Black Lagoon manga is back after another hiatus.

The crime organizations that run the city of Roanapur have reached a fragile and likely temporary peace. The ceasefire might be shattered by the latest events, though: someone (actually, several someones) has been targeting big black men around the city. The victims are associated with a variety of Roanapur's leading crime syndicates, so the heads of those organizations together request the Lagoon Company to investigate. It seems clear that Dutch will be on the list of targets, so the Lagoon crew don't hesitate for a nanosecond to accept the job.

And besides, this may give Rock, Revy, and Benny more information about their mysterious boss.

( Cut for more, including some spoilers )

Hiroe's art style has gone weirdly backwards: he's using the classic manga Big Eyes, Small Mouth style seen in the first couple of tankoubon volumes. In the previous couple of volumes, his drawings of Dutch and Benny in particular were showing a craggier, more realistic look, and Balalaika, Rock, and Revy were drawn a bit more realistically as well. Now everyone except Dutch looks rather like the child assassins Hansel and Gretel from the early days: youthful and creepily doll-like.

This arc is not resolved. I hope we don't have to wait another two and three years for it to finish.

---

Hi! I'm back too!

Pentatonix: 90s Dance Medley Live at Hollywood Bowl, September 2022

Watch on YouTube