Product Description

Best Action Anime of 2007- Anime Insider

Rokuro Okajima is meek, mundane and metropolitan. His business trip to South East Asia turns from pleasure cruise to festival of pain when modern-day pirates board the ship and take him hostage. Revy, Dutch, and Benny are merciless, maniacal and mean. Together, they make up the crew of the Black Lagoon. They are the exact opposite of Rokuro in every way but one... A mercenary group out has targeted them to steal the data disc that Rokuro had, and with it, classified information that threatens the peace and security of the entire world! Amen. Hallelujah. Peanut Butter.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25542 in DVD
• Brand: Funimation
• Released on: 2008-12-30
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Box set, Color, NTSC, Widescreen
• Original language: Japanese, English
• Number of discs: 4
• Dimensions: 5.00 pounds
• Running time: 330 minutes

Features

• Rokuro Okajima is meek, mundane and metropolitan. His business trip to South East Asia turns from pleasure cruise to festival of pain when modern day pirates board the ship and take him hostage. Revy, Dutch and Benny are merciless, maniacal and mean. Together, they make up the crew of the Black Lagoon. They are the exact opposite of Rokuro in every way but one? A mercenary group out has targeted t

Amazon.com
The action-adventure series Black Lagoon (2006) exemplifies the continuing confluence of Japanese and American filmmaking. Rokura Okajima, a minor flunkey in a powerful corporation, thinks his life is over when he's kidnapped by pirates. It's only his business career that ends: he joins the pirates as "Rock." The trio of Dutch, the understated leader; happy-go-lucky techie Benny; and trigger-happy Revy becomes a quartet, although Rock struggles to find a place in their shady underworld. They're less pirates than soldiers of fortune, ready to do anything if the price is right. Dutch, Benny, and Rock are fairly typical anime types and form a credible team. But murderous, potty-mouthed Revy has all the appeal of a rattlesnake in an Easter basket. This less-than-jolly crew pursues adventures involving treasure aboard a sunken WWII U-Boat, pornographers, drug and arms dealing nuns, kidnappings, and a terrorist plot to blow up US embassies. Bullets, blood and four-letter words fly, but it doesn't add up to much. The gun battles, car chases, knife fights, and explosions take up so much screen time, there's none left for character development or a coherent narrative. Although it's based on a manga by Rei Hiroe, Black Lagoon feels like a cartoon version of a Hollywood blockbuster. Extremely violent and profane, Black Lagoon is not for the squeamish or easily offended. (Unrated appropriate for viewers over 17: graphic violence, violence against women, extensive profanity, grotesque imagery, alcohol and tobacco use, racial slurs, offensive ethnic stereotypes, Nazi imagery, offensive religious imagery) --Charles Solomon

(1. The Black Lagoon, 2. Mangrove Heaven, 3. Ring-Ding Ship Chase, 4. Die Rückkehr des Adlers, 5. Eagle Hunting and Hunting Eagle, 6. Moonlit Hunting Ground, 7. Calm Down, Two Men, 8. Rasta Blasta, 9. Maid to Kill, 10. The Unstoppable Chambermaid, 11. Lock'n Load Revolution, 12. Guerrillas in the Jungle)

Customer Reviews

Not too shabby.

"Black Lagoon" is a pretty typical anime action series in a lot of ways, not especially outstanding in comparison to some of the shows that have come before it, but it's a series that does almost everything right. Cowboy Bebop on water pretty much sums it up. .The show follows the adventures of a rag-tag crew (is there any other kind?) of modern pirates as they pull off jobs and capers for various crime bosses. The protagonist is a jaded businessman who becomes known as "Rock" after he is kidnapped by said pirates and eventually winds up joining them after he turns out to be more resourceful than one might expect.

Rock may be the protagonist but make no mistake, the star of the show is sociopathic she-pirate Levi (Revi if you prefer the Japanese pronunciation), a one-woman wrecking crew with bad attitude to spare. This girl in the best thing this series has going for it as she is a true-blue anti-heroine; mean-spirited, apathetic, and often beyond psychotic. This is rather surprising since the female leads in these shows are typically rather sensitive and heroic types inside of their harsh exteriors, but Levi is bad to the bone and she never lets you forget it for long. Her clashes with the level-headed newcomer Rock make up much of the first half of the show and believe me, it gets ugly. Rounding out the crew are Dutch, the captain of their torpedo boat, and Benny who appears to be the tech guy but frankly, he doesn't do much which is disappointing.

Most of the missions are split between two or three episode arcs and consist of such glamorous fare as salvaging a sunken Nazi U-boat or kidnapping a rich brat. Of course there's always a catch such as a battleship full of neo-nazis coming to reclaim their artifacts, or a nanny/housemaid (complete with fetishistic outfit) that gives Levi more than a run for her money in some gunbattles that would make John Woo envious. These kind of fringe characters are another reason that "Black Lagoon" is such a success. My favorite is a rather vain blademistress in a Chinese dress who teams up with Levi during the last arc of the series. The scene where the two of them are being pursued in a car and fighting with each other over who gets to stand up through the sunroof and engage the pursuers is a riot. Also of note is the crew's primary employer, a Russian mafiosa with badly scarred skin named Balalaika (say THAT three times fast!) who shows up often as the consummate crooked businesswoman.

The series is a too-short 12 episodes with no larger story to tell. Levi's past is hinted at or glimpsed several times, but never truly explored, though the second season gives us more along those lines and a third is forthcoming. "Black Lagoon" is a fun show with fantastic action sequences, great animation, and plenty of colorful characters. Well worth a viewing. If you worship at the altar of "Cowboy Bebop", consider this series a must, though newcomers to anime and casual fans should also find a lot to like here. Also, if you've ever wondered the best way to go about torpedoing an in-flight helicopter, check this show out for sure.

Great action and lots of dark humor
First off, I was really impressed with the production values. The animation and sound was top notch. There was none of that cost saving corner cutting, which really adds to the overall feel of the show.

Secondly it's a really smart script with complex characters and tightly written plots.

Third lots of nifty violence, but with a black comedy twist.

Don't go in expecting Cowboy Bebop, although there are similarities Black Lagoon is a lot darker. You might like both. Cowboy Bebop is one of my all time favs too. However I find the two shows to have distinctly different flavors.

One thing that appealed to my inner philosophy major was that underlying theme of the whole anime is nihilism(Revy) v existentialism(Rock), which philosophy is more realistic--but without a single descent into academic angst or mention of a philosophical term. It was all fast paced action with a few comic turns on the surface, and can be appreciated on just that level, but there was heavy epistomological debate going on underneath. Personally, I thought that was pretty cool.

Classic
This show is just awesome. A truly classic anime like cowboy bebop. It has amazing over the top action with a mix of great storytelling. A must even if you are not a anime fan.