Product Description

Filled with scenes of heroic bloodshed, Black Lagoon is Action Incarnate! 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. Making a living in a city where the most villainous of villains make themselves at home isn't without its risks, but they take on any job available to them. Smuggling guns, drugs, kidnapped children and stolen goods is all part of a hard days work.

EPISODE 1: Black Lagoon
Rokuro Okajima is your ordinary Japanese salary man... meek, mundane and metropolitan. His business trip to the South East Asia turns from a pleasure cruise to festival of pain when Revy, Dutch and Benny, the crew of the Black Lagoon, take him hostage. Unfortunately for all of them, the data disc that Rokuro has carries classified information that threatens the peace and security of the entire world!

EPISODE 2: Mangrove Heaven
After a particularly horrific gunfight, the crew escapes with their hostage Rokuro "Rock" Okajima. However, they are chased down by a helicopter gunship and forced into running up a river and straight into a trap. Facing certain death at the hands of hardened mercenaries, Rock comes up with a plan that is so insane that it might work.

EPISODE 3: Ring-Ding Ship Chase
Rock begins his new life as a Black Lagoon Crew Member and begins to learn that the world he has entered is full of hurry up & wait moments. While the rest of the crew awaits their orders, Dutch walks the beat and runs into a rival boss out to recruit the Black Lagoon to his side of the fence. Things get ugly when a small fleet of pirates out for blood interrupts an ordinary job. Revy's dark and brutal nature is revealed as she jumps ship and lays waste to their enemies.

EPISODE 4: Die Ruckkehr des Adlers
The crew is hired to retrieve a priceless painting aboard a sunken German U boat. However, the only one who has any Scuba experience is Rock so guess who gets to tag along on this dangerous retrieval mission? As Revy and Rock descend into the depths of the sunken U boat, Dutch and Benny fend of an unwelcome gang of neo Nazis who want the painting for their own nefarious needs.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #83761 in DVD
• Brand: Geneon
• Released on: 2007-05-22
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Animated, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
• Original language: English, Japanese, Russian, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 100 minutes

Review
"Black Lagoon was animated by Madhouse, with sponsorship from Geneon Entertainment. Expect this one to throttle the previous track record of lackluster reception for coproduced works. While its level of violence is a substantial liability in finding a high profile spot on North American television, Black Lagoon is ready to weigh in as a serious contender for supplanting Cowboy Bebop's audience. By out Hollywood action-ing Hollywood action and setting a tone that is neither ponderous nor disengaged with the state of the world, Black Lagoon is an aesthetic success. " --Scott Green, Ain't It Cool News

Customer Reviews

Promises to be an Entertaining Series at the Very Least
At the onset, although little has been revealed about the characters, this promises to be an engaging series. The gunplay is quite impressive as is the animation and the pulsing soundtrack's style is unique in anime. The story revolves around four mercenary sea pirates, one of whom, Rock, was recently recruited after he was kidnapped from Japan, where he was working a white-collar job. It's amusing to see Rock trying to adjust to his new, criminal lifestyle while he is surrounded by already hardened, brutal cohorts...but it's Revy that steals the show. Her savagely casual way of slaughtering her enemies is quite chilling to watch, yet she retains a human quality that seems to come out when she deals with Rock. Despite her shockingly nihilistic violence, Revy still emerges as one of anime's sexiest "heroines". (wait, is she a heroine?) Fans of Cowboy Bebop-style action and drama will enjoy this. Recommended!

Brilliant, violent, sure to please!
TOKYO, Japan: Meet Rokuro Okajima, a young Japanese businessman...in a town full of young Japanese businessmen. He's just another working stiff who's trying to claw his way up the corporate ladder--until it's kicked out from under him.

ROANAPUR, Thailand: Rokuro is kidnapped by the "Black Lagoon" company, who are after the valuable CD-ROM he's carrying. Now dubbed "Rock" by his captors, he is dragged into a world of mercenaries, mobsters and corporate malfesance. If he's going to survive, "Rock" will have to learn how to play by their rules.

BLACK LAGOON CO.: Led by the burly Dutch, supported by trigger-happy Revy and expert computer-hacker Benny, the Black Lagoon Co. will take on any job--for price. And God help you if you don't pay up!

DVD notes: The theme song is actually sung in English, but heavily accented and badly slurred in places. Special Features include English & Japanese dialogue, English subtitles, preview trailers & DVD credits.

Not too shabby.
"Black Lagoon" is a pretty typical anime action series, not really 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. I'm reviewing the series as whole here, so bear that in mind as I will reference things that may not be on this particular disc. 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, 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 suprising 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. 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 want to throw in the towel on his career. 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 consumate 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 and I'd consider a follow-up series likely. "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. However, if you're looking for something new and are rather bored with typical anime fare I doubt you'll find anything mindblowing in this show.