I’ve just finished the second season of Black Lagoon, called The Second Barrage. Actually, it didn’t really seem like the second season to me, I watch all 24 episodes of the 2 seasons in one long continuous stretch, over a slow few months.
First off, for those who haven’t watched Black Lagoon, it’s anime about the a pirate torpedo boat and it’s 4 crew members, Dutch, Revy, Rock and Benny. It’s a modern-style anime, with good 2D and 3D animation over what looks like watercolored background. The important thing to know is that the series is pretty violent – it isn’t something you’d see on Saturday morning cartoons on RTM2, there’s lots of swearing, lots of guns and blades, severed heads, bloodshed and all that jazz that get our moral guardians in tight knots.
Season two has only 3 story arcs, the first one is about the murderous Romanian twins (‘Bloodsport Fairytale‘ Ep#13-15), the second is the one with the counterfeiter girl (‘Greenback Jane‘ Ep#16-18), and the last one is the pretty long one about the Japanese Yakuza (‘Fujiyama Gangsta Paradise‘ Ep #19-24).
The first thing I notice about the progression into the second season is the growing significance of two characters into the storylines – Eda from the Church of Violence and Balalaika from Hotel Moscow. In comparison, there is less emphasis on uber-cool Dutch and Benny, who hardly even feature much in some episodes. The last story arc excludes both of them almost completely.
Eda is appeared in only one or two episodes only in Season 1, here she’s added as more of a comic relief, playing Revy’s ‘friend’ and accomplice mostly, as much of a ‘friend’ Revy can have. She’s quite funny at times, and not too shabby with the guns, although not as deadly as Revy, of course. Miss Balalaika, mostly client to the Lagoon Company, plays a key role in the storylines here, and quite a bit of her history is revealed towards the end.
Black Lagoon is, at the heart of it, still the Rock and Revy show. Rock is still philosophical and human as ever, but I still feel that his character is still not entirely believeable as a member of the crew, how do you keep that shirt and tie clean and uncreased all this time?! Revy, on the other hand grows in character and yet remains a loose cannon as before, the way we all like it.
I found the Romanian Twins storyline a bit too much, even for a matured anime. Rock’s justification at the end of the arc didn’t save it for me, however you look at it. It’s also a little unbelieveable how a couple of pre-pubescent kinds can be so well-skilled with an axe that’s probably heavier than them, but then again that’s fiction.
At the end of the season, everyone comes back to Roanapor, and nothing much has changed for the city and the characters, probably paving an easy transition into Season 3. And Eda’s probably relieved that Revy still hasn’t ‘done it’ with Rock yet…
[tags]anime, Black Lagoon, second barrage[/tags]
15 Comments
Zer0
urgh..i MUST watch this during my sem break.
simon
you should. the animation is pretty flawless.
grofile
all and all it was a great anime
but the ending was good and lame
at the same time i hope thay
realy make a season 3 and 4
or at least a movie
b cos the anime was to good to let
down were it stoped
grofile
2 bad there is no news over
a season 3 cant find anyting on it
simon
i pretty sure there’ll be season 3… it’ll be a waste if they let it stop there.
kain
i like the series and carnt wait for S3 but i dont like the end of season 2 she was 2 quick 2 stab her throat and die
Chris
SEASON 3 NEED TO BE MADE I WANT TO MORE INFO
THEY NOT REALLY GIVING MUCH IN 24 EPISODE. What about EDA cia thing. Man i dont want it to end. NEED SEASON 3. I wonder if revi and rock gona get together. ONCE AGAIN WE NEED SEASON 3. ending was too quick. AM GONA FREAKING HUNT DOWN THE WRITER IF HE’S REALLY STOPING THERE.
Nina
There must be season 3 because it will be too stupid if anime is going to stop here. It will be very bad end. And I want to see more Revi shooting asses and I want to find out if she and Rock will end up together. Damn the writer if this is it. They better make a season 3 because if they don’t there will be too many unhappy faces so they better prepear for the conquences.
Drakere
To Nina
Dam right!I hope Rock and Revy do get together besides there most likely to have season 3..Why is it called Second Barrage why can’t it be The Last Barrage,At the end she says “Lets go,partner”or something like that and Bailaka or w/e is not dead yet.
Saint924
Lol there will be another season.. I meen they made alot of mangas going all the way up to chapter 37.. And um btw if balalaika dies .. then so does the whole city lol. Her being gone for only the time she was and a riot started up and there was gun shots everywhere lol. I defenly loved season 2 and I think the way they ended it was perfect.. because now everyones hooked to find out what happens next in season 3. So I cant wait!
davyn
the reason theres no season 3 yet is the manga needs to catch up,if there is one it will be centered around roberta
Ian
Why would it be centered around Roberta? She wasn’t that great of a character anyhow. There should be one primarily on Dutch or something.
Stefan
They’ve got to make a third season because if they don’t then I’m pretty sure that there will be fan riots. Personally I think that the anime is great and if the writer doesn’t continue the series than he must be stuped.
Kreiger
My favorite anime, what can I say. If they end it here though…ouch, what a waste, at least make another season. Maybe end it at 4. 4 season’s are reasonable.
Sherms
4 seasons sounds great, but probably when that time comes, I’ll still miss it. Black Lagoon has become my favorite anime and I really hope to see more of it (anime and manga)