Toon Zone Talkback - "Black Lagoon" Vol. 2: All Aboard the Blooooood Boat!

[Classic Speedy]

This is the talkback thread for "Black Lagoon" Vol. 2: All Aboard the Blooooood Boat! (http://news.toonzone.net/article.php?ID=19118).
http://news.toonzone.net/images/2007-09/blacklagoon/splash-blacklagoon2-5.jpg

In case it wasn't already clear, I like this show. :p

[Vallen Valiant]

About the non-nazis on the boat...
The manga-version Revy slaughtered them, because she can see no moral difference between being a Nazi and working for a Nazi. And anyway she didn't care; Revy isn't out to save the innocent, but to get paid by doing her job. And her job is to kill people.

Strangely, even though she supposedly spared them in the anime version, in the next episode's prologue it showed the empty Nazi vessel floating in the middle of the ocean. I suspect this matches the original manga, but not the anime. A large crew of people would rather brave the dangers of the sea in a perfectly functional (though bloodied) ship than getting on life-rafts.

The only way I could interpret the scene was that later Revy killed those people anyway, when Dutch wasn't around to stop her.
Black Lagoon is such an interesting piece of work, in that it portrayed the lives of hard-core criminals yet made them sympathetic to a degree. Evil is relative, I guess; In a city where everyone is a criminal, no one is.

I mean, the Lagoon Company help transport narcotics, crates of AK-47s, and who knows what else, to warlords, criminals and terrorists. And yet it is so ordinary because everyone else in town is just as bad. The Lagoon Company exists to make a living, and nothing more.

I guess criminals are people too. What's fascinating was that the manga source material and anime managed to get this point across without sugarcoating characters as "not really evil."

[HG Revolution]

Whats happening to this show with Geneon going under?

[delariean]

Whats happening to this show with Geneon going under?


As with other shows, its on hiatus until Geneon decides what to do....so you do have the first season (Yay!), but you are missing the second season with the introduction of I think are the most ruthless yet tragic characters you will see in this series.....

I think BL will be distributed as soon as Geneon figures out what they will do...right now...I dont know about if the licenses are up for grabs or what not....

Stay tuned.....

[Classic Speedy]

Haven't picked up volume 3 yet, but I hope the original series ends pretty self-contained and not on a cliffhanger leading into Second Barrage. That title won't be coming out anytime soon thanks to Geneon going under, and I'd hate to be left wondering what happened if that were the case.

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

Black Lagoon is such an interesting piece of work, in that it portrayed the lives of hard-core criminals yet made them sympathetic to a degree. Evil is relative, I guess; In a city where everyone is a criminal, no one is.

I mean, the Lagoon Company help transport narcotics, crates of AK-47s, and who knows what else, to warlords, criminals and terrorists. And yet it is so ordinary because everyone else in town is just as bad. The Lagoon Company exists to make a living, and nothing more.

I guess criminals are people too. What's fascinating was that the manga source material and anime managed to get this point across without sugarcoating characters as "not really evil."


That's interesting. You know, the show feels a lot like Cowboy Bebop at times, but at the same time, they're on opposite sides of the law, really.

Although, Dutch could arguably be seen as "not really evil" out of the bunch. He usually hides his reasons under the veil of "efficiency" but he seems to be the most 'responsible' of the bunch. I'd even say Rock is, in some ways, more "evil" than he is.

[elsie]

Rock has the skills that could make him the next Balalaika, if he wanted to go that way. Dutch is a small business owner in his approach to things. Rock's sense of information and the distribution of power make him potentially a much more powerful and dangerous character.

[Vallen Valiant]

That's interesting. You know, the show feels a lot like Cowboy Bebop at times, but at the same time, they're on opposite sides of the law, really.

Although, Dutch could arguably be seen as "not really evil" out of the bunch. He usually hides his reasons under the veil of "efficiency" but he seems to be the most 'responsible' of the bunch. I'd even say Rock is, in some ways, more "evil" than he is.
I know where you are coming from. None the less, it is still absolutely amazing that we could be sympathetic to characters who, in almost any other setting, would be villains meant to be hunted by the hero.

Yes, they do have a code amongst thieves, which made them reasonable and rational criminals. But a Heart of Gold they have not.

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

Haven't picked up volume 3 yet, but I hope the original series ends pretty self-contained and not on a cliffhanger leading into Second Barrage. That title won't be coming out anytime soon thanks to Geneon going under, and I'd hate to be left wondering what happened if that were the case.


Don't worry, I just finished volume 3 and it does end on a completed story arc. The next episode preview for episode 13 (the beginning of Second Barrage) is still there though.

The show has been kind of up and down for me (mostly depending on how I feel about the varying levels of actual danger there is towards our 'heroes'), although it maintains such a high level of quality that I never feel like I didn't get my money's worth. And put me on the Roberta fanclub! As Bart Simpson would say, "She's like some...non-giving up...maid gal!"

[Classic Speedy]

Whew, good to hear.