For those of you who have actually been reading my previous written reviews, you have noticed that a majority so far have been comedies, as well as some references to the sci-fi genre (also counting Doctor Who). However, I did not intended that my review site would be leaning too much on comedy. So don’t think that I’m some expert on sitcoms. I only watch them. Plus, the original idea for today’s review was going to be on an episode of the Outer Limits, but I stopped myself because I wanted to do something different. If I did, then the next post I had in plan was a review of an episode of the original Star Trek series. In other words, I’m trying to avoid being the next SF Debris. If you don’t know who that is, and you are a big sci-fi fan, then you need to check him out, or otherwise your life will never be completed. Now that I got that out of the way, we are jumping into the first anime review for the site: Black Lagoon!
That’s right, my first anime review for Rerunagade Reviews is the nutz, but awesome anime series that is about modern day pirates from the south China Seas! If no one has seen the show yet, let me give you a rundown on what the show is about (skip paragraph if you have seen Black Lagoon). Black Lagoon is about a Japanese citizen named Rokuro Okajima, whose name you will forget because the crew gave him “Rock” as his new nick name. Yeah, I had to go on Wikipedia to figure out his name. He was a businessman in a boring life before he was captured by the Lagoon Company, and now he’s taking shipments from a shipping company, getting the usual safe, child friendly stuff. Oh, you know, AK-47, RPGs, Desert Eagles, safe for the whole family! The Lagoon Company crew has the African American captain, Dutch, a college dropout, Benny, and the toughest, roughest, craziest and crankiest member of them all, Revy. The Lagoon Company goes on in dangerous adventures around the south China Sea, and a lot of times, it gets insane in gun fights, treasure hunts from Nazis (which I might cover one day), and just throw in anything else. I’m sure they’ve done that (not aliens, though. This isn’t sci-fi). And before I forget, the theme song to this show is awesome too!
Our story begins with Rock getting a shipment order of weapons and finds out that one of their orders is a kid (yes, it’s a human being, not a gun). Rock brings the kid in, and Dutch has Revy try to feed and get him to talk. Dutch, the man who is well known for settling a problem in the crew, is actually allowing Revy, the angriest woman in the crew, to being around a kid. He might as well have Napoleon Bonaparte tend a busy nursery all alone in a church. Obviously, it doesn’t work out when the kid throws food at Revy, which made Dutch turn on his brain by having Rock watch over him. The kid also throws food at Rock, but he sees that Rock is nothing like Revy and starts to open up a little bit about himself.
The kid says that his name is Garcia Lovelace, who is part of one of the great thirteen families of South America, and is trying to get away from a mafia, because that appears to be the only threat any criminal from South America can come up. The mafia threatened Garcia’s dad to move out because geologist found out that lanthanides could be found in his plantation. From what I have researched, lanthanides is not that rare anymore, but this was all in 2006, so maybe it was still rare at this time. Or maybe the mafia thought it was easier to get rid of the Lovelace family. Rock doesn’t believe him and says that the Lovelace family is one of the lowest house of the thirteen families, but Garcia says it’s trying it’s hardest to keep up from it’s troubles, even after how the mafia wants him. Even I wouldn’t blame him. I just had an 8 year old german kid telling me that his father turned himself into a zombie by accident when he thought he found out the cure to AIDS. Garcia also tried to explain to Rock what he knows about lanthanides, but that wasn’t enough. Rock then asks him about a dog that the Lovelace owns, and surprise-surprise, he gets it right.
Revi decides to turn the kid in to the mafia, because doing so would profit them. But Rock tries to convince the crew that the cartel was lying about Garcia all along. Rock says this because he knows a lot about rocks and minerals, which explains why he asked Garcia on what he knows about lanthanides. Plus, with Garcia knowing a lot about the Lovelace family, he was then convinced about his story. This leads Dutch into figuring out more details about the Manisarera Cartel (which is the cartel who is after Garcia), as well as the Lovelace family by asking their Russian mafia lord herself, Balalaika. Rock also mentions that Garcia is waiting for his housemaid to come see him too.
The housemaid’s name is Roberta, who is dressed like a average housemaid, with a long skirt (don’t apply your dirty mind with the other housemaid dress), but also wears a big golden cross, big round sunglasses, and purple hair on a Latin American woman, because……..anime. That’s why! She too is trying to find Garcia. Garcia says that she is not very good at doing chores or cleaning, meaning that if she can’t heat up just one hot pocket, then she pretty much sucks at her job. The one thing that Garcia tries to put a huge emphasis on is the fact that she is very strong. And Revi laughs, or course. You see, that’s the annoying thing about kids and those who surrounds them. They say things that might be true and hard to believe that makes adults think they should be on Kids say the Dumbest Things. Or maybe they might get smacked on the face for thinking that they’re making things up.
His only story to back up Roberta being super strong is the day when the mafia came to his house, and both Garcia and Roberta were arm wrestling. But when she sensed the mafia entering into his mansion, her arm wouldn’t budge for even a fraction. And then we get to see her break a mug in a bar just by squeezing the handle, meaning that the mafia has found her. And she knew this by sensing them. Is she Spiderman? Whatever. Balalaika discovers that Roberta is a soldier, just by looking at her eyes through her glasses, because I think she has the ability to see through the animation of reflection when she’s around. But this episode ends with the Lagoon entering into the bar, and Roberta shooting a shotgun shell with Pinguin’s umbrella gun.
(you cannot tell mean that this image is not awesome!)
This three parter will be continued with Maid to Kill.
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