Black Lagoon (2006)

Black Lagoon is a 2006 action-adventure anime TV series. While it was made in 2006 the setting seems to be a bit earlier, maybe the early 1990s.

Rokuro Okajima is a young Japanese salaryman. At times he feels vaguely dissatisfied but there’s nothing he can do about it. He’ll rise slowly through the ranks and become a middle-aged salaryman, probably with a wife and kids. He’s resigned to living a boring life.

Until he gets captured by pirates.

He was on an assignment for his company. Very low-level courier stuff. A computer disk to be delivered to a client. He has no idea what is on the disk. He certainly didn’t expect an organised crime syndicate to hire pirates to steal the disk.

Now the pirates have the disk, and they have Rokuro. They figure on making some extra cash by holding him for ransom. That plan doesn’t work out and now the pirates have a whole army of mercenaries after them, and Rokuro is of no further use to them. The obvious step would be to kill him but they don’t do that for two reasons. Firstly, they’re pirates, not cold-blooded murderers. They’ll kill people in battle, but not a helpless unarmed civilian. The second reason is that killing Rokuro would be like killing a friendly well-meaning puppy. So they’re stuck with him.

The pirates are a black American ex-US Navy dude named Dutch, an American  computer guy named Benny, and Revy. Revy is young, female, crazy, wild and deadly. And sexy. She provides the combat arm of the team. 

And now Rokuro Okajima is part of the team, and he’s become known as Rock.

The pirates have a ex-US Navy PT boat called Black Lagoon. They are based in Roanapur, a fictional South-East Asian city which is a haven for gangsters, smugglers, thieves and pirates.

The Black Lagoon pirates undertake jobs for various client, notably Balalaika. She’s a big-time Russian gangster. She’s head of the Hotel Moscow organised crime syndicate. As gangsters go she’s fairly honourable. That cannot be said of some of the pirates’ clients.

There are no yakuza in this saga but the Hotel Moscow group do resemble yakuza in some ways. Like yakuza they think of themselves as adhering to a warrior code, a code of honour. They’re all ex-military and Afghanistan War veterans. They’re adrift in the post-Soviet world. They’re a bit like yakuza in postwar Japan, clinging to a warrior code in order to give their lives meaning. Balalaika thinks of herself as a soldier. In her own way she is a woman of honour.

Black Lagoon also has links with the nuns of the Ripoff Church. They’re not your run-of-the-mill nuns, being essentially gun-toting gangsters. Sister Eda and Revy have always been rivals for the title of the most formidable dangerous psycho bitch in Roanapur.

By episode three we’re into the saga of the attempted salvage of a German U-boat wreck. There’s something valuable on board but it’s not gold. And others are interested in the wreck. Lots of mayhem ensues.

Later the pirates are taking a cargo to Roanapu, a kidnapped South American boy. The boy is confident that the family’s maid Roberta will rescue him. Roberta is a sweet lady who always carries an umbrella. She’s a bit like Mary Poppins, if you can imagine Mary Poppins as an unstoppable killing machine.

Later the Black Lagoon team encounters the twins. A cute brother and sister, from Transylvania. There are lots of horror references including some very obvious references to Kubrick’s The Shining.

Like most good anime TV series Black Lagoon gradually becomes more and more interesting and more and more morally complex. When it comes to loyalties and motivations there are wheels within wheels. There are many different criminal factions and many shifting alliances.

And there’s the question of belonging and of in-group loyalty. To what extent is Rock really part of the Black Lagoon group? Is he prepared to commit himself fully? 

The relationship between Revy and Rock is interesting because you expect some kind of romantic or sexual attraction to develop. That’s not quite the case but an odd kind of emotional bond does develop.

Black Lagoon is an action-packed, fast-moving exciting and stylish series. Highly recommended.

It's available on Blu-Ray.