Black Lagoon - And how its a hidden gem.

So I've recently been binging some old-ish anime, for an example Full Metal Alchemist, Code Geass, and whatnot, and decided to watch Black Lagoon again, this time a bit older and wiser than a short time after it came out. My god, it is fucked up, so NSFW warning for the more sensitive lot. Covering anything from your regular ass state sponsored drug trade, to child.. Human trafficking, to an arms dealing nunnery, Black Lagoon is a very 'colorful' anime, to put it mildly.

Carrying a decent enough, although less energetic and 'verbal' cast in the original voice cast, and an absolutely banger cast in the English dub, i highly recommend you watch English if you're not looking for a genuinely worse first-watch. Especially if you want to enjoys Maryke Hendrikse straight up swearing at you for 2 hours, and Patricia Drake performing the best Russian Dom soldier mommy act I never knew i wanted.

Taking place in Thailand and Vietnam, the amount of foreigners that flock there also make it easier to vary your cast, languages, cultures, and whatnot.

Want cool ass Ex-Afghan war Russians? They've got you covered.

'Chinglish women' from china (Revy said it, not me)

with deadly throwing knives, or Kokyetsu-shoge blades? Yep.

Hilariously chill and incompetent Mexican cartel? Doped up and loud alright.

Literal US Marines and CIA with the most eagle screeching "OORAH"? Yeah, they're not there to follow international law.

And my personal favorite, Nazi Larpers with emotional issues and tempers, and hilarious German accents and goofy etiquette to go along.

(There's a nice ending to that arc.)

With a cast so wide, and characters so plentiful, you really would think you couldn't get to familiarize yourself with them all, right? - Is what i thought.

As it turns out, the entire anime through, every character introduced in any meaningful manner probably had about 20 years of backstory written for the few lines they do have, with amazing personality, effort from voice actors, character design, and comrades to support it.

I probably know 80% of the recurring characters off the top of my head. Besides the main plot being the deep underbelly of the criminal world, where people perform armed robbery in broad daylight, and give the cops a share for not messing with it, it has some other charms, such as the discussion of monotony in the modern world, what monetary gain gets you when you're cut off from society, and a lot of 'moral dilemmas'.

The thing is though, this is 2010 anime, so the writing is going to be a bit cliche in our eyes.

There's a ton of "DAMMIT" in the most generic black hair MC character voices you get throughout everything that doesn't go Rock's way.

There's a lot of just plain fucking dumb discussions, like "is it morally right to loot medals from a sunken sub" like he hasn't just sold weapons to a Somali warlord the episode prior, and Rock not shutting up, which seems like a personality trait, but ends up being interpreted as bad writing due to the execution.

Think of a Season 1-2 Subaru from Re-Zero, and put that behavior into rock occasionally.

BUT!

Other than those occasional hurdles in writing, and generally cliche moments, the solid plot, pacing, and voice acting does 10 times more than making up for it. Plus, it has Revy.

So do give it a watch, and if you've already seen it nearly two decades ago it came out now, watch it again.

It'll be worth it, seriously.