Crossover With Non-anime Series Fan Fiction ❯ Terdwilicker's Anime Reviews ❯ Black Lagoon ( Chapter 25 )

Black Lagoon is a story of madness. Of dehumanization, and how the descent of one man from an unhappy but lifetime employed Salaryman is abandoned by crooked bosses to die and instead becomes a mad pirate (or something) in the city of anarchy, Roanapur, which is in Thailand. It is corrupt, filled with villains, and pretty much unregulated because the police are on the take from the highest bidder, and they take bribes from anyone. 

Black Lagoon is the name of a shipping (smuggling) company run by a vietnam vet with a PT boat and a couple helpers. He is basically Jet Black from Cowboy Bebop, including the voice actor. The salaryman is their new hire after his company refuses to pay his ransom and leaves him to die after delivering some very illegal blueprints to a place that should not have them. Violence happens and there are many mad confrontations in this dead-end part of the world. It is beautiful, sometimes silly, but often dark. There are terrible things in this story, and like The Sopranos, just when you start getting comfortable, something really terrible happens in front of you and you can't stop thinking about it. This is a show with enough darkness you should not watch it all at once. Stretch it out over multiple weeks so you can think about it. 

Once in a whilte you'll find this show crossed over with Full Metal Panic. The animation studio is the same, and the characters are similar so this is not actually hard to cross. 

One of the curious things about Rock is he's actively dating Revy 2 Hands, who is a Chinese American girl from New York City. She is really angry at the world and lashes out if she can't kill someone pretty often. There's also a CIA nun, and a scarred Russian babe who is the colonel of a troop of Afghanistan survivors from when Russia tried to convince the afghans to civilize. This did not work out for them any more than it did for the USA/UK. All three women like Rock because he's largely untouched, a virgin to the violence in their lives. They find him attractive because he's not properly afraid of them and what they are. He doesn't understand just how dark they are. This is an inversion of why evil businessmen take young mistresses as lovers. Same idea. It is a running theme through both seasons of the show. 

I am not sure if I'd recommend all of the show to curious eyes. The first arc is pretty great, and there's sections of the story which are a feast for the eyes, like the fight with the Colombians at Yellow Flag bar. But there are parts of the story so dark I have declined to see them again, EVER. If you watch them you will understand too. 

As a way to comprehend semi-realistic war/anarchy anime Black Lagoon is a very good example.