Mr. Finale's Anime Review!

I don't know why I'd doing this but here we are. Don't expect a numerical score or anything, I'm just going to look over some anime and spit out a few opinions. Well. Here goes.

Black Lagoon (Season One)
"It’s money of course. And guns. Fuckin’ A, with these two things, the world is a great place."

Here we have a pretty simple concept. Have an everyday guy end up becoming a modern day pirate, and watch the action unfold. Black Lagoon is a bit on in that the primary protagonist, Rock, isn't the resident bad ass here. Instead, Lagoon Company's very own Revy is a sexy gunslinger with a foul mouth and a bad temper. Oh, and did I mention that she's the pseudo-romantic interest? Yeah.

So here we have your everyman Rock, with strong moral standing, trying to co-exist with Revy, the hyper-violent moralless psycho. They are accompanied by Lagoon Company's leader Dutch, the stoic scary black man in charge, and Benny, the Jewish tech expert. It's a recipe for disaster just to watch Rock try to exist in the criminal underworld, but throw in the constant danger and the sexual tension with Revy, and you have something worth watching.

The first season is only 12 episodes, standard length, and tells itself over a few story arcs. The arcs don't really make an overarching story beyond the conflicting morals of the two protagonists, which eventually comes to a head. But each arc has its own nice plotline, with plenty of action to go around. The anime is definitely a kind of homage to the action flicks of the 80s with nod to Terminator, Indiana Jones, and pretty much anything made my John Woo. In fact, if you ever liked a John Woo movie, I'll go ahead and say you'll like this too.

As someone who prefers english dubs anytime theyre available, I feel the need to comment on them and assure everyone that that they aren't shit. Which, they aren't. Every one is well acted, barring the two very stereotypical racist archetypes that show up in the last few episodes of the season, but they have their bad accents quickly lampshaded. The Lagoon Company has particularly good voice acting, especially Revy. Rock is maybe my one major complaint, he sounds fine but everytime his voice is heard, one can't help but picture Kira from Death Note.

The sound effects are nice, guns sound like guns, explosions are satisfying, what else can you ask for? The animation is pretty tight, though there are a few brief segments of 3D modelling, its nothing as blatant as Hellsing Ultimate, and manages to not seem horribly out of place. The soundtrack isn't exactly extensive (It was rather annoying that the closing credits song was frequently used as the go-to sad music), but whats here is great, with special kudos to the fantastic opening theme.

While there aren't copious amounts of blood, or pure sexual content, this definitely isn't for a younger audience. Every one in this universe smokes, blood is portrayed here and there, tones of racism are directly addressed, pornography and the adult industry is referenced, drugs are used, etc. This is one for the adults.

I love this anime to bits. If your looking for something with a greater meaning, or something more light hearted, maybe just something with a plot that will pull you in, look elsewhere. But if you want to see a scandily clad woman cursing and shooting everything in sight with all the juvenile fascination of a teenager, your in the right place.