Anime: Black Lagoon: Roberta`s Blood Trail

Black Lagoon, what a nice series. Good action, likeable characters, interesting story... too bad it all falls to pieces with Roberta's Blood Trail (RBT).

Rosarita "Bloodhound" Cisneros, aka Roberta, is the main focus of RBT, so much so that she isn't even listed as a main character. She was a terrifying side-character in the main series and it appears was liked enough to get an OVA telling her story.

The basis of the story is that the Young Master, Garcia, was left orphaned after a political coup caused the death of his father. Roberta snaps and seeks revenge, eventually leading to Roanapur and the involvement of Lagoon Company. But, let's not get side tracked and break it down into sections.

Art and Animation - same as the main series
If you've seen Black Lagoon and Second Barrage, you know what to expect in terms of animation. It's the same, nice action, good art, blood, violence, lots of panning stills. Character models haven't changed from the other series, so no new looks for well known characters. Rock is still Rock, Revy is still Revy, and Sawyer is still a cute psycho that wields a chainsaw and Shenhua is still the blade loving Chinese girl... everything was fairly solid in terms of animation and artwork, however, panning stills is a huge detractor but not enough to bring the score lower than an 8.

Sound - still the same
Despite the passage of 5 years between the first two and RBT, they brought back all of the voice actors. Voice acting is good and the characters are believable. Music was something that wasn't really noticed and over the years, I tend to skip the OP/ED's, so I won't detract points because of that. OST wasn't really noticed, so I suppose that is a good thing, right? It means it was well incorporated into the whole that it didn't stand out? Sure. I usually only notice the OST when it doesn't fit the mood being shown and everything played well. No detraction for the voice acting... although it wasn't perfect (what is?), I will give it a 7. It wasn't fantastic but it wasn't terrible.

Story - quite disappointing
So the story revolves around a revenge mission for Roberta and the pursuit by her master, Garcia. It is quite disappointing and wasn't something that needed to stretch out over five episodes, it could have easily been told in one episode, perhaps an hour long movie? The gist of the story is that Garcia's father dies in a political coup and Roberta snaps and pursues those responsible. Eventually leading to Roanapur where there is a big standoff between her and the US Army unit responsible, they are on a new mission to capture a drug lord.

Garcia recruits Rock to help catch Roberta and get her back to Venezuela so they can be a family again. Rock hesitantly agrees after some persuading from Mr. Chang. He devises a plan that tries to save Roanapur. There is action and chases and shoot outs and bloods and brief nudity, basically more of the same from the first two series. What gets unbelievable is the piss poor representation of the US Army unit. They're supposed to be a highly trained Spec Ops unit and in the final show down at the climax of the series, they do worse than a group of rebel children.

Roberta is particularly unbelievable as she is nearly indestructible; avoiding bullets in mid-air like some superhero and kicking a lot of ass. I understand she is supposed to be this badass character, but the amount of badassery portrayed is too damn high! Near the end, I had enough and was just wanting the show to be over with. The story was overly complex, much more than it ever needed to be, the suspense and drama felt forced, internal struggles were pointless at the end, and overall, it was shit. Story is the huge detractor here, so much so that it even affects value and enjoyment... a piss-poor 2.

Character - new character!
That's right! Fabiola, a new character that accompanies Garcia. She is another maid, although not quite to the level of Roberta. The characters are all the same, although we do see a more sinister side of Rock. It doesn't seem like any changes have been made, or growth, between the series. There is some minor development along the way, Revy seems to understand Rock a bit more, realize he isn't the "field of flowers" she was wanting that would redeem and save her.

There is also a slew of side characters in the US Army unit that goes to Roanapur. They are a piss poor representation of Spec Ops units, but hey, it is all about the glory and redemption of Roberta, she is the unstoppable machine, right? Characters are mostly flat and only a few receive any development, most are quite stereotypical... but what do you expect of Black Lagoon? 6

Value and Enjoyment - thank the flying spaghetti monster that's over!
Seriously, I got a lot of enjoyment out of Black Lagoon and Second Barrage, but RBT was horrendous. The only redeeming factors was the mindless shoot outs and Roberta's badassery before it got too high, and the brief fanservice provided by a nipple shot from Revy and her walking around in panties and a towel. On the whole, I would say skip this, or maybe watching the first episode to get an introduction and then the last two for a conclusion. Save yourself an hour of pain... perhaps I am being too critical... it's my review and these are my thoughts. 4

Notice: This review covers all three installments of the franchise. No reason to make different reviews about the same thing.

In a nutshell: A distillation of every bad or semi-competent Hollywood action flick cranked up to eleven, interspersed with some light philosophy, homage to other media (war films, Yakuza films) and some mature subjects like terrorism and child abuse. It got a cast like a Tarantino film, actually strong and competent female characters who don’t break down and need the male shoulder to cry on, and its tone and content is both over-the-top hilarious and at the same time features moments more mature than ten dozen Claymores and Narutos… That, AND boobs and guns.

Black Lagoon can be a highly entertaining anime if you go all myopic on it; meaning to watch only specific aspects of it and have a blind eye to all the rest. To put it bluntly, it is a guilty pleasure series and you are going to watch it for the violence and the profanity. One should see it as a fun ride and not a profound deep show. Here is a list of the things it does right:
- Very good production values, detailed backgrounds, exciting battle choreographies, good use of lighting effects, the BGM has its way of making your blood boil or making you feel the drama of the moment.
- Extremity in violence, character personalities, battles, profanity, death toll, explosions, smoking, drinking, usually all of the above at the same time.
- Gar fighters and butchy women. Uncommon at an era of moe girls and pitiful male protagonists.
- Hints of seriousness thrown at intervals. Despite being a guilty pleasure series aiming at entertainment and not at realism, it was constantly throwing at you info about the harsh reality and how the cruel world really works behind the scenes. That was making it seem a bit intelligent and with some substance.
- Making a parody of it all. It’s poking fun at the clichés of its own genre, thus becoming self-aware satire.
- Best “chicks with guns” anime ever made thus far.

You should not try to make sense out of it or you will hate it right away. The action scenes lack realism and a critical viewer will most likely bitch at how bullets never hit important characters while mooks die with instant headshots, or how the villains constantly freeze and stare like idiots or how useless they are at aiming at something standing half a meter away from them, or how the heroine can do some really impossible acrobatics to kill 10 men with a six-shooter.

Besides the badass attitude of the characters at shooting bullets left and right, cursing, and laughing maniacally, they also have a softer side to them. Meaning they are not just hollow FPS caricatures; they get some fleshing out by revealing their backgrounds and things which affected them and turned them to what they are today. There isn’t much character development though, outside the main duo and even then it only appears in the last part of the franchise almost for playing against the stereotype.

The story is mostly stand-alone arcs, but they don’t overstay their welcome and differ enough from each other in situations and gimmicks. Rock will be usually bitching about immorality, Revy will be shooting at everything that moves, and the discussions they will have with secondary characters during the intervals (while Revy is reloading guns, lol) provides a simple yet satisfying immersion to the story, leaving the viewer to ponder a bit about values… before Revy starts shooting again and all that matters is who remains standing up in the end of the battle. Since bullets change trajectory when they come near her and villains are complete idiots, well, there is little worry regarding if she wins or not.

A point of notice is the gradual swift from mostly action to mostly social drama. Later arcs are longer with less action and better fleshed out situations and adversaries. It’s as if the creators of the show got bored with animating elaborate action scenes and went for characters that got fed up with their line of work. The badasses wanted to be pitied, while Rock had no more tears to shed and suddenly turned to a Machiavellian anti-hero. This reversing of personalities didn’t sit well with most, since nobody expected or wanted characters to develop in this sort of show.

But anyways, if you manage to be half blind to the farfetched situations and don’t mind the emo-ness that slowly crawls in along the way, it is a great action show.