| Black Lagoon #2 |
|
|
| Monday, 30 June 2008 | |
 Black Lagoon returns, bringing the first season to the half-way mark - and while there's plenty of action to keep you entertained, there's also a surprising amount of thoughtful character pieces here, as Rock and Revy learn to deal with each others' very different attitudes to the world...5 - Eagle Hunting and Hunting Eagle On the surface, the Black Lagoon has had to retreat in the face of a missile barrage from the Nazi ship. Below the surface, Revy and Rock are inside the old submarine. It's a graveyard in all but name, and walking through the bones of the dead submariners is more than a little unsettling to Rock - especially as there are signs that some of the sub's crew didn't wait for their air to run out to die - but they're there on a mission, and it's not long before the painting is recovered. But trouble is on the way, as the Nazis above send a pod down to the sub...   6 - Moonlit Hunting Ground The painting is the key to the planned revival of the Nazi movement, whose wealthy backer has promised almost unlimited funds and introductions to other like-minded groups once he has it in his hands. Rock & the others aren't interested in the politics of the situation, they just see a valuable payday sailing away on someone else's boat, and they're determined to get the painting back again, but there's tension in the air between Rock and Revy as a result of their conversations down in the submarine, and that's left Revy in an even more violent mood than usual...   7 - Calm Down, Two Men Rock and Revy are stuck on a roadtrip together - and it's not smooth driving. While Benny and Dutch are working on repairs to the boat, they've been assigned a number of errands to run, but given their recent disagreements it's not an arrangement that either of them want. Especially since Revy's not exactly an expert at the art of "customer relations". When Rock's able to defuse a potentially tricky negotiation, it just adds to her annoyance, and eventually their differences come to a potentially violent head...   8 - Rasta Blasta Black Lagoon's running a cargo operation for a cartel - weapons delivered, and another shipment taken in exchange. Sounds simple enough - except that the exchange is a young boy, and human trafficking makes Rock uncomfortable. The boy has a real attitude, though, and when he almost ends up on the wrong end of Revy's temper, Rock gets handed babysitting duties. He's Garcia Lovelace, heir to a powerful South American family - or so he claims. His story doesn't tally with what Dutch has been told by his clients - but if the boy is telling the truth, Rock's going to be even more uncomfortable about handing him over at the end of their journey...   The beginning of most of the character work on this disc is in a conversation between Rock & Revy down on the sub - she's willing to spent time picking over the corpses of the dead submariners for items she can sell for a quick but, he sees this as graverobbing and says so - and from there there's a real tension between them. At first it's seen as an even more blood-thirsty attitude than usual from Revy (which she gets to take out on the Nazis - no harm there...) but it does eventually flare up into a real confrontation between the two of them. Two things you learn from this: first, that while Revy's violent attitude has been shown up in a humourous way so far, she really is a dangerous and unstable person; and second, Rock has a lot more cojones about him than you'd assume from his outward appearance. Not only does he stand up to Revy, he wins the battle of nerves, which is beyond surprising and gave me a whole new respect for the character. He also shows in episode 7 that he's far more observant and has better negotiation skills than Rebecca... er, Revy. A true man of many talents. It's not just the character pieces that are enjoyable, either. The first two episodes here close out the Nazi arc, with enough blood & violence on show that the series finally begins to look worthy of its 'hardcore' reputation (not enough to get that coveted 18 certificate, though - still a 15), while the final episode begins another arc and introduces Maria, the maid who apparently packs more firepower than Mahoro while having an attitude that makes Revy look well-behaved. More, please. The various story arcs don't appear to have anything linking them at the moment - there's a hint that the backer of the Nazis from that arc will be back to stir up more trouble, but no sign of him yet - but being episodic really doesn't hurt Black Lagoon - the selling point is the violence, of which there's plenty to go around; the rest is simply icing on a very tasty animated cake. Genuinely enjoyable fluff, and well worth a few hours of your time.  |
