Madhouse Studios have an exceptional talent for adapting manga – BECK, Monster and now Black Lagoon, they clearly devote a lot of careful thought to developing a specific style for their works; almost inevitably, they craft absolutely unique anime. I feel safe in saying that Black Lagoon’s flair for attention grabbing will never fade, such is it’s commitment to ass kicking, it is a series willing to twist the boundaries of bad taste, adding layer after layer of extreme and unbelievable material, naturally showing a complete disregard of human life.
Consider incestuous, cannibalising, underage twins from Europe. They carry axes and have sweet little dolls tied to their massive machine guns. They are clearly insane. Cute, but insane. They commit depraved acts, but what is truly chilling is that they are simply kids – innocent by nature, they are none the less completely lost in and exploited by the darkness that surrounds them.
Balalaika and even Revy (as cool as they look) are obviously killers themselves, but would one consider them evil? They show an emotional restraint in their bloody and brutal work, but if they took on the same job as “the Twins”, of course they would eventually rub out their targets all the same. But because we have seen them with their feet up, drinking beer and joking with friends, we recognise a glint of their humanity, instinctively we know that deep down, they have feelings just like you and me. The twins offer no such empathy; show no emotion in context with their disgusting acts, so it’s them that are the monsters. Apparently. Body count is irrelevant.
Black Lagoon is still just as fun as ever – there is a loveable black humour and corny kitsch value to be found in such an over-top bunch of episodic villains, and despite the animation (particularly character designs) looking strangely inconsistent, you just can’t beat this show for a good ol’ fashioned shoot out.
Black Lagoon – 13 – People call it spinal reflex
3 responses to “Black Lagoon – 13 – People call it spinal reflex”
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Next time Hotel Moscow’s special unit will on the hunt for the killer twin.
From what they show this episode I wonder how much damage it will take when the thing is finish. -
I dunno about Revy, she didnt seem to hold much emotional restraint on those people that the nazis hired as added help, who were technically innocent. Dutch had to stop her.
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>> I dunno about Revy
Exactly tskiller. I find it interesting that as viewers we sympathise with Revy when ultimately she is just as bad as these vampire twins. I know that its an action show so we aren’t really supposed to ask these kind of morally conscious questions, but I found it interesting none the less.
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