Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage

Title:Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage
Overall:Buy
Keywords: , , , , ,
Notables: Animation - Madhouse
R1 License - Geneon (Defunct)
Rock, Revy, Dutch and Benny are a delivery company who deliver packages of all kinds, From weapons to drugs to children, No Job is to big. Lagoon company is based in the crime city of Roanappur. A place where vicious and psychotic criminals are all but welcomed with open arms. Only problem is, The vast number of criminals and murderers are constantly trying to create problems for Lagoon company.

12 TV Episodes
Continuation of Black Lagoon
Also see 5-ep OVA - Roberta`s Blood Trail.

Based on the manga by Hiroe Rei.
Animation by Madhouse and Geneon
R1/license by Geneon Entertainment (USA) Inc.
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Buy 9 9 9 8 8 8 Ggultra2764 [series:1550#1552]
The second season to Black Lagoon returns with what made the first season enjoyable: insane and bloody gun-action within the crime-infested city of Ronapour and the activities of the Lagoon Company. This season has three additional arcs where Revy, Rock and/or the Church of Violence's Eda are caught up in the events of that particular arc dealing with incestuous twin children assassins, protecting a money counterfeiter and getting caught in the middle of Balalaika's plans of taking over a Japanese crime syndicate. Unlike the first season though, two of the three arcs (Hansel and Gretel, the Washimine arc) are a bit more serious in their plotting than the first season as some parts of the arcs explore the tragic backgrounds surrounding the key characters. Both arcs do well at balancing the trademark grittiness and attitude Black Lagoon is known to have and changing the mood to reflect the perspectives of the key characters witnessed within the arcs (Hansel and Gretel for their arc, Yukio and Ginji for the Washimine arc). The Washimine arc, in particular, features some major developments with Rock and Revy as Rock comes to grips with no longer feeling connected to the country he used to call home and Revy shows signs of being soft around Rock and being in a world that she grew disconnected from long ago thanks to her upbringing.

Having aired months after the first season, Second Barrage retains the fluid animation and detailed settings/ character designs that wowed audiences as well as much of the show's soundtrack from season one, though with a special closing song and sequence during the Hansel and Gretel arc's finale. If you enjoyed the first season of Black Lagoon, then you will definitely feel at home with this second offering into Ronapour's world of crime.

Last updated Friday, May 14 2010. Created Wednesday, April 14 2010.
Buy 8 9 9 8 8 8 Dreamer [series:1550#2279]
This continues where the first series left off. It's a seriously graphic anime with tons of explosive action.

Art, Animation and Character Design
Art is pretty good. The animation is average with moments of it dipping a bit... but not a lot. Character designs were really good! All unique characters with very distinct personalities... strong personalities. You have a lot of characters throughout this anime that come and go..... rather, "go" as in getting blown away to bits or shot full of holes beyond recognition.

Music
The OP was very high impact female-grunge-rock. Perfect for this anime... full of high-impact action itself. The rest of the music wasn't noticeable.

Series and Episode Story
Since I didn't really cover much in my review of the first series, here it is. This series is bloody as hell and with pure gun action and tough-guy stunts. With tons of characters not a single one's background is really explored. On a few occasions, some of the characters like "Balalaika", a ruthless female Russian gang leader gets her background "peaked" into... and briefly at that. This plot is quite disturbing... not to mention quite graphic. It deals with child brutality and the consequences.... like what happens to a poor child that is subjected to rape and forced to viciously bludgeon other kids with a bat. The plot is very intricate with plenty of subplots converging into the main by the end of the series.

Overall, this is a really good anime to keep you busy. But if you can't handle buckets of blood, gore and seriously disturbing situations, then don't watch.

Last updated Sunday, February 22 2009. Created Sunday, February 22 2009.

Other Sites
NameURL
Official Japanese Series Web Site http://www.blacklagoon.jp

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