Line #55 YMMV/BlackLagoon


1	* AccidentalInnuendo: When Balalaika rounds up her men when they find out Roberta is on the loose, she says “Cock your hammers!”, which to the average viewer could mean something else.
2	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
3	** Just who ''is'' Eda, really? Is she a goofy so-called nun [[spoiler:who only occasionally takes her job as a CIA agent seriously]]? Or is she really [[spoiler:a cold, domineering mastermind whose appearance to others is merely a convincing deception]]? Whoever she is, she's definitely not who she appears to be.
4	** Was Revy telling the truth about her prison experiences? Or was she just making them up to threaten Greenback Jane?
5	** Why did Yukio [[spoiler:kill herself]]? Was it to avert being at the mercy of rival clans and/or Hotel Moscow? Did she want to preserve her honor like an old-school YamatoNadeshiko would? Did she just want to [[spoiler:[[TogetherInDeath be with Ginji]]]]? Or was it some combination of the three?
6	** When Rock tells Balalaika that helping Yukio is just his hobby, is it ''really'' a sign that he's going through a StartOfDarkness, or is pure RefugeInAudacity in an attempt to get Balalaika to spare her and ''not'' get his own head blown off for his trouble?
7	** Is Shenhua's "[[AsianSpeekeeEngrish Chinglish]]" the result of genuine difficulties with the language? An [[ElectiveBrokenLanguage affectation]] she puts on for whatever reason? Or is she actively ''refusing'' to improve out of PatrioticFervor? WebVideo/BennettTheSage seems to believe the latter, pointing to her justifying her poor English by saying she's "pure Taiwanese".
8	* ArcFatigue: The El Baile de la Muerte (a.k.a. Roberta's Blood Trail) arc. It lasted three and a half years and was composed of so many [[ThePlan plans]] that even fans were getting confused and frustrated at the end. Even the author admitted the arc was dragging. Made worse by the fact that the series went into ''massive'' ScheduleSlip immediately after. There seems to be a consensus amongst fans that the anime adaptation of the arc overall handled it better by cutting and condensing it down quite a bit.
9	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
10	** The title song, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOmNWL5nzE4 "Red Fraction"]]. Even when most of the lyrics is edgy [[WordSaladLyrics rambling]], it builds up to one hell of a payoff.
11	--->''[[StuffBlowingUp Light up the fire]]. [[BloodKnight Right on the power]]. [[MoreDakka Weapon, I have it all]].''
12	** The closing theme to Roberta's Blood Trail is an awesome rendition of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2argX-pcKfs "When Johnny Comes Marching Home",]] played over images of Rock, Balalaika, and Mr. Chang's early childhoods.
13	** Revy seems to have good taste in pump-up music, putting [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXmhPlhZdHA "Peach Headz Addiction"]] into her Walkman before taking down Luac and his crew, and blasting "Guitar Wolf" on the radio while Rock is driving her and Ginji to the Bowling Alley where Chaka and his men have holed up.
14	* BaseBreakingCharacter: Yukio Washimine. While she's undeniably a BrokenBird for all the suffering she had to endure as the [[{{Ojou}} heiress to a yakuza clan]], some consider her to be a StrawNihilist who justified her unwilling (or possibly willing) ascension to the clan's leadership through [[TheWarOnStraw a flawed interpretation]] of fatalism. She was in fact, given every opportunity to absolve herself of the responsibility, but couldn't see beyond her own choices because she kept putting HonorBeforeReason first. Some people think that her outlook on life makes her character realistically flawed but interesting, while others see it as an irritating excuse to sympathize with a {{Wangst}}y teenage girl.
15	* BrokenBase: The final episode of the ''Roberta's Blood Trail'' OVA. There was one significant detail about it that was different from the manga: [[spoiler:In the anime, Roberta is nearly killed by the U.S. special forces who are all armed with automatic weapons while she has only a musket and returns to Venezuela as a wheelchair-bound cripple. In the manga, she was not injured at all.]] This, as well as showing [[spoiler:Revy getting raped when she was still in New York]] and omitting two key scenes from this arc in the manga: [[spoiler:Major Caxton realizing and sharing his suspicions that Dutch might be a PhonyVeteran with Benny and the final chat between Rock & Chang on the dock after all was said and done,]] caused quite a bit of dissatisfaction. Other prefer the OVA for giving the Grey Fox unit a [[CurbstompCushion better showing]] against Roberta, and for its redemptive final scene where she [[spoiler: [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments meets the family of the Japanese man she killed, who forgive her for killing him]].]]
16	* CatharsisFactor: After all of his monsterous actions detailed below, seeing Chaka get curb stomped by Revy and Ginji before then being [[CruelAndUnusualDeath brutally killed]] by the latter is immensely satisfying. This also applies to watching his men get massacared by the aforementioned duo, since they gleefully assissted him with his terrible plans for Yukio.
17	* CompleteMonster: In this CrapsackWorld, filled with terrible people, none manage to be quite as hateful--or [[EvilIsPetty fundamentally petty]]--as [[PsychopathicManchild Chaka]] from the "Fujiyama Gangster Paradise" arc. A Yakuza lieutenant with a penchant for DomesticAbuse, Chaka makes his [[EstablishingCharacterMoment entrance]] beating up Rock in an effort to impress Revy. When the battle between the Yakuza and the Russian mob goes badly for the Yakuza, Chaka kidnaps and brutalizes Yukio, his boss's teenage daughter, beating her bloody, and plans to sell her to a sexual sadist as part of his plan to take control of the remnants of the Yakuza. When Revy and Ginji arrive to bail her out, Chaka shoots through his own men to try and get at them, kills another man for daring to try and run away, then runs away himself, leaving his men to be massacred. Childish, stupid, and completely out of his depth, Chaka manages to make an impression only through his complete lack of conscience, loyalty, or human decency.
18	* DracoInLeatherPants: Although the work clearly moralizes that they are bad and doomed people, Hansel and Gretel have become so loved among fans that they more perceive them as tragic heroes than the villains of the arc. Even the author gets in on it, bringing them BackFromTheDead in {{omake}}s where they're portrayed as {{comedic sociopath\|y}}s.
19	* EnsembleDarkhorse:
20	** Roberta. It's not hard to see why, as the moment she shows up in [[WretchedHive Roanapur]] the body count skyrockets. This in a town where murder is only a crime if you haven't paid off the police chief or are interrupting his golf game.
21	** Hansel and Gretel have a decent fanbase despite only appearing in three episodes. Gretel placed first in a [[http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2014/07/05/fans-pick-favorite-black-lagoon-characer-and-storyline popularity poll]] with 2433 votes (for comparaison the second Revy had 2411 and the third Balalaika "only" 1354 votes) and their arc placed second for best arc.
22	** [[{{Samurai}} Ginji Matsuzaki]]. Oddly, the other characters introduced in the same arc as him are [[TheScrappy Scrappys]] or [[BaseBreakingCharacter Base-Breaking Characters.]]
23	** Sawyer The Cleaner is a [[ElegantGothicLolita goth]] body disposal expert with a nasty throat scar, voice synthesizer (needed due to said throat scar) and a [[ChainsawGood huge freaking chainsaw]]. She only appears in one arc in the anime but it's [[FreakyIsCool pretty obvious why]] she became so popular with the fans.
24	** Mr. Chang. It speaks volumes that BoisterousBruiser Revy is willing to acknowledge him as more badass, admitting to "not being on his level yet." Fans also like him for being reasonable, uber-cool in the face of danger, and for being modeled after Chow Yun-Fat.
25	** The nameless [[OneSceneWonder FARC commander]] from ''Roberta's Blood Trail''. Sure, [[spoiler: he died, but not before wrestling the near-superhuman '''Roberta''' into submission.]]
26	* EvilIsCool: Chang, the local leader of the Triads who sports a pair of CoolShades, is ''not'' a nice guy. Balalaika is just as cool and even ''less'' nice. Most of the random assassins who show up in the series are much more obviously evil but tend to have cool designs.
27	* FanficFuel: Anything that can happen in Roanapur, given that it's an international city in Thailand.
28	* FanNickname:
29	** For Roberta, we have "the Maidinator".
30	** Claude “Torch” Weaver is frequently nicknamed [[WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill Hank Hill]] for his heavy resemblance to Hank.
31	** Leigharch is typically referred to “the Irish guy”.
32	* FanonDiscontinuity: Some fans consider the anime-exclusive flashback of [[spoiler:Revy being raped by a corrupt cop during her childhood in New York City]] non-canon considering no such scene was in the manga. Time will tell whether this gets mentioned in the manga proper.
33	* FauxSymbolism: Roanapur has a giant erosion-defaced statue of Buddha at its entrance. The narration doesn't even try to be subtle.
34	* GeniusBonus:
35	** ''Black Lagoon'' can be said to be made of these, containing varying references to languages, firearms, music (From Music/RobZombie to Music/CreedenceClearwaterRevival) and quite a few about Westerns like ''Film/TheWildBunch'' (one of the characters in which was called [[WildMassGuessing "Dutch"]]...). It also contains a surprising amount of philosophy – themes such as Sartre's existentialism, consequence ethics, nihilism, phenomenalism, and Kierkegaard's "knight of faith" are openly discussed by characters (if not using those exact words).
36	** [[GunPorn As an example]], take the firefight in the Yellow Flag which serves as Fabiola's introduction. Halfway through the fight, she throws away her [[GunsAkimbo right-hand handgun]] and [[spoiler:breaks out a China Lake 40mm grenade launcher, an exotic weapon which even the denizens of Roanapur don't recognize (witness Revy's reaction). A little research shows that the China Lake holds a maximum of four grenades, and Fabiola doesn't seem to have any spare grenades at hand (or any time to load them, for that matter). Alert readers will notice that Fabiola launches all four grenades during the fight. When she cocks the launcher again to threaten Gustavo, she's ''bluffing'' – she's out of ammo. It partly explains why she needs a stiff drink, and why her knees give out a little later]].
37	** In Chapter 80[[note]] (chapter 77 in the Viz edition, since it for some reason treats all of Volume 10 as a single gigantic chapter)[[/note]], Major General Liu tells Colonel Ma that he had gotten an official inquiry from "14th Chang'An Avenue". This street is where many major Chinese government offices are located, and is right next to Tian'anmen Square. It would be the equivalent of saying "I just got a call from 10 Downing Street" in the U.K. or "the White House" in the U.S.
38	* HilariousInHindsight: In the "Das Wieder Erstehen Des Adlers" arc, the Lagoon crew are told the story of a sunken U-Boat near the territorial waters of Indonesia. [[http://archive.is/I1rw3 In 2013, researchers from the Indonesian National Archaeology Center found a sunken U-Boat.]]
39	* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: When Rock is acting as a TranslatorBuddy, Brad Swaille is speaking some very accurately-pronounced Japanese.
40	* IronWoobie: Rock. He has been taken hostage, abandoned by his company, captured, shot at by friend and foe alike, berated, beaten, punched and just generally abused. Despite all this, he's managed to [[spoiler:destroy a chopper by ramming it in midair with a torpedo]], call out Revy when he gets tired of her abuse, and earn the respect of Balalaika. And that's just the first couple of episodes/chapters.
41	* JerkassWoobie: Hansel & Gretel, Revy, Balalaika, Ibraha from the "Lock and Load Revolution" arc, and Roberta ''especially'' during the "El Baile De La Muerte" arc.
42	* MagnificentBastard: In this dark criminal underworld, a few manage to thrive and even direct the chaos:
43	** Rokuro "Rock" Okajima himself has [[ProtagonistJourneyToVillain grown steadily darker as the series goes on]]. Proving his tactical acumen in the first few episodes by coming up with a genius plan to wipe out a pursuing anti-tank aircraft, Rock later shows his skilled manipulative side by becoming a flawless negotiator to the point that all the most powerful players in Roanpur [[LovedByAll genuinely like and respect him]]. During Roberta's rampage, it is Rock who manipulates Roberta and her master Garcia into a deadly confrontation to end the bloodshed, nearly getting both killed, but ending in Roberta recovering her sanity and leaving in peace. Rock continues to demonstrate his ability to use and manipulate others, even if for [[WellIntentionedExtremist ostensibly desirable ends]], as possibly the single most dangerous and skilled player of the criminal game in the darkness that is Roanapur.
44	** Balalaika, born Sofiya Pavlovna, was cast out of military service to the Soviets for saving a child in a refugee camp. Now the head of [[TheMafiya Hotel Moscow]] in Roanpur with her old unit, Balalaika [[BloodKnight loves war above all else]] and maintains control of her section of the city with an iron fist. When she heads to Japan on business, Balalaika casually manipulates a gang war simply to enjoy the excitement with no side ever coming close to even touching her. Earlier, when two of her beloved soldiers are killed by the assassin twins, Hansel and Gretel, Balalaika lures Hansel out to his death and delivers an utterly chilling [[BreakThemByTalking breaking speech]] as Hansel bleeds to death. Frequently displaying a tactical brilliance, Balalaika shows again and again why she is one of the [[TheDreaded single most powerful and dangerous]] people in the world.
45	** Eda, supposedly a flirty criminal nun from the so-called Church of Violence smuggling operation, is [[ObfuscatingStupidity actually a skilled major player]] in her own right. A UsefulNotes/{{CIA}} agent who also completely dominates the Triad boss Mr. Chang, Eda is in effect the [[TheWomanBehindTheMan true secret ruler]] of Roanapur. On the field, Eda also freely manipulates the hapless Janet Bhai into a safehouse that will be invaded, with enough instructions to escape so Eda can extort her for protection, and later shows that she casually plays all sides in Roanapur while setting up an end to the insane battle maid Roberta's rampage.
46	* MemeticMutation:
47	** Amen, hallelujah, and peanut butter.
48	** "You got [[PrecisionFStrike FUCKED]]!"
49	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5PB4Xw1dAQ Pretty much any of]] [[TheStoner Leigharch's high-induced]] {{Non Sequitur}}s:
50	*** "Oh yeah! I almost forgot! '''I'VE GOTTA GET TO ''LIVERPOOL!!'''''"
51	*** "''Jimi Hendrix is calling me back!'' He got my message! ''He wants me to defeat the Klingons, ASAP!'' '''C-C-CAPTAIN ''PICAAAARD!!'''''"
52	*** "'''I DON'T UNDERSTAND!!''' ''Where're you ladies takin' me?!'' Could it be? ''Could it?'' The legendary '''NUDE BEACH?!'''"
53	*** "AHHH! ''Barbarella is holding an anti-war sign in the nude!''"
54	*** "[[BigWhat WHAT?!]] ''My application for the Black Panthers was denied again?!?!''"
55	* {{Moe}}: Frederica "The Cleaner" Sawyer may be a psychotic and dissonantly serene chainsaw-happy freak but the moment she loses her ultravoice, she loses all cool and is reduced into an insecure broken wreck within a minute. Seeing her in this miserable state just makes you want to hug and comfort her.
56	* MoralEventHorizon: Anything Chaka does to Yukio Washimine would make him a grade-A asshole, but put it all together and you get this trope: kidnapping, beating, stripping, plans to sell her into sex slavery and bragging about doing so to a "real sicko".
57	%%* {{Moe}}: Young Balalaika. [[EnfantTerrible Hansel and Gretel]]. Garcia and Roberta. Fabiola.
58	* {{Narm}}:
59	** One of the episodes is titled "Rasta Blasta". It's way too ridiculous-sounding to take seriously.
60	** While the Spanish dub of the anime has a great cast and many terrifying performances, the script itself is wildly inconsistent, going from smart and well-translated to corny and unnatural-sounding (among other things, for mixing ClusterFBomb with GoshDangItToHeck in an awkward way). That the original dialogue is often a heavy-handed exposition of knowledge about weapons and action film lore doesn't help.
61	** Invoked whenever Revy decides to go on one of her philosophical rants. [[spoiler:This is really just meant to show how pathetic and broken she's become as a result of [[DarkAndTroubledPast a very rotten life]]. Her words ring hollow to the viewers because ''she's'' become [[BreakTheCutie hollow]] and is simply justifying her own way of doing things. Rock, naturally, tries to set her straight. Seems to work as she [[CharacterDevelopment eventually stops ranting so much]].]]
62	* NarmCharm: Most scenes involving Shenhua. Her [[AsianSpeekeeEngrish broken English]], thick accent and potty mouth are hysterically awful, but she, like so many other women in Roanapur, is [[DarkActionGirl so badass]] that it's hard to care. You'll be laughing one moment and watching her tear {{mooks}} apart the next.
63	-->'''Shenhua''': Oh, you like for me to split your ass in four? It is not nice to make fun! You one rotten bitch!
64	* OneSceneWonder:
65	** Leigharch only appears briefly, but every minute he's onscreen is absolutely hilarious and quotable. Fans were heartbroken when it was revealed that he had to be institutionalized and clearly wanted to see more of him.
66	** The unnamed FARC commander in ''Roberta's Blood Trail'', who's only in it for something like 10 minutes but briefly manages to get the drop on ''Roberta'', aka the woman who [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower a car crash couldn't scratch]].
67	* SignatureScene: Rock obliterating the enemy helicopter while flipping the bird and screaming "YOU GOT FUCKED!" proved that this meek {{Salaryman}} could keep up with the worst criminals of Roanapur.
68	* SpiritualAdaptation: Before ''Literature/{{Baccano}}'', this has been considered the best manga and anime "made by" Creator/QuentinTarantino.
69	* SugarWiki/SuperlativeDubbing:
70	** The English Dub is one of the best dubs out there, and one of the ''very'' best to come from Creator/TheOceanGroup. It's telling that in direct contrast to most other anime, the vast majority of clips from this show found on the internet are from the English Dub as opposed to the original Japanese. Creator/BradSwaile and Creator/MarykeHendrikse are perfect in their roles as Rock and Revy, and Creator/TabithaStGermain is pants-shittingly terrifying as Roberta, especially in ''Roberta's Blood Trail''.
71	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Roberta's VA in the Spanish dub of ''Roberta's Blood Trail''. The decision by distributor Selecta Visión to replace the fan favorite Marta Estrada from the anime series with the universally disliked Eva Bau (while keeping the rest of the original cast) was as badly received as it sounds.
72	* TooBleakStoppedCaring: Most of the characters are sociopathic killers and criminals at worst or selfish {{jerkass}}es as best, making it very difficult to root for anyone.
73	* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Shane Caxton refuses to give his men order to shoot Roberta when she attacks them. This is supposed to be a magnanimous gesture on his part: Feeling responsible for the death of Garcia's father, he intends to protect the life of another person Garcia cares about. Except this is also ''profoundly, terribly'' stupid. As a military commander, he is responsible for the lives of his men; neglectfully throwing away their lives like that is a legitimate cause for disobedience, if not outright [[TheMutiny mutiny]]. Furthermore, if all he wants to do is redeem himself in Garcia's eyes, then he could and should have just give up ''only'' himself. There is no need to involve his men. [[ImprovedSecondAttempt The OVA adaptation fixes this]] as Caxton doesn't do this and permits Grey Fox to defend itself [[spoiler:reducing their casualties]].
74	* {{Wangst}}: Revy often makes [[StrawNihilist nihilistic rants]] about why everyone lives in a horrible, vicious world. Rock calls her out on it.
75	* TheWoobie:
76	** Garcia's kidnapping, death in his family, the trauma that happens when Roberta goes on the warpath, etc.
77	** Yukio's family issues, her [[{{Yakuza}} other family issues]], all the shit Chaka does to her, etc.
78	** Sawyer, with scars around her neck and on her wrists, and who goes completely catatonic when she loses her audiovox. In the manga at least, she's able to handle that last one better in a subsequent appearance.
79	** Hansel and Gretel. You might hate them for their sadism at first, but your view changes drastically with each bit of their backstory that is told. [[TearJerker And the end of their arc just seals it]].
80	* {{Woolseyism}}: In the Yakuza arc, as opposed to the rest of the anime dubbed in English, Rock still speaks Japanese. This works for the dub's favor, since it's meant to be Rock acting as a TranslatorBuddy for Balalaika, since they're working with Japanese criminals, and Japanese is Rock's native tongue.

Context YMMV / BlackLagoon