Black Lagoon

I broke this article about the wreck of a U-Boat found in Indonesian territorial waters.

The presence suggests that it was taken out by Allied naval vessels since it was a part of the Monsoon Group.

edited 23rd May '14 11:27:28 AM by Ominae

Is the main pair gender swapped because the audience couldn't abide the implication that an OL might actually choose to leave behind the poisonous swamp that is the typical Japanese office to be with a macho Chinese brute?

It's much more likely that Rie Hiroe loves Action Girls...

edited 23rd May '14 6:37:28 AM by Greenmantle

It would have been an action girl in training, and lot of space opened up for character development as she evolved from OL to Queen of the Pirates.

Rock never evolves into an action guy, though. He just seems to be aspiring to become a manipulator/do-gooder.

I actually wouldn't mind if Rock eventually started bloodying his own hands, ala Walter White. I can understand keeping him 'pure' has some thematic relevance, but I think showing his dissent into darkness contrasted with Revy would be cool if the result is them becoming enemies in the end.

Character Drama to me is more interesting than rote platitudes about how "WE'RE ALREADY DEAD".

edited 23rd May '14 9:15:26 AM by Scherzo09

I think he's fine the way he is.

Speaking of which, I just found out the Urobutcher wrote TWO light novels for Black Lagoon! Where? WHERE CAN I FIND THEM? HE'S PERFECT FOR THIS SETTING! THEY MUST BE AWESOME!

Well I'm just curious where there'll be taking the character evolution. I mean the whole series so far has been a sort of Start of Darkness for him.

Handle: one novel is at http://anonspore.blogspot.com/.

Guys, guys, you must read this. It is awesome. The ninja. The friggin' actual ninja.

Anyone here watched Bedknobs And Broomsticks?

...

That flawless disguise. Perfect indeed!

edited 5th Jun '14 1:18:47 PM by TheHandle

Oh god, Shadow Falcon...I remember him. Dude is nuts.

He's Crazy Awesome. He's like Armstrong, but a ninja. Such an amazing person.

UCJ's story arc was...

And Stan's...

Ah, this story is nihilistic even for Urobutchi, isn't it?

Ah, by the way, remember that other Stan?

Anyway, this story has some very Kafka Komedy and Shoot the Shaggy Dog elements, and it works, strangely enough, the tragedy melding with the farce until you can't really tell which is which.

I don't think Urobuchi is a nihilist; he's more of a tragic/dark romantic. He yearns for beauty in the world even though he finds it hard to endure due to suffering.

Request: I'm stuck in the middle of Breaking Bad Season 3 currently, so can we... not bring up anything beyond that?

Also, someone brought up either Rock and Revy killing one another, and the survivor taking up the others' ideals. Wouldn't that be a kick in the pants if it was Revy? Haven't read the manga, but the anime hasn't indicated she's anywhere close to Rock's side of the fence, meanwhile, Rock's dismissal of his own family seems to put him much closer to hers.

Prior to watching R'BT, my vision for the ending was simple: Lagoon Company gets pinned for some terrible act agaisnt either Balalaika or a greater organization's forces and end up on the run. The finale follows each member of the crew eventually being axed off, with Revy or Rock being the last man standing. Too bland? Bah, like I care! For all the gritty, brutal stuff we get in this series, I felt this was poetic - everything they go through ultimately leads to what Revy foreshadowed to Ginji; "The only ending for people like us is a muddy hole in the ground."

If I ever do rub the serial numbers off this setting for reuse I'll flip just Rock's bit. They'll usually be the only two women within the horizon, but have nothing in common and so constantly feeling the need to point out that the other is all wrong. A drunken encounter one night only leads to more recriminations later. Then finally in a moment of great danger there's a quick kiss as the ammo is passed.

Not gonna lie, that'd be a pretty disappointing ending.

More like predictable. It's the average ending for this kind of nihilistic gritty tales.

I don't think it's a matter of Revy adopting Rock's specific ideals or perspective, as in practice Rock's outlook has been shown to be naive and hypocritical. To me it's about Revy recognizing the fullness of her humanity. Now, Revy is never going to not get off on being able to kill people, that's just a part of who she is. And she isn't going to pretend to care about people who's existence don't mean anything to her. But the point is there are people who matter to her, and even deeper than her individualistic values she gets value out of protecting them.

But anyways, I kinda roll my eyes when the series waxes overly nihilistic about things because the truth is, the characters do care about things as much as they'd prefer not to. Sure you can fixate on the inevitability of decay and death if you want to but I don't see how that does you much good.

edited 7th Jun '14 8:59:09 AM by Scherzo09

Reading this made me realize something though; why the fuck has neither Revy or Dutch taught Rock how to shoot a gun? I know he'd never be a gunfighter, but some self-defense skills would be useful in his line of work. Otherwise he's a total liability.

Also this Ninja thing is a parody, right?

I find it kinda hilarious that they mention J shooped Revy's breasts to be larger, when her tits are already pretty ridiculously big to begin with.

Also what, a 'My Body is Ready' meme? Isn't this supposed to be like 1997?

edited 7th Jun '14 8:12:07 PM by Scherzo09

No, it's not a parody. It's a completely straight usage of the trope.

Derp, could not see that it was a blue-link.

It kinda reminded me of that upcoming Trigger show which is a Japanese-interpretation of the American-interpretation of Ninjas.

edited 8th Jun '14 2:09:14 AM by Scherzo09

You mean to say that Roanapur doesn't already fall squarely into that, if you stop to think about it? Remember that time where Revy shot down an entire fleet by herself? And what about that old nun who can fire a Desert Eagle one handed, with perfect accuracy? What about frickin' Roberta? Or the tiny Hansel and Gretel lifting and using those heavy weapons? No, Roanapur... let's not go there. 'Tis a silly place.

Well those are just action movie tropes, at leaast from my perspective; the Ninja was basically using outright magic. Tonally it actually kinda reminds of a game I just played, Wolfenstein The New Order. Black Lagoon on a whole I mean. The point I was trying to make is that the Ninja is supposed to be kind of inexplicable even for this setting. It's like a Hideo Kojima thing.

Funny you should post that Stan video, cause in my mind I was always imagining Jake as Not!Eminem.

edited 8th Jun '14 2:19:28 AM by Scherzo09

It's just a different kind of action movie, that's all.