Finished Roberta's Blood Trail OVA. Rock's plan was to try to bring down Roanapur? How did he expect that to work? Did he think one general being taken out would suddenly cause the drug trade to stop? That was rather naive of him.
EDIT: Though it does sort of imply that more action against the Indochina drug trade would've taken place if the NSA had kept the Laotian general; The CIA, not wanting to fuck with the Status Quo in he region, seems to have buried the issue.
Also, is Chang's handler that Rock alluded to Eda herself? That's the thing that makes most sense to me. Before coming into this, especially after the Tokyo Arc, I thought they were positioning Balalaika as the manga/shows Big Bad, since it seemed like she was obviously the dominant force in the city; but the OVA makes it clear Balalaika has no real ambition beyond maintaining her Special Forces unit and has a great deal of disdain for being a Gangster and that it's Eda behind Chang who is the kingmaker in Roanapur.
edited 18th Aug '13 10:27:05 PM by Scherzo09
These are the words that shall come from my mouth. I shall be known for speaking them.
In a nutshell it was to get Gray Fox out of Roanapur with Garcia; have them complete their mission with as few casualties as possible; and have Garcia bring back Roberta with the ploy he developed; the idea was the success of the NSA's mission would undermine Chang's drug cartel, but because of politicking in the intelligence community, that didn't happen.
@Scherzo09
Chang and the NSA weren't even communicators homie. How'd you get that message anywhere in the OVA dude?
Chang like the rest of the criminal organizations wanted them out of Roanapur. To put it into elaborate: a single of the US soldiers of the Grey fox unit being killed on the Thailand city soil would bring the hammer of wrath of the US government on all their heads.
"I don't give a rat's ass about going to hell. I guess it's because I feel like I'm already there." -MugenThey're actually talking in English most of the series anyway so really the English dub feels more natural. And doesn't Japanese lack a lot of actual swearing anyway? Plus Abbrego's accent in the English dub is hilarious. Sounds like he came straight out of a Robert Rodriguez film. And English Revy is definitive Revy for me.
Who would you guys say is the biggest d-bag in Black lagoon? My vote is Chaka.
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Rock mentions that Chang wants to send a message to the Gray Sold that they can't fuck with his turf. Rock thinks he can undo Chang by having Gr Ay Wolf capture the general. But in the end the CIA takes custody of the general, which is implied to be the reason nothing happens.
@Scherzo 09
Chang was expecting Rock to use his cunning intellect to show them the horrors of Roanapur and Roberta in particular with the Melee Trois of the Colombian Cartel, Roberta and Revy, Shenhua, Sawyer and Rotton pursuing them. Also Rock was planning on outdoing Chang by helping Garcia get Roberta back without getting people killed.
Chang subtly manipulates Rock into getting Garcia to get his hands dirty as well as Fabiola. Hindsight-wise Caxton's forces are responsible for the death of his father so Rock gets Garcia to be just as cold-natured as Roanapur people are by putting him into a situation where Roberta's spilling a ridiculous amount of blood and he's in the epicenter. Holding Caxton hostage and being between him and Roberta gets him in the situation to "bring Roberta back"
At first Chang was planning to have them whole thing abandoned and let Roberta die although the changed plan had the typical ending of US being the victors but going home battered and beaten.
"I don't give a rat's ass about going to hell. I guess it's because I feel like I'm already there." -Mugen
That's not what I got out of it at all. Neither of them cared about Garcia remaining innocent (the only two who cared about that were Fabiola and Garcia himself). Rock's entire plan hinges on Garcia accepting to shoulder Roberta's sins with her, so he obviously never cared about that, and obviously Chang didn't care about Garcia. All Chang wanted was for Rock to prepare an exfil for Gray Fox, with Garcia being the pawn to get them to accept. After that, since they were no longer in Roanapur Chang didn't care what happened to Gray Fox, beyond them not securing the General and sending a message to the US not to fuck around in his backyard. Rock's plans made it so the Gray Fox could secure their objectives, but because of the CIA's meddling, the NSA lost custody of the general so nothing came of it.
Anyways, I'm liking where this arc is going. I love Revy's increasing concern for what Rock is going through and how uncomfortable she is feeling her emotions she's sealed away return. I think a big takeaway I had from Roberta's Blood Trail is that no one is really as nihilistic as they claim to be.
I get the feeling though that Benny is gonna run off with Jane at the end of this arc, with Li Xinlin taking her place
These are the words that shall come from my mouth. I shall be known for speaking them.@Scherzo 09
Eh, doubt it. Benny is by far the most loyal member of the Lagoon company.
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Okay, if you don't get it that's kind of your fault dude.
Look dude, the general is an irrelevant factor. They were targeting Roberta since she had killed a member of the US's CIA. Chang had minimal concern about Garcia which was all but about to whittle away once the battle royal between the three forces went down. Also Chang wasn't speaking for "his" backyard he meant the whole of Roanapur. He is hardly the type that considers Roanapur "his". As most material from the series has shown he acknowledges the other crime organizations and opts for cooperation between other groups.
It was highly probable of Roberta being slain in her bout with the US soldiers. As stated by the Colombian commando dude she wanted to attack them in a silent manner. Only when she was in a non-sane mode could she have a chance against them.
Considering how easy-going they were prior to things and Caxton being the sole survivor of the ordeal it definitely sent a message. Not only did Rock manipulate the good soldiers but also had Garcia dirty his hands and hold a gun which Roberta could've mistaken as being full and killed him.
So yes Rock does achieve his goal of saving someone although at an equally painful cost as the times with Romanian twins and the Tokyo gangster arc. People just as innocent as Garcia's group (the troops from Caxton's unit) die. As Fabiola said he was playing with Garcia's life and manipulated him into a game of "Cambodian Roulette".
"I don't give a rat's ass about going to hell. I guess it's because I feel like I'm already there." -MugenI don't know if I like how the OVA shifted the perception of who's in charge. I was always under the impression that Balalaika was in charge of Roanapur and that Chang was a very close second, now the OVA depicts her as a woman who has a lot of power but doesn't run things. Meanwhile Chang looks like he's just running things and doesn't ever want to expand. There are other things but I don't remember how to do spoiler tags.
"So long as mankind exists, there will always be battles."I never saw Roanapur as being under Balalaika's control. In fact it's outright stated earlier onas being ran by 4 powers: Balalaika's group, Chang's group, the Italian Mafia and the Columbian Cartel, with the latter two becoming second rate as a result of the Hansel/Gretle fiasco and the Roberta incident respectively. Of course you also have US intelligence behind the scenes if Eda and the Grey Fox unit are anything to go by.
Two things:
First, the OVA left me slightly confused (and since spoilers appear to be unmarked here)...
This is a four-way fight between Roberta, who's after the Gray Fox Unit who killed Diego Lovelace, the Gray Foxes who are on some mission that Roberta is getting in the way of, the FARC troops who are sent in after Roberta, and Revy's group? That about right so far?
Second,
they made a big deal about Balalaika's Vysotoniki, so with Chang being the only one other than Revy and Eda to put a decent fight against the Twins, it seems like Balalaika has the most capable fighting force.
Chang did suggest that they [the Roanapur allies] were only in power because they had the city all to themselves, but then, I think Balalika's still the biggest fish in that pond. People f-ck with Chang (the assassination attempt). People f-ck with the Russians (who got shot up twice at the Yellow Flag IIRC). Nobody, not even Revy, wants to f-ck with Balalaika, nobody sane (Yukio; The Twins).
However, I always found it odd how Balalaika is this badass ex-commando who runs a large part of the mafia/criminal syndicate... but she edits pornographic videos in her spare time.
edited 20th Aug '13 6:36:23 PM by FOFD
Hotel Moscow has the most muscle, but in terms of drug control, monetary gains and international connection they're possibly/probably outmatched by some of the other gang factions. As for Balalaika's porn editing, I imagine the porn industry is part of Hotel Moscow's revenue and she probably gets caught with editing duty from time to time. It's not a hobby though given her bitter mood about it.
@Couchpotato: I don't disagree that Chang was sending a message to Rock that he isn't in control of how things run, but he definitely did care about the general (as did Balalaika, as can be seen in the meeting). He says to Eda during their meeting that having the general be extradited could potentially be a serious blow to the drug trade. And in the OVA at least Rock is confident that what he's doing will be able to undermine Chang as well as all of Roanapur. It's very explicit about that.
Chang does consider Roanapur his; to the extent that as peacemaker he's the one that keeps the machine running. Obviously Balalaika's forces could run the Triad out if they cared enough, but Balalaika admits that she really resents playing the role of gangster and only does it as a means to an end of maintaining her Spec Ops unit. I don't doubt that the Colombian cartels and Sicilian Mafia have manpower, but they're both too thickskulled to be much of challenge for control compared to Balalaika and Chang.
edited 21st Aug '13 8:40:08 AM by Scherzo09
These are the words that shall come from my mouth. I shall be known for speaking them.@Scherzo09
Okay dude now you're projecting. Not only Chang but Balalaika as well. List a chapter/episode as an example of Chang claiming Roanapur as his. Also Balalaika has used the gangster life as a second life as a warrior like she was back when her,Boris and the rest of the elite men of Hotel Moscow were during their soldier days. When things gets dicey like in Roberta's Blood Trail, her men are killed,or during Roberta's first appearance will she call upon these forces.
Also Balalaika and Chang crossed paths before (only mentioned in manga) which they both left their marks on one another. Seeing as how they both have the same views on the Romanian twins (Hansel and Gretel) it's pretty clear they aren't antagonistic towards one another. Also in the light novels they're pretty close.
On another note: Don't quote the OVA much material which deters from events that happened in the manga (The canonical source).
"I don't give a rat's ass about going to hell. I guess it's because I feel like I'm already there." -MugenI finished the OVA and decided to check and see if the rape scene occurred in the manga. This is me, just coming off what I felt I was a cool OVA, coming onto a forum to read this overly negative review of the OVA.
All I've heard about the manga version is that the anime did a good job of condensing it. So to hear this, I was definitely thrown back. 5-6 episodes of watching Roberta kick ass and Rock Gambit the crap out of Roanapur was an unfaithful, sloppy adaption of the manga?
No way.
The only real complaints I have were Fabiola pulling her gun on people and still making little difference. Why draw if you're going to charge at Chang and get thrown over his lap like a toddler? I mean, this is her defending the young master. That made no bloody sense.
edited 28th Aug '13 4:21:17 AM by FOFD
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Weird I heard it was better than the Manga in that it didn't drag on as long and wasn't as ridiculous regarding super-roberta.
I haven't seen the OVA(not until the English dub happens)but I did read the manga version in full and it was good but pretty confusing later on as well as too freakin long.
Really some people get so pissy when things differ from the source material even when just a little they immediately call cardinal sin even if the changes were for the better.
edited 28th Aug '13 1:16:27 PM by Vertigo_High
@Scherzo09
Fabiola was naive as fuck. As was shown and said in the manga the gunfight at the bar was the first real battle she ever engaged in (and thus was the reason why she had to ask Revy to help her out the car when they went to the hotel where Garcia was in at the start of the arc).
"I don't give a rat's ass about going to hell. I guess it's because I feel like I'm already there." -Mugen![]()
The English Dub has been released (not sure if in your area though).
Super-Roberta? Well, she was firing a sniper rifle with a single arm, and she broke Shenhya's knife with her teeth...
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Which I suppose was highlighted by the bar fight and Revy calling her out on that.
edited 30th Aug '13 12:49:25 PM by FOFD

I'm not saying it's a bad thing! The dub actually adds to the series' charm. See whenever Revy verbally spars with Eda later on.