Lots of dialogue and little action as this episode sets up the pyrotechnics of maid vs Lagoon company in the next episode. Quite a few nice scenes so I was quite happy. Rock in charge of the handing/taking over of a shipment of guns to a Panama-flagged freighter. They get a new passenger, Garcia Lovelace, whom the crew is supposed to deliver to (??) the Colombian mafia After talking to the boy, Rock smells a fish and persuades Dutch to find out more. Big Bossman turns to Balalaika - my listening comprehension isn’t up to scratch so will need to wait for the subs to ascertain what’s the complication.. Meanwhile, the boy’s recollection about his meido is interspersed with the arrival of said meido Roberta to Roanapra. After an extremely conspicious search for underworld information, she arrives at the Yellow Page bar. A gang of Colombians, alerted to her search, come to confront her as the Lagoon crew arrives and witnesses how Roberta is no ordinary maid.
Quite hilarous to see how Revy responded to Garcia by throwing her own tantrum. A nice parallel and contrast that shows up Revy’s relative lack of maturity despite having exemplery qualifications from the Schools of Real Life and Hard Knocks. When I first started watching this series, I was apprehensive that Revy would just be all snarkiness, gunplay and boobs but the episodes have developed her nicely, explaining her world view, giving us hints to her background and showing us different facets of her. In all, I think there’s a moral ambiguity about her that makes her attractive to me as a character.
No problemo indeed, Two Hand. Again, this underlies Revy’s relative simplistic way of thinking. In the submarine arc she had said how money and guns (both of which represent power) are all you need in the world. Rock, who is probably the self-insert character for older male fans, understands that the world isn’t all about moolah and violence. Dutch represents the balance between these two views and, fittingly, is the boss of the crew that arbitrates between the conflicting worldviews.
If it weren’t for her disdainful and mocking tone, Revy’s sarcastic praise of Rock as having good business sense and deserving Mommy’s cherry pie would have been so innuendo-filled. I really love how Megumi Toyoguchi makes something so wholesome sound so obscene.
Being a Balalaika fanboy, I’m always happy when she has screentime. This time, there’s definite proof that the Soviet military jacket (with Captain epaulettes) isn’t just for show as she addresses her subordinate as "Comrade Sergeant". Balalaika also shows how underworld bosses aren’t just skillful in the use of force and moneymaking but also in the arts of intelligence, persuasion, negotiation and human resource management. While this is to imply that Revy’s CEP (maximum capability) is Right Hand Man To The Boss, I also get the feel that Revy has no desire to be Boss and that her partnership with Dutch works well because she’s content to leave the Boss stuff to him.
Revy finally gets told off by Dutch for being obnoxious to the boy; Dah Big Bossman even says that her behaviour is hardly that of an adult and more like a brat. You can see how she respects his views - she bristles but doesn’t argue back. Then when Rock pipes up too against her venting of frustration on the boy, she makes it clear that she’s not happy at all. Especially it seems that half of the crew are not on her side.
Thought this scene was pretty hilarous too with Revy dismissing the stories about how the maid might be more than what she appears to be. Her exaggerated use of keigo, making it sound quite vulgar, was also a treat. Was also LOL when Revy went from :D to :( when Rock seemed to believe the boy and showed interest in his story.
And the crew arrives to the scene of another fight at the Yellow Flag. Well, I didn’t screencap the meido at all but I’m sure Jason will have plenty of screenshots in the near future. ^_-
Do you have a clue where the statue that appears in this episode actually is? I believe it appeared in another episode before (or did I just watch it twice?) so it might actually be a real location.
You mean the Buddha statue without eyes at the entrance of Roarnapo harbour? To my knowledge, the only really large Buddha statues that were carved in rock were in Bamiya in Afghanistan - past tense as the Taliban blew them up in 2001. In East Asia, there’s a few large Buddha statues by the sea e.g. the one at Lantau in Hong Kong but none carved out of stone AFAIK.
I really pity the bar owner of the Yellow Flag. At this rate, he is going to be, if not by now, blacklisted by all the insurance companies. :P Is it really possible to shatter a beer mug like that? ô_Ó! The mafia’s comment about Roberto’s ridiculous outfit made me think of one thing. “Make the enemy laugh, then shoot him while he is laughing.”
Urgh, not quite liking Roberta’s character design. I think it is the ‘opaque’ glasses. They look really, really ugly. She looks much better when you can see her eyes.
Fanart(?) of Roberta from some website.
Interesting how Rock compared Roberta to Terminator in the preview for Ep09. I guess it really is the cultural icon for unstoppable killing ‘machines’.
Cheers.
Yellow Flag insurance. Probably gangster hangouts have gangster-related, rather than commercial, insurance from gangster-owned insurance companies. ;)
re: the beer mug. I don’t know but a friend had a mug split into half in his hands after we are went “cheers!”. Most are made by joining two halves together (you can usually see the seam along the handle side) and the adhesive just failed on one drinking session. Needless to say we were all very impressed.
I’m not really a big fan of the meido genre so I don’t have much of an opinion on Roberta’s outfit. But the “make the enemy laugh or stare in disbelief” role of outfits or transformation sequences is sooo apt and widely applicable.
Splitting is one thing. I used to work in Swensen’s, and split glassware happens; but to have a beer mug completely shatter from one’s grip. Well… I sure ain’t shaking hands with her. :P
As for meidos, I do not have a fetish for meidos either. My personal taste lies elsewhere. :)