DOUBLE-BERETTA-FANG-TAN. Yappari the only way to crush a blogging backlog is Blitz Rush!
Ep 22: Revy and Gin take on Chaka and his goons head-on. Rock liberates Yukio with cleaning fluid and a bowling pin. With Revy’s help, Chaka’s gang is easily disposed of. However, Yukio denounces Rock for speaking his homelies while still staying in the twilight. Rock sees another girl claimed by darkness, just like Revy.
Most impressive breasts berettas.
By the power of Chidori and Haruhi, you will be punished!
A waza never used by honourable men.
Not quite Dugu Quibai yet. One mountain still got one mountain high!
Interesting contrast between Balalaika in the dark and Lolilaika in the light. Seems to reinforce the Confucian (in contrast to the Legalist line) that people are born with a good character but turn evil for want of food, security and virtuous cultivation.
Ep 23: The Washimine Group is systematically being dismantled. Spurred by Yukio’s challenge that he doesn’t really want to save her, Rock tries to plead for Washimine when Balalaika tells him that she’s going to talk to their enemies, the Kousa Council. Later he reaffirms his ties with Revy and Roanarpur by telling her that he had returned to Japan to forget his past.
Pwns Gilbert Durandal. At least she isn’t playing against and having conversations with a dead masked man.
One of the problems of this season that I noticed more, besides the voice acting’s variable command of English, was the stark contrast in animation quality. A lot of the close-ups especially of the guns are gorgeous but some of the in-between scenes are terrible, as illustrated by the two caps above. Hopefully these will be cleaned up on DVD - am looking at the DGz DVD rip of Nanaha A’s and the quality is one sky one ground compared to the original TV-based release.
Revy’s theory of the walking dead. You only stay walkin’ if you don’t cling to life. A lesson that Rock puts to use against a threat in the next episode.
Another demonstration of Rock’s ability to get in and then out of trouble through his way with words. Quite interesting also how Anego changes her pistol grip from right to left. In Afghanistan, she’s definitely a right master eye shooter (which then determines which hand you use to pull the trigger). From this scene I had thought that her right eye is somehow damaged, especially with the eerie glow around it in this scene. However the next episode proves me wrong; she can shoot accurately using her right eye after all. I suppose I was just reading too much into this scene because at this range, it doesn’t really matter which hand or eye one is using, right?
Gosh, that’s how many episodes of Compassionate Revy face in a row? We shall call it "The Rock Effect".
Ep 24: Wow, what a conclusion. Rock effectively uses his words to get the Kousakai leader killed and then later it’s the reaction that his words elicit from Yukio that allow Revy to defeat Gin.
Since you’re not Itsuki, your face is not too close. Anego praises Rock for having becoming a great villian and I have to agree. He’s more or less managed to get a much more powerful person to do what he wants and to be willing to accept the methods and cost if it achieves the aim he wants.
Rock and Beria’s shock is just priceless. I’m sure that adds to the shock bonus on the Kousa side.
"There’s no profit in a shootout here." Talk about flawed assumptions, Mr Kousa, especially since you’ve seen how Balalaika turned on their erstwhile allies, the Washimine group. I’d say that unpredictability is the interdependent variable in theis kind of terror; power is the intervening variable that allows that to be operationalised. Stalin was a master of keeping his subordinates constantly uncertain of his intentions and Balalaika certainly shows how this intelligent capriciousness can often be deployed to devastating effect.
Rock acknowledges his debt to Balalaika as well as accepting his responsibility for what has happened. At this point, I’d have to disagree with some comments on my previous post on the interpretation of this scene. SANITY asserted that Balalaika had framed Rock while Haesslich pointed out that it won’t matter as (1) fingerprints won’t survive immersion in water for long and (2) it won’t matter since Rock will be in Roanarpur and out of Japanese jurisdiction.
Rock takes the gun from Balalaika and then very deliberately presses all his fingertips against the metal housing enclosing the firing mechanism and barrel. Him saying that he won’t forget that he pulled the trigger today reinforces the intentionality of incriminating himself.
In general, the oil used to clean firearms and the anti-slip coatings on the grip and trigger means that guns rarely have fingerprints that are admissable as evidence. The magazine is another story. While I agree with Haesslich that fingerprints will degrade in water, Rock knows that the police are waiting outside and that they will send a forensics team very soon.
The closeup of the fingerprint on the gun in the pond is a strong indication by the animation studio that the police will be able to get Rock’s fingerprint, especially since we are shown it right after the International Section guy says that if the police can’t get to Balalaika directly, at least they can get her Japanese contacts.
I’d argue Rock wants to have his prints on that gun because, in a sense, he caused these deaths and also because this piece of forensic evidence effectively severs his links with Japan - if he ever returns and is caught, the authorities will have a solid link to him and the Kousa killings. He is effectively putting his money where his mouth is. And that’s why I find him to be an honourable man, if in an underworld sort of way.
Brushing aside the ‘civilian’ police and abusing diplomatic immunity 4tw. Revy’s motorcycle getaway was so awesome too. Though Balalaika’s gokigenyou gave me some pretty strange ideas. After that Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha crossover picture, anything is possible!
Yeah, I couldn’t believe it either. Kidnapped by a high school girl. Though no ordinary high schooler at that. Ah, the path to true love is never smooth. :P
Revy saved by Rock’s verbal bullet. Even though I’d say they’re even because she was fighting to rescue him from Yukio and Gin. With respect to the last Washimine Group head, if you strip away everything, honour, family responsibility, obligation and so on, I would guess that she went down this road because she loved Gin and had a certain idea of the kind of world that he wanted to live in. Alas.
Ending with a bang! LOL
Powerful closing episode. I had thought that the Fujiyama Gangsta Paradise arc was a tad long but everything fell into place beautifully, especially Rock having his equilibrium disturbed and then having really made his resolution and commitment to continue watching from the twilight - which is where he gets his comparative advantage in the city of darkness I suppose. His relationship with Revy also seems to have deepened considerably with a lot more trust and none of the trivial bickering from the earlier part of the first season. Though not romantically or sexually as Eda is so fond of needling Revy about. Eda *must* be a recurring character simply on that basis alone.
Having not read the manga, I was a bit apprehensive as to whether the Second Barrage could keep up the pace and action of the first season which had surprised me with its unexpected emotional depth and consideration of difficult themes without taking an easy way out. This second season has certainly delivered on action, character development, emotional power especially the Hansel & Gretel arc and this concluding one. Would certainly love to learn more about the backgrounds and see more development of so many of the characters, everyone in the Lagoon Company, Balalaika, Eda, Chan. Hope that there will be a third season!
3rd season will be a long time coming, given that the amount of unanimated manga material is not much at the moment. Not to mention that the Black Lagoon manga is published monthly. So yeah…
Still… there is still the option of an OVA, because I want to see the return of Roberta, the Meido Terminator, damnit!
Cheers.
ADD] Dugu Qiubai
i thought the last scene with revy and eda was priceless.
Jesus. The entire fingerprint thing flew right over my head.
I can’t believe people missed the fingerprint thing. I am one of the most clueless people when it come to details, and I even caught the significance of Balalaika giving the gun to Rock and then he return it to her.
The last scene with Eda and Revy is another tease to the audience. Revy Answer of “I don’t want to tell” can be interepratated either way, she can be ashamed because she did it, or she can be ashamed because she didn’t do it.
lol @ at ending Eda/Revy scene. Eda must have seen the ‘new’ Rock running around with his less than completely buttoned up shirt and thought something happened between him and Revy. And of course, Eda’s jealous. XD
Still, if I was the animation head for Team Black Lagoon, I’d definitely ask to be able to do OVAs until the last few chapters then head that one out with either the mini-series and/or a movie. I’d gladly pay for all of that.
I have read the manga, and it’s faithful in the adaptation, except the scene of the final shootout… and I’ll readily admit I prefer seeing Yukio in yukata to seeing how she ended it here. But still, this was probably the best season yet, since they kept up the energy for two arcs (Fujiyama Gangsta Paradise, Bloodsport Fairy Tale), and two very good ones at that; especially for the character development (Revy listening to Rock and being less batshit loco, Rock gaining more spine - and thus graduating from Ikari Shinji-class to Kyon-class as far as standing up to crazed female main characters)… oh, and the revelation about Eda was lovely. As are her eyes, for that matter. Balalaika as well, in my opinion, gained a lot; we saw her past, and how she went from that sweet child to the chilly intelligence we see (and love, in a fearful and cautious manner) today.
But even if Rock DID imprint the gun, and the forensics people have gotten to it… in the end, it’s a partial print. Unless Rock was fingerprinted at some point for his job or for some minor criminal offense (unlikely, else he’d not have gotten a corporate position), it’s impossible for him to be in their files… although they’ll have some suspicions now that they saw him fleeing the scene of a crime. He DID close off that chapter of his life, and for good, just as he told Revy he’d come to do - and in an indirect way, keeping his promise to Yukio that he wasn’t clinging to a life in the light as she had also tried (and failed) to do.
Still, of all the characters Balalaika’s met, she only seems to really respect Dutch and Rock, who both share brains as well as a sense of tact and diplomacy; Revy’s the muscle, Benny the l33t skillz, but Rock’s almost a proto-Dutch in the way he combines an ability to think a few steps ahead with a sense of diplomacy which is lacking with just about every other character. While Dutch may have saved Balalaika’s life, and his sense of ‘fair play’ may appeal to her desire ot have a mutually beneficial business relationship… Rock’s chutzpah and intelligence are what gain him a greater degree of esteem from Balalaika than just about anyone else she’s met so far: Chen, or just about anyone outside the ‘family’ don’t see this level of respect.
Most people who annoy Balalaika get killed; only Rock’s danced into the jaws of death twice… and she’s done him more favors than just about anyone else so far. She seems to love teasing him in an evil way - as someone who may not be an equal… but who can be respected nonetheless. Nobody else gets this type of treatment; not even Dutch, for whom she did the favor of blowing up a certain Vietnamese small-time crook named Chen (Chase for ring-ding ships) as well as helping stop the Roberta/Revy fight (Rasta Blasta).
Besides, Revy’s cute when she goes “Bang!” with that almost childish face. :D
Oh, and one other change - they’ve changed the character designs for a few people, costme-wise: the one where Rock gets kidnapped originally had djellaba and khafiya-wearing Muslim terrorists, but they were changed to the more generic Communist olive greens afterwards, probably due to the sensitivity of the rest of the world to the actions in the Middle East. Yukio wore a kimono and the last bit of Fujiyama Gangsta Paradise was supposed to take place in a Japanese temple, and so forth.
Still, the stories stayed mostly intact. :D
Besides, who ELSE has Balalaika gotten into near-kissing range with on a regular basis? Between Eda, Revy, and possibly Balalaika, he’s like the harem lead whose been smart enough to avoid getting involved with ANY of the girls for the reason that doing so would be lethal. ;)
So Rock is a smarter version of Keichii?( Higurashi) I can live with that. Hmm… I’m starting to recall an anime in which the females are dominant in power, and the males just stay out of their way… which one was it… which one was it? Nanoha? No… the girls were batshit loco… which one was it?
Heh.
The scene where Rock returns the gun to Balalaika saying that he hates them was pretty significant. The first thought I had when he did that was, “Waitaminnit, Rock, you just put your prints all over that thing, what are you doing?” Balalaika anego may have diplomatic immunity but not so with our favorite salaryman translator.
OP hit it right on the head. Rock purposely incriminated himself and by doing so, he can never return to Japan again (at least, not without the huge risk of getting caught by the authorities). In effect, he’s severing all ties he has of home. With Yukio’s rejection of the light, Japan no longer holds anything worthwhile for him (not that I blame him; would you stick around home if you had Revy at your side?).
Like Hansel and Gretel, Yukio is a similarly tragic figure but with an important difference. While the twins couldn’t be saved by Rock (they were beyond redemption short of their deaths to release them from their earthly suffering), Yukio didn’t want to be saved. Weighed down by (illusions of?) honor and obligation to her father, Gin, and her yakuza, she felt there was no other way out. Only thing is, she did have a choice. She could have walked away from it all, left Japan with Gin and start a new life (moving to Roanapur to set up their yakuza operations there was just a pipe dream; as if Balalaika anego would ever allow another competitor to invade her realm).
In the end, while Yukio’s death was sadly noble (yet very foolish), I didn’t feel much sympathy for her, unlike Gretel (who never had a choice in life). She made her bed, and in the end, had to lie in it after losing everything when she gambled with the lives of Gin and her men (ie., the die was cast). That was the entire lesson I got from this arc.
Rock’s cool points got a lot higher with his ditching of his salaryman necktie (signifying the leash Japan and his past had over him up until now) toward the end. And I agree that his relationship with Revy isn’t what I’d call romantic or sexual, but rather very much spiritual. A strong way to end a great season but it does leave me wanting more. Too much was left unexplained or unexplored (Dutch and Benny’s backgrounds, for example, Revy’s past, for another). Hope there’s an OVA, a movie, a 3rd season, just something; Black Lagoon is too good to just stop here!
Ah, now I remember…
Utawarerumono
Cheers.
Ryuma: I’d have to disagree about parts of that… except that he was cutting his ties with Japan - as he said, he came to forget (Japan), rather than to return to it to live there or his life from ‘back then’. Yes, he put his prints on the gun… well, at least a partial print, but I doubt the police will recover enough to do much with it. HOWEVER, he was witnessed fleeing the scene of a murder, so that’s enough to collar him if he’s ever insane enough to return. What he DID do, by taking that gun and then handling it, was acknowledge his role in the killings of the Washimine group - and thus his burden and responsibility to both Yukio as well as to himself. Remember what he said in the first season about finally being able to live a life free of a lot of the hypocrisy he saw in his bosses in Japan; to actually live, rather than merely exist as he once did. He helped, through his role as translator, broker the deals that killed the Washimine Group as well as the Kousa council - then he asked Balalaika to do what she’d intended to do anyways; crush the last of the resistance, so that Gin and Yukio would have no way to continue their assaults on Hotel Moscow. By taking the gun and handling it as he did, he acknowledged that he helped pull the trigger on all those people; the fact the gun was marked is unimportant - the cops don’t need that to tie him to the scene. What it showed Balalaika was that he knows he’s a villain, and that he intends to live with the consequences… a position which Balalaika seems to approve of, given the way the episode ended, with that final ‘message’ from her, which was both a warning as well as compliment.
Rock, like Yukio, stood in the twilight between the shadow world of the criminal class as well as an ordinary life. Both he and Yukio threw away their chances at a normal existence in order to pursue the more exciting, if shorter, lives in the underworld. What separates Yukio from Rock in the end is that the former clung to her old life… and indirectly proved Revy’s point that those who cling to life tend not to last long in their shadowy realm; those who throw themselves fully into it, on the other hand, tend to come out physically in one piece even as they die by pieces inside. Ginji’s death resulted in his clinging, for a moment, to memories of a more peaceful life - and Yukio, having lost her last retainer, chose to follow the more honorable route out, since she had little else left at that stage. Rock DID pull the trigger on both of those characters in the end - Revy may have been the pistol, but the one who fired the bullet on everyone and condemned Yukio to death was ultimately Rock. Which was why he was the one who got her photo… and by putting it away, rather than discarding it, he’s accepted his role in this, as well as his guilt. But he’ll keep living this life, because in the end he’s thrown his dice and is now reaping the results of his gamble. He ultimately seems to enjoy his existence, because he really IS alive now, rather than just being a walking body who only breathes and persists… as he did when he was a salaryman. And, by doing this, has gained Revy’s respect as well as apparent (if well-hidden) affections; who else have we seen her smile at in a non-psycho way? Heck, that’s the sweetest expression I’ve ever seen on her face.
Of course, Rock’s ‘girlfriends’ seem to end up dead more often than not (Gretel, Yukio), while Benny has better luck with the ladies (Greenback Jane reminds me of a Catholic schoolgirl, for some reason - and look for her photo by his computer). Still, anyone who can survive Balalaika repeatedly has SOMETHING going for him; she seems to like his spunk, anyways, more than she’s annoyed by it.
Nice analysis, Haesslich. :) You managed to make me understand the anime more.
Kudos. Kudos.
Haesslich, many thanks for the comparison with the manga and your detailed expositions. Having such well-written comments makes blogging very rewarding, just like Kabitzin’s quips, Mentar’s penetrating observations, Skane’s Tamaoism on StoPani, Jade Maehara’s Shuffle! comments and many others.
I think we probably will have to agree to disagree about the finality of the fingerprint. My own views are very much coloured by how I see fingerprint evidence as a function of probability (up to eight points of comparison) rather than definitive. Nonetheless I do agree with you very much that Rock’s character development. I’ve not seen the manga but, in your opinion, how does the art style of the manga compare with the anime? Which do you prefer?
Skane, I think Rock is quite an interesting male protagonist that starts out whiny but grows considerably. What I love best about him is that while he is useless in gun battles, he has a devastating way with words and is esteemed by Dutch, Balalaika, Yolanda etc. as a result.
Ryuma, yeah, necktie 4tw - pretty handy in stopping Revy from bleeding to death. Though I doubt she’ll stop nagging him to wear her Aloha shirt on his offdays. :P
Haesslich, props to you. You make some very good points; but I like to think that all of what you said was in addition to Rock’s wanting to sever ties from Japan, rather than an exclusion of it. Rock’s handling of the gun (and rejection of it as he handed it back to Balalaika) was two-fold; to purposefully incriminate himself (and giving him yet another reason never to come back to Japan - the way the animators showed that fingerprint on the gun so prominently makes me think this) as well as willingly admit his complicity in the murders of the yakuza and, ultimately, of Gin and Yukio (why else would he not turn away when Yukio committed suicide even as Revy told him not to look?).
Initially I was shocked when Rock requested so ardently that Balalaika thoroughly finish what she (and Bando) started. But then the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Yukio made her decision to head up the Washimine and, in essence, declared war on Hotel Moscow with her defiance. Rock realized this, and thought, fine. Yukio wants a war, so let Balalaika finish it; it was the only way Yukio would learn that heading up a criminal syndicate was no game (the bank robbery comes to mind), that the life of the seedy underworld wasn’t just simply a diversion from the tedium of a Japanese high schooler’s life. Rock wanted Hotel Moscow to crush Yukio and Gin even when Balalaika wanted to back off and let others in her group handle the problem so she could return to Roanapur.
I thought this was a turning point for Rock; and it was literally a point of no return (again, we come full circle back to the significance of the discarded gun and his fingerprints on it). He is now very much the villain that Balalaika is, with as much blood on his hands as hers in this whole mess, and anego apparently approves of this new Rock. He accepts his fate as one of the walking dead, and lets go of any last vestiges he had of a normal life. At this point, I think we truly see the death of Rock the salaryman and finally the birth of Rock the hardened criminal. You were spot on when Rock accepts the crossed-out photo of Yukio; in the end, he did kill her and so he accepts his responsibility for her death.
I have to agree that Rock’s one of the more complex male characters in any anime I’ve seen so far. He breaks the mold of the anime hero where one shows his strength through force of violence and martial prowess alone. At the same time he defies many “other” weak and whiny male leads whose only purpose for existing is to make the aggressive female warrior protagonist look good by comparison (damn you, Vincent Law). Rock’s no fighter (does this make him a lover, then? heh), but he has a way with words and an earnest common sensibility about him that the other characters in the Black Lagoon universe lack, and so, is much appreciated for it by his colleagues in crime.
And there’s the best reason right there for a 3rd season: finally getting Revy to force Rock to wear the aloha shirt she got for him way back when. :)
I see Rock getting Revy back with that skirt back and ‘coercing’ her to wear it if he wears the Ahola shirt. :D
Still, I don’t know if it’s them enjoying living that particular lifestyle persay rather than it’s a lifestyle that they can live without bullshitting everything. They do what they do, they are what they are, and if you don’t like it…”Put on a show for them, Revy.”
Despite their jobs and lifes as ‘villians’, I have to say that their way of life is actually more ‘honest’ than most of the white-collar jobs/lifestyles we have. Benny’s learned to enjoy that life already: he is still able to do his computer gig and get in bonus hacks as well to keep his skills up. Sure, he’s playing with fire but that’s more or less an excitement factor for him.
Zyl: the Manga and the anime are almost identical - the character designs are nearly alike later on (Vol 1 looked different; but since the latter half of Vol 1, the character designs are nearly identical… right down to the emo reactions of Revy; except there’s occasionally SD in the Touka-from-Utawarerumono DVD Special 3 style). The plot points remain (mostly) intact, and the dialogue stays (from what I’ve got up to, the end of Vol 6) very similar with mostly changes in character design for viewer sensibilities or else to make the animation a bit easier. In the end, they’re both very much the same - which is a good thing, IMO; I prefer the relatively faithful manga-to-anime adaptations.
Ryuma: At this point, Rock won’t be able to return no matter what - he’s been seen by the CID there, so he’s (along with Revy) going to show up on the lists somewhere. Most of Balalaika’s Japanese contacts are (now) dead, so Rock will be one of the few links available. The fingerprint won’t really help them much - it’s partial, and it’ll be degraded by the water as well as whatever damage going through the window and its scraping, sharp edges will inflict on the surfaces (minor). However, he’s fully severed his ties to Japan; he had to do so pretty much the moment Yukio confronted him after her rescue at the bowling alley. What he did end up doing, by deliberately witnessing the death of Yukio, was ‘cast his die’ fully into Revy’s shadow world, the way Yukio did earlier on by taking on the role of daimyo for the whole Washimine Group and ordering the actions against Hotel Moscow.
What DOES surprise me is just how far he and Revy have come along since Season 1 and the Nazi Submarine; there, in “Calm Down, Two Men”, they came to blows - but in doing so, Revy realized Rock wasn’t just a simple salaryman who couldn’t hack it in his own world and thus started trailing along behind the Lagoon Company like a lost puppy. After that, in the “Goat, Jihad, Rock’n'Roll” arc which was done in eps 9-12 of the anime, she seemed to have actually developed an attachment to him because he’d admitted that he stood on his own side… which is a position she seems to understand. And now, over the course of a year, she and Rock have bonded in a way that’s not the type of relationship between kindred souls so much as compatible ones who are just discovering the depths in each other.
Revy’s discovered that Rock has a core of determination as well as a cunning which lets him continue on in a lifestyle which he’d never imagined prior to his kidnapping, while Rock’s started to uncover the remains of the child who grew up in New York and developed into the broken personality which has found a connection to his through a bond of shared honesty. That’s something that Revy doesn’t seem to be really able to be around others; Dutch she respects for his force as well as intelligence, Benny she tolerates due to his skills, and Balalaika she respects for her combination of brutality and culture along with the bond she (Balalaika) shares with her soldiers, a sense of belonging to people who are kin… something that I suspect Revy’s never really had. I think that the only person Revy can really be honest with, and be honest to herself with, is Rock - which I suspect is why she really stopped to listen to him at the end of “Calm Down, Two Men” when he confronted her with her behavior… and why she’s given him that non-psycho smile twice in this arc, on top of being very willing to follow his lead and to accept his goals and decisions. Rock is fundamentally honest with himself in a way that Revy seems to admire, an attitude which is embodied in his final actions… and which gains Balalaika’s respect for being a ‘great villain’.
Rock really did make his decision to abandon his former life at the end of Episode 2; he couldn’t go back to the colorless life that he’d led, which was represented by the greyscale montage which represented ‘everyday life’ for him prior to the Lagoon Company. In the Second Barrage, he’s moved beyond merely choosing to live in that twilight world to become an active participant and director; in Season 1, he ended up talking with the kid and getting rescued by Revy. In Season 2, he’s done quite a bit more - culminating with his trip to Japan with Balalaika and the series of decisions which led to the massacre of the entire Washimine Group.
I wouldn’t call Rock a “hardened criminal” - he really hasn’t done all that much compared to the rest of the Lagoon Company - he’s never spent a night in jail, has had precisely one arrest we know of (disturbing the peace during “Calm Down, Two Men”) and has only been a ‘witness of interest’ in the destruction of the Kousa Council by virtue of his sudden getaway from the scene. But at the same time, he’s moved from being a passive observer to an actor in this realm, and he’s relinquished all ties to his former life as you’ve pointed out. He’s not a fighter who uses his fists… but he’s not the mover-and-shaker Balalaika is, at least not yet - there’s the potential that he could move that way, given time and resources. He’s cunning enough for it, and if not for the fact that Hotel Moscow’s group in Roanapur consisted only of the former Spetznaz unit that Balalaika led, I suspect that our favorite Fry-Face may have adopted him formally as an underling rather than treating him as one would a loveable if untrained puppy.
Arakan7: I can’t say it’s that simple. Dutch seems to do this mostly because he’s good at it, and enjoys the thrills (witness Ep 2) as well as the mental and physical challenges the lifestyle presents. Benny does this because it’s something he can do, and he gets to play with cool toys while enjoying a relatively carefree lifestyle under the protection of his teammates. Revy does it because she’s broken - she knows of no other lifestyle, and actively refuses to consider the alternatives… and enjoys the fighting and the killing, when you get down to it. Rock does this because he can be honest with himself and with others… and because, like Revy, he seems to feel more alive when with the Lagoon crew and engaging in the things that Dutch and Revy lead them into, rather than going back tot he stale and hypocritical lifestyle he once saw as being ‘normal’. Of course, I could be completely wrong in their motivations.
And unlike every other anime hero I’ve run into in the past few years, he’s neither a badass or a completely spineless bastard… and he isn’t as sarcastic as some. He’s, in some ways, very much an Everyman; but one who’s slipped his leash, which may be why I enjoy watching him do what he does. He’s not the smartest, the fastest, or even the most assertive… but he’s very easy to relate to, unlike a bunch of other male protagonists I can think of, excluding perhaps Takemoto of Honey and Clover who is a similar sort of ‘Joe Everyman’.
The fingerprint thing went right over my head. I remember being very skeptical about how Balailaka exited with the police right there. I was expecting the police to try to detain her, provoking a cool gunfight or something, but they let her go and the detective guy happened to arrive just a second too late. That put me off a little, not very believable at all. Otherwise a great ending.
Akatsuki has translated the manga up to vol. 2 - does anyone know whether they dropped it or someone else is translating the remainder?
*Balalaika, sorry
About Balalaika being casual around the policemen… Diplomatic Immunity. Recall that she is operating under the guise of the Russian Embassy.
Cheers.
No, Ans, not yet - i’ve been keeping an eye on Akatsuki, and I’ve been skimming through the raws up to the end of Vol 6, where Roberta returns. And man, does she have a figure…
And yes, Balalaika had foreign embassy plates on her car, which is why she strolled right out. Rock, on the other hand, needed a quick getaway because he wouldn’t have a passport or ID that’d let him get away with similar privileges.
Thank you, ans. I have informed Shogakukan of the illegal upload.
Ten: I think the word ans is digging for now is “Oops”? ;)
Also, let there be a lesson here: do NOT post links to scanlations, raws, or other material on the blog. You’ve just seen what happens. Oops.
Incidentally, this blog also needs to be taken down by Bandai USA, because it’s referring to material which was ripped from TV and subbed. Ditto Ten for reading. :D
Damn. Good SEASON finale. But I sure as hell hope this isn’t the end of the series. Because it’s kind of a weak series finale.
Honestly though, I doubt this is the end of Black Lagoon. Their was still a lot to be told about the characters, and the manga is still coming out. Rei Hiroe certainly hasn’t stopped. Although at this time, their isn’t enough of the manga for the animators to work off of. Unless they want to release one story arc per month.
Give it a year or two, and i’m sure a season 3 will round the corner. Since the series is rising in popularity pretty well.
We want more! We want more!!!!
You guys missed the part where Revy was beginning to think that she can return to the twilight but Balalaika “smacked” her head and reminded her that there’s no return from the dark side. Maybe there’s a part of Revy that wants to escape from the dark side that’s why she hasn’t blown Rock’s head off for talking too much on a stupid ideal.
I don’t think Rock has a great verbal skill, because in the last episode, he needn’t have to open his mouth and ask Balalaika to exterminate the Washimine Group because she already know she has to kill them all. I’d thought business men are more cunning and not that honest. Rock is like a saint and talk too much of unimportant things and has no real experience to back up his speech beside “his boss dumped his ass”. In the last episode he got schooled by a teenage girl.
You’d think that Rock saved Revy by using his verbal skill but you didn’t notice there was a banana skin on the ground and Gin slipped. :)
also about the fingerprints, you guys seem to repeat yourselves a lot, maybe it quite simple as Rock taking responsibility for his word (because he talked too much).
It’s bit silly how the police couldn’t find a record on Rock even tho he was a former Japan citizen and they assumed he was a Chinese, that means he can return anytime he wants with his Chinese passport hehe.
I am not saying I am right but there’re so many things left open so we can not assume stuff but wait for more.
d4t2ill4: Um… you kinda missed a few points, but I’ll try to gently correct them.
#1: There was no banana peel. I’ve checked. Yes, he knew that Balalaika was already planning to raze them, but voiced the thought out loud since he figured it was the only way to get Yukio out of the whole matter… and was right. What he DIDN’T figure is that she wouldn’t want out at this point, and in the end had to accept it - and did so by watching her die.
#2: The Chinese passport was what Dutch gave Rock to get into Japan, since he’s technically dead - remembering that the corporation he worked for declared him dead in that piracy incident way back when (Ep #2 has them saying that they’d have a funeral set up for him, attended by all the top management). Even if they get a partial print, they won’t necessarily have him in a database - just because you got a footprint at birth doesn’t mean that the government automatically has you in a fingerprint database; the only way you usually end up there is if you commit some sort of crime, resulting in a criminal record. Thus, they MAY be able to get a print (and probably not), but it won’t mean much to them at this time… since Japan, as far as we can tell, doesn’t fingerprint all visitors on arrival. It does mean that there’s a record for the Japanese contact now… which in effect means that if he gets caught doing something, they MAY be able to pin the Washimine murders on him.