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Reviewed by David Rasmussen Imitation is supposed to be the height of flattery, though in Black Lagoon’s case it’s not really imitating as much as it wants to be the next something... I think it’s the next Cowboy Bebop. Not so much the whole space cowboy future bounty hunter thing as in the popularity and high fan approval of Bebop; it wants to inherit that (and probably Bebop’s fan base too while it’s at it). Can it do it? Well it is M for Mature (and Bebop had a very prominent spot on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim back in the days when they weren’t all anally “American Animation First” with Anime exiled to Saturdays only… come on now, as much as I appreciate Family Guy and sometimes Robot Chicken, and put Anime back on the menu seven days a week, Cartoon Network -- we can actually live without a majority of the stuff you now keep showing nightly you know...). What else (that I won’t go into a long rant about)? Black Lagoon is about “the baddest group of mercenaries ever to hit the high seas of Southeast Asia!”… wow, usually when a title says something like that I get this whole “Danger Will Robinson! Danger!” alert in the back of my head, because titles that usually blow their horn like this end up sucking… this doesn’t suck, but it’s not Cowboy Bebop memorable either. Anyway, where was I... oh. Right. Anyway they have an old WWII torpedo boat called the Black Lagoon, while Bebop had an old ship called the Bebop I think… yeah. Bebop had a mixed cast of strange eccentric characters, this title has a Boss (Dutch, no relation to Schwarzenegger’s Dutch from the first Predator movie), a Mechanic (Benny), someone named Revy Two Hands (the token female) and Rock (the salaryman from Japan… you’re kidding me, right? Rock the Salaryman?!? Damn...) They, like the crew of Bebop, tend to mix themselves up in the affairs of people you shouldn’t mix yourself up with. In this case it’s the Russian Mafia, Chinese Triads, Colombian drug cartels, crazed (but not Deadpool-funny-crazed, just crazy-killer-crazed) assassins, and other mercs of the trade... it’s like Law & Order only without JP Waterhouse pitchman Sam Waterson. In this volume, Rock is supposed to be an interpreter for hire, with gal Revy as bodyguard. And from there you are off to the races. Two sides (it’s the Japanese Yakuza and the Russians with a severly-disfigured killer-woman on their side and the obligatory breakouts of violence, action and violence between the drama and attempts to be Bebop cool… so, does it work? As an action title it delivers well enough, but doesn’t contain that extra oomph to make it perfect 5 out of 5 material (aka that A+ grading over here… did I ever mention I dislike the letter grade system? My usual rating is a 1 to 5 out of 5 [5 levels])... What’s important here is that the title is an average action drama and it’s all right, but I never really connected with its characters to the point of saying I really want to rave about this. That, by the way, has to be important to really get a high score... I, as a reader, should really bond with the characters and really feel some great motivation to want to keep reading the title. I don’t feel that here. The title is a decent enough action drama yarn, but I could hardly care less about the four stars of the book. They just don’t grab me as they should, and that’s bad news. Because of that, I floated away, from being interested in the read to just saying yes, yes it works… and that’s it, it works, and nothing else. Maybe it’s just me, so I’m going to give this title a B- because if you pick this up from the start (not here, but Volume 1) and roll from the word go to now? I presume tht you may pick up that all-important connection with the characters, and make that synch that makes you want to keep on reading and keep on following this title. Me? I didn't come in for volume 1... this just didn’t do it for me. You might have a different response though, so if you’re curious and want to give this a spin, then pick up Black Lagoon (preferably Volume 1) today and try it out... perhaps you'll be pleasantly surprised by it. Next week? Right now if you’re following my video game reviewing you may know I’m gearing up for a competition between cooking/puzzler games with cooking themes this year. So why don’t I just bite the bullet and review the title about... yes... making bread! (VIZ WHY!! Please VIZ get the rights to Cooking Mama the Manga or Cake Mania the Manga or Diner Dash the Manga... SOMETHING THAT IS ACTUALLY INTERESTING BUT... BREAD?!? AND WHY THE HELL IS A SERIES ABOUT BREAD SO DAMN LONG?!? WHY!?!) Uh… yeah. Next week is a very long review of Yakitate!! Japan (featuring all the volumes I’ve received to date, which is quite a bit of review right there). Stay tuned. Interested in writing for MangaLife? We're always looking for talented reviewers and columnists, so drop us a line! Charles Webb Editor-in-Chief, MangaLife.com |
1 September 2010
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