(L) Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage

[Cal-Reflector]

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

Well, since technically Black Lagoon Anime cast is made up of bad guys, worse guys, and worst guys, does it matter?

Immorality is the landscape of the show; it is barely noticeable as a result, unless you are REALLY bad.... There is no "right" side in Black Lagoon.

*Phoenix Wright Pose* OBJECTION!!

There is one good guy in Black Lagoon: Garcia Lovelace! The boy hero of justice. All Catholic virtue and steady upbringing aside, he actually never killed anyone!

His dad was similarly a good guy but I won't mention him because... well, let's just say he's removed from the plot eventually.

[TigerII]

I think the last dance will be some outside group wiping them all out. All the mafia organizations and their sub units including Black lagoon if my Hotel Moscow theory is not the end.

Either another crime organization or a government group.

[magyareagle]

Originally Posted by Cal-Reflector

*Phoenix Wright Pose* OBJECTION!!

There is one good guy in Black Lagoon: Garcia Lovelace! The boy hero of justice. All Catholic virtue and steady upbringing aside, he actually never killed anyone!

His dad was similarly a good guy but I won't mention him because... well, let's just say he's removed from the plot eventually.

And yes, what an upstandingly moral member of the community he is! Everyone should strive to be like the Lovelace's.
Pillars of the community who run one of the 6 largest drug cartels in the region!
And not only that, he hires one of the most deadly guerilla's to be his maid!
Yay! *sarcasm*

As much as I love the series, the whole part where Garcia was describing his life with the his father and Roberta, which made it look like they were genteel country nobility had me cracking up. The Lovelace familly is about as far removed from innocent as you can get. Garcia is still naive, but as Balalaika said, he will make a good head of the familly someday. And old man Lovelaces's hands are stained with blood, just like the rest of them.

[Cal-Reflector]

Originally Posted by magyareagle

And yes, what an upstandingly moral member of the community he is! Everyone should strive to be like the Lovelace's.
Pillars of the community who run one of the 6 largest drug cartels in the region!
And not only that, he hires one of the most deadly guerilla's to be his maid!
Yay! *sarcasm*

As much as I love the series, the whole part where Garcia was describing his life with the his father and Roberta, which made it look like they were genteel country nobility had me cracking up. The Lovelace familly is about as far removed from innocent as you can get. Garcia is still naive, but as Balalaika said, he will make a good head of the familly someday. And old man Lovelaces's hands are stained with blood, just like the rest of them.

I did wonder about what the Lovelace family's livlihood was before I made that post; its worth looking into, as I'm doing at the moment. A lot of important insights into the Lovelace family and their history is offered in volume six of the manga, which has not yet been released in English, translated, nor revealed in manga. Bur for now, some recaps of details:

1)According to Garcia, the Lovelaces are one of thirteen leading families (land owning but poor ex-aristocracy) in South America, who have been on the decline ever since the Cartels arrived, first to buy and then to interfere with their farm lands. He also mentions that his father is an old fashioned man who did not "expand into new business ventures."

The behavior by the cartels reveals an important detail; that the Lovelace's were not using their lands for drug-related activities, even though the soil composition of their land was extraordinarily suitable for narcotics, so much that the Cartels tried to take it from them and kidnap Garcia as a means to reach that objective and take revenge.

2)According to Balalaika's research and Garcia's own words, the Lovelace's have only one servant (later on we see that they hired a new one). There's no mention of a private army, or any sizable membership necessary of a crime organization.

3) Roberta was not hired by Diego; rather, he took her under his wing after she quit FARC and was on the run due to his friendship to her deceased father. It is also clear that from that point on until she goes to Roanapour to rescue Garcia, she served the Lovelace's only in the capacity of a maid, albeit a poor one who could neither cook nor clean.

And 4...

Spoiler for Manga Volume 6:

Old man Diego is assassinated by what is most likely an American intelligence operations unit, with cooperation from the Colombian and Venezuelan military. From the looks of it, Diego was a leading figure in regional social-political activism, though I'm still murky on the details of it. For many though, I think the fact that he got assassinated by the CIA (90% sure) at a popular rally would be indication enough that he was a "good" guy. *Laughs*

In conclusion: The Lovelace family under Diego was not a part of a drug cartel, but as Garcia, Rock, and Balalaika confirmed, a poor landed Family that has declined from former prestige. Roberta took it upon herself to serve the Family in what ways she could, as a maid and later on a body guard when the need arose. The recent storyline centered on the Lovelace is still continuing, so we'll see how that turns out.

[TigerII]

What volumes of the manga did the show cover?

[magyareagle]

Ok, that clears it up.

When I watched the anime it seemed like they were part of a cartel, just a minor one which had fallen onto hard times. Their land was suitable for farming, but it would have been more profitable on the short term to extract the mineral used in ceramics. The other cartels wanted the land, so they pressured Diego by kidnapping Garcia.

At least that's the way I saw it.

Also keep in mind, Balalaika seems to hold some respect for the familly, respect that she doesn't give easily.
I haven't read the manga, but I'll agree with you that the Lovelace familly is about as close to "Good guys" as you can get, in the shady world of Black Lagoon.

[Madoss]

Originally Posted by TigerII

What volumes of the manga did the show cover?

the show is covering 6 volumes, more precisely 43 chapters, the last chapter of the v6 is the chapter 46.

the last chapter so far is the chapter 51.

So IMO, for a third season animated, we'll wait for a long time ^^

[TigerII]

Well at least the manga is still going on. Even if they don't make a new season I can continue. But hopefully they will in a year or so.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by TigerII

Well at least the manga is still going on. Even if they don't make a new season I can continue. But hopefully they will in a year or so.

I thought that the Black Lagoon is a monthly manga? If that's the case, and 21-22 chapters is needed to make 13 episodes, then 21-5=16 chapers left before they can make more anime. And that translates to another one and a half years of waiting...

This assumes of course that Black Lagoon isn't a bi-monthly manga .

Anyone know for sure?

[TakezoSama]

So if it's a bi-monthly manga it'd take 3 years to make a 3rd season? nooooo (repeat ad eternum)....

O well, can't they release a few ovas for us? Or maybe a movie, that'd do it too.

[TigerII]

At this point, I honestly doubt we will see more animation. If we did, it would be in several years as you said. If we want to continue this story, looks like we are reading it.

[[DOT].L]

*Salute*

[mono]

i just watched the whole of series 1 on dvd - subbed, & i have to say the translation was pretty poor! very literal translations that hardly make sense most of the time.

whoever said the ciggarette kiss in the police car scene was pretty hot you are well right! they HAVE TO get it on in some way at some stage.
oh and also the scene in ep 10 (i think) where rock wakes her up and leans over to open the window blinds, that was pretty nice too.
revy is soft at heart, she just wants a hug & needs looking after!

i'm downloading the 2nd series now - i'm a bit behind and this is my first post on this site so hi!

[Dagger]

Originally Posted by mono

i just watched the whole of series 1 on dvd - subbed, & i have to say the translation was pretty poor! very literal translations that hardly make sense most of the time.

It's not out on DVD yet outside of Japan. (In other words, you got a bootleg). If the official release--with good translations etc.--interests you, you might want to check out the first volume when it comes out in late May.

[pothead21]

there's a manga?!?!? links anyone??

[TigerII]

I have a question. If Revy grew up in NYC...why does her english SUCK!

She spoke Engrish in those episodes.

[Mueti]

Errm...because Japanese voice actors suck at pronouncing English and most other western languages since Japanese lacks a lot of the sounds.
I don't think it matters much to the Japanese audience which it's produced for.

[mono]

you could've also asked why those nazi guys spoke japanese too!??

[Pelleas]

Funnily enough, this issue came up on the threads in YouTube for Full Moon wo Sagashite. My replies there appear to apply here except the idiotic/mature ratio of posters seem much more favorable here

First off, it's a Japanese show, so it's aimed towards a Japanese audience. It's pretty obvious that whatever language is being spoken is for the benefit of the audience it's intended for. Since Rock was hired to be an interpreter for Balalaika and Revi is Chinese-American, it's my guess you're to assume everyone's speaking English.

A good American example of this is "Enemy at the Gates". Instead of having Jude Law and Rachel Weiz learn Russian for two years before filming, they speak English and leave it to the audience to figure out that yes, they're Russian and therefore speaking Russian.

Personally, I think Black Lagoon handled this better by having Revi and Balalaika speaking English (albeit horribly) to cue the audience before reverting back to Japanese. It definitely aids in perceiving all those moments of tension and alienation certain characters find themselves in during this series.

Also, I agree about the "hotness" of the cigarette kiss. It's my favorite scene in the entire series. Discarding the usual Hollywood-type cliche' and replacing it with disturbing elegance.

[TigerII]

Yeah the cig kiss was...a unique one. But the issue now is if Revy has jumped Rock's bones yet.