Burakku Ragūn | Through the Shattered Lens

I’ve gotten to watch Black Lagoon once again and I must say that the more I watch it over and over the more I have put this anime series on my favorite list. It’s just an anime that hits all the right buttons for me. Hyper-kinetic action, loads and loads of gun play and the most diverse cast of psychotic, badass female characters ever. One of these said badass females is one Rosalita “Roberta” Cisneros who headlines the third season of the series.

“Careful What You Wish” is the latest AMV of the Day that shows this lonewolf former FARC assassin turned maid for one of Colombia’s ruling families as she goes on a warpath to avenge the killing of her master and protect his only son in the aftermath. The video was created by LasSamurai2011 and he does a great job of putting together the video to work hand in hand with Metallica’s “King of Nothing” track.

While some of the sequences look just a tad dark it still shows enough of how much a badass Roberta really is and in a series full of such character that’s an achievement in of itself. Fans of the anime know what mean and those who are interested in checking out the series should do so. It’s every action film from the 80’s multiplied to a factor of 1000.

Anime: Black Lagoon: Roberta’s Blood Trail

Song: “King of Nothing” by Metallica

Creator: LastSamurai2011

Past AMVs of the Day

As I continue my current binge on all things anime and manga there’s one anime series that I thought deserved to be profiled in the usual “Anime of the Day” segment. This series comes from the action genre and heavily promoted towards the seinen (Males 18-30) demographic. While girls and women love this show as much as their male counterpart it definitely appeals very much to boys and young men. The anime I speak of is Black Lagoon (Burakku Ragūn in its original Japanese title).

Black Lagoon is the brainchild of mangaka Horie Rei. The manga began in the Spring of 2002 and continues a strong showing to this day. Like most manga that gain a large following it was just time before an anime adaptation was made and in 2006 the first season was released by anime studio Madhouse with Katabuchi Sunao handling director duties. To say that the anime became as popular as the original manga source would be an understatement.

The book’s main leads in Revy and Rock became fan favorites. One cannot go into an anime conventions anywhere around the world without seeing at least a dozen young women in Revy cosplay. She’s a character that actually is the most kickass in the group of mercenaries she works with and they’re all men. That just showed how appealing she became not just to the boys and men who followed the manga and anime, but to girls and young women who usually do not see such a powerful and kickass female protagonist who puts her male counterparts to shame.

The animation by Madhouse is its usual excellent self which also one reason why this series has caught on with anime fans worldwide. Black Lagoon has been released in the US by now-defunct Geneon Entertainment. They released the first two seasons (the series is just now into it’s third) and with that companies folding it’s quite difficult to find those two season box sets. It’s the hope of legion if anime fans that FUNimation Entertainment (who took over some of the licenses that Geneon Entertainment used to have) will re-issue those two seasons and give fans a price respite.

Black Lagoon might have been targeted towards the boys and young men demographic, but it’s success and popularity across the board makes it one of the growing lists of titles who break through prescribed genre labelings and why it does continue to grow in popularity. Plus, I think it doesn’t hurt the show that it’s main character in Revy is one kickass example of why some of the strongest fictional female roles are in anime (despite being drawn to be sexy to draw the male audience). This past Spring’s Sucker Punch may not be anime, but it’s kickass female characters definitely owe some of their foundations on characters like Revy.