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Black Lagoon – 9 – T:1000, unstoppable maid edition

“You should have paid more attention to Rock’s joke, Benny-Boy.” Quips Dutch, a sweating shadow of his composed former self, having just seconds before been subjected to the vicious blood lust (and impossibly strong arms) of an ass-kicking maid from hell. “Imagine her as an invincible killer robot.”
The set up for this story arc is so simple and yet it works so well. Not since Spike crossed guns with Pierre Le Fou or Rock Lee went kung-fu on Gaara have I been so viscerally thrilled by an episode of anime. The fluidity of movement, the sense of an unstoppable power being unleashed, it’s all here, taken to school with a pumping electronic soundtrack, achingly cool aesthetics and the sheer absurdity of what is rapidly exploding infront of us.
This is all such a great fun because of the realistic ways in which the character’s react to their increasingly insane situations- it’s easy to see that Dutch and his crew are genuinely disturbed by the cute T-1000 (and her massive knife) chasing their moving car down the street, and as a viewer, this powerfully conveys the intense danger in which they find themselves.
Black Lagoon 9 is a jolting visceral experience, the kind of quirky action-packed genius Tarrentino would die to replicate, and as hard as I’ve tried, you can’t do justice to such a buzzing spectacle with mere words alone.

7 replies on “Black Lagoon – 9 – T:1000, unstoppable maid edition”

wow, reading that makes me want to watch that episode again. I don’t think I’ve read a blog about lagoon that didn’t relate it to Bebop. I don’t see a lot of similarity, but that’s just one otaku’s opinion.

@valdez – Black Lagoon gets comparisons to Bebop in terms of the quality of the action scenes and a few other things.

When you think about it, Black Lagoon shares quite a lot with Bebop (at least on a surface level).
1. A crew of questionable crooks and ex-military personal doing odd jobs so that they can afford their next meal.
2. Each job leads them into strange (and often dangerous) situations. Spike meets a madman like Pierre Le Fou and the Lagoon meets a T-1000 maid! 🙂
3. As nooneofconsequence explains; the quality of the action, which oozes style, is comparable to the class of Bebop. And I don’t say that lightly, Bebop is a classic anime series.
4. Finally, the way the (adult! not school kids, thank god) characters from both series sarcastically interact with each other is very similiar.

Now, I don’t want to turn this into a "why Lagoon is like Bebop" forum, but I left this item in my newsreader so that I could come back and see what the response was to my comment.
In response to bateszi & nooneofconsequence, I will agree with their assessment on those points.
The key “point” that keeps me from wanting to compare the two—too much—is the differences in character personalities and the overall plot. I’ve only seen up to episode 9, but I get the feeling that, unlike bebop, the Lagoon Co’s Revy, Rock, Benny, and Dutch don’t enjoy were they are and what they do as much as the Bebop cast does. Revy in particular has a personality that is prone to self destruction, a trait that I don’t see in any of the Bebop crew.
I’m opened minded on these things though and if I see more of the show I may change my mind and fall into line with you guyz, but until then I respectfully disagree.

"Revy in particular has a personality that is prone to self destruction"
Without wanting to spoil Cowboy Bebop for anyone, I think the same can be said of Spike- especially given how Bebop ends. Bebop’s sad conclusion could easily sit within Black Lagoon and feel natural.

i must say that Black lagoon is becoming a hardcore series but i feel its progressing fast, maby too fast, we got rock to start with then all the bosses wanted to kill dutch, revy kills a heep of boats and people with a grenade launcher and an usi, the taking out of the chopper with the torpedo, revy killing a bunch of nazis and then rock hagling with a nun for guns and ammo.
now on eap 9 theres an unstopable robot chick and a big shoot out etc…
9 eaps
i have to say that i’m loving all the action but it feels like ive seen revy do everthing she can. the series will burn out at this rate ,if we expect all this normal action and they start to go into the people and story more it will turn gay.
hopfully they will pull out some hentai to save the series…
we can only wish

Everyone does know this show is only 12 eps right? Considering there hasn’t been a massive storyline that’s gone throughout and everything has been "mostly" episodic….storyline burning out will hardly be an issue….

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