Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage

Information of Anime

The story picks up where the first season left off.  The Lagoon company takes on more mercenary work.  This time, it involves other parts of Asia.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  This section does contain some spoilers.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

Basically, it's about the Lagoon company doing some mercenary work.  Jobs involve outside of Asia now such as Japan & focuses more on higher issues such as child killers & Japanese Mafias.  Rock is now more use to his job, but still uses his ideals that gets him into trouble at times.  Of course, Revy saves him from time to time.  However, it seems that Revy has gone a little softer for being with Rock for a long time.  Unlike the first season, the elements here are deeper in terms of world issues & violence level.

The show ends the same way as the first season with an aftertaste in your mouth of saying "That's it?!"  It's possible that the show will have another season again.

My Personal Review

Black Lagoon The Second Barrage is a great action anime show to watch.  However, it's got a lot of blood & disturbing shots of body parts breaking apart or bursting.  This isn't something recommended for a younger audience.  Also, it's got a fair amount of colourful language in it.  More than the first season.  Plus, it touches on issues that would pretty much create an issue with some people.

Animation

The same as the first season.  The character designs aren't too bad.  They have that cool & cold composure.  The women here aren't sexy & hot like you would see in today's anime shows.  They are pretty tomboyish & have some manly look in them.  The image of the characters are really good & they really fit my image on how their personality would be like.

The backgrounds are pretty good.  They are pretty dull & creates a good image of the rundown cities & battlefields.  However, there are times where the background is too dark that you can't see it properly at some angles.

The colours are a mixture of bright & dull colours.  However, you see more of the dullness than brightness.  But, the outlines of the characters are pretty thick & heavy.  It's quite noticeable on the faces.

The animation movements are pretty realistic & fluid.  Unlike the first season, the movements are more believable.  No diehard, unkillable human machines.

Sound

The sound effect aren't too bad.  This time, the sounds sound better in terms of realism.  The gunshots sounds are cleaner & crisp; giving off a more realistic sound.

The seiyuus are the same as the first season.  No need to adjust.  They portrayed their characters very well & I liked how each & everyone of them sounded.  However, a lot of English is involved & some of it is a bit hard to understand as they are complex words & sentences.  Although there are course language involved, it's blanked out due to TV standards.  They will probably appear on the DVD versions as uncut & if there is no issues about seiyuus getting their images destroyed.

The music isn't too bad as it's the same ones from the first season.  I don't think there is any new songs in the show.  It's quiet most of the times as the other sounds like the voices & effects overpowers it a lot.  There are some songs that are a like weird to create those funny situations, but most of the time it's on the heavy metal side.  Since the music is sound, it's hard to get into the mood of the music or remember them in your head.

Story

Basically the same thing as the first season.  The Lagoon company doing some mercenary work for a living.  However, we see some character development from Rock & his relationship with Revy go a bit beyond now as Revy seems to be getting softer.  The pace of the character development is pretty smooth & doesn't create a lot of problems.  It's pretty realistic & believable.  However, Rock seems to be going back to his weak state when he returns to Japan for a mission.  But, he reverts back at the end.

Although this is a great show, this season brings up some interesting & possibly disturbing issues.  In the first arc, the show talks about disturbed young children assassins that were in child porn flicks.  Although the show talks about it as sad, this issue will bring up some problems with the public as child pornography is a serious issue that shouldn't be taken very lightly.  As the show is licensed in North America where child porn is a hard topic, this show will most likely get hit hard.  The later arcs aren't too bad, but that arc bites the dust. There may be a chance where this arc will be edit or be removed for the North American version.  Plus, the amount of gore is higher now.

As for the ending, it leaves the viewers wanting more again.  It has a lot of signs of the show having another season again as it is unfinished again.

Overall Conclusion

Black Lagoon The Second Barrage is a great action show to watch.  Lots of fights & heart pounding scenes.  But, there are some serious issues it touches on & may not be suitable for a lot of people.  If you like gun slinging action & don't mind a lot of blood nor the serious issues it touches on, this is a highly recommend choice.

Black Lagoon The Second Barrage gets a nine out of ten from me.  The show is packed with action & really mature.  It's more violent than the first season & touches on more realistic & serious issues in our real world.  But the ending is another unfinished meal like the first season.  Hopefully, there is another season to follow again.

Last updated on December 19, 2007