Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail

I've talked about Black Lagoon once before. For those of you who don't remember, it's an action series about a group of mercenaries. Dutch (who wears sunglasses at night), Revy (who shoots everything), Benny (who does machines) & Rock (the rookie). The first series aired in 2006. This OVA was released in 2010-2011. Judging by the title, we can safely say it puts the focus on the killer maid. So, let's look at Roberta's Blood Trail and see if it's as good as the first series of the anime was. Please tell me it also has an absurd engrish theme tune. Story: We open with a politicalevent in Venezuela. Naturally, the United States can't stand not interfering with South American politics, and they bomb it. This results in several people, including Roberta's master, dying. She swears revenge and disappears from the mansion, taking a big gun from her lord. This prompts her young master to go after her with another maid. The trail takes them to Roanapur where they solicit the help of the Lagoon Company to find her and bring her back safely. Can they save Roberta and when will America stop bullying small South & Central American nations? Possibly and only when Trump's ill-conceived tax plan gets them so far in debt they can't afford to be dicks. The biggest problem with the OVA is that there's a lot of time spent on set up. Black Lagoon has never been a series with particularly strong writing. It works by quickly setting up a situation and then giving you some stupidly awesome action. That's where it shines. Having long segments of Rock playing strategist or of Roanapur politics isn't particularly compelling. Nor is the planning on display very good. It's one of those scenarios where he basically knows exactly what's going to happen and what he needs to do because he read ahead in the script and not because of any actual cleverness. The politics aren't exactly robust either. A lot of it is X owes Y a favour because of Z or group D thinks E because of some really shallow reason. And I do understand that it's Black Lagoon, it's not supposed to be complex or clever. My issue is that they're wasting large chunks of time putting on a thin façade of cleverness and complexity and the segments are boring. It's also a little odd that they include flashbacks of events from Revy's past that we already knew everything we needed to know about. It's like their only purpose is to pad out the whole thing. I will credit the OVA for having a strong sense of tension. It builds suspense off of what's going to happen to Roberta and whether or not she can be saved. The OVA does do a really good job of illustrating exactly what obstacles she's facing and how daunting they are. The segments showing her descent are really effective. It's definitely at its best when it keeps the focus on Roberta. Characters: The OVA gives us more of the Lagoon company but the main character focus is on Roberta, the things she's been through and how they've impacted her. Which serves to make her a really compelling character. It also tries to illustrate how much Rock's grown as a member of the Lagoon Company via all of those bland “strategy” scenes and by having a conversation where he talks to Revy about what he hopes to accomplish. That aspect works significantly less well due to the aforementioned problems with those scenes. Art: Black Lagoon is one of those series that illustrates just how good Madhouse's art can be. The lighting works really well. It can be a little dark at times, but it's never excessive. The action sequences are excellent. The various guns and backgrounds look really good. Sound: There are some really strong performances in this. Toyoguchi Megumi is as good as ever. Namikawa Daisuke does his role well. Tomizawa Michie, Ikura Kazue & Yukino Satsuki are amazing. The opening theme tune is a remix of the series' regular theme and, unfortunately, one that isn't very good. Aside from that, the music is nicely done and quite good. Ho-yay: There's a lack of ho-yay in this series. Not that there's much romance whatsoever. Final Thoughts: The biggest issue with Roberta's Blood Trail is that it has some long, dull scenes that don't convey what they're trying to very well. However, when it keeps the focus on Roberta, those who consider her family and their situation it's pretty damn great. It might not be at the level of the first series, but it still manages to be a good viewing experience. Next week I'll review Flying Witch.

Warning possible Spoilers I think the thing that surprised me the most about this OVA series is that it was more intense and hectic compared to the first two seasons. The story begins with the assassination of Garcia's father so Roberta goes on a mission to avenge his fathers death by finding the people who killed him which brings her to Roanapur, Garcia along with his new maid Fabiola asks the Lagoon crew for help to retrieve Roberta and bring her home. What I really enjoyed with this part of the Black Lagoon series is that it starts off like another normal situation for the Lagoon crew,but even in 5 episodes the story paced incredibly well from turning into a hunt and into a massacre, it was intense, thrilling and goddamn suspenseful seeing Roberta killing anything in her path so she can accomplish her mission for avenging Garcia's father. It felt even darker than the last series too the way people died was pretty damn gruesome and even some of the injuries that some of the characters attained was pretty messed up too especially for Roberta who lost quite a few body parts by the end of this show. Once again the characters were as good as ever, the show certainly focused on Rock quite a bit once again since he is continuing with his internal battle of his morality and at some point the show even made him go to the dark side like the way Revy and the other criminals are mainly because he has become so used to the corruption and violence of Roanapur and it really brought out the terror in his character, but luckily he didn't stay that way forever. The same can be said for Revy who's character had changed a lot in the second season was again changed further with the conversation that she had with Fabiola who said that Rock is someone she cares for because of his determination to help people and if he became like her she would lose that person she cared for which shows that Revy has changed a lot from the beginning of season 1 thanks to Rock. You also get to see how messed up Roberta is and what this OVA showed was absolutely terrifying, she even use's pills just to make her stronger and more immune to pain which makes her go insane and delusional even seeing things that haunted her which even made her to believe at some point that Garcia wasn't even real which almost got him killed, Roberta can also be very creepily deceptive because she even tricked one of the enemies to have sex with her only to kill them with a special Gun belt so this OVA truly showed how much of a scarred, mentally unstable and deadly person she really was. The show also focused on Garcia and the new maid Fabiola who is another deadly maid hell she stabbed a guy in the nuts with a shoe knife, but their combined effort to try and help Roberta showed they had heart and really cared for Roberta's well being and that meant even sacrificing themselves to get her back which almost did happen because Garcia took a bullet just to make her see straight again. Again though Dutch, Benny and some of the other main criminals were put on the sidelines true it isn't about them, but it would be nice seeing them do something for once instead of being put aside. The artstyle once again remained amazing, compared to the first two seasons it certainly increased the gore meter because like I said a lot the injuries or the way some people died was pretty damn gruesome especially when it came to Roberta's skills which definitely showed when she was fighting her enemies like for example during the final episode the ways she killed some of the American spec-ops guys was damn impressive and the injuries she sustained herself were pretty gruesome too. The Action continued to blow me away the firefights that happened with Roberta and pretty much everyone around certainly turned into a war zone and I have to say well done because the gun battles in this OVA felt more thrilling and tense compared to the first two seasons which I have to give credit too. There was also a bit of fanservice in the mix too since we get to see both Revy and Roberta nude which probably gave the fans something nice to look at, I wasn't really bothered hell I enjoyed myself it just came out of nowhere for me. Overall this was a great OVA and nicely continued the Black Lagoon story and hopefully one day there will be a season 3.....maybe, if you're someone who watched both seasons and is expecting hectic action then come and see this.

The plot is action packed. It is an interesting bonus to the Black Lagoon series. It explores two popular characters that were part of an arc in the original anime. The animation is beautiful and explores characters that are back by popular demand. Its a must watch for fans of action and adventure. The crime world is such an untouched subject that it leaves you wanting more. The episodes are longer so it has a good run time. It does not disappoint and keeps you at the edge of your seat. This is one of the most unique ova to ever be made. It israre that an ova tries new things and still relates to the original story.

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