Retsgip’s Anime Blog

Darkshaunz coins the term “Tsunderevy”

Score: 9.8/10

There’s something about this installment of Black Lagoon, I am not sure what it is, but it just delivered that extra “umph” to the usual hoo-ah of blood, sweat and explosions. What happens when you take the essence of Revy’s character, and turn it on it’s head? Something wonderful happens, and the Hottest gun-totting babe this side of Raunapaur has a whole new dimension added to her. Oh, and there’s the whole Engrish bit of the episode too. Revy’s Engrish is really cool and just made this already strong episode, that something special.

Tokyo is pretty. Sparkly shit oooo.

It’s the New Year for the Lagoon Company, but this new arc is not in the humid, gang-infested town we all know and love, rather it is set in the metropolis city of Tokyo. Tokyo looks authentic, from the neon lights on the trees, to the cheeky idol stickers posted on the phone booth Rock was speaking in to Benny. Rock’s here on a Translating gig for Balalaika, who so happens to speak English. Revy’s here with Rock because she’s concerned for her, and also provides the perfect stone foundation for some serious character development (Rock x Revy fans rejoice!).

Our first glimpse of Revy’s new outfit.

Hot…yet cute?

Now, I have to comment on something before I move on. It’s on Revy’s new getup, I have to say right here, and right now. It fucking rocks. Don’t get me wrong, I love her in the Devil-mode tank top and short-shorts jeans, but this getup just makes her adorably lethal. She appears more conservative and even “normal”, but she still retains the Badassery which naturally eminates from her character. Apparently some guys have already hit on her as a foreigner in Tokyo, I pray she didn’t completely crack their nuts as a result of their come-ons.

I think Commissar Balalaika is more appropriate.

As usual with the lagoon company, travel always means business. Balalaika meets up with local Japanese Yakuza heads to discuss their newly formed alliance. Seems that this Yakuza group have colluded with Russkies before, namely via some comrade called Laptev. Balalaika’s proposal is simple, co-operate with the Russian Mafia, and get mutual benefits, or be crushed by the might of her Hotel Moscow private army. Now, she speaks exclusively in English, during this scene. People are thinking…Wait a Minute, she can speak Japanese to Rock right? Wrong. This is where we need to put our context caps on:

When she is speaking with her Comrades = Russian. (even if its in Japanese Audio)

When she is speaking to Rock = We must assume its in English. (as above)

When she is speaking to Mr. Chan = We must again assume its in English.

So this helps with the confusion with the whole “Black Lagoon Language Issue”. The only common language between Hotel Moscow and Lagoon Company and the Chinese Triad is ENGLISH. So why doesn’t she just speak in full russian to her second in command if thats the case? Because this is aired in Japan, not in Russia. The whole Engrish-Japanese Language switch is just part of the charm of Black Lagoon. Its not something to be taken literally, nor is it something to be concerned about. Rest assured that whatever the reason, the the majority of the speech will always be in Japanese. Personally, I found Balalaika’s VA to have handled the English well. Now that the language issue is off my chest, we go back to Balalaika demonstrating Hotel Moscow’s power by blowing up a rival Yakuza Bar.

Boom Baby.

On the way back from the Translation gig, the pair come across a New Year’s Japanese Fair. According to the rules of popular anime, they must somehow be involved in some of Festival or Carnival, because it provides the best backdrop for character drama or development (think about it). Kinda like the cliche’d hilltop where all couples drive up to make out. Tsunderevy is not at the stage to do that though, unfortunately for Rock (She’s got WAAAYS to go yet). She hits up the shooting stall and goes for the high score prize. During the game, Revy comments that Rock should visit his parents, we then get a flashback of a young Revy killing a guy, presumably to steal his money and get food.

Revy in Leather Jacket = Awesome Win

Upon reflecting on Revy’s comment. Rock looks at Revy and tells her that he’s not exactly “normal”, seeing as he hangs around the Lagoon company in the first place. A miracle, our Priestess of Doom displays a soft, heart-melting, sympathetic and rather “Dere” expression. Now, initial assumptions may be that it would look really silly on this Man-Eating lady, but I think that it was a pretty special moment for the two. Rock, who was slightly “shocked” at this sudden soft and sad expression, quickly questions “WTF?”. Its okay Rock, its just the first step in getting close to some “Sweet” stuff.

Wait for it….Wait for it….

Tsunderevy!1!!1one!!!….My Heart is Melti-*Dies*

Rock and Revy’s special moment is spoiled as she fails to shoot down a doll at the stall. This was hilarious as the vendor refused her the prize, as she poked it down. She then decided to swear in glorious fury. This is because she is an American, and she was just giving that Jap bastard what was coming to him….IN AMERICA!! (Yes, here at Retsgip blog, we love our Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged references). Unfortunately, because this was not America, her taunts and screams of, “This is Bullshit” fell on deaf ears. As if things were already un-romantic enough, some huge guy and a meganne schoolgirl come in. The huge guy, who I like to call “The Terminator”, was pretty direct to Revy. “WHERE IS SARAH CONNER?“, boomed The Terminator to Revy. Naturally, our Goddess would not take this shit from some Robot sent from the future. Rock, tries in vain to stop an epic battle from occuring. Its ok! Glasses girl then steps in and offers everyone tea. A potentially deadly super saiyan fight of awesome proportions was abated, and everyone drank some tea (*monocle*). I say chaps….good show.

Revy makes a “Your Mother was a Robot Factory” Joke.

I missed an Epic Battle because they settled for Tea????

Well, to be honest, I was hoping that Revy would totally battle Terminator. Terminator’s real name is Gin and he protects Glasses girl from the scary things in the world, like Class-A criminals and Teletubbies. Dear God save us from the Teletubbies. Anyway, seems that the Glasses girl is the Yakuza head’s daughter or something (well, she is the daughter of a vendor here….who may be linked to the Yakuza). This arc is all about the Yakuza, so she must be a pretty big wheel. Interesting to note, is that Revy seems very unpleased with Rock talking to another girl. This is to be expected, seeing as Rock is pretty much Revy’s property anyway. Maybe we should expect a brutal catfight between Glasses Girl and Revy? I bet 10 bucks that she gets mauled by Revy in under 5 minutes. Gin and Revy exchange the typical “Badass” remarks at each other. It went something along the lines of, “You stink of Blood, and your childhood sucked like hell” and “Lol Yeah, but look who’s talking”. Black Lagoon is truly the land of Happy Conversations.

No Sarah Conner make Terminator-Panda SAAADDD

All this character development and Rock x Revy building was great, but Black Lagoon would not be Black Lagoon without some ass-kicking somewhere in between. This time, our Russian comrades are carving it up in the name of Mother Russia. The uniform is definitely Commando, and Russian Commandos are basically Urban Ninjas of Infinite Death. I heard a rumour that once, a person saw a Russian Commando, and after seeing the sight, his whole town exploded into small pieces.True Story (Disclaimer: Story may not actually be true). The hit was ordered by Captain Balalaika on a rival Yakuza gang (who just lost a bar). When a squad of Russian Commando Ninjas come to attack you, just pray that your death is quick. That’s because you can’t do anything about it, plus they are wearing Ninja masks and psycho russian expressions, if that doesn’t scare the shit out of any person, nothing will.

Say Hello to his Little Friend.

This year’s disco theme was “Die like hopeless Fodder”.

We then get to Balalaika talking to another Russian comrade, who failed in his mission to clean up the Tokyo group. He is your usual arrogant, rich, self-absorbed and power-mad Mafia boss, except he is also exceeding stupid. Let me pose you a situation, you are meeting with a fellow comrade, she is wearing a Military Jacket with full special forces honours and has more scars than a Burn victim, do you even think of provoking her? Yes, according to Retardo here. Thanks to calling Balalaika a Military dog, he gets his ass schooled, so hard in fact, that I think he will be limping back to his hotel room. Also, Balalaika has those Yuri Mind-Control eyes, maybe she was part of the Soviet Army in Red Alert 2 or something, and they give me the heebie-jeebies. I am convinced she has psychic powers that she is not sharing with viewers yet.

WHAT DID YOU SAY ABOUT MY LIPSTICK!????

Back at the fair, we get to hear about The Terminator’s REAL Background. Seems that he wasn’t sent from the future to kill the mother of the greatest leader of the human resistance. No, but he does this Huge ass Katana and a Tatoo which looks like it qualifies as my local Road Map. They called him “Manslayer Ginji” and he even got a badass dramatic cutscene with snow falling and crap. Wow, I am surprised they did not add flames coming out from the ground, Doves or even a Dragon flying overhead to add more “Effect” to his entrance. The two talk about how one week is too long to release Black Lagoon eps and agreed that it was best to collude with Russians to correct this. Its a fact that putting Russians in an equation will always equate to more ownage.

I hope he is talking about Gin’s Sword.

Then, the scene which I enjoyed the most, Revy in “Onee-san” mode. Now, I am sure when we think of Revy, we think of this girl who has gone through the shits when she was a little girl, forced to kill and steal in order to survive, living in the ghetto. She’s obviously grown to be a rather cynical, tough-as-nails woman. But this particular segment showed us, that despite her psycho-badassery, she’s actually a warm person deep down, who truly cares about her comrades, cares about her “Rock”.

This is the “Dirty” Revy we know.

This is because that she was planning on leaving Rock back at his home, as she felt that this was where he truly belonged, Revy knows the sorrow of not having a parent’s love, so she did not want Rock to waste and regret not reuniting with his family. She exhibits a warm Big-sister love when she sees a group of ruffians doing battle with each other with fake guns. She doesn’t know how to show her affectionate via conventional means (say buying them an ice cream or some shit), but she demonstrates to them her gun skills (even having a Calamity Jane shoot off with the kids) and even tells them how to “Die” properly. Sure, its not exactly what the kid’s parents had in mind, in terms of starting their acting careers, but it sure was a good start! Seeing as Revy has killed more people than the number of times I’ve said …IN AMERICA!!! this week, I will take her word for it. Like Balalaika, I was impressed with the effort Revy’s VA put in for the English dialogue, I had to concentrate slightly to catch what she was saying, but it was not inaudible. I’d be worried if her English suddenly became super-perfect accent-wise, as it would mean a dub or some shit (which would have me Charging Mah LAZERS). The Engrish might sound heavy, but it sounded very natural, and very Revy-like. It was also rather cute to hear her go “Bam Bam Bam!” when she was shooting the cans (sounded sexy too).

If you add a bit of Big Sister Love…

Voila! Revy’s nurturing side comes out shining.

Thats our Revy, yeah, I can’t believe it either. She’s a real angel /cries.

This arc may be about some Yakuza-Hotel Moscow run in with Terminator Panda and Glasses girl, but this episode was all about Revy. “Tsunderevy” did it just right for me, unlike other characters in other Tsundere-moe generic anime, Revy fully understands the concept of love (not see it as a feeling they cannot understand: See Louise from ZnT). So we know now, that inside Two-Hands the Ultimate Gunwoman, lies a warm, glowing and onee-chan-ness just bursting to be discovered. Slowly, its leaking out, and this episode is testament that the writers are pacing it just nicely, she’ll never be fully Dere, and this episode might be the only episode she displays such outward affection to a child, let alone concern for Rock, but is happening and it’s adding that extra special ingredient to crafting Revy to become one of the most well-developed Badass women leads in anime of all time (She’s already a personal favourite of mine). Heck, she even blushes in embarassment, what more could we Possibly ask for?

His Power is over Nine THOUSAAANDD!!! *Crushes Scouter*

The episode wraps up with Revy and Rock leaving to their love hotel. Rock goes to visit his parent’s home at Revy’s request, but turns out they aren’t in. Revy, who was still concerned for her man, wonders why he chose to follow her back to the blood-ridden world of that the Lagoon company does. It’s obvious that they have a strong bond, and its also apparent that Rock feels that he can achieve more personally and freely when he is with Revy and the others. Once a Pirate, always a Pirate (Hey, why work a desk job when you can run and gun with the hottest pirate girl ever?). I took more screenies of Revy’s new outfit, possibly because I can’t get over how awesome it is, but that it makes her more feminine as well. It’s going to rock so hard when she is fighting in that getup. I know when we think of good fashion sense, we immediately think of Kubo Tite’s Bleach characters wearing some pretty nuts clothes in his pinups (for the manga, mostly), good to see thats kind of spilling down to other anime like Black Lagoon.

It’s almost as if they are striking a pose for a clothing company.

mmm…Skirt and Stockings. On Revy, no less.

That’s all there is for this week, there isn’t any more. If I have to say anything about Black Lagoon at this point, is that, I am being impressed and schooled by how well they are pacing the story, character development and spoiling us with a Gentle Revy. Of course, there’s such a thing as too much of a good thing, and I am sure that Revy will resume ass-kicking duties come next episode. However, for Rock x Revy supporters, this is a memorable episode, and for Revy fans, it was the unique element that added a whole new dimension to her stereotypical gung-ho attitude. Join me next week as the Russians blow more shit up, and remember folks, when you play-die, Fall Head-First.

Cheers,

Darkshaunz