Black Lagoon: Episode 03

Rock joins the Black Lagoon in hopes to start anew. He believes himself dead as a salary man and reinvents himself as a pirate. However, recent events trash his thoughts of glamorized piracy. Instead of idealized freedom, the so-called society he enters is governed by the basic rules in his civilized life: Survival.

The villain of the week, Mr. Chen, plans an attack against the Black Lagoon crew to stay on top of the food chain. Similar to major corporations trying to swallow up smaller firm, this businessman merely schemes to crush the growing competition, albeit literally. But Dutch’s quick thinking and Levi’s gun-handling easily deflect the flying bullets. They escape the trap unharmed.

While physically unscathed, Rock refers to Levi as broken, perhaps incomplete. Levi’s wondrous fighting skills mask the harshness of the circumstance. Despite the flash and the acrobatics, Levi is without a doubt, a killer, unhesitant to pull the trigger. Slowly being desensitized by the lives taken away, Rock wonders if he is broken as well.

A blind Buddha overseeing a rotting city, an emotional numbness building in a man. Black Lagoon tackles issues with surprising ease and subtlety. Large enterprises as mafias, pirates as salarymen, it reflects the dog eat dog world prevalent in contemporary society.

Who would’ve thought Black Lagoon is more than simply guns and explosions? Hah. Your brain cells will surely work too.