#IReadsYou Review: BLACK LAGOON Volume 11

BLACK LAGOON, VOL. 11
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

CARTOONIST: Rei Hiroe
ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Joe Yamazaki
LETTERS: John Hunt, Primary Graphix
EDITOR: Mike Montesa
ISBN: 978-1-9747-1119-2; paperback (January 2020); Rated “M” for “Mature”
224pp, B&W, $12.99 U.S., $17.99 CAN, £8.99 U.K.

While on a business trip in Southeast Asia, Japanese “salaryman,” Rokuro Okajima, is kidnapped by a band of smugglers.  Abandoned by his company, Rokuro takes on the name, “Rock,” and joins his abductors.  They are Vietnam vet, Dutch the Boss; Benny the Mechanic, who handles the boat’s complicated high tech electronics, and Revy Two Hand, the ultra-lethal, gunslinger.  With Rock, this now-quartet is the baddest band of mercenaries on the high seas of Southeast Asia, sailing aboard the vessel, “the Black Lagoon,” a modified, World War II torpedo boat.  Through Dutch’s company, “Lagoon Traders,” this quartet operates a maritime courier service out of Roanapur, Thailand, a dangerous city that is rotten with military, ex-military, gangsters, drug dealers, and more of the worse people in the world.

As Black Lagoon, Vol. 11 (Chapter 77: “The Wired Red Wild Card”) opens, Rock and Revy are trying to help Feng Yifei, a former spy for the Chinese Liberation Army.  Feng's failures have led to her being disavowed by the government she once served, and now she is being hunted by the Chinese government's hired killers.

Rock and Revy have accompanied Feng to an Internet cafe where she tries to burn data that will help buy her protection (hopefully) from some organization that will want the information she has.  However, a Chinese operative has hired a group of “mixed-race” brothers to assassinate Feng, and they have caught up with her at the cafe.  The ensuing shootout will leave Revy and one of the brothers in police custody, forcing the former salaryman into action.  Now, Rock has to come up with a plan that will both save Revy and appease whoever wants to save Feng from the People's Republic of China.

The Black Lagoon manga was a burning hot property and was eventually adapted into an anime series.  However, after the ninth volume of the graphic novel (tankobon) series was published in North America in 2010, the tenth volume did not appear until 2015.  Creator Rei Hiroe insisted, in an “afterword” published in Vol. 10, that the series had not been on hiatus between the ninth and tenth volumes... no matter what anyone else said.

Black Lagoon Graphic Novel Volume 11 is arriving in North America nearly five years after the arrival of Vol. 10.  I am a big fan of this series, but I had to read one hundred pages into Vol. 11 before I found myself back in the groove of its narrative.  Of course, it was a big shootout scene that reminded me of why I like this high-flying, balls-to-wall, bullet-blasting, adult-action manga.

So my final analysis is that Black Lagoon remains the same.  There are character dynamics, deal-making, and interpersonal relationships involving various kinds of obligation.  But the best of Black Lagoon is still its explosive action, and that is still here.  Hopefully, we will not have to wait another five years for Vol. 12...

B+
7 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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#IReadsYou Review: BLACK LAGOON Volume 10

BLACK LAGOON, VOL. 10
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

CARTOONIST: Rei Hiroe
ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Joe Yamazaki
LETTERS: John Hunt, Primary Graphix
ISBN: 978-1-4215-7772-2; paperback (April 2015); Rated “M” for “Mature”
192pp, B&W, $12.99 U.S., $14.99 CAN, £8.99 U.K.

The baddest mercenaries on the high seas of Southeast Asia sail aboard the “Black Lagoon,” a modified, World War II torpedo boat.  Prowling the waters off the coast of Southeast Asia is a small crew of four.  There is Vietnam vet, Dutch the Boss, and Benny the Mechanic, who handles the boat’s complicated high tech electronics.  Revy Two Hand is the ultra-lethal, gunslinger, and Rock, the corporate crony formerly known as Rokuro Okajima, just ended up part of the crew.  Through Dutch’s company, Lagoon Traders, this quartet operates a maritime courier service out of Roanapur, Thailand, a dangerous city rotten with military, ex-military, gangsters, drug dealers, etc.

Black Lagoon, Vol. 10 has a singular focus on Chapter 77: The Wired Red Wild Card.  Benny's lascivious girlfriend, Jane, arrives in town with naughty plans to make love to Benny... and sometimes to rape him.  The tech-savvy Jane, who leads an international counterfeiting group, however, has even darker plans for her latest recruit, Feng Yifei, a Chinese spy.

The plan is for Feng to hack into Reinbach A.G., a German electronics manufacturer, in order to steal the avionics data the company is developing.  Jane's real motive is to blackmail the Chinese government, an act which leaves, Feng, who is enlisted in the Chinese military, as the scapegoat.  Now, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has hired men to kill Feng.  Some of the crew of the Black Lagoon are sympathetic, but they would rather not bring Feng's trouble on themselves.  What will she do?

I think the last time the Black Lagoon manga was published in North America was in 2010, when VIZ Media published Vol. 9.  In an afterword published in Black Lagoon Volume 10, series creator, Rei Hiroe, seems determined to make his readers understand two things.  He has been working on the series during the five years between Vols. 9 and 10, and he was not on hiatus, no matter how many people say he was.

He doesn't need to explain anything to me, at least.  I did miss Black Lagoon and often wondered what happened to the series.  I love it.  It's the comic book that The Punisher should be like, although DC Comic's recently launched Deathstroke series (2014) reminds me of Black Lagoon.  While Vol. 9 was a shoot 'em up fest, Vol. 10 is short on the kind of explosive gun battles that have come to define this series, although there are a few ballets of bullets.

In this chapter, Hiroe takes a deeper look at the personalities and philosophies of Revy and Rock, particularly from the standpoint of how each views getting involved in other people's affairs.  I think this is a way of encouraging the readers to be invested in the crew of the Black Lagoon, and it worked on me.  I suddenly find myself drawn to Revy as an intriguing mystery girl and not simply as a cool bitch with two smoking guns.

A-
7.5 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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I Reads You Review: BLACK LAGOON, VOL. 8

Creator: Rei Hiroe
Publishing Information: VIZ Media, paperback, 198 pages, $12.99 (US), $16.99 CAN, £8.99 UK
Ordering Numbers: ISBN: 978-1-4215-2779-6 (ISBN-13)

Black Lagoon is a seinen manga (comics for adult men) from manga-ka Rei Hiroe. A violent action series that uses action lines in the art for atmosphere, Black Lagoon focuses on four mercenaries who prowl the waters off the coast of Southeast Asia in a modified, 80-foot, Elco PT boat (a World War II torpedo boat) dubbed the Black Lagoon.

The Black Lagoon’s skipper and the leader of this quartet is Dutch the Boss, an African-American Vietnam veteran. Benny the Mechanic, an American ex-patriot on the run both from the FBI and the mafia, is the guy who basically operates the boat and handles the Black Lagoon’s complicated high tech electronics. The sole female of the crew is Revy, a foulmouthed gunslinger nicknamed “Two Hand.” Rokuro Okajima was a Japanese “salaryman” who was abandoned by his employers after the crew of the Black Lagoon kidnapped him; now, he is Rock and a member of the crew.

The current storyline, “El Baile de la Muerte,” began in Vol. 6 and takes up the entirety of Black Lagoon, Vol. 8. It revolves around a former Black Lagoon guest star, Roberta, the head matron of a prominent South American family and a former (supernaturally skilled) mercenary. Roberta has returned to Roanapur, Black Lagoon’s setting, seeking revenge for the killing of the head of the Lovelace family. Roanapur’s criminal overlords have marked Roberta for execution for fear that if she reaches and kills her target (a U.S. special operations unit called “Grey Fox”), she will bring the fury of the United States upon Roanapur. Rock and Revy lead a small motley crew, including the new head of the Lovelace family, Garcia (a boy), to find Roberta.

Black Lagoon is like a John Woo movie delivered with hurricane force. Half of every volume is a wild dance of gun play and a ballet of bodies contorting to deliver the kill shot. Rei Hiroe’s art offers a pandemonium of action lines and facial close-ups that probably are as close as printed graphics will every get to replicating the kinetic feel of the action movie.

It’s not as if the characters and their struggles aren’t interesting. The story of Roberta and the Lovelace family is a tragic one that references the political corruption, drug wars, U.S. interventionism, and poverty that seem to keep much of Latin America in third world status. Rock’s misfortunes alone are worthy of a graphic novel. But all that takes a backseat to the invigorating violence. This rip-roaring series is the comic book for the action-loving guy who doesn’t read comics but would try the right one. This is certainly the right one.

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