Why The Black Lagoon Anime Could Never Be Made Today
We are living in an age of anime sequels and reboots: from live-action adaptations of series such as Cowboy Bebop and One Piece to animated reboots of shows like Trigun, it seems like everything old is new again. Of course, bringing these shows back in one form or another makes sense because modern audiences still vibe with the content, which we can’t say about every anime. For example, the 2006 cult anime hit Black Lagoon could never be made today due to the hilariously offensive characters, storylines, and stereotypes.
If you’ve never watched Black Lagoon, here’s a brief rundown: the series focuses on the Lagoon Company, pirate mercenaries who will do just about anything for a client…if the price is right, that is.
Black Lagoon is one of the few shows about mercenaries that isn’t afraid to shy away from the shades of grey that come with their illicit life.
In the first episode, the crew ends up kidnapping a Japanese salaryman named “Rock” Okajima and intends to release him once the job is over. But when Rock’s boss declares him dead, the young man is suddenly thrust into a world of murky morality and insane ultraviolence.
Now, on to the big question: just why could the 2006 Black Lagoon anime never be made today? For one thing, this is one of the few shows about mercenaries that isn’t afraid to shy away from the shades of grey that come with their illicit life.
If you like older anime and you’re not easily offended, then we think Black Lagoon is one of the most entertaining series that you can watch, and it’s easy to stream right now on Hulu.
These aren’t Han Solo types with a heart of gold: instead, it’s a crew that doesn’t blink or ask questions when they are hired to engage in child trafficking, leading to surreal scenes like Rock asking the kidnapped child whether he is okay or not.
In retrospect, Black Lagoon does a great job of slowly revealing how downright evil our characters can be (one more reason we doubt this could be made today). For example, early episodes have the characters looting Nazi bodies and taking on modern neo-Nazis, and it’s easy to root for our protagonists as they stick it to these amoral jerks.
By the end of the series, though, our mercenaries are helping the Russian mafia leave rivers of blood in the streets as they turn Tokyo into a warzone, all in the name of eliminating the mafia’s rivals for power.
Revy Would Never Work Today
The main reason we think Black Lagoon could never be made today, though, is the character Revy. She is an ambidextrous gun expert who has earned the nickname “Two Hands” for her skills in battle. But the more you watch the hilariously raunchy dub of Black Lagoon, the more you will notice that Revy’s mouth is more dangerous than her guns because she has no filter.
For example, Revy has a weird bond with Rock, but it manifests in offensive ways: when teaching him how to tie a certain kind of knot, she casually mentions that it’s so easy that a “retarded monkey” could do it.
And when she deals with Shenhua (a Chinese sword expert with an offensively bad accent in the dub), Revy (who is herself Chinese-American) casually calls the other woman “Chinglish.” Don’t worry, though: Revy always has an arsenal of other casual ethnic slurs just as deadly as her guns, and she deploys them against her enemies and friends in equal measure.
Don’t get us wrong: if you like older anime and you’re not easily offended, then we think Black Lagoon is one of the most entertaining series that you can watch, and it’s easy to stream right now on Hulu.
But thanks to its amoral characters, offensive dialogue, and storylines that want us to root for child traffickers without blinking an eye, there is no way in hell this show could ever be made today. Revy herself might have something to say about that…although we’re pretty confident it wouldn’t be anything we could print, anyway.
