Black Lagoon

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Black Lagoon (Burakku Ragūn) ブラックラグーン

Format	DVD/Paperback
Creator	Rei Hiroe
Production	Shogakukan (manga, serialized in 'Sunday GX Comics') Geneon Universal, Madhouse Studios, Black Lagoon Production Team
Release	24 TV episodes, two seasons (Black Lagoon and Black Lagoon: Second Barrage) 5 OVA episodes (Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail)
Genre	Adventure, Drama
Rating	TV-MA

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Synopsis

Rokuro Okajima never expected his life would amount much. In fact, he resigned himself to live the life of the average Japanese salaryman: underpaid, kowtowing to his bosses' every whim, and working himself to an early grave. So he wasn't too surprised that he was assigned by his company to a trip to the South China Sea with an important data disc.

What he didn't expect was to be captured by a group of pirates who were looking for that disc known as the Lagoon Company, who operated mostly out of an old WWII-era P.T. boat named the Black Lagoon (loaded with live torpedoes, no less). But the crew on this boat wasn't what he expected as well. The Lagoon's owner, Dutch, is an ex-U.S. Marine who deserted after the fall of Saigon in 1975 and rarely fights. Benny, the company's mechanic and tech nut, is a college drop-out who left the U.S. after getting in trouble with both the F.B.I AND the Italian Mafia. But the most radical of the group is Rebecca, commonly referred to as Revy or "Two-Hand", a drop-dead gorgeous Chinese babe originally from New York City, talented with handguns and with a zeal for murder, drinking and swearing.

It wasn't later until Rokuro – or Rock as the Lagoon crew calls him – finds out the disc he carried was data for creating weapons of mass destruction - nuclear weapons in fact - and Asahi Heavy Industrial, his company, had hired mercenaries from Extra Order to retrieve the disc... by whatever means necessary! Clearly abandoned by Asahi, Rock takes in with his captors and aids them in surviving the E.O. mercenaries. He then quits his job at Asahi and joins the Lagoon Company – an unusual step for a guy who doesn't like violent confrontations, and moves in with them in the cesspool that is Roanapur, the town near Thailand where the company is based.

Rock's talents of business management and negotiation soon proves to be helpful for the group, not to mention he is capable of even drinking Revy under the table. Even the local Russian Mafia group, "Hotel Moscow", led by the beautiful but scarred former Soviet paratrooper Balalaika, has taken a liking to Rock, as well as much of the lowlife clients of the Lagoon Company in Roanapur. However, he is now facing an uncertain life, which includes facing backstabbing former clients, mob competition, a group of neo-Nazis, counterfeiters, a brother/sister assassination team, a gun-toting maid and some murderous nuns. Well... at least life for Rock, life won't be boring (now if he can only wear that Hawaiian shirt Revy bought for him instead of that boring shirt and tie he insists on wearing)!

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Possible delay

Due to Geneon USA's decision to depart from distribution of Region 1 anime DVD's, the release of Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage was delayed until a new distribution company is found. Then on February 7, 2008, Navarre Company, the parent company of FUNimation Entertainment, announced that they were negotiating to acquire the former Geneon licenses. And on July 3, 2008, FUNimation announced it was acquiring several former Geneon titles, including Black Lagoon. However, Geneon still retains the license to several, with FUNimation handling manufacture and distribution. [1]

(ADDITIONAL INFORMATION)

In the jacket band of Gen Urobuchi's novel adaptation of Black Lagoon, it was revealed that a third season was green-lighted for production.[2] That OVA series, Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail, is due to be released in Japan on DVD and Blu-Ray on July 17, 2010.[3]

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