Guest reviewer Noah Fulmor joins us today with his take on volumes one through four of Black Lagoon.

by Rei Hiroe
Published by Viz
Rated: Mature

At some point in his career, every salaryman must dream of tearing off his necktie, punching his overbearing boss in the face, and abandoning the oppressive corporate culture for the life of an outlaw. What few must realize, however, is that to flee the safety of a normal existence is to dive headfirst into the murky grayness of the underground economy where one no longer fears the loss of a job, but rather the loss of one’s life… or one’s humanity.

In Rei Hiroe’s manga Black Lagoon, nondescript Japanese middle-manager Rokur? Okajima decides to take this plunge. Kidnapped on a business trip for the misfortune of carrying dangerous company secrets about which he knows nothing, he throws in his lot with his abductors rather than return to the employer who sold him out. Rokur? (quickly nicknamed ‘Rock’ by his new associates) becomes part of a group of private criminal “couriers”—pirates who ferry black market goods across the watery underbelly of the Pacific Rim on behalf of different mafia interests. Their ship is a streamlined World War II-era torpedo boat whose name gives the series its title, refitted with modern firepower by the die-hard crew who become Rock’s new co-workers. Dutch, a powerfully built black man with an icy attitude captains the vessel and heads the “company,” such as it is. Navigation and on-board technical systems are maintained by Benny, a scruffy, blonde-haired Floridian who fell afoul of both the FBI and US crime syndicates prior to signing on with Dutch. Most notably, however, the all-important muscle for the operation is provided by a gutter-mouthed half-Chinese trollop named Revy, called “Two-Hand” for her prowess dual-wielding pistols in the heat of combat. If Rock is to survive his transition into the life of a black market middleman, he realizes it will be by getting along with this trio and finding his niche within their organization, without exhausting their patience with his bourgeoisie naivete.

Even with this solid setup, what could turn out to be a run-of-the-mill seinen crime manga, with paint-by-numbers action sequences and cookie-cutter characters, is instead a deeply human story with vivid characterization and a concrete feeling of time and place in an exotic but strangely realistic setting. Roanapur, the fictional Thai port city that Lagoon company calls home, seems to have its own long-standing history, with complex interplay between different ethnic mafias and the various denizens who hack out their existence in the quasi-lawless areas that seldom register on Western radar. Despite its awareness of contemporary global politics, Black Lagoon never loses sight of its flashy genre roots, instead subverting them into elements that fit the context: a Terminator-like maid is bodyguard to a Colombian drug family in decline, twin goth-loli assassins are damaged survivors of the Ceausescu regime, and perhaps most telling of all, Revy, a stand-in for the typical big-breasted girl-with-a-gun hothead, has suffered a bleak existence on the bottom rung of society and sacrificed a great deal of herself to become a proficient killer. She may be a badass, but her nihilistic outlook that sometimes borders on psychopathy is a sobering counterpoint to her role as a gunslinging cover girl.

The series follows the adventures of the Lagoon crew, and with such a vibrant, detailed world, potential plotlines seem infinite. Obvious too is Hiroe’s love for his material; he pays incredible attention to the scars and tattoos on even the lowliest thug, and when violence breaks out (as it invariably does), it is lovingly rendered as only someone who understands the emotional weight of real brutality can depict it. Though only the first four volumes have been translated into English, the series will hopefully find its audience and continue to be released for as long as Hiroe can produce it.

Volumes one through four of Black Lagoon are available now.