Hiya, everyone! It’s Grant again, this time ‘reviewing’ a couple of anime shows which have been out for a couple of years now: Black Lagoon and Detroit Metal City.

Given that these both have been out for awhile now, I’m going to say there’s a good chance of minor spoilers in my review; however, I don’t plan to reveal anything huge without marking it first. It’s hard to spoil Detroit Metal City, after all, and it’s not as if Black Lagoon has any gigantic twists. Nevertheless, I’ll do my best to keep life-ruining spoilers out of the review.

Note that this is by no means a comparison of the two anime. They are COMPLETELY different shows and I see no reason to bounce them off each other. I just happened to have finished them both quite recently, so it feels better to squeeze the both of them into one post.

Black Lagoon

First, I’ll talk about the more serious show here: Black Lagoon. For those not sure, this show is essentially about a Japanese businessman (Rokuro Okajima, who eventually just goes by Rock) who, due to some special circumstances, ends up running with a modern-day pirate ship called the Lagoon Company. Thing is, he makes a horrible pirate, and hilarity ensues.

Okay, so it doesn’t go quite like that. To me, this show had a very Cowboy Bebop feel, except in a more realistic world beautifully animated by Madhouse–the animation here reminds me a lot of their work in Monster, but with the over-the-top action and charisma of Cowboy Bebop (not to imply that Madhouse animated Cowboy Bebop). In addition to that, I get a very extreme Tarantino influence from the overall show–I think anybody who likes his films would be able to enjoy this anime.

One of the things that originally drew me to this show was its cast of characters. When I first read about it, I thought the Lagoon Company would be a well-populated ship of general misfits, but no; the crew of Lagoon Company is a nice ensemble cast of four, though the show’s focus is much more upon Rock and the heroine, Revy, as they are the only two of the crew that actually see any meaningful character development.

Don’t misunderstand that last line, though: despite the chemistry between the characters, Black Lagoon is not a love story. It’s a gritty and violent crime drama which is often exciting and frequently funny; I actually think the show’s use of darker humor is brilliant. Most of the laughs involve things you’re not really supposed to laugh at, like killing people and whatnot, but the show usually pulls it off well. This show is about bad guys, and the characters themselves are aware of that.

Black Lagoon also makes some decisions that I would describe as ‘odd’, but not bad, by any means. For instance, if you’re a girl in the world of Black Lagoon, you’re also probably awesome with a gun (or some kind of weapon). I can only think of one or two important females in the series who didn’t know how to handle a weapon in some over-the-top fashion. It also seems like a lot of the girls subscribe to some form of ‘moe’ ideal: we have a maid, a nun, a goth, a loli, and a Chinese dragon lady. We also have a big Russian woman and a generic soldier sort of lady.

As far as the first season goes, the show follows a pretty basic formula anyone who’s seen Bebop will be familiar with: putting the characters in different dangerous situations and letting us see them work their way out of it. The show hits its stride in the second season, however, where more story elements and character development are introduced; there are several arcs where we see the main characters struggle in what feels like a more relevant manner, and the messes they get mixed up in end up getting more and more dangerous until the end.

This is an action show at heart, however, so there is always plenty of violence to keep you entertained, should you like that sort of thing. The action is often smooth, though the sometimes superhuman interactions between the characters sometimes makes it feel like you’re watching a shounen anime. The show does a good job of highlighting when something seems a bit fantastical, though (usually through protagonist Rock, who can’t fight worth a dime), and basically justifies it by showing viewers that this is just a side of the world we normal people aren’t accustomed to, where skill with a gun might actually matter. It just takes a little suspension of disbelief, is all–and anybody who watches anime should be able to do that already.

All-in-all, I believe Black Lagoon is worth watching. It’s not an anime that I think just anyone will like, but it’s not exactly an anime that’s super obscure and has avoided popularity. I think there’s enough of charm in this anime to grab plenty of viewers, the same way Cowboy Bebop did, though the characters are memorable for very different reasons. You can probably tell whether you’ll like the show or not after watching only a few episodes (of which there are 24, excluding the OVA), so I say it’s worth a try!

Now, onto…

Detroit Metal City

Detroit Metal City is a neat little show. It’s also incredibly hilarious in that sort-of-raunchy way. The basic premise is this nice, talented young Japanese guy (Negishi) goes off to college to study and then create a successful pop band. What happens is Negishi ends up becoming the emperor front-man of death metal in a band called Detroit Metal City.

His alter ego in this band is Johannes Krauser II. Though Negishi plays Krauser on stage, the two characters couldn’t be more different: Krauser is essentially all about random murder and raping bitches, and apparently raped and killed his parents when he was a child, when the reality is Negishi is a mild-mannered guy who dearly loves his parents, and Krauser is nothing but a stage personality.

However, it’s often with Krauser that the hilarity happens. He’s played with such over-the-top character that it’s hard not to laugh, especially while hearing Negishi’s often apologetic thoughts. Even funnier is when DMC’s apparently dim-witted fanbase cheers on Krauser’s actions, apparently legitimately believing the ridiculous mythos surrounding him (i.e. Krauser being a demon from Hell who killed/raped his parents and daily rapes nameless ‘bitches’ down in Hell).

It’s hard to describe DMC other than saying that it’s an incredibly funny show. It’s twelve episodes long, but each episode is a mere thirteen minutes or so long. It’s a show that makes it easy to get in and get out, and the humor never stops: there are no unnecessary serious moments in this show. If it ever looks like one, then it’s just to set up more comedy.

The show takes a stylistic approach I’ve never seen before. Rarely is the entire frame used: the show likes to only use bits and pieces of the screen to show viewers what’s up. It’s strange, but it’s original and it works rather well. The animation isn’t necessarily top-notch stuff, this isn’t the kind of show that demands that sort of thing.

I’m finding it difficult to find more to say. This show took me extremely by surprise. Just watch it. It’s an incredibly short show, too, so there’s really nothing to lose. If you can’t laugh at this show, then I just don’t know what to say.

TL;DR Black Lagoon and Detroit Metal City are very different shows, but both worth watching if they’re your thing: DMC is great comedy, and Black Lagoon is good action-comedy-crime-drama.

That’s all for tonight! See you guys next week.

(P.S. If you actually bothered to read all of that, I should probably thank you. My standards aren’t exactly super high, after all, and I don’t exactly have professional literary expertise, so I doubt anyone’s that interested in my opinion, but this is fun to do. Thanks if you did suffer through it, though!)