Welcome all, to another week of Black Lagoon! This week marks the halfway point of this watch, as well as the beginning of a new season for Black Lagoon. We have plenty to talk about, so lets dive right into it!
First up we have episode 13, “The Vampire Twins Comen”. This episode introduces a new pair of villains for Black Lagoon and I have to say, my initial impression was… Iffy, if I’m being honest. I get what Black Lagoon is going for with these kids, Hansel and Gretel. A pair of sociopaths molded by the world, hurt by it, victims of it in every way who still have to be put down because of the horrible things they are now doing. Black Lagoon wants us to question just how at fault these kids are, and how our world can ruin a child innocence and turn people into monsters later in life. And we’ll talk about all of that, because that’s solid! But I think Black Lagoon takes it a step to far in its presentation of it all.
What do I mean by that? Well Black Lagoon is trying to ride that line of morally reprehensible killers and naïve, childlike victims. However I think in it’s pursuit of the former, it’s taken a step too far and ruined the latter. They get too much joy, too much pleasure, from the murders. They are far to sadistic about it, rolling around in the blood of a victim they had tortured to death by apparently driving nails into his skull until he died. Had they simply been murderers who saw no value in human life, I think it could have worked. It would be dark, but their history, which we will get into in episode 14, would justify it. As is though, they relish in the pain they cause too much for me. They actively seek out extending someone’s pain and causing collateral damage rather than simply killing.
I’m not saying the concept fails in its entirety. The kids have their moments, one of which we will talk about in episode 14. Hell, in episode 13 Balalaika has this great conversation with one of her subordinates about child soldiers, how this isn’t the first time they have had to deal with such and how it sucks every time. That was great, reinforce how she doesn’t enjoy this either! There’s also the bar scene, where they innocently walk in and take some seats, looking like nothing more than children before their target arrives. And to top it all off? The kids are pretty badass too! The axe, the big gun, Black Lagoon nails their visuals pretty well I think. The twins are striking, memorable, they leave an impact. All of that’s good! I just wish it had played things a little slower with their sadism is all.
Speaking of Balalaika, she spends this episode getting rather pissy, understandably so. Her men are getting killed, the soldiers she went to war with and sees as family. She also clearly doesn’t want to work with the other gangs, either because she doesn’t respect them or believes one of them behind it (She’s correct of course), aside from Cheng obviously. We all love Cheng. That doesn’t mean she’s going to take her men being killed laying down however. Aside from her own men searching for the culprit, she also lays down a 50k price on the kids heads, drawing in bounty hunters from all over the area. Black Lagoon spends some time expositing about some of these people, I don’t think any of them really matter, it’s just to add some flavor to the arc is all. The important thing though is that Revy is included in this number.
That brings us to our leads, and their involvement in all of this. Surprisingly, this arc has almost nothing to do with Lagoon Company. They could sit back, relax, and wait for the whole thing to blow over. They won’t because 50k is a lot of money and this is their show, but it’s nice that they aren’t the center of an arc, instead supporting characters in Balalaika’s. I enjoy that. Getting back on track, Eda arrives, in casual wear this time which threw me for a fucking loop let me tell you what, and drags Revy into the hunt. Not too much happens here until episode 14, but it’s a nice way to get Revy involved when otherwise she would have no reason to. Plus? By the end of 14 it actually makes me a little afraid for he life. So… bonus, wasn’t expecting that.
With that we come to the aforementioned episode 14, “Bloodsport Fairytale”. This one doubles down on tragedy, filling us in on Hansel and Gretel’s past as well as escalating the conflict to the point where Balalaika is going full military commander for a pair of kids. It’s good stuff! While dark, the kids history as Romanian child porn stars who were forced to murder other kids on video in increasingly disgusting ways worked. It was sufficiently terrible to make me believe, “Yeah, that would fuck a kid up this much, I’d buy it.” It explains why they are so casual about killing and, while I would prefer they were less sadistic about it, torture. I stand by what I said above, that Black Lagoon went a tad to far and lost the sympathy card with them, but it’s an effective backstory nonetheless.
Now that we re in episode 14, I can also talk about perhaps my favorite scene with the twins, their meeting with Eda and Revy. For me, this basically epitomizes everything I like about the twins. They don’t start shooting just for murders sake, they aren’t incapable of reason in this season. Rather, they simply don’t see anything wrong with their actions and know that money is what motivates adults. So why not try and bribe Eda and Revy into letting them go and avoiding the fight? It makes total sense, as does them turning on the Italians once they know the Italians no longer want/need them. They have no concept of loyalty, except to each other of course, so it wouldn’t bother them at all. It’s really just the whole “Bathing in blood” shit that I think is a tad too far.
Speaking of the Italians, this episode reveals that they were the ones who brought the twins here in the first place. One leader, thinking he could get a leg up and look good to his superiors at the next meeting, thought he could use them to kill Balalaika and basically remove her gang from the equation. Obviously it didn’t work, it was never going to work, Balalaika is too good to be taken down by some brats, at least that easily. What’s cool about this though is how she uses the excuse with the kids to launch a full-scale invasion. She knows she only has probable cause for one attack, so she’s going to make it the biggest damn attack she can before anyone finds out. Better to ask forgiveness than permission and all that. I really like this, Black Lagoon continues to reinforce just how dangerous she is.
In fact, it makes her seem so dangerous that I’m actually legitimately worried for Revy and Eda. I doubt Revy will die, she’s a lead character, but it’s entirely possible she gets pretty fucked up. Balalaika wants revenge on these kids, and she’s not going to let anyone stand in her way. So much so that she ordered her hit squad to remove anyone who would intercept them which, you guessed it, is exactly what Revy and Eda are doing. And it’s not like they can just kill Balalaika’s men to escape, that’s what pissed her off about the twins in the first place. So they have to use non-lethal force to get out of this, something neither of them seem good at. Should make for a good time next week!
So yeah, all in all the episodes were fine, there was a fair bit to like in there. I’m not sold on the twins yet, I think Black Lagoon leaned a bit too hard into the “crazy” and it took away from the “victim” angle. Overall though? I think it worked. Honestly, a lot of how I feel about this arc is going to lean on how this next episode or two goes, how it closes things out. Now that their characters are established there’s not a lot of reason for the series to ham it up anymore, removing my biggest issue with them. If Black Lagoon can give these kids a solid ending, can take this conflict with Balalaika and dial it up to 11, it should be a good time. Suppose we will have to wait and see until next week to find out though.
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