#Black Lagoon Omake

[flamingdragonfly-whispers]

Young Rebecca.

[gorboble]

how it feels staring at black lagoon omake after you've consumed literally everything else

[mike-the-wolverine]

Roberta

[fullnightpeace]

Black Lagoon Omake

[colorfulfoxengineer]

14 year old Rebecca.

[colorfulfoxengineer]

"Who needs magic when all of your problems can be solved with GUNS."

ラジカルレヴィちゃん

[verylead-flavored-candy33]

[animethings]

[euvangelos]

revy is an evil mess of a woman (affectionate)

[lesser-mook]

I've always liked Balalaika, lightning in a bottle.

A character been worthy of her own show (OVA) Not oversexualized. Mature & with class, no high school bullshit.

Grownfolk business.

Coulda did without the creator's TMI about her scars being his "fetish", the world didn't need to know all that buddy, really didn't.

But in the end, regardless of his hack (made the boss of Hotel Moscow a woman allegedly because -"I thought it'd be better to see a woman's butt") reasons- she's pretty much the modern standard of lady characters rocking scars, it looking good and functioning with it's own lore & history (her being tortured as a POW) and the character herself owning the scene without it being forced or that infantile "girl boss" goofyness.

It's part of the reason why Black Lagoon is decent, there's less girls and it's full of women.

I like that in the Omake-verse, she's married to Chang and the twins are her hellspawn children. lmfao.

Pure Alpha energy, a professional with a code, ruthless but has a system, she has respect. Rarely has there been a character like Balalaika in the way that Balalaika works, you'd think Tsunade could've been one of those but nope;

Author's/Mangaka in general, limitations in skill & maturity prevented another gem like Balalaika in the mainstream. Not as a "female" character, but as a character period.

This woman Balalaika was a hard 80s femme fatale created in the post-modern era.

And again- has been/long deserved a prequel OVA.

[weirdratwrites]

Korean Rock Cont.

As a disclaimer, I don't know Korean. I don't know much about Korea. I'm not some Koreaboo who's thirsting for KDA or BTS. My highest level of interaction with Korean is workes like Train to Busan 1(/2), #Alive, and All of Us Are Dead... And judicious googling.

Name:

Far as I can tell, name meanings don't much matter in Black Lagoon. Okajima Rokuro doesn't refer to some hidden depths. It's just a reasonably common name that isn't, like, the Japanese equivalent of Tom, Dick, or Harry.

That said, Okajima can be read as Island Mountain. I'm going with Choi (which apparently means something about owning land near mountains), but I could also go with Jeup, which is apparently a name in NK referring to Koreans that marry Japanese (and could be used to explain away Rock knowing Japanese and knowing a decent amount about the Yakuza).

Rather than trying to learn what each of the Hanja characters means and trying to find a really meaningful name that works to mean Green Son, like Rokuro does, I'm going to be lazy and use a popular name from the 70's, and give Rock two brothers to use the Generational Name aspect of Korean conventions. Specifically, Rock's name is now Sung-Hoon, his older brother is Sang-Hoon, and he has a younger brother named Ji-Hoon.

And, since his name's not Rokuro, so Revy can't shorten it to Rock, and I'm not one to keep details the same between AUs when it doesn't make sense, his new nickname's Koi. Because he bites his tongue when introducing himself, and this way people can make jokes about shooting fish in a barrel and I can allude to the Dragon to Koi pipeline in mythology.

Family & History:

Choi Sung-Hoon is born in August 1970 in Busan. His grandfather tells him war stories, and his uncle and grandfather tell him exaggerated stories about being police officers.

His older brother goes to join the police like his uncle and grandfather. Koi follows his father into business. His younger brother stays with the military after his required service is up.

He grows up idolizing the "action-packed" lives his extended family leads, but he's not quite willing to put himself into that kind of situation without it being out of his control. Because of this, he winds up feeling jealous of his brothers and develops adrenaline-junky habits.

The most exciting time of his life - before joining Lagoon Company - is serving as a border guard during his required service. He even got to be involved in a lowkey border dispute - arguably an international incident that threatened to restart conflicts - during a defection. During this, he sees that he wings one of the enemy, and presumes it leads to the other man's death. He's correct.

It's one of the moments he relies on to keep sane during the drudgery of office work. It's one of his proudest memories.

Then, in 1995, while working for either Hanjin, HMM, or - for some reason - still Asahi, the events of Black Lagoon begin.

Guns and Excitement:

Koi's a bit of a daydreamer when he doesn't have something to focus on. He's also a big fan of Westerns, Noire, and Buddy Cop films. He craves but is terrified of the excitement in his daily life. One of the reasons he takes on some of the more... hasty or idiotic actions in his life is to lowkey chase the thrills he sees Revy regularly take part in.

One of the most apparent representations of this particular interest is his mild obsession with the primary firearm of the Korean police force at the time, the S&W Model 19. He even buys one in an omake-style "after credits scene" for the arc Calm Down, Two Men, where Revy walks in on him posing with it.

Revy showing him the finer points of gunslinging is a consistent aspect of background action. It's a source of noodle incidents and a diegetic explanation for why Rock is able to shoot semi-decently when it finally comes up, and why he's able to keep his cool more and more as the series progresses.

Like Fish Shooting Out of a Barrel:

As to when Rock is shown actively participating in the action... I'm reticent to provide a fine point on this. I think there are a number of good moments that could be used for the overall timeline we're presented with.

Personally, though, I might go with the Dance of Death Arc, to give weight to the people around Koi's feelings that he's being corrupted by his stay in Roanapur. Or maybe Fujiyama Gangsta Paradise, if Koi's still contracted for that job.

It could work for Wire Red Wild Card, too. Have him give the finishing blow to one of the brothers.

whatever the case, I think it's important to show his competence with firearms in this AU. Even if it's only him being shown to be doing maintenance on the various, more generic weapons available to Lagoon company. Even if it's as a final act for the series...

[flamingdragonfly-whispers]

The Melancholy of Balalaika

[taohs]

You'll learn even more about characters in the Roberta's Blood Trail arc when you get into the ova season. Revy, Rock, Eda, Roberta and Chang are some of those characters you will learn more about during that entire arc.

Exactly! None of the characters are poorly written at all. I believe that every character is fleshed out in their own ways... Which is definitely a reason why people enjoy the Black Lagoon franchise. That I know of.

Wait till you get into the Yakuza arc. Even more Balalaika backstory in that arc too, and you learn about the yakuza princess too. No more to say about that. You'll see. I won't spoil that for you. More ruthlessness on Balalaika's part.. We'll see if you still like her character during those arcs. Even if her completely ruthless, I enjoy her character a lot.

Many fans will say that the Vampire Twin arc is definitely the darkest arc of the series. Because of obvious reasons that you've already seen happen.

I forgot Roberta! I forgot to ask you about Roberta. How can I forget to ask about her?! She's another interesting character too.

I think the only female character I can't tolerate, in my opinion, is only Janet Bhai. She's the Indian woman who ends up with Benny. She is a well written character, but I find her too annoying for me to enjoy her.

I love Shenhua too, and Frederica Sawyer (the mute goth girl). Like.. I can say, minus Jane, I enjoy just about every female character in this series. And there are even more in the manga. I hope they'll continue the anime so we could see more of the story, characters, everything.

That's definitely one of the reasons why I enjoy the English version so you can her their accents, and the English language makes a lot more sense than most of the other languages. But that's just my opinion.

I think the reason why you don't see subtitles for those scenes is just because Rock is the one translating between characters, and also the viewers who are watching the anime (or reading the manga).

Leigharch is brain dead now so he won't ever be coming back. But his reaction to them being chased by terrorists, while he's too completely high to comprehend what even happened to them.

Actually.. Eda and Frederica Sawyer are characters who actually have their own spinoff mangas, but none of the novels are in English yet.

Honestly? I don't want to spoil anything. So I'll try keeping my whole opinion vague. At least until you watch more of the anime anyway.

I have mixed feelings about Rock in general. If I'm being completely honest.. I can't tolerant people who are pushovers, I believe people do need to stand up for themselves and other people which is why I have never liked this character. I respect that he wants to help people in so many ways, but he does it in a way that is not the right approach. But you do find out why he always wants to help people in the Yakuza arc.

But as the series progresses, at least during Roberta's Blood Trail arc, he is easily manipulated while also manipulating other people too.. So I'm having mixed feelings about his character. He's this antihero now.

But I haven't read any of the new chapters yet. So I don't know how much characters have changed yet, or even stayed the same either.

- 💋

going to put this under read more because lots of thoughts!!

i finally finished the series (plus the ova and omake) a few days ago, and wow, so so many things to unpack. roberta's blood trial was even darker and more violent than i expected. i binged it in one sitting, so the whole thing felt like a movie. roberta feels like a superhuman character, and i think she is probably the strongest, if not one of the strongest warrior in the anime (like WHO is able to just chomp off a machete like she did?? she's on another level). anyway i liked that they fleshed her character out more in this arc. i didn't expect her to make it to the end honestly, i thought either garcia will end up killing her to relieve her of her insanity/pain or she might get killed in battle. i'm glad that she has an opportunity to more forward and heal from the trauma! a lot of interesting things happened too, balalaika, chang and shen hua is always a joy to see. i love that shen hua has a little family with sawyer and the other guy, that was so cute. it was great to see eda getting some action too! even though it feels like we still barely know anything about her lol. season 2 is still my favorite season as of yet though :'D

but that aside i think out of the whole series, roberta's arc might have been the hardest for me to watch. i felt sick watching that scene of revy's flashback and thinking about it now still makes my stomach queasy. also, i don't know what kind of relationship they were trying to push with roberta and garcia?? i thought it was entirely platonic up to the point where he kissed her and i fully shouted at the screen because i did NOT expect that 😭

i see what you mean by janet. i actually don't mind her character, the only time i was a little annoyed with her was when she was rambling in the church. i felt like eda and revy wanting her to just be quiet :')

since i'm done with the anime i can gather my thoughts about rock a bit more: he is a complicated character, but i think season 2 made me dislike his character more. mostly his actions (because i don't hate him), but the things he says and does makes me question him a lot. he's incredibly smart and has the potential to thrive both in the dark and good side, but i find his ideals and "standing in the twilight" to be... hypocritical? he adapted to his new environment and sticks with them, yet he does not want to fully embrace it. i actually loved this in the beginning, like the theme of him remaining a pure light in his dark world, but eventually it doesn't seem that way anymore. he wants to keep his sense of justice by saving people even though he doesn't have the power to do it, and instead manipulates others to do it for him so he doesn't get his hands dirty. he's fine with saving one person at the downfall of another, but again he refuses to be the one to do any of the dirty work. i think that's why he feels like he's on enough of a higher moral ground to be able to lecture yukio about her choices even though he's also living a criminal life, when in reality he is just being indecisive and imposes his thinking on other people. i like that he is still able to be empathetic towards others despite everything, but i hate the way he goes about it. at least that's how i interpret it though. it was more interesting to see rock seeming to shift more towards the dark side in the ova and take on a more villainous role. it makes me wonder what's going to happen to him next and how it will affect his and revy's relationship, because revy for sure wants a way out of the darkness and sees rock as her light. i'm super tempted to read the manga even though i read that it updates really slowly.

balalaika is still hands-down my favorite character; i think the ruthlessness is part of her charm and helps her survive at the top in the world of black lagoon. i can probably go on and on about her :'D her backstory was tragic and i could see how big of a strain it caused her and the rest of hotel moscow. all the peeks into her backstory just makes me want to know more too. i would absolutely read an entire spin-off just about her and her men. i could also listen to her voice the whole day, her voice actress did such a fantastic job on her!!

the omake was such a cute way to move away from all the dark themes though. i loved it so much 10/10

i also read the link that you sent about the gender roles! really interesting to read about how revy and rock seemed to fill different roles in the anime, and it explains a lot of their actions too. rei hiroe definitely does a fine job with his female cast

and feel free to let me hear about your opinions too!

[whereisthenuance]

Balalaika in pajamas

[fullnightpeace]

"Seriously?!" Yolanda as a young lady.

[colorfulfoxengineer]