| | |  | ACTION / ADVENTURE | Home » » » Black Lagoon, Vol. 1 | | | | | | | Description: | | Lock n' load with the baddest soldiers of fortune ever to hit the high seas of Southeast Asia! Aboard their World War II era torpedo boat, the Black Lagoon, Dutch the Boss, Benny the Mechanic, Revy Two Hand, and Rock, the salary-man from Japan, deliver anything, anywhere. In the dangerous underworld of the Russian Mafia, Chinese Triads, Colombian drug cartels, crazed assassins, and ruthless mercenaries, it's hard to know who to trust. But if you've got a delivery to make, and you don't mind a little property damage along the way, you can count on the crew of the Black Lagoon! The baddest group of mercenaries ever to hit the high seas of Southeast Asia! Aboard their World War II torpedo boat, the Black Lagoon, Dutch the Boss, Benny the Mechanic, Revy Two Hand, and Rock, the salaryman from Japan, deliver anything, anywhere. In the dangerous underworld of the Russian Mafia, Chinese triads, Colombian drug cartels, crazed assassins, and ruthless mercenaries, it's hard to know who to trust. But if you've got a delivery to make, and you don't mind a little property damage along the way, you can count on the crew of the Black Lagoon! Rokuro Okajima was just an average Japanese salaryman, living an average life. But when he's taken hostage by the crew of the Black Lagoon, Rokuro finds himself thrown headfirst into a deadly world of outlawed heroes, brutal villains, and blazing gunfights. Where he ends up is anyone's guess, but one thing is for certain--he's in for a wild ride! | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Rei Hiroe | | Paperback:
| 216 pages | | Publisher:
| VIZ Media LLC | | Publication Date:
| August 12, 2008 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 142151382X | | Product Length:
| 8.24 inches | | Product Width:
| 6.28 inches | | Product Height:
| 0.64 inches | | Product Weight:
| 0.55 pounds | | Package Length:
| 8.2 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.5 inches | | Package Height:
| 0.6 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.5 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 3 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 3 customer reviews )
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13 of 19 found the following review helpful:
 Two-hand gets her manga on...Aug 12, 2008
By N. S. Michael
**** Plastic Wrapped for Violence ****
I first got into Black Lagoon when it aired in Japan a few years ago... and was hooked immediately. Action, honor among thieves, a little service here and there... as well as a good chunk of social commentary hidden beneath the veil of its surreal premise.
For the most part, that's what we get here as well...
Rokuro's induction into the Lagoon crew plays out pretty cleanly in both manga and anime versions... the manga is just slimmer in details that I remember from the anime. Something I don't often see when comparing the two (usually, it's vice versa). Roberta and Garcia show up earlier than I expected, and are pretty much exactly as I remember them from the anime, just again with less detail (especially in the terminator/car chase scene).
And I think that's my main issue with the book... it's solid, has great action, is a true source for its derivative work (the anime), and is much better than the majority of action manga we have here domestically... but just doesn't grab me and push all my buttons like the anime does. All those little extras in the background while the characters are driving or sailing are missing. The big chunk of Rock's transistion from salaryman to mercenary in that first story arc that I enjoyed was his gradual formulation of a plan to escape from the other merc team chasing them... that, in the manga, is instantaneous... whereas, in the anime, it takes time and the audience shares in the eureka moment. The same sort of lackthereof is a shame to me.
Still, most folks in the mood for some merc action will get a kick out of it, so I recommend a read... but fans of the anime who haven't read the manga yet shouldn't be suprised that a good deal of the minutia and window dressings they may have loved from the animation weren't/aren't in the source material.
First manga covers most of first 3 DVDs...Dec 12, 2011
By Michael Valdivielso
...sans the neo-nazis.
For those of you new to Black Lagoon it is lots of action, tons of blood, unbalanced characters, pirates, guns-for-hire. Explicit content is an understatement. The characters are interesting but can also get a tad over-the-top, like the action. And art is ok till you get to the battle scenes than it is like trying to understand a half-finished puzzle on acid.
Black Lagoon the manga seems to follow the anime - to a point. We get lots of action, bullets flying, Rock is kidnapped, topredoe vs. chopper, pirates, and Roberta shows up in the end.
In other words, get it used or take it out of a library. Or watch the anime.
 Simply AmazingAug 28, 2011
By Peter Rawlins
"I only claim to know everything."
Okay Amazon feels I need to write a review for every single issue of this series, in retrospect I should have just written this one and been done with it. Black Lagoon is easily one of the best things I have read in several years. I was hooked on this series almost instantly. I started buying issues at an alarming rate after I picked up the first one. I suppose what really amazes me is the amount of research Rei Hiroe did for his action manga here. A lot of things that the characters talk about, be them historical social or about weapons are completely true, and highly accurate. The characters are so powerful; I don't mean that in that the characters are powerful characters, which they all are, completely over the top deadly. I mean the characters are powerful as people, they are all very believable. What always amazed me about this series which is really just a crappy action movie, with sudden thought and depth thrown in there to make it, not awful, Is how powerful the female characters are, it's very easy for action to revert back to a standard the big macho guy gets pretty girl. You never see that here. All the female characters are just as, if not deadlier than the males. All love interests are subtle, and subdued. I love how I found out about characters more and more over time. I wasn't hit in the face with their backstory all in one sitting. If you're a manga fan you should have already read this. If you're an action fan, you owe it to yourself to read his. If you like crime drama read this. If you just want to read something interesting and original, read this. Black Lagoon is amazing, period. Okay Amazon I am not reviewing anymore of the series.
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