Code of honor or not, the yakuza are gangsters and thugs, no better than the mafia or street gangs or politicians that prey on the human vice and bring death and destruction all in the quest for personal gain. She doesn't need to sacrifice herself to "bring them back from the depths". They don't deserve salvation. Anyway, "salvation" in their eyes is becoming the top gang in town.Originally Posted by Kraco
Compared to the Russian Mafia (instead of killing you they kill you and your family) the Yakuza are always portrayed as noble villains in novels, anime, and stories. Watch any series where yazuka are a neutral party or main characters (Gokusen, Futakoi Alt, etc). They generally don't kill, don't kidnap. They extort money through protection rackets and other less violent means.
Black Lagoon is using the image of Yakuza Pride or Honor to portray them as better than Balalaika and the Russian Mafia. It's no different than always showing Americans as drunk, loud and violent characters in any anime series (Revy being a perfect example). That's why the one leader went off to face Balalaika with only a sword. He was basically committing suicide. The Yakuza you're thinking of are the ones like the Cocky Bastard now lying dead in a swimming pool. Yukio is part of as Kraco said, OLD SCHOOL Yakuza. These are the ones from before the WWII era, where they all treat each other with great respect, all brothers united under a single leader. "Cut off your own thumb in shame" yakuza.
The phrase "No honor among theives" doesn't apply to old school yakuza, all they have is their honor and pride.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza
Yukio and her clan are more of the Tekiya and Bakuto type of Yakuza. The more traditional yakuza. You are thinking of Gurentai, the post war gang-thug yakuza.
Sorry but I can't accede to your argument. I'm sure the victims of their "less violent" protection rackets really appreciate that they have a code of honor and mutual respect within their criminal organization, and I'm sure these noble crooks really deserve Yukio's sacrifices to protect their honor (and make them the top criminal organization in town again). But to me, criminals are criminals, and its their effect on the innocents that makes them not worth saving. They can be as polite and respectful within their organization all they want, but even their noble protection rackets ruin people's lives and dreams. They are scum beneath scum, because they pretend to be "noble" criminals and have rules within their organization to respect and honor each other. But when it comes down to it, they're as bad as any criminal, and all deserve to die.
Btw, Revy is Chinese (chinese-american, but I'm guessing she's not a halfer, just a chinese born in the states). Revy's outlandish behavior might be a slight against the Chinese.
Black Lagoon - 23
The Washimine girl seems to have a decent head on her shoulders, but she's still massively out of her league. Rock is still Rock, but his foolish idealism in this ep was just an excuse for Balilaika to show of how awesome she is. I'm hoping that now he'll pull through and stop trying to get between the too freight trains that are about to crash into each other.
An excellent episode to build up to the finale.
Great episode, but was it just me or did the characters proportions mess up alot and the perspectives seem odd more often than usual?
Good ep-- I was wondering what the point of this arc was but if it was to show Rock's resolve to keep living as a dead man, then great.
@Uberbaka: if you mean the way the characters are drawn, I feel like Revy's character is getting drawn more softly to make her more girly. If you look at how she's drawn in the first ep versus during this arc, I feel like there are subtle differences... well, that and the fact that sometimes she's got her hair in braids, or wearing a cute hat and (gasp) a skirt.
I'd really put it more on the animators running out of budget finally. It's typical in series like BL that was planned as a 12 eps series. There wasn't much of a break between the first half and 2nd Barrage, so I imagine their budget has gotten pretty tight. Pretty standard in series that are 24-26 eps and don't have a huge following before they air.
You could also attribute it to running into deadlines leading to rushed work, evident by the stock frames of Yukio in the car. They were poorly drawn and reused 3 times in this episode.
Can anyone name a subgroup for this anime that'snot Shinsen and has decent quality ?
I've downloaded the Shinsen 1-12 pack , but I cant seem to open them at all. And no thats not a codec problem.
Shinsen is the only group that did the series decently if not well. The other groups all have horrible ratings. I've only heard of one of them.
For 2nd Barrage, you could try Bakakozou & Conclave, but they are a very slow joint-group lately.
See for yourself
And for 2nd Barrage
Hmm I now downloaded a single file of their releases ( nr 1 ) and it runs fine ( Shinsen )The problem there is, that they miss from ~4 to 12 ..its all packed -_-
If I understand what you're saying, you can't get the eps you downloaded from a batch torrent to work. You try their IRC channel. I see at least two bots with the all the season 1 episodes. Many bots have the 2nd Barrage eps.
Im IRC naabthank god tbh..thank god ..losing my sanity to IRC as well as to WoW would make an official pc addict -_-
But I seem to have fixed the problem, had the torrent files checked and they were both corrupt, so I reDL'd them
I just started watching this (yeah, I'm that guy who waits for a batch torrent)... the gun labeled "SWORD 9mm" in the OP reminded me of the late 90's remake of Romeo & Juliet. Also, do you think the ED was meant to sound like the Platoon theme?
More comments later...
Last edited by Bucket; Fri, 12-29-2006 at 11:00 AM.
Awesome just out!
Episode 24 Season 2 FINAL - Shinsen
Well, this ending was to be expected, but I hoped for the ending to be slightly more interesting :E
Anyone know if a third season is planned ?
Words from V.N.Vasilinov (don't know it her real name but i'm 90% sure it is) "You'll become a good villian" to Rock. So if budget will hold up then there willl be more Black Lagoon.
"Life is hilariously cruel" by Bender
Yeah. While there unarguably were some elements in place to make this an ending, I was expecting a bit more stern conclusion. Maybe that is indeed a sign of a third season to be made, or maybe it's simply a continuation of the slice of (pirate) life feeling this series has been giving out, even if there have been clear arcs and arc conclusions. But it's not like this series could ever end in a much different manner than this, unless they sink the boat and kill off the people. After all, there's no world to save from three-eyed aliens nor a demonic villain to defeat.
Still, I had higher hopes of getting some concretic progress for the Revy-Rock pair. I don't think much happened during this whole second season. Maybe Rock got some more balls and realised his own position better, and thus could earn a bit more respect from Revy, but I was expecting some romance, no matter how rough.
Wen you take into account that the manga is still ongoing it's they had to where they did. From what I can gather there's only one arc that wasn't animated and it's the one going on right now. Unfortunately I can't find anyone who's scanslated the manga past volume 2 so I have no idea what that arc is about, but there is probably more development and what not in there.
If the manga stays popular enough maybe they will make a third season who knows...
I only hope that if there are plans for a 3rd season, that they'll wait until the manga is far enough.
This series really keeps me hooked.. not a single boring episode so far.
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