Review: Black Lagoon Volume 1

I want to review this so I can satisfy my OCD-ish part of me. I posted a Now Reading about this title but it was about the 2nd volume and because of that, I felt like I should do a proper review on the first one. Here goes!

Warning! This title contains graphic violence, gore and blood.

Black Lagoon Volume 1: (by Rei Hiroe) a tale of bullets, adrenaline, high-octane action, delivery of important packages and girls that can't contain their lady boners for action. Yes, that's right. That's just about the sum of it.

Maji?

Nai! It's about Rokuro Okajima; a salaryman, having a boring life and a boring job. He was ordered to deliver a disk for business purposes and luckily found himself in the middle of a hijacking. First, WHY IS HE LUCKY? You'll find out soon enough.

Guns, point-blank range, hot girl in short shorts, tanned Mr. Clean... After taking the disk, he was taken by Revy, as a hostage for ransom. He was forced to board the "Black Lagoon," a military issued armored speed boat (I don't know things related to the military so this is the best I can come up with.) He then learned about the Black Lagoon company, which is a UPS that can deliver illegal stuff and get the package wherever it is, whatever the situation is. He later gains the nickname; "Rock" (the shortened, westernized version of Rokuro.)

The company that Rock is working for isn't taking this lightly as the disk contains business routes in South East Asia. Anyone who holds the disk, can gain a lot of business by holding these routes and putting on "toll gates." To avoid the routes being stolen, they hired a mercenary group to get the disk back.

For those who want the TL;DR version: They beat the mercenaries and manage to deliver the disk to Ms. Balalaika. She hands the disk to the original owner and gets paid. Now, Rock is legally dead and is now an unlisted criminal. With nowhere to go he joins the gang and live happily, hijacking cargo ships.

Whew, that was a lot. Sorry. I'm probably gonna be doing this sort of thing again. Hontoni Gomen!

Art: The art is realistic, modern, fun yet serious. It's a seinen series, it needs to be realistic in some way. It doesn't bore you at all because it has a hint of shounen blended in. The anatomy is life-like and you feel the action like watching the movie Rambo.

Story: It's action packed and intense. Guns, check. Hot Anti-Heroine, check. Relateable ordinary guy, check. Totally legal work gone criminal, check! In short, it's great! It's not your average action manga because it doesn't sound like fiction. The country where I was born (Philippines,) there were a group of terrorists hiding in the southern part of our archipelago so the setting does not sound new to me.

I watched the anime first before picking this title up and I really love the anime. It was bloody. I'm expecting the same from the other volumes too.

Bottomline: Read it if you're into a lot of action with just a hefty amount of violence. Beginners beware, this manga is a dark one so I wouldn't touch it yet if you're not ready for gore. Like I said, it's fun but serious. When you pick this up based on your taste in action, be ready for action. It's a roller coaster ride, hop on in and enjoy the life of outlaws!

Black Lagoon Crew! ha ha ha