{"id":1896,"date":"2015-07-29T21:41:38","date_gmt":"2015-07-30T01:41:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/?p=1896"},"modified":"2015-07-29T21:41:38","modified_gmt":"2015-07-30T01:41:38","slug":"this-week-in-anime-back-in-black-lagoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/this-week-in-anime-back-in-black-lagoon\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in Anime: Back in Black (Lagoon)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently picked up the tenth volume of Black Lagoon<\/em>, the first installment of the deceptively clever action manga to be released in quite some time. Despite the lengthy hiatus between books, I had no trouble jumping back into the bulled-riddled city of Roanapur. That\u2019s a fairly impressive feat, and it inspired me to take a closer look at how the series is able to rebuild its momentum so quickly. Here\u2019s what I\u2019ve been able to figure out.<\/p>\n

\"LagoonVol10\"<\/a><\/p>\n

First and foremost, Black Lagoon<\/em> starts clean with a new story arc and a new major character. \u201cThe Wired Red Wild Card\u201d introduces Feng Yifei, a Chinese hacker who\u2019s on the run after being thrown under the proverbial bus by her superiors. The new plotline saves the series from having to bring the reader back up to speed on all but the most basic developments from earlier volumes. Feng also provides a fresh outsider\u2019s perspective to Roanapur, which allows us to regain our bearings as she slowly comes to terms with the way the city\u2019s underworld operates. This is as close to a clean slate as Black Lagoon<\/em> can get, and starting from the beginning of a storyline makes it easy to jump back in.<\/p>\n

The story also doesn\u2019t ask the audience to remember many recurring characters beyond the Lagoon crew and a handful of their regular associates. If the politics of the Russian, Chinese, and Italian mobs have grown fuzzy in the reader\u2019s memory, it\u2019s not a big deal. The new plot arc has a \u201cback to basics\u201d feel when compared to the web of alliances and rivalries that defined its predecessor. We\u2019ve got Rock and Revy, Feng and her pursuers, and a few minor players that will likely become part of Rock\u2019s strategy for helping his latest client escape in once piece. Instead of asking, \u201cWho was that guy, again?\u201d over and over, we can sit back and enjoy the quickly escalating chaos.<\/p>\n

That return to fundamentals also applies to the themes and ideas that sit at the core of this series. As a white-collar character on the run from her former employers, Feng is in much the same situation as Rock was when we first met him. That connection allows the two of them to speak at length about the ups and downs of stumbling into a dangerous new life of crime. Their conversations are aimed straight at the mix of escapist fantasy and brutal reality that drives the series as a whole. In a way, Feng\u2019s primary role is to remind the readers why we like Black Lagoon<\/em> so much.<\/p>\n

No matter how it does it, I\u2019m glad to see Black Lagoon<\/em> finally jumping back into the saddle. Feng is an excellent new character, and there\u2019s no such thing as too much of Rock and Revy. Let\u2019s just hope we don\u2019t have to wait quite as long for the next book.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This Week in Anime\u00a0is hastily cobbled together by Paul Jensen. You can follow his ramblings about anime and manga on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently picked up the tenth volume of Black Lagoon, the first installment of the deceptively clever action manga to be released in quite some time. Despite the lengthy hiatus between books, I had no trouble jumping back into the bulled-riddled city of Roanapur. That\u2019s a fairly impressive feat, and it inspired me to take [Read more…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1896"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1896"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1898,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1896\/revisions\/1898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}