Black Lagoon #29 — Protagonist Power

June 22nd, 2011

 

Bullet wounds are more like a suggestion than anything anybody needs to care about.

Impressions:

Well, this was pretty much the same as the last one. Roberta ran around with her plot armor fully on, shrugging off automatic weapon fire, impossibly leaping from muzzles of small guns, and killing entire platoons of unnamed soldiers in the dark while everybody else stands around. The action still wasn’t bad for being barely viewable in the darkness, but as before, it’s undermined by Roberta being unkillable to absurd levels. Trained soldiers either miss her from a foot away with automatic weapons or runs right through it like it’s nothing, while if she so much as glances in their direction, they explode or turn into crying wrecks. 

Unfortunately, that was only about 5 of the 32 minutes. As usual, the rest was the cast standing around talking about how life is so sooooo hard. That rings especially hollow when it’s Rock trying to proselytize to a girl that, if I’m not mistaken, was shooting up bars and knifing people in the testicles a few episodes prior. Yeah, Rock, you’re a real badass. Actually, thinking back, the only decent action sequence that wasn’t in pitch black in this whole OVA was the initial one of Fabiola tearing up the bar. Anyway, then, because we need to remember who the real main character of the series is, here’s a quick flashback to Rebby getting raped. Stellar. Then Roberta’s saved by the power of shota spit. And everybody lives happily ever after.

Posted in Black Lagoon | 4 Comments »

4 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • Travis says:

    Well this seems… Insulting.

    No action, a lot of babbling when the core cast has become so out of focus no one cares, and then to top it all off, have Revy get raped because *every* ultra-tough female character was raped once before – no exceptions?… Beh.

    I never followed the manga so I don’t know how much of the poindextering (izzat a word? It is now) is from translation, but it just seems like the pace is completely schizophrenic and more focused on plot armor than plot progression.

    • Nanaya says:

      The manga is basically the same, but it probably does a better job showing how Rock manipulated the situation to get his way. It was also just as contrived and plot-armored at the end, but I was under the impression that Roberta and that kid died together in the manga… Don’t remember it too well though.

      Also, it ended on a decent note for Rock, since he scared Balalaika and Cheng enough to have them break some of his ribs. He’s either doing something right or horribly, horribly wrong for them to think he’s a threat.

  • sage says:

    Colombians really do have plot armor.

  • jingoi says:

    I’ll wait for the dub!