Last night I watched the film Venom for the first time (you can read my thoughts on it in a previous blog post). And afterwards, started the Anime “Black Lagoon”, without knowing anything about it. I am but three episodes in, and initially, I cant help but notice one aspect in both, that make these unlikely things to compare: Where are the “good guys”?
I knew venom always to be a Spider-man villain. In the film I watched last night however, he was nowhere in sight. Spider-man is a good guy. Of course he is. Everyone knows it except supervillains and Fisk corporations. So what drove the plot’s battles? Who is fighting who, and who should we be rooting for?
Well the fact is, people want Tom Hardy’s character to come out tops in the end. Why? Because he is well liked. Relatable, even. Replacing fun-loving Hardy with a Poe-faced randomer would have been a disaster on all fronts of this piece of cinema. Gone are the days of clear-cut lines. The film even makes a jab at itself in recognizing this. “You’re only allowed to eat/kill bad guys” he says to his parasite. Venom somewhat comically questions who they are or how to identify them.
I won’t spoil that film any further, and I will digress now, as two episodes into Black Lagoon, I notice a similar thing. Where’s the clean cut “good guys”. The protagonists are as seedy as the villains (bar the newcomer). They just have better aim and more charisma. Plus, the camera is on them most of the time, and we learn about their stories and see developments arise. That’s who we want to be in favor of – these lovable rogues.
I’m enjoying Black Lagoon a fair bit, as something I can tune in and switch off to, and to relax. It’s one of, if not the only Japanese anime I watch with English dubs instead of subtitles. That’s because it’s about 40% seriousness and action and 60% fun. That allows me to enjoy the goofy tones of the type of English voice-overs we get on a show like this. To compare it to Neon Genesis Evangelion on this note, the latter is more serious and stranger, so the wacky American voices don’t cut it for me. Some Animes are more serious and demand you to hear the original Japanese vocal inflections.
I don’t know how well the comparison stands, but on level of how the whole viewing experience hits, I would like to compare the level of drama vs. entertainment to something of the old British show, The Professionals. That’s simply a statement on the mood and doesn’t even hold well as an analogy beyond “tone”.
I’m enjoying it and will return for more, especially when ironing or putting stuff away. If I had to rate it out of ten, it might be a good seven.
The Humble Rock Dove 