Furu Anime Panikku

Everyone in Black Lagoon’s stained, Rock too. Even so, there are characters who I think deserve the respect.

It seems that apart from Balalaika and Mr Chang, nearly the rest of Roanapur has lost even the slightest sense of chivalry.

Balalaika, despite being the leader of one of, if not the most powerful criminal organisation in Roanapur, still looks out for her men well. This is something what many of the other slugs on that eternally blood-stained island lack. Most only care about power and money. It isn’t the same for Balalaika though. She places her men as top priority, and that alone makes her respectable in my view, even after all the hellish acts committed.

Mr Chang’s someone worthy of looking up to too. He has style, can keep his cool in situations where people would be peeing in their pants and does not perceive violence as the sole existent solution. The last point is one of the reason why he earns my respect, since most of the other hooligans in the series think with their weapons, which have no brains, instead of their heads. In short, majority of those scums are downright dumb.

Let’s not forget his crucial role in molding Revy into the Two-Hands she is today. Dual-wielding pistols is sleek. If you thought that Revy and Ginji’s battle in the Japan was mind-blowing, I’m certain that Mr Chang would blow a couple of bullet holes through Ginji before he even gets into physical contact.

In the manga, although not featured in the anime series as of yet, Mr Chang is currently assisting Garcia Loveless to track down the bloodhound in the maid’s attire to minimize the number of causalities. This is extremely unlike what majority of the cast would do, since almost everyone goes along the lines of “Let’s go kill some pieces of shit!”.

The latest arc is really interesting, and has been well-developed as of now. Dragging in the Uncle Sam and his troopers was something I’ve never really expected to happen, considering most of the plot before this was on Thai soil. My guess is that it’ll so expand into a worldwide skirmish, with the CIA and such involved so deeply already. Hiroe Rei must have burned out tons of creative brain cells while scheming the plot.

Noticed why I never mentioned any of the Lagoon members? Revy’s a cool character, but that alone isn’t sufficient for respect. She’s like any one of those brainless freaks, except that her style-o-meter’s a gazillion times higher. About Rock, let’s say I’ve never really viewed him as one of those scums. Benny and Dutch are mostly in the fog, and they will probably maintain their status as side characters for good.

Anyway, as we all know, season 3 has been announced for the anime, which was paritally the reason why I got into the mood of working on this post. I still remember how I ran a marathon of 17 episodes of the series in a single day during the weekend of major examination period. It really eased my stress level, considering how I almost forgot that I actually had a paper the next day.

The announcement of season 3 was a godsend. You can probably imagine how I rejoiced in front of the screen. Now, all I need is the announcement of a new Full Metal Panic season for me to plunge into a euphoric fit.

Ah, the wonders of Fanboyism.