SEASON REVIEW: Black Lagoon S01

BLACK LAGOON
Series 1


First season review, folks! Therefore first for the question what the f**k a season review is composed of and why it is here. You may have noticed that in the episode-per-episode or arc reviews, that is, stuff like animation, dub, overall feeling of the entire series and many more things has been left out. That was indeed on purpose because it fits in here, the season review. I will revisit the entire story development along with some few key factors but mainly focus on delivering new information around the episodes themselves. Enjoy.

"Season review, huh?"

Question: In the last review, MarXus did speak about dub and some other stuff. Wasn't he supposed to?
Answer: No, he wasn't. While I do see why he put it there, man I would have done the same thing, it was placed wrong. Harsh words, I know, but stuff like the dub and moreover the intro sequence is part of a season review except for the case that it changes during the series, then it should also be put in the episode's review. Since it was MarXus' first entry for the "Black Lagoon" series (hopefully not his last but knowing how the series will unfold, there will be some big big reviews coming because the arcs are getting longer and his dislike of anime in general except for pieces of art like the Ghibli films which could be only to the extend that real people could not pretend to be a speaking tree that easy :P - not likely), I didn't want to edit the whole thing and instead will sort of comment on his review here. But in general, that stuff is comprised in a season review, so don't look for much of it coming in other reviews which are on their way (announcement!!).

WARNING: This is not a complete season review because MarXus kind of over-explained stuff that was supposed to be talked about in here. So I will mainly focus on commenting on his commentary here, sorry for that but sadly that is the one big problem you have with animes, you just can't talk about acting here which leaves you with the voicing and the animation. Therefore, sorry, coming season reviews of other shows will be different!

SEASON REVIEW

General Things - DUB: While I agree with MarXus that the English Dub is seriously no work of art and fails to get emotions across, he simply leaves out one important thing to know if you talk about shitty English anime dubbing: not a single one is actually good. They're all bad and at that, "Black Lagoon" offers one of or even the best dub I've heard in a long time while, of course, it is still bad. A reason for that is that animes are not your everyday show and it is cool enough that shows still get dubbed instead of only being subbed. But that's some other story.

"Wait, we have NOT been nominated for an Oscar
in Best Animation category?"

Which brings me to the next point, MarXus mentioned already, the animation, mainly of background cards. Yes, real movement would indeed be cool and yes it would also do the show some good but again, he leaves out what is the explanation for that and it's not that the creators wouldn't care for their product, it is the money - and time. Money because you do have a budget, even if you're not in Hollywood, and animation alone is pretty damn expensive. Second, time. That is because animating takes time even if it is just for some little movement and backgrounds that fade away after a few seconds are not considered that important (which they should be, I agree on that) so they're only drawn and then being embedded in the show, not running through the time-sensitive animation process. Which also saves money which is the popular reason why producers do that kind of stuff to a show.
The animation besides the background is top notch and deserves some for that.

Next up on my "naughty list" (yeah, a season pun, damn another, beat that^^), the sound aspect. Yes, sound is as important as actual acting and scenery. Because without sound we tend to dislike even the greatest scenes, I mean, could you actually imagine "Star Wars" without the iconic, great music of mastermind John Williams? The answer simply put is no. Or for the world's sake, I hope it is. While "Black Lagoon" really doesn't offer that much difference and uses its outro music more than once per episode, it feels, you have to give them some credit for having such an awesome-sounding outro music. While season one is not all too perfect to understand the meaning of this outro, it is well chosen and perfectly suited for the show, or Revy that is. (You have to see the Nazi-arc in S01 and then the following seasons and you will grow to admire this music or you actually don't care about a deeper meaning behind everything.)

Moreover, for the intro sequence. Yes, the lyrics here are far from real English and far from anything making sense if you will but let's not forget this is a Japanese show, why I point out that it's Japanese because these guys are crazy about everything related to English stuff which is currently a big trend back there if you care to follow some bands or songs from Japan. You will always notice at least two or three repeating English sentences that don't always make complete grammar sense. They do it because, well, they're crazy about that stuff and it simply is trendy, if you want to put it that way. Therefore, I for one have developed immunity against that sort of thing and I just smile when I hear those lyrics or big mistakes like "Fuck plan" instead of the real German word "Bauplan" because I know they just can't do it better somehow. But for everyone who sees it otherwise, believe me, you're not alone out there. The sequence itself is completely random stuff that should introduce us to the character's faces and shows a little from Revy's past but it's nothing world-changing, so it could also be dropped but since this is the case with nearly every show on television these days, who cares?

Pirating is a serious business, you know.

So, now for the more actual show-related stuff: 


Revy - She's a badass hottie, I think everyone, at least every straight man, can agree on that. And yes, of course that is used to attract the viewer. Is that wrong? Yes, it is because that way the show runners and writers can distract from missing plot development or other similar stuff by just zooming in on her, well, "personalities". Do I mind? Damn, tough question, yes and no, if I'm honest. Of course, I do have nothing against her looks and I understand that it is needed to attract some sort of demographic but well, I do agree it is (slightly) overused in the series. But nevertheless, her character is the most complex one on the show, so it's not only her assets that keep me 'praising' her as MarXus put it, I believe. But, he is right to do so, why? Because he sadly hadn't had the time to fully catch up with the show yet, so he missed all the good stuff where they were in fact developing her character which does not happen in the season finale he reviewed. What comes as her big mystery is her past. While the show already implied an American city or at least a western city, while I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be New York, and that she had a very rough upcoming which involved guns, drugs, money and even murder, she clearly has problems facing who she really is and Rock is trying to get to her, get her to open up, to change but he fails. And there you're always wondering when Revy will finally talk about her person, her past. This is the big complex situation the series it building up on and if you miss these parts you truly have a problem considering her more than her looks. By the way, there will be more such moments coming in the following seasons.

Character development - The characters most developed over the season are Revy, obviously as I just talked about her separately, and Rock. Rock comes on as the normal guy that just doesn't want anything to do with anything. Then, he sees how no one in the real world seems to care about him and therefore decides to join the crew. While we are being presented two different sides of him during the first series, we also have to differ here on what two sides. One, he is the normal guy who cares as seen in the submarine talk that ended not so well between him and Revy, who, you guessed it, are a love interest, second, he is a cold and distant, through-thinking bastard (see f. ex. the pilot) whom we will get to see more of in the future. Rock is the character we as the audience probably can relate to the easiest way which is right that way because, damn, he is the protagonist here. So, good work here, nothing to complain and for twelve episodes the development is dosed just fine. Dutch and Beny however come very short here which is sad but also good because there is not that much more to them except for Dutch's past which is related to Balalaika who also has a mysterious past we are not being completely shown yet, but that is that little sort of cliffhanger that leaves us waiting for season two. Apart from that, everything seems almost real, so nothing left in this category.

While realism is not a big topic for the show, it stays within its own set boundaries which is a positive point because take a show like "Arrow". There you have a playboy turned superhero, okay that can be realistic, but that he has taken IT courses and becomes bulletproof on an island - yeah, not so much. "Black Lagoon" doesn't go this way and therefore wins a big plus here. Just to say it, this series needs action scenes to survive for a fun show and therefore realism isn't the best choice but you already knew that.   

"Hotel Moscow, b*tch."

The arcs themselves - The show here is following the manga to the bone, if I'm not mistaken. Yes, "Black Lagoon" is a manga adaptation! And therefore you cannot blame the show for their chosen stories because someone else wrote them for them, but to give you reviews, we constantly ignored that fact in the episodes' reviews and we apologize for keeping you in the dark here. But for the stories now: The pilot is of course the introduction episode so it has that feeling around but right afterwards you are being rewarded with Hotel Moscow which will play a by far more important role in S02, thankfully. They were sadly excluded a lot in this season. For example, if they had just left that somewhat last two-parter out and would have instead brought us some Hotel Moscow action, I would have applauded like never before, to use some (bad) imagery here. But of course that would not go along with the manga. The season finale sadly was not such and deserved the rating it got for being just way too irrelevant for anything. Would be the best if we would just forget it ever existed just like the "Star Wars - Prequels" or "Indiana Jones 4" for some people.
For story contents, re-read the particular review(s), thank you.

In case you haven't come around as well to watch every single episode, this season has no consistent season-long arc or side-plot. That will change with the next one. 

The most important aspect of this review is the overall feeling category. And here "Black Lagoon" delivers very strong. You just feel the fun, the short-lived action adrenaline and that is something I really really love about TV shows if they actually can deliver that. If you don't analyze every single bit of the show you can sit back and enjoy it and it is fun, that is exactly what the show was set up as, what it was promoted as, so no arguing here. Perfect job, well done! (Enjoy the fun while it lasts, just sayin'. ;) )


Lastly, for the final and overall rating of season one:

This score combines every single-rating until now and gets a minus or plus added to it for the around-stuff this review was all about. Therefore, the first series of "Black Lagoon" achieves a solid 3.7 rating and gets a clear plus from me for the rest.
SO, THE FINAL SCORE IS... 4 stars.

See you when series two gets reviewed here very shortly from now on, and don't hesitate to comment your opinion on the reviews, we'd love nothing more than that. Happy Holidays.

"Game over, motherf**cker!"

Black Lagoon S01E11+12 - The Nail in the Coffin

This is MarXus with the first season finale review of Black Lagoon. Me and EagleLeaf decided to split up the series between us to give you two points of view. Let's just hop right in.

I don't like animes. There are a few exceptions, but Black Lagoon is not one of them unfortunately. The greatest strength of this genre is at the same time its greatest weakness: It's drawn. Animations can never get close to real human acting, I think that's pretty much out of the question. What every anime has to do then is to become "art", to mesmerize the viewer through stunning visuals, colourful, magical landscapes and highly stylized characters. It should use the full potential of the medium to deliver a n enjoyable experience. When I see an anime that could have easily been done with real people on real locations, I just can't immerse myself into it very well. If you have to make an anime, use the medium you are working with instead of trying to copy another one.

Alright, I don't usually mention title sequences as they are not part of the series in my opinion, but Black Lagoon delivers what might just be the most ridiculous one I have ever seen. I'm not talking about the visuals here though. No, it's the intro song that was probably sung by people that didn't even know the language they are torturing our ears with. I don't know if there is an original sequence which features Japanese lyrics, but I sure do hope so for poor Japan. I'm not going to nitpick about this any more, just prepare yourself for this, mentally.

This most definitely violated me.

I am, by the way, watching the English dubbed version. Listening to a language you understand helps a lot when trying to immerse yourself into a story in my opinion, but I am aware of the masses of hardcore anime fans that swear on subtitles over voice dubs.

Back to the two-parter: I like to rate episodes based on how I feel right after watching them: Some leave me smiling, some leave me sad - Black Lagoon however leaves me just empty. There is a certain dullness to the show, the feeling that there is something missing, something essential. The episodes left me bored, wishing I would've spent my time doing something else. Now you might say that these claims are made up and simply a matter of opinion, but I'd like to disagree. Let me back it up with some facts.

1. The Graveyard feeling

It took me while to notice what exactly made me feel so unconnected while watching Black Lagoon. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but after a while it became more and more obvious: Black Lagoon doesn't ever show anything but the mere basics required to create a scene. Backgrounds often consist of nothing more than a few bright contours and shapes on an otherwise very dark background. Don't get me wrong, this could be considered an unique art style, but they don't use it as such. If you have nothing in the background, you need to fill the foreground to create a visually appealing composition. In Black Lagoon, a few people sit in front of a dark background, barely moving most of the time. After a while this feels pretty dull and boring, makes you tired and takes your attention away from what the characters say. The establishing shots are not much better: They are still frames with no movement whatsoever, even in the most crowded places:

I know it would be ridiculous to animate everything,
but can't you at least make a few objects move?

Now I'm not the only one to notice that, the animators did too. To tackle this issue they often stuffed scenes with as many fake camera pans as they could. This is a commonly technique used to fake motion and to distract the viewer from the dull backgrounds. I'm sure this works in some situations, but I definitely is not enough to create the feeling of a realistic environment that the viewers can immerse  themselves in. To take it a step further, I'd say it gets pretty annoying after a while. Your eyes constantly have to follow some barely animated character, making you tired and irritated. Camera movement should only be used to compliment a sense of motion, to establish a shot or to express a certain dynamic. It should not replace those things.

I was also majorly disappointed by the poor sound design. While this is probably one of the most important steps to create a believable environment, it is for some reason also the most commonly ignored one. I am fully aware that only big Hollywood productions get an unique, diverse soundtrack, but even without those resources you should be able to use audio to your advantage. You may not notice it immediately, but the human mind is remarkable in noticing "fake-ness". If the audio doesn't fit the visuals, we feel more distant from the scene, more like an outsider watching some people through binoculars. When I hear the sound of waves, I want to see the waves moving correspondingly on my screen. Imagine you look at a black screen and hear the sound of rolling waves and maybe a light breeze of wind. You immediately know you are at a beach. Sounds can create scenes by themselves and are especially important in the anime genre, as they are only real thing in them. It's extremely important to match sounds to your visuals then - Black Lagoon doesn't bother. The same goes for actual music as well: It feels like they had a very limited selection of musical pieces at hand. Like the background noises the score is often disconnected from the visuals, sometimes starting randomly in the middle of a scene and not in any way reflecting the emotions portrayed. I just feels like the creators did not really care about their product.

As this is my first Black Lagoon review, I might as well talk about the English voice overs: They are absolutely dreadful. I haven't heard such lethargic, monotone voice acting in an anime ever before - Granted, I never watch anime, but this doesn't change the fact that a much better job could have been done here. The voices seem disconnected from the visuals: When there is a really intense situation, no one ever really shouts. Never. You are lucky if you hear them talking loudly from time to time. They also don't even bother to give their voices some emotional depth like anger, affection or surprise. It almost sounds as if they never watched the anime and just read their lines to a microphone, impatiently waiting for someone to pay them.

How are you supposed to feel immersed in an environment that not even the creators really cared about?

2. Exaggeration and Categorization

I guess you could say this issue is entirely based on personal opinion. Humor in anime is often expressed through exaggerated visuals that can't be considered part of the show's canon. A good example for this is one character punching another character right through a wall, all without any of them sustaining any injuries. To my delight Black Lagoon doesn't use this style of visual humor. They however try to get laughs by exaggerating something else: Character traits. Even the main characters sometimes seem more like caricatures of themselves, lacking any depth and existing solely to advance the plot for the next action sequence. Meanwhile secondary characters often exist for some cheap laughs, nothing more. I'm not saying that this is always bad, to the contrary, some of my favorite TV shows like Community do this regularly - The difference is that these shows use this kind of humor only occasionally, the main sources of jokes are the regular cast. It's the same with Chuck, which is pretty close to Black Lagoon if you think about it. They don't do this mainly because they don't want to be associated with cheap slapstick humor. Black Lagoon unfortunately takes that path.

I'm pretty sure there exists Hentai more subtle than this.

We won't get around talking about Revy. While my colleague EagleLeaf has praised her character numerous times, I can barely see anything positive in her character. There are however a few scenes I actually liked her in: While not showing it on the outside most of the time, there are some indications of her affection for Rock. I like this "hard shell, soft core"-approach - But that's about it. I have never, and I'm not even exaggerating here, seen a more blatantly obvious attempt to get men to watch your series. She has body proportions no real human being could sustain without seriously damaging her back. The only way to could have made her more pornographic is by letting her run around naked all the time. If I think about it she actually is nearly naked most of the time. Last time I checked, a series should connect to the viewer through emotions - not his genitals. You can't have a character both deep and dramatic while making her run around in underwear all the time. Let me compare this to Chuck once again: They had the beautiful Yvonne Strahovski playing a secret agent - but they never used her sexuality as blatantly as Black Lagoon does with Revy. Some may say that her outfit fits her character and they do have a fair point, but that's still not enough reason to give her enormous breasts and zooming in on her ladyparts at least twice a minute.

3. Everything is Filler

This doesn't feel like a season finale. This doesn't feel like anything really. The plot is rather simple and actually makes sense, but the characters and interactions feel forced, stretched and unnecessary. They are trying to add a level of depth to the story that just doesn't work out. The main reason for that is probably the horrible dialogue, though I don't know to what degree the translation and the voice acting are responsible for that. People are constantly talking in these episodes though most of what they say is completely obsolete. It doesn't advance the plot at all and feels like they just put it in to fill  twenty minutes some way or another. They also used a voice over for literally everything that isn't the main plot. I repeat it once more and I will probably repeat it until I die: There are almost no occasions you would need a voice over for something you can just show. Show, don't tell.

Then there is a side plot they didn't really care about: Takenaka, an experienced military commander of some sorts, interrogates Rock in a "good cop" fashion by asking him harmless and unrelated question. He is well aware of the risk they are taking by not immediately torturing him, but for some reason ignores it. This is actually not too much of a stretch, it makes sense that he would follow some kind of honor code as he seems to have been in business for quite a while. Revy then rescues Rock in a stupid action sequence and drives off with him and two weird slapstick characters. Now for some reason Rock was mentally scarred by the (once again: completely harmless) interrogation as he just has a strange kind of thousand-mile stare on his face for the whole ride. It's hilarious to watch if you ask me. Back to topic: It is well established that rock has doubts about the path his life has taken, even Revy notices that. Two minutes later however the episode is over and we never hear about this side-plot again. This could of course have the purpose to set the tone for season two, but it just seems forced and out of place.

Finally, let's get to what the series is all about: The action sequences. Guess what, they also disappointed me. The creators of Black Lagoon seem to forget what a good action scene is all about: It's the excitement and fear we feel when we see our heroes in a situation that could seriously harm or even kill them. It's not about explosions, shootings, car chases and all that. Star Trek managed to create amazing action sequences by just having people stand on the bridge and yell commands. There are a few things that kill suspense like nothing else. One of them is never actually creating a feeling of danger: If we know that the characters are going to be alright, we don't get excited. Every single action sequence in these two episodes is like that. Revy and Rock, basically everyone that is not one of the bad guys, seems to be bullet proof. Trained military personnel shoots at them from point-blank range but they just keep walking towards them as if that was some kind of Sunday stroll. They cut through enemies as if they were butter. Do they seriously expect the viewer to feel any suspense when all characters are nothing less than unstoppable killing machines?

At one point in the story Rock is captured by the enemy, but it doesn't make any difference whatsoever. It never feels like he would be in danger, because from the second they capture him it's obvious that Revy will just rambo her way into the military camp and kill everyone in her way. Everyone seems to be so lucky it's almost hilarious. They get through a military roadblock at one point, just because some guy feels that they should, despite of them hurling towards the soldiers in an army jeep, armed to the teeth with a man high on pot driving.

Conclusion

These episodes bored me, and that's about the worst insult there is for a TV series - It just didn't have any real content, the action was pointless, the dialogue and especially voice acting were cringe-inducing and through all that we get random ass-shots of a girl with oversized breasts. The environment feels lifeless and empty  the characters are one-dimensional and the sound design makes you want to stab yourself in the eye. One star.

Black Lagoon S01E08-10 - Bloody Roberta...

BLACK LAGOON
Series 1, Episodes 08-10

So, yeah, it’s me again, back with another review (finally) and once again it is a freakin‘ triple review. Thumbs up. This time, I'm also just doing a "short review", you will see why later and the last review for series 1 will come from MarXus shortly after I will have put this one up, so stay tuned. 

"Short review, eh?"

We start with some company stuff. Basics. The Lagoons get to take some kid on a boat trip but there’s a catch: little boy ain’t so little and sweet you might think he is. And damn, he’s trouble ‘cause his father is one of the 13 family bosses who run South America. Why I re-tell that? Because it will play an important part now and later on. Now, Revy doesn’t care much for Garcia, the boy, which doesn’t come as a surprise to us audience. While Dutch and Rock get the hang that something is not right about the deal, she ain’t so easy to convince. Letting Balalaika do some research, the crew is heading for some drinks to the Yellow Flag, you know, the one bar that is always getting shot and destroyed in the process. But there comes the threat of your life-time: the housemaid.

Yeah, I’m not kidding, she is big, explosive, f**king trouble. But for now, she plays nice. So, big meet-up at the Yellow Flag is in order. 

Who the f**k is Arnie?

Here comes the first epic moment of this arc, the maid acquiring some information. And yes, with a pretty lot of shooting and some serious caliber. And her name is: Terminator Roberta.

I mean, forget Arnie, she’s the real deal. And the Terminator is nothing against her, I mean, she has a case with (not only) a machine gun in it and a deadly umbrella, hello, how awesome is that? Prepare for a bloodbath. 

Episode 9, which is part 2, kicks in right there, after a short flashback and some little replay (the crew arriving at the bar), delivering the very bloodbath. But before that, Revy gives Rock the “when-you-are-kidnapped-I-am-not-coming-for-you”-card (preview for a following episode?). Back at the bar, Roberta is beginning the fight with a decent kill. Following is some very sufficient firepower, to say the least, some more corpses and the Yellow Flag being shot down again. And the maid is kicking serious ass which Garcia did showingly not expect. Well, I think no one expected her to be so dangerous. Now, the first moment of a Revy-Roberta-standoff. And it’s quite tense. And damn, Rock knows how to speak Spanish, where did he learn all that?

Grenade launcher in a suitcase. I am already in love with her character. Which causes Revy to lose consciousness. That has to be a first one. But it wasn’t unprecedented because Roberta is also known as the “Blood Hound”. And from between her legs, yeah, I’m serious, fall grenades which blow up the bar completely. However, Roberta survives the blast and steals a car right afterwards. That, truly, is unrealistic but hey, we all have established until now that the show is not that keen on being too realistic overall. Next up, the Lagoons are under attack by our maid friend with Revy still being knocked out cold. And Balalaika joins the fight. Finally. And by the way, now even the show itself refers to Arnie, funny thing.

Hell, the next thing is pretty cool and jaw-dropping: Roberta, the killing roboter who she clearly is, drives a car on the roofs of Roanapur, yep, on the roofs and then drives onto the street, well, more or less flies down the street to hit the Lagoon car and still being able to fire some bullets at them which indeed hit their target. That simply is… epic. 

"Please turn down at the next roof."

The final installment is all about Revy vs. Roberta but before we get to that, some really cool action scene is there to be watched that lets "Terminator" looks like shit. At the docks, Roberta faces off with our finally conscious Revy in a gun fight before Balalaika steps in and lets them fight in hand combat only which takes its time and its blood. For Roberta, we get to know that she was a freedom fighter once and a soldier. She was then being safed from completely going insane by Garcia’s father taking the position of a housemaid. The fight ends in a draw, shame. But it is deserved, I’d say.
Then, for some background on Balalaika who was also a soldier back in time. And there the arc concludes but it will not be the last we see of Roberta, Garcia and of course the Lagoons.

So, what is there to say about this particular arc? – Since the show is not redefining its own premise every episode the mistakes made and the good things established have been said enough times already to just point them out shortly here. So, please, bear with me. 

"You know, if there's a good score at the end
you get to sleep with me, right?"

First off, character development. Not much new here and to some extent it just seems as the last arc never really happened because we’re back the “all is cool”-feeling of the pilot. Which is not essentially a bad thing, to the contrary, I think it was much needed for this arc to work and honestly, it’s just feels more like the “Black Lagoon” we all got to know from the beginning. So, neither a minus nor a plus here. While I have to say that we are introduced to a little bit more from Balalaika’s past, I would not characterize that as enough to call it a big step. 

Second, realism (or not): while the show is, once again, not that keen on being all too realistic, this arc presented some of the most ass-kicking moments of the entire first series which naturally are all too unrealistic. Like that one moment where Roberta drove the car from the roofs down the street and still had the time and calmness to shoot at the tires of the other car but I’ll let that one slip because damn how amazingly innovative and awesome was that move? This is one of the main reasons I like “Black Lagoon” so much, the action sequences which still haven’t found a worthy counterpart in TV shows. For the rest, it was within the lines the show had established until now, more for that in the last reviews.

Drive safely, one hand on the wheel, the other shooting at people.

If you ask who this arc really focused on, the answer is Roberta, the maid –also well-known as the “Blood Hound of Florence”. She is another interesting character to set foot on the show. Guest starring at first she becomes the main antagonist in the two last episodes and kicks some serious ass. You may have noticed that this arc also poses as a turning point for the action style. It is getting bloodier than before and people, you haven’t seen anything yet. In my opinion, getting bloodier is not a bad thing, especially since the setting of the show is in the most criminal city in theworld, so these two elements add together perfectly. Therefore another plus here. Which also defines her character for now: she is trouble, bloody trouble. When I stated earlier that the episode has no new character development, I meant it, so there ain’t some or few here. But you get to know real good through the flashbacks (see later on) how Roberta and Garcia have a special connection and how she has another special connection to Garcia’s father, the criminal boss who doesn’t seem too criminal. I don’t know if the writers had planned it all along but considering the series is based on a manga, I guess so, but the fact that we don’t get to see too much of the family lies in the premise of season 3, the OVA series which again mainly focuses on Roberta and therefore the family as well. 

Which leads to the big showdown between Revy and Roberta, down there by the docks. While we always have to remember that this is an anime, so choreography is not something that can be reviewed here. But still, the animation is fluently and the moves themselves look real good, just to cover that basis here.

What I left out again (see a pattern here?^^) are the flashbacks we’re treated to. Roberta, Garcia and his father together in their dream house somewhere in South America, man that place looks awesome. Who would not wanna live in that big castle-like house? The flashbacks are presented in a charming, cheerful and relaxed way so that you get the feeling, this is a perfect world. A big plus here. 

If you want a more detailed approach to some aspects I did not include here, re-read the last few review(s) because they do, as previously stated, also apply here pretty well.

Group meeting.

This arc is again one of the more fun episodes in the series and it fully lives up to that extend. Thankfully. While there was less character development, we have had pretty much of that lately, the action parts which clearly define this arc are perfectly animated and except for some sort of realism also well executed. After the Nazi-arc this one is a more than welcome change of scenery that just makes you wish there was more. This time it is all about sitting back and enjoy “Black Lagoon” at its best: presenting a fun ride. So, because of the missing story background it sadly misses the five-star rating but therefore still does a perfect landing on 4 earned stars. 

But still, someone should found a donation fund for the bar owner. ;) 

Arrow S01E06 - As average as it gets

First of all, I want to explain to you why this review is so short: It's because after five full reviews, three of those done by me, you should already have decided whether to continue watching Arrow or to look for something different. I will only do short reviews for season one from now on, except when there is an especially good or bad episode. The posts that I feel come closest to a prognosis about what Arrow might have in store then is my episode three review and this one, I can't speak for my colleague though. Enough said, let's begin!

Episode six is probably the first 'filler', no major plot development at all. I don't have a problem with that, actually some filler episodes can turn out to be really exciting, strengthen the protagonists' characteristics and do not feel like a waste of time at all. Castle is a good example for a show made up almost completely out of filler episodes, or, if you will, no filler episodes at all: Every week they advanced the season plot just a tiny inch forward, sometimes without using a single word. It worked rather well in my opinion. What brakes or makes this kind of episode then is only the plot, nothing else. Without major character development, there is no room for praise or criticism in that category.

As the title suggests, I wasn't impressed by Arrow's performance. I wasn't too disappointed either though. Episode six makes all the mistakes I mentioned in earlier reviews, but the plot is somewhat creative and unexpected, which is always a good thing. I don't want to go too much into detail about things I said before, but nonetheless I feel they need to be mentioned: They plot suffers from the same illogical developments as in the previous episodes: Oliver can magically acquire information about his target, right down to the exact location - But only sometimes, when the narration requires it. This feels like they are cheating their way around conclusive writing by just randomly giving Oliver knowledge he couldn't have and then at other times just withholding it. In this case, he is able to identify a bank robber the police couldn't find by stealing a picture out of the evidence files. He then uses the typical unexplainable computer magic to locate him. Whatever, moving on.

Or wait, one last matter I want to nitpick about: If Oliver has, as it has been established numerous times, extensive knowledge about computers and the internet, why is he not able to dig up basic information about the bank robbers past. He has to ask the pretty IT-lady we saw before to do that. Isn't it dangerous to involve outsiders in your operations? Especially when you have no excuse whatsoever for your requests? He can track the guys location down to a pub somewhere in the city but can't do a Google search about him? And one last thing: If Oliver was really a hero, he should maybe give the police access to the incredibly powerful tracking system he build in his cave.

Enough with the details: Let's talk about the major problems of this episode and Arrow in general, once again: The plots are centered around convenience, feel unrealistic and forced and lack real excitement. They are used as an excuse to show us some action scenes that don't really work either. That isn't even the biggest issue I have with the series. What I honestly dislike the most is how blatantly forced every dialogue and action seems. It looks like the gave the actors zero room to do what they are supposed to do: Act! They just read line after line in a monotonous voice, sometimes sporting watery eyes or looking out of the window dramatically. Conversations don't have a 'flow', it doesn't feel like they would take place like that in real life. Most of the time, people just talk to each other face to face in this series. There's no dynamics to it, they don't talk while doing something, they just stop in the middle of the room and babble on and on and on. And that's the last main issue I have with Arrow: There is so much talking that could have been avoided so easily. The most basic rule of storytelling is probably 'Show, don't tell'. And yet Arrow repeatedly fails to do that and I don't get how that happens. Are the writers not paid enough, do they not enjoy their work? It's not only Arrow, the most famous example for this might be the Star Wars prequels. How can such a basic and simple rule be ignored over and over? It's probably because most of the audience just doesn't care - and that's a sad thing. You rarely see any emotional display without having to watch two minutes of talking before: Thea feels isolated and helpless? The audience is too stupid to notice, just make Thea say it directly to their faces. Laurel still has feelings for Oliver? Make her say it! It's alright to make a relatively simple plot, not every episode need to be a work of art, but that doesn't justify labeling the viewers as stupid. We don't need to be fed every single piece of information. Show, don't tell.

Grumpy Monologues: The Thing with Adaptations

Adaptations always have a hard time: Not only do they need to satisfy the fanboys, but also the millions of viewers that have never heard of the source material. Well, at least that is what they should do: Most adaptations you will see will primarily focus on the second group, the casual TV viewers, as there are much more of them. This means that cryptic, complex story-elements get thrown away and we often get much more shallow plots that don't take risks at all. But despite to popular belief amongst the fan community, changing the story to something more fitting to the TV format is not necessarily a bad thing. I'll give you two examples: Harry Potter and Spiderman. The Harry Potter books are simply too long to make them into an exciting movie kids will watch. What they did is take the main plot, make as little adjustments to it as possible, and then put it on the big screen - Nothing wrong with that. Spiderman (2002) went the opposite direction: They only adapted the source very loosely, scratching out even some  of the main plot developments - And it worked just as well!

The reason I posted this is simply to prove my point about this topic: It's possible to make adaptations that don't make fanboys too angry but also work as movies. I saw the Spiderman movie before I read the first comic and I saw the first Harry Potter movie before I read the book - And guess what, I enjoyed all of these things. I can't stress this enough: A good adaptation should still be enjoyable for people unfamiliar with the source material. It should still work as a movie or TV series without being cramped to the limit with obscure references to some comic books.

Arrow S01E05 - Accidents can happen.

ARROW
Season 1, Episode 5

5 years ago – Asian guy shoots dinner. Right, so, there I am once more, filling in on another arrowing review because MarXus is busy doing some maintenance stuff for the site (yeah, we gotta do that as well) and he’s, at least I think he is, writing some other review already. But back to the important stuff: the review itself. Remember, Oliver had been arrested at the end of last episode for literally everything from secret hooding to murder. So, there we are now, go. (Catchphrase. :P )

Oliver on the island, a kind of familiar face about now. New to that, remember, Asian guy can speak English. So, he is practicing his shooting act with bow and arrow to become, well, “Arrow” which of course he didn’t know then. He misses and has to retrieve the arrow, nothing wrong with that, but nothing special. So why show us this stuff? Because, and that is a major gun the show is pulling on us, the island is not as deserted as we thought. In fact, there is some sort of military group there which, you saw it coming, catches our billionaire playboy son and takes him to a piss hole, eh, I mean, arrest cell. That was a really nice stunt the show performed well and which will define what’s coming, so don’t miss a second of the coming flashbacks.

Back in the present, Detective Lance questions Oliver but is interrupted by his mom and step-dad in charge, Walter. But Oliver is only accepting Laurel as his lawyer. So far, so good. But then, they dumb Laurel’s character into a dreamy what-so-ever, really, way to go there by letting her say something as stupid as “Mrs. Queen, what are you...?” and just seconds after that “it’s been all over the news”. You know, when she knows why Moira is talking to her, why is she asking? Feels -just not right.  

Anyway, despite the screw-ups the show is constantly delivering in the Oliver-Laurel relationship, it is still on solid ground since it’s logical that Oliver would only let Laurel represent him, therefore, I’ll let that faux-pas just then slip. And eventually she agrees. Nothing big to argue here and it’s being presented quite good, actually. (Even though I’m not so sure if a lawyer is allowed to just walk in to a hearing if he or she is late, but since I can’t confirm if that is possible or not, it’s a little positive point because it comes around quite cool and saves her character a little there.) 

"Man, even some random dude got more screen time than me."

Result: Oliver having to wear a GPS device. But he can still party in his garden which he of course does in an instant. Why the show did include Tommy (or Merlyn a.k.a. Merlin as MarXus once put it) here, I don’t know. But okay, he is his best friend, so he has one reason to be there but they could use him some more in a episode if he appears - oh well, guess thirty seconds have to be enough. In comes Diggle and here is again a serious over-acting or, for that matter, over-speaking to be seen/heard as Oliver kind of insults Diggle to shut the door. And since there is no conclusive reason for insulting Diggle here, it has to be Amell’s fault. But for resolving the cliffhanger we were left with – why did Oliver miss that very camera? We now get to know, he did miss it on purpose, yeah, that’s right. He lets himself get arrested, even prosecuted just to pretend like he’s not Arrow while he just could have sent Diggle to play the Hood while he is being seen on like, a camera or something like that as he wants Diggle to do now anyway? Well, of course, he is a show-off and okay, it was kind of awesome when the show pulled the arrest move out of their sleeves so early into the season but hey, nothing beats logic. 

"I'm Brother Tuck from Sherwood Forest, got a problem with that?"

Well, before I go on criticizing everything, now for the plot for that episode: a German businessman suspected of arm deals. And Diggle is supposed to play the very Hood Oliver is and well, give him an alibi and get information on the very businessman’s next deal. Whom he again knows about, why is not explained but since we are used to not knowing from where he gets his info, I guess, it’s all right. And the toys he has are awesome, I want more.

At the big Q building, Walter is moving his resources to transport the "Queen’s Gambit" but first, Oliver does a, wait for it, polygraph. Which he succeeds at (seems not that hard to beat one, after all). Here is, according to me, the most intense and epic moment of the season (yet?). Oliver coming around to tell Laurel and her father (and do not forget the tech guy) that he was not alone on the island and that he was seriously tortured, by famous Deathstroke. This character will be spared from this episode’s review because he is a comic character and he will be explained later on in the show. I’ll just say that until now, he lives up to the hype. What makes this very scene (the polygraph) so good, so excellent is it being so damn convincingly and I’m so intrigued to forget about every fault the episode delivered until now just for the very awesomeness this scene is filled with. And here, we finally see what Amell is capable of as an actor and if he keeps that performance level up, it would be perfect. 

Back with Thea, who disappointed completely in the last episode. But this time, she is back to her normal self. And she acts tremendously this time, keep it up. But still, she has some doubts about Oliver being Arrow and Oliver can’t live up to her suspicions but she puts them aside for now, just like Diggle did a few episodes back. Nice parallel there, plus point.

 

And the awesomeness doesn’t stop there with Walter then getting informed his chef of security (who he sent to move the ship) was involved in a car accident and died. And we all know that was no accident. Very good acting here, as always from Colin Salmon. Meanwhile, Laurel visits Oliver and we learn two important things: 1) she wore fishnets for him and 2) she still has feelings for him. The latter we all did know before, all right, but hey, kiss scene. As cliché as it was, I’ll let it stand there because I’ve seen Smallville’s numerous takes on that kind of scenes and know that in a superhero series this is the best you can/will get. And Laurel gets to see his scars, but oh well, that doesn’t matter for now.

Next up is a hit on Oliver. Yep, a murder attempt. That scene features again an amazing stunt coordination fighting scene and I must say, this is the kind of scenes where “Arrow” never disappoints. Really, great work here, the scene looks absolutely fantastic and Lance saving Oliver was, again, even if a little coincidentally, a very good choice. This scene has no flaws which is why it is so short-reviewed, in case you wanted to ask that. 

"So, you still haven't realized your son is Arrow?"

 In the ending minutes, Moira gets to be a little more the family member we had thought she was in the first minutes of the pilot episode before she was revealed to have all these connections and stuff. But this would not be a good ending point for a week if Laurel wouldn’t show up and tell him he lied in the polygraph and still passed despite of a little flutter during the questioning. Then the writers went a little overboard in giving Oliver the line “I can barely sign my name” which clearly as he demonstrated a thousand times, he can. Sad that Laurel can be that easily deceived or can she?

Lastly, Walter is leaving the big castle and Moira (good decision there),  Laurel does a little “save-my-alcoholic-cop-dad-bonding” and Diggle and Arrow make up for making him only a side-kick pawn right before Arrow goes in and finishes the job with the German businessman but again, now he is back with murdering everyone before taking his time to let the real bad guy know “he failed this city”. But, hey, it’s Arrow, move along, nothing special to see here. 

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

"Woah, Kermit the Frog, WTF?!"

OLIVER – This is the biggest development for Oliver this episode shows us. We get to know that he was brutally tortured on the not so deserted island. That he had lived through rough times back there and exactly that knowledge lets us view him differently then before. We now have the permanent image of him as the victim who overcame a storm which now kind of justifies his need to be a little more aggressive in his vigilante adventures (spin-off anyone?). And we get to see the real, damaged Oliver in two scenes, most important: the questioning with the polygraph when he for a moment opens up and shows that he is not the Oliver that the city has thought to be dead, that he is some other Oliver who knows the world’s brutality spreading around. The second one is his conversation with Laurel, even so it is mainly acted, some things still are true like he describing himself as damaged. And up until now this was the best character study of him that the show delivered, so a job very well done. 

LAUREL – Defining her in this episode are mainly again the exact same two scenes as in Oliver’s case: polygraph and conversation. She recognizes that she had seen a ghost version of Oliver all these days since his return, that Oliver has changed quite a lot and not to the better. And what is strongly implied is that she also takes a lot of the damage onto herself what Oliver suffered because she thought of him as the playboy he always was. But still, that’s everything that’s changing for her but it is strong and therefore enough. Good job again.

THEA – Back to her greatness of the previous episodes after the very last episode let me down in every way to Sunday for her character. She now faces the first doubts about Oliver and their relationship now again seems so realistic that, well, it could actually be real. I hope they keep this storyline up because it is a damn interesting one and it is the most perfect portrayal of a relationship in the show. 

QUINTON LANCE – What else can I say that, I like his character a lot and the acting is also near perfection. What justifies him getting some separate lines is the hit scene at the end where he, father of whom Oliver kind of killed, shoots someone to save his daughter’s “killer’s” life. He sees that Oliver has enemies and that he by far is not the playboy turned murderer for fun as he portrays him before the incident. He gets to see there is another dimension to Oliver’s character and that on the other side of the medal also gives him a new dimension which is introduced to us by him drinking to his thoughts at the bar, nicely put. I hope they explore this direction more. 

MOIRA – Well, she’s not as bad as everyone thought. But still, she stays true to her criminal side. Which is the right way to have taken this development for now. But they can’t do such little developments for her anymore because now, it is getting repetitive. 

WALTER – He confronts Moira about the “Queen’s Gambit”. That, I did not see coming (yep, the second time already which is a relatively good sign) and I really was “Oh wow” when I saw what game Walter was playing here. It was a dangerous game but I think he knows Moira is not the good housewife she wanted everyone to believe she was. Which is his character development while we there already. And his moving out scene at the end was also well placed and gave the series another new storyline to explore, so, again, well done. 

DIGGLE and THE REST were only side-kicks for the episode so I leave them out. 

"Do I have something in my face or what?"

THE PRESENTATION

What this episode finally gets straight is its over-acting problem. Though Amell kind of killed the feeling with his more of an insult voicing to shut the door, it was getting indeed better. There were still some scenes where it was more than visible but it was less than before and that is what counts.

And we got to see more of John Barrowman whose acting is really awesome to say the least (okay, I admit, I liked his acting ever since he appeared on “Doctor Who” but nevertheless it’s true), I hope, once again, to see even more in the next episode or the next ones crawling up.

Other than that, settings and the shots in general were again on a very high scale for a TV production which I again have to give the show a lot of credit for.

The plot however had some serious lacks of logic (like the “why bother to get arrested”-problem or the Laurel-thing in the beginning) but overall it wasn’t that bad, I have to admit. It wasn’t better than the last episode’s solid plotting but it wasn’t worse either, so I guess we’re in deep waters here for the moment.

The flashbacks again were not some of the best we’ve seen yet except the Deathstroke-introducing ones, but still they were again set into scene very well and the last one showing us that the Asian guy who was a military officer of some sort left Oliver back at his “place” in order to draw the guns for hire away from him made for an interesting turn in events, so another plus here.

CONCLUSION

Prison ain't that bad, really.

Though I have to say the episode had some lacks, it was the one with the most epic moments yet, the polygraph scene and the island torture. But as it was the case with the last episode the overall feeling of the show and in particular this episode’s development give more than enough reason to not rate it as a bad one. After all, “Arrow” is a fun show and that episode was awesome and was very short-lived in my opinion, so they surely did a lot of things (as mentioned above) right. 

Therefore this episode can be proud of it standing with a score of, hold it, close but still 4 stars. Because of the major flaw of Oliver not having to be captured for his little “I’m not Arrow”-stunt this episode would have only gotten three out of the five stars but since this is not a directly from this episode originating problem (more of the whole last two episodes) I didn’t count that one and of course, the better acting this time scored some as well. 

Arrowed up.