*This blog post was started on June 22, 2022.
If you are looking for insight into my life right now, I think you are better off listening to my podcast, "NinetyForChill.com: The #Podcast". Without a guest for this past week, you get to hear everything about me that has been on my mind. This includes my war with YouTube over the abundance of advertisements for hateful, racist, and fascist Congressman Rodney Davis.
Today, one of the ads put ahead of WrestleTalk's content (They are based out of the UK, so I cannot fault them for Republican advertisements during their videos.) was for Google's Mental Health Awareness channels. You cannot have it both ways Alphabet. If you promote someone who approves child murder and the Blue Lives Matter flag on top of wanting to take reproductive rights away from women, you cannot turn around and say, "watch a video to feel better." You can fuck right off.
Needless to say, I am not going out of my way to create content for YouTube. Thank you Alphabet for allowing to run down this Windows 10 laptop. The credit is there right now to get myself a Mac.
My war with tech monopolies goes beyond Android. I think Twitter is boycotting any links that do not have a full file name (html/php) that involves death. How am I suppose to promote my primary blog, "Main Event of the Dead" (maineventofthedead.com)? Is Elon Musk calling for an end to zombie movies? Is this a conspiracy to show Mark Zuckerberg has some understanding of being human since I can promote my website on that platform.
Alphabet has given Rodney Davis $10,000 in campaign donations. Technology is going to destroy my new home. I do not need anymore irony in my life. Champaign/Urbana is where the Internet started. My Congressmen is going to use technology to destroy it.
At least this rant gives me a transition to the anime review. "Black Lagoon" is a series that is celebrated for its violence and humor, at least on Looper and Watch Mojo, but rarely do they tell you the perspective that you are suppose to assume when you watch. That is of an early 20-something who is fed up with corporate life. If you are fed up with expectations of Western society, this series seems tailor made for you.
Black Lagoon: Episode 1-3
Rokuro Okajima is a 25 year-old salaried employee at a major Japanese corporation. It was what you are to aspire to do as a Japanese man, and to succeed at this, you are expected to take orders and go through all the motions be it excessive bowing or excessive drinking to appease the higher ups. The latter expectations will be addressed later. As for the prior being taking orders, Okajima's latest task is to transport a disc to an organization with questionable motivations. Following orders to advance may lead to a sense of naivety. So he is caught by surprise when pirates decide to take him hostage.
Well, the pirates did not mean to take him hostage. The crew's loose cannon Revy wants to make a little extra money from Rokuro's company. She fails to realize that they have already written off their employee and has gone straight to mercenaries to reclaim the disc at any cost. At least Rokuro has gotten an honorary promotion and assurances that his funeral will be paid by the company.
Not wanting to die has given Rokuro's a new perspective towards his life. He has decided to fight with his captors to save his own neck. If he can get out of this scrape, perhaps he has new job opportunities ahead of him. All he has to do is figure out how to destroy a heavily armored helicopter with the Black Lagoon, a PT Boat with a couple of torpedoes and an anti-tank rifle.
"Black Lagoon's" first hour is engaging television. Anime fans (at least American ones) are the type who will shun traditional values, so to have a protagonist who knows its the right thing to do is ideal. The first episode has fun in pointing out how messed up the Japanese business culture is, so the viewer is further encouraged to despise it and yearn for freedom. It is classic escapism, but rarely do we have the actual opportunity to escape.
The beauty of the story is that it presents the risks to find the freedom we all desperately want. With these risks, the audience has to consider if one can really ignore them to accept a chance to be free of the perceived responsibilities. As the violence mounts, you feel like you have to take the plunge and forget about your past and realize where you should be. "Black Lagoon" nails that narrative and gets you pumped for the next episode.
After the first hour, it seems to just be your typical action anime. That is not an insult, just the truth. To get to know the supporting characters of Capt. Dutch, Revi, and Benny, we need half hour adventures. If it is like the best anime TV shows, by the half way point, the over arching story is established, and all these brief tales will pay off. This is two seasons and an OVA series, so it is a safe assumption that the series will be hard to turn off. Damn bed times.
To make this series even sweeter, the art style is solid and looks oh so shiny. Usually I am turned off by bright colors, preferring a subdued, straight from the manga frame feel. Since anime became mainstream in the States, brightness feels like an accommodation to Western audiences who expect Disney quality. But this is not a sweet little Adult Swim first hour show. This is a series that celebrates violence to the point of excess. To see it in glorious color is a nice treat.
Add in a excellent soundtrack and it is hard not to let this series gets its hooks into you. It makes it feel like a "Persona" game, so you will be inspired to just put the opening theme on loop.
Humor, violence, and great tunes is what a fun simpleton (per @mainawamaina707 on Twitter) is easily pleased by. "Black Lagoon" delivers on all of these. It is not overly complicated or meta, just a simple narrative that knows what its audience dreams of.
I suppose since its is anime, it could use a little more fan service. But if you are not turned on by an angry chick wiping out a fleet of pirates, kink shaming you seems fair to me.
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