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REVIEW: Black Lagoon: Second Barrage DVDs 2 and 3




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DemonEyesLeo



Joined: 20 Feb 2005
Posts: 844
Location: Japan
PostPosted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 1:16 am Reply with quote
I have to agree; the one nick in the dub was Yukio, and the "English" on the Japanese side could have been a lot better. But other than that the series has become one of my absolute favorites and, to use the current poll and Answerman's recent question, is the series that got me excited for anime again. By far the best series I've seen in a while (after BECK).
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nechronius



Joined: 23 Nov 2005
Posts: 275
Location: So Cal, USA
PostPosted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 2:20 am Reply with quote
I marathon watched both seasons of Black Lagoon in English this past weekend after finally buying the last DVD. A very satisfying experience. I only own a few anime titles on DVD, but this one had to be part of my small collection.

I was intrigued by how they would handle the language issues in the final story arc. Honestly I think they did about as good a job as they could have done given the circumstances, and overall I have to say that the dub is superior overall to the original subs (and I'm a guy who prefers subs!).

As noted by the reviewers, there were certainly weak spots in the performances and in a few cases (can't remember which) the dubbing frankly sounded really cut-rate. But overall form the lead characters the work was really great.

I look forward to marathon watching this again in the near future, that's for sure. And I definitely look forward to season three!
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar


Joined: 14 Aug 2006
Posts: 16963
PostPosted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 3:59 am Reply with quote
I honestly think the level of.....depth so to speak was much higher in Second Barrage. By that I mean it seemed there were more poignant and serious moments then in the first season. At least between Rock and Revy anyways. I have enjoyed Second Barrage as much or more then the first season and I am delighted that there is a 3rd season in the works. This is not an Oscar worthy series so to speak but what it's there to do it does perfectly. It's obviously just a nice rough and tough action series but it delivers on all levels from the action scenes to the characters and interactions, and down to the dub itself. Taken in context for what this show set out to do it's really hard to find many faults with Black Lagoon at all.
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abstract-alchemist



Joined: 18 Jun 2008
Posts: 65
Location: Hawaii
PostPosted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 12:43 pm Reply with quote
Damn straight one of the best titles in recent years. There's absolutely no reason why any anime fan has not bought this title or is not on the list of titles to be bought. It's not a classic by any means, but it stands out among the myriads of others with it's over the top, well down choreographed fight scenes, excellent character designs, fluid animation, great sound track, and killer characters (Balalaika really is a bad ass in this story, Revy kick ass all the way through, and Rock is suitably conflicted without being whiney about it).
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khryoleoz



Joined: 21 Apr 2005
Posts: 158
PostPosted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 1:39 pm Reply with quote
I love this series. I thought it was enjoyable yet just okay until Roberta came in. Wow!

Yukio's English counterpart did suck, but I'm not sure whether I could have appreciated anyone else when compared to one of my favorite VA's, Houko Kuwashima, who played the part in Japanese.

But this series had a very interesting assembly of badasses, from Ginji to Roberta to Revy to Balalaika (one scary b*tch) to Chang to Eda, some disturbing personalities like Sawyer the Cleaner to Hansel and Gretel to Tanaka, and some really fine heroes like Rock and Yukio (I only wish we could have seen her develop more) spoiler[and actually make it to Roanapur].

Can't wait for S3 and the 2nd Roberta arc.
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Jedi General



Joined: 27 Nov 2006
Posts: 2485
Location: Tucson, AZ
PostPosted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 3:10 pm Reply with quote
khryoleoz wrote:
Yukio's English counterpart did suck, but I'm not sure whether I could have appreciated anyone else when compared to one of my favorite VA's, Houko Kuwashima, who played the part in Japanese.


QTF. I have the same problem with the recent dub of Claymore (and countless other series) in which Ms. Kuwashima had a significant role. Whoever plays her character in English almost never stands up all that well in comparison. But, being a huge fan Houko-san, of course I'm quite biased. Razz

Otherwise it's an incredibly solid dub. Whoever inevitably licenses season 3 had better bring back Ocean Studios.
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Nebs



Joined: 19 Jul 2003
Posts: 386
Location: University of Illinois
PostPosted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 2:50 am Reply with quote
Personally I thought it was awesome how Geneon had Brad Swaile speak a decent amount of Japanese in the dub for this final arc. His pronunciation was pretty good too. The amount of effort put into this dub was truly a labor of love. Highly recommended even for sub fans.
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4640
PostPosted: Wed Nov 12, 2008 2:01 am Reply with quote
Nebs wrote:
Personally I thought it was awesome how Geneon had Brad Swaile speak a decent amount of Japanese in the dub for this final arc. His pronunciation was pretty good too. The amount of effort put into this dub was truly a labor of love. Highly recommended even for sub fans.


Agreed. I was pretty curious how they'd handle the scenes where Rock translates. Inverting which language is over the other and translating English to Japanese was great. I also think it was a pretty good idea to just ignore the switching between languages because it either came across as funny or awkward when I watched it in Japanese.
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