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Black Lagoon Manga Licenced in US

Well if that's true then I'm glad to hear it. It will be nice to read the original material. And at this rate the manga might be out before we ever see the Second Barrage on dvd anyway.

Looks like Viz Media has licensed Rie Hiroe's Black Lagoon Manga in the US. Volume 1 appears to have an August release date.

http://www.simonsays.com/content/destination.cfm?tab=1&pid=620238


VIZ Media LLC, August 2008
Trade Paperback, 216 pages
ISBN-10: 1-4215-1382-X
ISBN-13: 978-1-4215-1382-9

- I really wonder what line it'll be in: the Signature line, or their regular line?

Psycho 101 wrote:

Well if that's true then I'm glad to hear it. It will be nice to read the original material. And at this rate the manga might be out before we ever see the Second Barrage on dvd anyway.

I agree. If this is true, this is great news indeed. While I do prefer anime over manga, I'll be happy to get more Black Lagoon in any way that I can. Especially since the second season of the anime is in limbo.

I guess the only downside is that we most likely won't have the awesome English dialogue of the anime. Perhaps Viz should consult the folks at The Ocean Group.

I guess the only downside is that we most likely won't have the awesome English dialogue of the anime. Perhaps Viz should consult the folks at The Ocean Group.

Anyone want to place bets on what Viz will censor first? (No, I'm not joking or being sarcastic. They're screwy enough to do anything.)

Of their old, "defunt" Action line, none of these have been edited.

Of their new "Viz Media" line, only the following of these have been edited, to my knowledge: Flames of Recca, Fullmetal Alchemist (one edit), MÄR, Midori Days (one edit, I think?), Read or Die (volume four, not certain how much), and possibly Zatch Bell!.

So, unless I'm mistaken, six titles out of 48 (not including the Inu Yasha ani-manga) titles have been edited in that respective.

And you have Bastard!!, which is in the line with an "M" rating, along with Portus. Along with various examples of manga that has risque content that hasn't gotten edited.

For that matter, what the hell is there to edit in Black Lagoon, anyway? For the first two volumes, the only thing that comes to mind is one panel of Revy's breasts. Yeah, sure, a real overload there.

Viz obviously gives out M ratings frequently enough, considering the content they have. Black Lagoon is likely to be given that rating.

By the by, outside of their Shonen Jump line (and to a notably lesser extent, Shonen Jump Advanced) they rarely ever touch up on anything that isn't being targeted at pre-teens. And the only exceptions there are the Shana novel and MAYBE Read or Die. Aside from those, nothing.

All I see in this thread is a typical knee-jerk reaction where there's only a few examples of inconsistency by a company and some fans exaggerate it, trying to make it seem like a "trend." Others follow, not even logically considering that there is a very weak basis for this belief.

I could very well be wrong in my prediction that Viz won't edit whatever minimal content there is to potentially cover in Black Lagoon. But until I'm proven otherwise, it's just another case of paranoia.