Black Lagoon (TV)

Ep09: After breaking out of her car's backwindow, Roberta emulates T-1000's running style from the movie, 'Terminator 2'. Her following knife-stabbing of the Lagoon's car-boot is also a homage to a similar T-1000 scene in 'Terminator 2'.

When one of the German officers early in episode four refers to the "SS and SD," he's talking about the "Schutzstaffel" and the "Sicherheitsdienst," respectively the paramilitary organization attached to the Nazi party and the intelligence service within that organization. The SS and its divisions operated separately from the regular German military under Hitler's regime, and the two did not always cooperate amicably. Among the peculiarities of the SS was its specialized rank scale -- the SS officer is addressed as "chuusa" or "lieutenant colonel" in Japanese, which would translate more or less to "obersturmbannführer," second from the top of the SS officers' rank scale.

The U-boat designation Benny rattles off in episode four is almost, but not quite, that of a real submarine. He calls her "ichi san ni yon," or 1324, a number which was not given to any German submarine. There was a Type IXC/40 U-boat like the one in the episode numbered U-1234 -- transpose the middle two digits -- but she made no trips to Indonesia, instead meeting her end off Denmark towards the conclusion of the war.

The reporter on Revy's television at the beginning of episode 11 is named "Jake Chambers." That's perhaps a nod to the character of the same name from Stephen King's Dark Tower novels (which, like Black Lagoon, feature a gunslinger in the leading role).

Benny's car sports the distinctive hood scoops and rectangular side marker lights of a 1969 Plymouth Road Runner, one of the most famous manifestations of the 1960s horsepower craze. His example of the model is not strictly stock, however -- Plymouth never shipped Road Runners from the factory painted pink.

Despite various modifications, Revy's weapons are recognizable as Beretta 92 9mm automatics (note the "Mod 92F" engraving on the slide, visible in one of the close-up shots during the OP animation). The 92 and its many descendants are among the world's most widely-used handguns for military and law-enforcement purposes. As such, plenty have also found their way to the other side of the law.

ep 2 when they are being chased by EO its a reffernce to the real world PMC Executive Outcomes.

In episode 10, Benny's not sure whether Balalaika was a veteran of the special forces or the paratroopers. His question is answered by the subsequent flashback, where she's wearing the blue beret of the VDV, the Soviet military's airborne troops.

Mr. Chang, the Triad kingpin who guest-stars in episode 11, is costumed in homage to the Hong Kong hitman played by Chow Yun-Fat in John Woo's action classic The Killer. Both wear dark suits and trench coats with a contrasting cream-colored scarf, and carry a pair of matching automatics.

When he's introducing himself to Rock in episode 12, Takenaka makes a few references to movies and locations in Tokyo. What he's doing (though it's hard for a foreign viewer to pick up on this) is dating himself. They're places and things that were notable in the middle to late 1960s (the movie he mentions, Abashiri Bangaishi, is from 1965), which was a time of political and social unrest in Japan, just as it was in many other parts of the developed world. The heavy implication is that Takenaka was part of the Japanese Red Army, whose campaign of hijacking and murder (starting in 1970) made them one of the world's most feared and hunted hard-left terrorist groups. The flashback images of an airline hijacking later in the episode are most likely a reference to the JRA's first operation, the 1970 hijacking of a JAL flight at Tokyo International Airport by a team of eight sword-wielding terrorists.

When Revy says she wishes she had "an M72 or a Minimi" in episode 12, what she means is she wants a bigger gun. By M72, she's referring to the Yugoslav version of the Soviet RPK light machinegun. The Minimi is a similar weapon made by Fabrique Nationale of Belgium, close cousin to the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon used by American armed forces.

In episode 12, Ibraha mentions something that sounds like "Becker Valley." What he's referring to is the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon (from a Japanese speaker, it sounds about the same). A large, fertile valley east of Beirut, Beqaa acquired an infamous reputation in the 1980s as a training ground for many international terrorist groups, from the PLO to the Provisional IRA. It would have been a logical place for Takenaka to gravitate towards, and meet the Muslim guerrillas with which he eventually found common cause.