Series Review: Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail (8/10)

Instant Summary: Roberta comes back to Roanapur and fill the streets with blood.

I can't even remember when is last time I read Black Lagoon or when I did watch the last episode of Second Barrage. But even so, I fondly remember Black Lagoon as one of the most violent, gritty and sadistic shows I've ever watched that is supposedly set in the real world. I'm not too fond of their superhuman tendencies though, but it's a side effect to beefing up the action to this level.

I knew instantly that Roberta's Blood Trail is going to be one of the best arcs in the story when I read it in the manga, albeit the most confusing. The story of Black Lagoon always had a huge amount of criminal world politics, which I've already find it hard to warp my head around (and I assure you, I am not alone). Roberta's Blood Trail had a higher dose of that than usual, but luckily not enough to kill my enjoyment of it. While it's a pity Black Lagoon didn't earn a third season, I'm thankful that they got around to produce an OVA for the best material.

Roberta's Blood Trail to Black Lagoon was akin to Hellsing Ultimate to Hellsing; hugely improved animation quality, and storytelling that is less hampered by number of episode restriction. The level of violence range from the maniacal to downright disgusting. Roberta's gotta be the craziest bitch in the story, and shes's back with more firepower and awesomeness, firing anti-tank rifles jury-rigged with a grenade launcher one-handed and decapitating people bare-handed. It's one woman vs. the most violent town in the whole world. It doesn't get any better than this.

It's a combination of great quality and awesome storyline. It'll be hard to top this. It's too bad there isn't much action from Revy, Rock or the rest of the Lagoon team.

Plot/Concept: Great!
Story Style: Great!
Audio/Visual: Impressive!
Value: 8