Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail

Crime never sleeps in Roanapur, and neither does Roberta—a devoted maid and skilled guerilla soldier in service to the Venezuelan Lovelace family. After the assassination of her superior by the US Secret Service, Roberta returns to the city of debauchery in search of vengeance and his killer's head.

Meanwhile, young Fernando Garcia Lovelace, the new heir to his father's estate, tails Roberta to Thailand alongside his bodyguard, Fabiola Iglesias. He enlists the help of the Lagoon Company, with the objective of deterring Roberta's warpath and bringing her back to the family. However, with the continued bloodshed and mounting tensions between Roberta, island crime factions, and the US military, it will take a significant amount of strategy—and weaponry—to stop her relentless quest for revenge.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Revy Main

Toyoguchi, Megumi Japanese

Okajima, Rokurou Main

Namikawa, Daisuke Japanese

Roberta Main

Tomizawa, Michie Japanese

Dutch Main

Isobe, Tsutomu Japanese

Benny Main

Hirata, Hiroaki Japanese

Iglesias, Fabiola Main

Yukino, Satsuki Japanese

Fernando Lovelace, Garcia Main

Ikura, Kazue Japanese

Balalaika Supporting

Koyama, Mami Japanese

Eda Supporting

Karasawa, Jun Japanese

Chang, Bai Ji-Shin Supporting

Morikawa, Toshiyuki Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Ogura, Mitsutoshi Producer

Okamoto, Junya Producer

Katabuchi, Sunao Director, Episode Director, Script, Storyboard, Series Composition

Reviews

Jul 20, 2011

Inushinde

Recommended

The move from that of a televised anime series to an OAV format did its fair share of good for the crew of Black Lagoon. By allowing them to work without worrying about censorship, they could get the violence as visceral and hyper-sexualized as possible and create a no holds bar bloodfest the likes of which anime has rarely had before. Going into this, it should be perfectly evident from the name what you’re in for: A tale of carnage caused by everyone’s favorite former guerilla warfare enthusiast maid, Roberta. And boy does it deliver.

Our tale starts with a public bombing orchestrated by a contracted ... group of US Marines killing the head of the Lovelace family in Venezuela, leaving the family heir Garcia orphaned and under the care of his maids. At this point, we also learn of Roberta’s career prior to her joining the Lovelace family as a maid, where she was a revolutionary in a group that ruthlessly killed anyone that got in their way.
After the marines kill the head of the family, Roberta goes to Roanapur for revenge in what is easily the most entertaining OAV series to come out in recent memory.

Roberta’s Blood Trail follows the titular supersoldier maid on her quest for vengeance, involving everyone in Roanapur and several outside forces in a drug fueled battle that could escalate in an all out war to end all that Roanapur is. It’s not a complex story that’ll shake the very foundation of storytelling, but it has its fair share of intrigue, particularly with Rock participating and running the course of actions from the sidelines. Revy and co take a back seat to Roberta as far as plot focus go, and it ends up all the better for doing so.

If this OAV does have a weakness, and it has plenty of noticeable ones, it’s the constant shifts in perspective between the groups going after Roberta and Roberta herself. For two episodes, this creates a narrative that’s spread extremely thin, developing nobody and raising more questions than are answered. You have Roberta on her own, the marines and drug trafficking forces hounding her, Revy and the group of psychopathic mercenaries that she contracts to help her, Garcia and Fabiola on a mission to bring her back with them, Rock scheming while occasionally contacting Mr. Chang and berating him with passive aggressive language, Balalaika and her cohorts…

If you think that’s a long list, that’s because it is, and it gets hard to follow in some parts. Everything gets resolved, but many of the factions seemingly drop off before being brought into the game again just to be eviscerated by either Roberta or Revy and her group.

Even with Roberta as the main character, there’s effort made to characterize some of the bit players a bit more, which in the end does more harm than good. Roberta’s given plenty of time to develop, and that time is relished completely due to the utter insanity of Roberta (Even almost killing her master in a hallucinogen induced hysteria) being an utter treat to watch. However, it’s when they begin to delve into Fabiola’s hypocritical stance against unnecessary violence and Rock’s slow transition from victim to influential figurehead for Roanapur that the cracks start to form and widen.

In a story with such a large number of groups, you’d expect a lot of memorable faces to make appearances. And fortunately, you’re entirely correct. The only three noteworthy survivors of the manhunt for Jane are along for the ride (Za Uizaado, Shenhua, and Sawyer), Balalaika and her crack team join in on the hunt for Roberta, and Garcia is back from Season One to bring Roberta back. Even Eda the corrupt nun is along for the ride, reporting to her higher up as events unfold.

It’s a colorful cast that’s a delight to watch as they shoot, impale, slice, and run their way through Roanapur’s back alleys and slums to find the berserker maid. Even if none are characterized exceptionally well, they lay their parts well as far as entertainment and badassery go.

Black Lagoon has never been one to make a point, but has never been afraid to give the otherwise gleefully murderous cast the occasional moment of somber introspection. It’s these slow moments that really let the gravity of the situation sink in, from Revy’s monologuing about her past on the sunken sub in the first season to Fabiola arguing with her over her corrupt ways.

Even Roberta occasionally takes a break from her rampage to reflect on the ramifications of what she’s doing, or just how her past has caught up with her.

Despite how much they add to the series, I don’t think that these moments are always implemented properly. Very often they’ll follow an intense, engaging fight where the characters won’t even have a moment to clean off the blood that has sullied their outfits. It’s not much of a gamebreaker by any means, but in a show that’s almost fetishistic with the level of action that it uses, it can seem a bit out of place most times.

The only ones that ever really feel appropriate are when Fabiola and Revy butt heads over each others’ personalities. The two have a volatile chemistry that makes their anger fueled arguments a marvel to behold. What’s even better is these escalate each time as they learn that the other isn’t going to budge in their stance.

On the animation front, Black Lagoon’s always been a step above average. The environments always look lush yet sinister, helped by fantastic lighting and keeping things from remaining completely static. The characters are rarely off model and are animated very fluidly. It helps that the violence is done very smoothly, making the bloodbaths that give the fights life even more enjoyable than they would be if done even just a little more poorly.

Being an OAV and thus having a larger budget, things are done to even better effect. With the lack of censorship helping things out even more, the team finds itself able to do stunts with viscera of multiple varieties that would make even the most avid horror fan give pause.

The music is a hard bumping, hard thumping soundtrack of electronica and hard rock, each episode opening with a remix of the delightfully Engrish Red Fraction by MELL and each episode ending with an orchestra version of Johnny Comes Marching Home, pumping you up for the next episode of blood and butchery. The seiyuu cast is appropriate, well rounded, and excellent in almost every case, special mention going to Roberta and Lotton “Za Uizaado”.

The best, or least fortunate part depending on your tolerance for it, is the distinct lack of groan-worthy Engrish. It was amusing in Second Barrage, but ultimately came across as too clumsy to take seriously. By eliminating that entirely, Roberta’s Blood Trail lent itself an air of somberness that Second Barrage ultimately failed to attain in the last arc.

Black Lagoon: Roberta’s Blood Trail is a competent, compelling, and superbly well coordinated OAV that does much to impress. It has plenty of flaws, particularly in the middle with all the different groups after Roberta and the violence never catching a break, but it ends on a very satisfying, open ended note that leaves enough room for more seedy goodness in a possible sequel.
If you like action series or have watched and enjoyed Black Lagoon before, Roberta’s Blood trail will be right up your alley. If not, as long as you have no objection to sexualization and violence in overwhelming amounts, Roberta’s Blood Trail will be well worth your time.

Of course some prior knowledge through the anime or manga will be beneficial to enjoying it, but I think the idea of a Terminator-esque maid making mincemeat of an entire town of criminals is an interesting enough premise on its own.

It’s a fun, occasionally nauseating watch with more than a little wit helming it, and I for one enjoyed nearly every second of it. And if you’re anything like me, you will too.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jul 13, 2015

DeathMaul

Mixed Feelings

Black Lagoon was a great series to watch with an impeccable original story but this Roberta's Blood Trail ruined Rock and Roberta's character. Although they improved the way the Anime looks but that's about all i can say that is good.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Mar 30, 2012

ramimanify

Not Recommended

Spoilers ahead

The only thing i am gonna give this show a credit for is art
other than that it was all a waste
I am actually quite glad that my previous reviews of black lagoon part 1 and 2 were of similar proposal
and all in all the show in itself sucked, the characters sucked, the director failed to deliver a sense of realism to it(sure everyone can die in the unforgiving hell of Roanapra but not one fucking main character dies how convenient), the tragedy implemented was a joke
and to top it off (U.S) army major actually cares about some stray kid with a grudge due to ... a past operation (what a load of bullshit)
Revy is useless, i honestly don't see why such a character even existed
Rock is so boring he makes you wanna kill yourself while watching
Roberta is just pathetic, (after she kills off nearly all the american soldiers, they let her go because the drama says it is ok)
AND YET she cannot kill neither Revy nor the Chinese (yes it is) woman when she is mad or whatever

totally unreliable story-telling, totally un-interesting scenario, and a major fail for all the action scenes that started with a splash of blood, only to end up in a happy (no worries the heroes are ok) ending

absolutely hated it, I'd rather watch Inazuma Eleven

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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North American Anime & Manga Releases for June

Here are the North American anime & manga releases for June Week 1: June 4 - 10 Anime Releases Black Lagoon (incl. The Second Barrage & Roberta's Blood ...read more

Jun 3, 2019 6:11 AM by Sakana-san | Discuss (6 comments)

	Poll: Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail Episode 3 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Banshee-IV - Jan 9, 2011	141 replies	by DRevan9 »» Mar 23, 10:34 PM
	Poll: Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail Episode 2 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) zimno - Oct 1, 2010	106 replies	by N_Erwann »» Feb 17, 7:38 AM
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	Poll: Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail Episode 5 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) zimno - Jun 23, 2011	222 replies	by noiseaholic »» Jan 17, 3:13 PM
	Poll: Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Banshee-IV - Mar 11, 2011	110 replies	by noiseaholic »» Jan 17, 8:32 AM