basilmemories (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
basilmemories) wrote2010-05-06 09:10 am
basilmemories) wrote2010-05-06 09:10 am
Rambleessay: Black Lagoon and it's tropes.
This originally started out as me merrily posting about the web-friendly roleplaying system I’m working on and how happy it’s making me, but along the way I started to watch Black Lagoon. So now I’m essaying on how the series is A) awesome and B) in a lot of ways a American/western show dressed up as an anime.
A bit of background on this one: Black Lagoon is, according to wiki, an homage to Tarrentino films. If that’s true and not someone blowing it out of their ass, the mangaka is spot on there. The series is set in a fake city in Thailand where the Russian mob, the Mafia, the Triad, a few Cartels, and a handful of other crime syndicates exist in an uneasy truce and only barely keep each other from starting a full-scale war... well. Okay. Balalaika isn’t, but that’s different. In any case our main anti-heroes are transporters for hire and they consist of the big cool guy, the quick-tempered gun nut, the lackadaisical tech, and the rookie who’s the face of the group.
Look at that breakdown. Those characters wouldn’t be amiss in your typical American show, hell that’s a 90’s gritty American comic setup right there. Then we get onto the side-characters and sometimes villains:
The melee weapon user who is a deadpan snarker. The friend/enemy/drinking buddy of the gun nut. The triad leader who just watches from the side and gets involved only when things get destabilized. The deeply loyal killer with a debt of honor to repay. The head of the Russian mafia who also deadpan snarks until you get in their way. While these are also common in anime, you wouldn’t find that character type uncommon in a western comic either. Also while the series is loaded with tropes and references, they’re the sort of references you tend to find in American action movies. Even the way the series handles issues of race, and gender is closer to what you see over here then in Japan.
For example, name all the genders of those characters above. Got it worked out? Okay, let’s see if you got them right. Big cool leader: male. Gun nut: one hell of a female. The tech: Male. Rookie who gets kidnapped by everything including Japanese schoolgirls: MALE. Melee snarker: female. Friend/enemy/drinking buddy: Female. Triad leader: Male. Loyal killer with a debt of honor: Female. Head of the Russian mafia: Female and capable of making me keyboard mash by DOING ANYTHING. Yes this series subscribes to the “girls with guns” trope, but it’s an inversion in that the women are just... women. They don’t feel the need to shout out how they’re just as awesome as men or even have the drive to “prove” themselves. While this is also not unusual in anime, how the other male characters treat them is.
Usually a strong confident woman in anime gets perved on, or has that one event that “takes them down a notch” and shows that they’re still girly (if they tend towards the masculine), or they’re “tamed” by suddenly having to deal with a kidthing and then they get all maternal out of nowhere. If none of this happens then there’s bound to be a case where the big tough male shows the uppity woman how she’s still not stronger then him. In Black Lagoon, it never plays out like that. The men in the series respect the women and they’re treated as equals. Logically this makes sense, as the female characters are just as capable of putting sixty pounds of fucking lead into your body, so why the hell would anyone try to mess with that shit? Not the guys, that’s for damn sure. In fact the only people who really try to cross that line are the designated villains of the week. You know when a guy calls a girl a bitch, that person is going to be ventilated like a screen door by the end of the arc.
Those people often aren’t from Roanapur either, in fact the series makes a point of portraying the “outsiders” (and later on in the Yakuza arc, the Japanese) as the only ones who talk down to the women in the show. This is portrayed as an active character flaw. Rock, the aforementioned face even tries to pull this early on in the series. While the dub says something along the lines of “I had to deal with those [type of] guys, and now I have to take that from you?!” which just means he’s pissed at being pushed around and having to apologize for everything. The line in the Japanese version is “I had to deal with those [type of] guys, and now even a woman?!”. This doesn’t end in Rock looking like the big damn hero in the narrative of the story. It makes him look like a fucking tool and if he hadn’t started digging at Revy (aforementioned gun nut) about her past and stayed on the gender issue, you bet there would have been a severe beatdown coming for him. By the end of the second season, it’s clear that while he feels the need to protect the littlest yakuza, he also respects her as a woman, and doesn’t talk to her in a condescending way. And it’s a good thing that he’s started to grow out of that habit too, the women tend to respond to an attempt to dominate by doing it back to the guys and BETTER. Example: Eda, Revy and Balalaika every time she feels like making someone uncomfortable.
But also I mentioned that the series handles race in a more American/western way. Racial issues are a touchy thing in Black Lagoon because the Dub cast throws around slurs. A lot. Revy is a foulmouthed little thing and if she can’t insult you based on your piss-poor ability to shoot the broadside of a barn, she’ll go for whatever obvious feature she can lock onto. Unfortunately in a multi-cultural city like Roanapur, this means she says a lot of things that make me want to strangle her for a little while. Thankfully in the subs and the original manga it doesn’t happen as much, but even Balalaika refers to Rock as “Japonski” and taunts the local leader of the mafia about what Italian bodies smell like. And that’s the core of it, the entire place is in a constant state of cold war between a number of international crime groups, and that’s not going to result in pleasantries when it comes to racial matters. It’s fucked, but then the entire city has a reputation of being a corrupt hellhole,
However, for all that, actual racism is obviously condemned in the show. Now the leader of the cast, Dutch, is a person of color. However the only people to comment on it are... well, the neo-nazi’s. And they’re all portrayed as fucking lunatics who get mowed down. In addition the flashback scenes show German soldiers who both do and don’t agree with how things are run, but even then some of them think the only ss officer aboard is a godamn headcase. They also don’t hesitate to shoot his ass when he murders the Capitan. They’re an uncomfortable blend, and I think that shade of grey is more realistic then that “all German soldiers were Nazi’s” or the Nazi fetishism bullshit that tends to happen. Either way, despite the fact that the show lingers on them and gives them pasts, it still mercilessly kills them off, and the modern cast doesn’t hesitate to call them freaks. In fact, the only person who shows their corpses sympathy is Rock, who again gets smacked upside the head for being sentimental. Revy meanwhile, gleefully loots their skeletons. And really, why should any of the cast other then Rock have sympathy for people that, as far as they knew, were nazis? Dutch is African-American, Benny, our awesome nerdboy is Jewish, and Revy is Chinese-American.
But the fact is that pointing out the racism, for good or for ill, isn’t something that’s often done in most Japanese media. Sure you’ll get a lot of cases where Americans are the Evil Villains who do terrible things, but a lot of the racial stereotypes are in the character designs themselves as exaggerated features, or in their character’s speech patterns, or even giving the character a side job/hobby/interest related to the cultural stereotype. It’s not usually directly mentioned and personally it comes across as almost a more insidious form of racism because it portrays it as something that’s “just” a part of normal life. There’s even a notable inversion to this/lampshade hanging in Black Lagoon. The deadpan snarker Shenhua speaks in broken English/Japanese, wears a red/gold outfit, and has features that look more Asian then Revy, who was born in China. However mention any of these facts (as Revy does), and she is more then happy to remind you at knifepoint that her English is broken because she’s pure Taiwanese, throw those same insults back in your face, and possibly skin your ass for saying that in the first place. She’s also intelligent, does NOT have an obsession with cooking, and is pretty much aware of the tropes and all too glad to prove someone that they’re wrong... often in the last few seconds of their lives.
I... really don’t know where I was going with this. Sarraceniaceae did a much better essay then me on how Black Lagoon deals with gender, and I know people much more eloquent about racial issues in the fandom. In this case I wanted to ramble about how “huh, this is interesting”, and possibly wonder if that’s why this show has so much crossover appeal with comics/non-anime fans. Also I like mentioning when the women of Black Lagoon do awesome things, so about once every five minutes.
In conclusion: if Balalaika was real, I'd want her in my pants.
A bit of background on this one: Black Lagoon is, according to wiki, an homage to Tarrentino films. If that’s true and not someone blowing it out of their ass, the mangaka is spot on there. The series is set in a fake city in Thailand where the Russian mob, the Mafia, the Triad, a few Cartels, and a handful of other crime syndicates exist in an uneasy truce and only barely keep each other from starting a full-scale war... well. Okay. Balalaika isn’t, but that’s different. In any case our main anti-heroes are transporters for hire and they consist of the big cool guy, the quick-tempered gun nut, the lackadaisical tech, and the rookie who’s the face of the group.
Look at that breakdown. Those characters wouldn’t be amiss in your typical American show, hell that’s a 90’s gritty American comic setup right there. Then we get onto the side-characters and sometimes villains:
The melee weapon user who is a deadpan snarker. The friend/enemy/drinking buddy of the gun nut. The triad leader who just watches from the side and gets involved only when things get destabilized. The deeply loyal killer with a debt of honor to repay. The head of the Russian mafia who also deadpan snarks until you get in their way. While these are also common in anime, you wouldn’t find that character type uncommon in a western comic either. Also while the series is loaded with tropes and references, they’re the sort of references you tend to find in American action movies. Even the way the series handles issues of race, and gender is closer to what you see over here then in Japan.
For example, name all the genders of those characters above. Got it worked out? Okay, let’s see if you got them right. Big cool leader: male. Gun nut: one hell of a female. The tech: Male. Rookie who gets kidnapped by everything including Japanese schoolgirls: MALE. Melee snarker: female. Friend/enemy/drinking buddy: Female. Triad leader: Male. Loyal killer with a debt of honor: Female. Head of the Russian mafia: Female and capable of making me keyboard mash by DOING ANYTHING. Yes this series subscribes to the “girls with guns” trope, but it’s an inversion in that the women are just... women. They don’t feel the need to shout out how they’re just as awesome as men or even have the drive to “prove” themselves. While this is also not unusual in anime, how the other male characters treat them is.
Usually a strong confident woman in anime gets perved on, or has that one event that “takes them down a notch” and shows that they’re still girly (if they tend towards the masculine), or they’re “tamed” by suddenly having to deal with a kidthing and then they get all maternal out of nowhere. If none of this happens then there’s bound to be a case where the big tough male shows the uppity woman how she’s still not stronger then him. In Black Lagoon, it never plays out like that. The men in the series respect the women and they’re treated as equals. Logically this makes sense, as the female characters are just as capable of putting sixty pounds of fucking lead into your body, so why the hell would anyone try to mess with that shit? Not the guys, that’s for damn sure. In fact the only people who really try to cross that line are the designated villains of the week. You know when a guy calls a girl a bitch, that person is going to be ventilated like a screen door by the end of the arc.
Those people often aren’t from Roanapur either, in fact the series makes a point of portraying the “outsiders” (and later on in the Yakuza arc, the Japanese) as the only ones who talk down to the women in the show. This is portrayed as an active character flaw. Rock, the aforementioned face even tries to pull this early on in the series. While the dub says something along the lines of “I had to deal with those [type of] guys, and now I have to take that from you?!” which just means he’s pissed at being pushed around and having to apologize for everything. The line in the Japanese version is “I had to deal with those [type of] guys, and now even a woman?!”. This doesn’t end in Rock looking like the big damn hero in the narrative of the story. It makes him look like a fucking tool and if he hadn’t started digging at Revy (aforementioned gun nut) about her past and stayed on the gender issue, you bet there would have been a severe beatdown coming for him. By the end of the second season, it’s clear that while he feels the need to protect the littlest yakuza, he also respects her as a woman, and doesn’t talk to her in a condescending way. And it’s a good thing that he’s started to grow out of that habit too, the women tend to respond to an attempt to dominate by doing it back to the guys and BETTER. Example: Eda, Revy and Balalaika every time she feels like making someone uncomfortable.
But also I mentioned that the series handles race in a more American/western way. Racial issues are a touchy thing in Black Lagoon because the Dub cast throws around slurs. A lot. Revy is a foulmouthed little thing and if she can’t insult you based on your piss-poor ability to shoot the broadside of a barn, she’ll go for whatever obvious feature she can lock onto. Unfortunately in a multi-cultural city like Roanapur, this means she says a lot of things that make me want to strangle her for a little while. Thankfully in the subs and the original manga it doesn’t happen as much, but even Balalaika refers to Rock as “Japonski” and taunts the local leader of the mafia about what Italian bodies smell like. And that’s the core of it, the entire place is in a constant state of cold war between a number of international crime groups, and that’s not going to result in pleasantries when it comes to racial matters. It’s fucked, but then the entire city has a reputation of being a corrupt hellhole,
However, for all that, actual racism is obviously condemned in the show. Now the leader of the cast, Dutch, is a person of color. However the only people to comment on it are... well, the neo-nazi’s. And they’re all portrayed as fucking lunatics who get mowed down. In addition the flashback scenes show German soldiers who both do and don’t agree with how things are run, but even then some of them think the only ss officer aboard is a godamn headcase. They also don’t hesitate to shoot his ass when he murders the Capitan. They’re an uncomfortable blend, and I think that shade of grey is more realistic then that “all German soldiers were Nazi’s” or the Nazi fetishism bullshit that tends to happen. Either way, despite the fact that the show lingers on them and gives them pasts, it still mercilessly kills them off, and the modern cast doesn’t hesitate to call them freaks. In fact, the only person who shows their corpses sympathy is Rock, who again gets smacked upside the head for being sentimental. Revy meanwhile, gleefully loots their skeletons. And really, why should any of the cast other then Rock have sympathy for people that, as far as they knew, were nazis? Dutch is African-American, Benny, our awesome nerdboy is Jewish, and Revy is Chinese-American.
But the fact is that pointing out the racism, for good or for ill, isn’t something that’s often done in most Japanese media. Sure you’ll get a lot of cases where Americans are the Evil Villains who do terrible things, but a lot of the racial stereotypes are in the character designs themselves as exaggerated features, or in their character’s speech patterns, or even giving the character a side job/hobby/interest related to the cultural stereotype. It’s not usually directly mentioned and personally it comes across as almost a more insidious form of racism because it portrays it as something that’s “just” a part of normal life. There’s even a notable inversion to this/lampshade hanging in Black Lagoon. The deadpan snarker Shenhua speaks in broken English/Japanese, wears a red/gold outfit, and has features that look more Asian then Revy, who was born in China. However mention any of these facts (as Revy does), and she is more then happy to remind you at knifepoint that her English is broken because she’s pure Taiwanese, throw those same insults back in your face, and possibly skin your ass for saying that in the first place. She’s also intelligent, does NOT have an obsession with cooking, and is pretty much aware of the tropes and all too glad to prove someone that they’re wrong... often in the last few seconds of their lives.
I... really don’t know where I was going with this. Sarraceniaceae did a much better essay then me on how Black Lagoon deals with gender, and I know people much more eloquent about racial issues in the fandom. In this case I wanted to ramble about how “huh, this is interesting”, and possibly wonder if that’s why this show has so much crossover appeal with comics/non-anime fans. Also I like mentioning when the women of Black Lagoon do awesome things, so about once every five minutes.
In conclusion: if Balalaika was real, I'd want her in my pants.
no subject
Something I'd add that I noticed, along the same lines of how it tends to come across as a very American show, is that all the people on the ship are American except Rock. (Well, I mean, I'm assuming Dutch is American still even after the revelations in the latest manga arc.) Plus Revy's bff is CIA, and so I tend to guess that the others in the Church of Violence are American too. They're certainly branded as Western with the whole Church thing, at least. In terms of Roanapur's racial/national tensions, the Black Lagoon company is almost certainly seen as an American group, and the fact that they work most closely with the Russians and another American group tends to reinforce the whole racial tensions to me. Partially due to the way they're of course working most closely with another American group, but really when I think about Balalaika and Dutch's relationship in terms of national tensions, I do find it even more interesting.
Dutch and Balalaika obviously trust and respect each other a lot despite the fact that Russia and America have, to say the least really not had good relations in their lifetime and the fact that Roanapur is the kind of environment that makes people more inclined to clump up. The fact that Balalaika and Dutch both were originally claimed to fight in wars that were caused by the Cold War, even if it wasn't directly against the other nation, is probably a point of parallel that I find interesting. Even though I'm not sure what it means, especially in light of the recent revelations about Dutch.
And Balalaika's hotness should always be mentioned. Which is hotter, the car scene or the scene where she talks the gun out of the other dude's hands?