Black Lagoon

Sometimes you can go straight to the other side of macho. Being so over the top that no one can really take you seriously. When you are no longer a body but just lumps in a line, no one is going to see you as a complex character. Black Lagoon, an anime from Japan, is like that. It tries to out gritty the grittiest grit that ever grit a screen and just falls into itself into a pile of camp.

The story is a typical Japanese guy accidently getting involved in a city that makes Sin City seem virtuous. He is helped (?) by a crazy woman with more guns than sense. A walking billboard for senseless violence. With a few other just a tad more laid back types they form a mercenary company.

In the very special family episode I just watched the villains were twin romanian "vampire" kids. Dressed as kewpie goths, armed with machine guns they are taking out the local russian group. The entire city is poised for war as the Russians try to find these pint sized assassins and more importantly who sicced them on them. Of the four episodes that had this arch, most of it was just over the top violence followed by over topping that violence. Only in the end was there a very brief bit of depth. The characters find themselves tired and numbed to their souls. Maybe that's the point of all the excess to make the viewers eventually feel the same numbing exhaustion of seeing too many people die for too few reasons. I don't know if that's a good reason to watch a show.

Mostly stupidly entertaining, and if you can handle action with a generous side of stupid sauce it's not a bad way to pass a half hour.