40 Fun Facts About Black Lagoon

In which country does Black Lagoon set Roanapur, the lawless port city its pirate crew calls home?

Thailand hosts the fictional Roanapur, placed in the east near the Cambodian border. Triads, cartels and mobsters carve the city up between them, so no law reaches the crew there.

What kind of American-made naval vessel is the Black Lagoon, the smugglers' ship of the title?

A PT boat of the 80-foot Elco type, the Black Lagoon once served the US Navy before a four-member crew of smugglers put it to work running cargo.

Black Lagoon's author likened the unstoppable maid Roberta to the title character of which film?

The Terminator was his comparison for Roberta, a deliberate break from the realism he otherwise aimed for in favour of comic-book excess.

The tattooed bank robber of which vampire film inspired the look of Black Lagoon's gunfighter Revy?

From Dusk till Dawn gave Revy her model in Seth Gecko, the tattooed fugitive played by George Clooney. The film's director, Robert Rodriguez, is one of the author's stated influences.

Which star of John Woo's gangster films was the visual model for Black Lagoon's Mr. Chang?

Chow Yun-fat's triad roles shaped Chang, who fights with paired pistols like the actor's Mark in A Better Tomorrow, and Revy herself admits the calm boss is the better shot.

Which Quentin Tarantino film inspired the balance of action and comedy in the Black Lagoon manga?

Pulp Fiction set the tone the author wanted, with gunfights broken up by wisecracks. John Woo, Robert Rodriguez and 1990s Hollywood action films fed into the manga as well.

The Black Lagoon anime's director called the gun-toting maid Roberta an evil version of which nanny?

Mary Poppins, turned evil, was the director's picture of how Roberta fights. Her uniform was no joke, though: the author says it simply suited a wealthy South American household.

What is the name of Balalaika's Russian crime syndicate of former soldiers in Black Lagoon?

Hotel Moscow trades behind a front, the Bougainvillea Trade Company. Its members served under Balalaika in the Soviet army, which is why the gang moves and fights like a military unit.

Which Black Lagoon character, a former US Marine who went AWOL, captains the Lagoon Company's ship?

Dutch deserted near the end of the Vietnam War and resurfaced as a mercenary, though some characters doubt the war record he claims.

Which Black Lagoon crew member is a University of Florida dropout who runs the computers?

Benny joined after Revy and the crew's captain saved him from both the FBI and the mob, and he repays them as mechanic, hacker and driver.

The gum-chewing nun Eda of Black Lagoon's Rip-Off Church secretly reports to which organisation?

The CIA pays Eda to watch threats to American interests from behind her habit, and among the city's residents only Rock suspects who her real employer is.

What oversized tool does Roanapur's body-disposal specialist, known as the Cleaner, wield in Black Lagoon?

A chainsaw, handled precisely enough to deflect gunfire, is her trademark. An old throat injury means she speaks through an electronic voice device, and she panics without it.

Which animation studio, also behind Trigun and Perfect Blue, produced the Black Lagoon anime?

Madhouse animated both 2006 seasons and came back four years later for a five-episode sequel released straight to video, with the same director throughout.

In which American city's Chinatown was Black Lagoon's foul-mouthed gunfighter Revy born?

New York is her home town: she was born near Mott Street in Manhattan's Chinatown, and she is still notorious there long after leaving.

What role does the former salaryman Rock fill for the Lagoon Company in Black Lagoon?

Negotiator and accountant is the job he grows into, using his corporate training to smooth deals with clients while keeping his shirt and tie on.

What are Rock and Revy sent to retrieve from a Nazi submarine on the seabed in Black Lagoon?

A painting, The Twelve Knights Led by Brunhilda, is the prize. A neo-Nazi group dives for it too, believing it was the work of Hitler himself.

In which country did Black Lagoon's Balalaika fight as a Soviet paratrooper before turning to crime?

Afghanistan is where she served as a captain and earned her callsign, and the men of her unit followed her into the underworld after the Soviet Union collapsed.

Which criminal specialty has a pack of bounty hunters chasing the fugitive Jane across Roanapur in Black Lagoon?

Counterfeiting US currency is her craft, but she blows a deadline set by her Florida bosses, and they send bounty hunters after her.

With what weapon does the yakuza bodyguard Ginji cut a bullet in two in Black Lagoon?

A katana is all Ginji needs: once a feared yakuza killer, he favours a blade over firearms and fights Revy with it at the end of the Tokyo story.

Which gunmaker's pistols does Revy carry as a customised pair with extended barrels in Black Lagoon?

Beretta 92FS pistols, fitted with longer barrels and engraved with a Jolly Roger, are her signature, and being ambidextrous she fires both at once.

What is the name of the Roanapur bar in Black Lagoon that gunfights keep wrecking?

The Yellow Flag is run by Bao, an army veteran who says it has been damaged more than fifteen times since it opened, mostly thanks to Revy, who never pays for repairs.

The murderous child twins Hansel and Gretel in Black Lagoon are orphans from which country?

Romania's state orphanages are where the twins were abandoned before being sold on the black market. The author says the story darkened as he researched the Cold War years there.

Which South American country is home to the Lovelace family that Roberta serves in Black Lagoon?

Venezuela is home to the Lovelaces, one of thirteen old South American families. Roberta herself is Colombian, taken in by the family head as a favour to her father.

Before becoming a maid, Black Lagoon's Roberta was a trained assassin for which guerrilla army?

FARC trained her as an assassin in Cuba under her real name, Rosarita Cisneros, and that past keeps her on the wanted lists of cartels and police alike.

What is the full real name of Rock, the kidnapped Tokyo salaryman at the centre of Black Lagoon?

Rokuro Okajima was shortened to Rock by the crew's captain on the day of the kidnapping, and the nickname stuck once his company left him for dead.

Which song, the debut single of the singer Mell, opens most episodes of the Black Lagoon anime?

Red Fraction opens both 2006 seasons, and a remixed version opens the later video episodes. The single climbed to number 11 on Japan's Oricon chart.

Brad Swaile, Rock's English voice in Black Lagoon, also voiced which Death Note character?

Light Yagami and Rock were both voiced by Brad Swaile in the late 2000s, so the mild salaryman and the killer student share one voice in English.

Which manga artist, also behind the original story of Re:Creators, writes and draws Black Lagoon?

Rei Hiroe pitched his publisher several ideas and this one was chosen. He has paused the manga for years at a time, citing struggles with depression.

What subtitle did the Black Lagoon anime carry when it returned for twelve more episodes?

The Second Barrage aired from October to December 2006, only months after the first run ended, and adapts the twins, Greenback Jane and Tokyo storylines.

What job did Black Lagoon's triad boss Mr. Chang hold in Hong Kong before he turned to crime?

A police officer in the Royal Hong Kong force, Chang went on to run the triad's Roanapur branch, and that training may explain why he handles twin pistols better than Revy.

What does young Garcia Lovelace fire at Roberta to end her rampage in Black Lagoon's OVA finale?

Blank rounds do it: Garcia stages the death of the American major she is hunting, she fires back on reflex and hits the boy, and the shock restores her sanity.

Before war intervened, Balalaika of Black Lagoon hoped to compete at the Olympics in which sport?

Shooting was her event: she meant to restore her father's reputation at the Olympics, but the army sent her to the front line instead.

Which blades, joined by leather ropes, does the triad assassin Shenhua wield in Black Lagoon?

Kukri knives on cords let Shenhua fight in the style of a rope dart. She sticks to blades alone and keeps up a running rivalry with the gun-loving Revy.

Which Shogakukan magazine for adult men began serialising the Black Lagoon manga in 2002?

Monthly Sunday Gene-X has carried the series since April 2002, a year after a pilot chapter ran there, and its once-a-month schedule lets the author take the long breaks he needs.

Which Black Lagoon director once worked as Hayao Miyazaki's assistant on Kiki's Delivery Service?

Sunao Katabuchi was first lined up to direct Kiki's Delivery Service himself, but Miyazaki took over the film and he stayed on as assistant director.

Which writer, later famed for Puella Magi Madoka Magica, wrote the two Black Lagoon spin-off novels?

Gen Urobuchi wrote both novels for Shogakukan's Gagaga Bunko label, and the manga's own author drew the illustrations for them.

News reports of 1990s piracy in which body of water gave the Black Lagoon manga its premise?

The South China Sea's pirates caught the author's eye because they know no borders and are truly free. He first planned a medieval pirate tale before choosing a modern one.

What name is given to the pair of modified long-barrelled pistols Revy carries in Black Lagoon?

Sword Cutlass Special is the name the guns carry. The limited edition of a 2021 art book came with a water-pistol replica of one, plus five signed illustrations.

Which fading yakuza clan does the schoolgirl Yukio inherit in the Tokyo storyline of Black Lagoon?

Washimine Group leadership can pass only to a blood heir, so the teenager takes charge once its acting boss is killed, and the feud that follows wipes the clan out.

By what real first name does the church boss Yolanda call Revy in Black Lagoon?

Rebecca Lee is Revy's birth name, and the old church boss uses it while suggesting that she could learn from Rock's way of seeing things.