Black Lagoon: Roberta’s Blood Trail 4

Roanapur has become a great big sopping sponge utterly saturated by blood, a lot of it Roberta’s. Since taking ALL THE DRUGS IN THE WORLD, she’s gone from redlining the crazy-o-meter to liquifying the needle. She probably spent her few off-camera moments licking windows. But the one wild (literally feral) card Rock can’t predict is unquestionably the crazy-ass core of this OVA series. Some want her. Others want to be her.

While I’m aware of the mission, Rock has a loftier scheme in play. He’s spewing virtually nothing but metaphors at this point, and he’s developed an evil smirk. Garcia and Fabiola want to get Roberta back, but at this point that seems pretty unlikely. Their Roberta was lost a long time ago; they’ve been chasing an ideal that doesn’t exist.

Interesting too how Fabiola seems to have Revy totally figured out. Revy is chasing an ideal too; her ideal of Rock. The raving Rock of this episode is a completely different person from the squirelly salaryman of yore. Yet Revy has to believe he’s still the same ol’ innocent Rock. If he isn’t, he’s no different from all the other maniacs in her life. Revy’s had too rough a life to know that much about love, but she seems to have been in love with Rock for some time. She just can’t or won’t acknowledge or act on it.

While he goes on about ridding Roanapur of “troublemakers”, I’m left wondering if Rock even cares about the conclusion. Right now the journey seems to be all he cares about; the process; not the result or destination. As Lagoon Company heads up into the Golden Triangle with a cargo of army dudes, Roberta is hot on the trail on a jetliner. The endgame draws near. Rating: 4

Kami-sama no Memo-cho 2

This week Narumi settles into his role as Alice’s manservant. As I mentioned last week, he’s surprisingly gung-ho about it, considering how it disrupts the ordinary life he was having. But unlike Huey and Dalian, this isn’t even close to a relationship of equals. Alice’s powers of observation and deduction are vastly superior to Narumi’s.

Narumi’s strength is his heart, his kindness, his courage, and his inoffensive and harmless presence. All of these skills serve him well as Alice’s assistant. He even surprises himself when he ignores Souchiro’s warning to stay out of what could end up a very bloody Yakuza case. He can’t, because he promised the client – Meo – he’d help her find her father.

Everyone has something to do this week, and despite the serious case involving the rogue money launderer and his unwitting Yakuza-bait daughter, there are still moments of levity. Ayaka and Meo invade Alice’s “cave” to wash her hair, while the reason Narumi ends up at Souchiro’s is to fix the PC his underlings filled with pr0n and malware. Hiro, Major, and Tetsu all do their jobs.

They aren’t bothered that their lives are on the line – and, Narumi has learned, that’s the case with him too. The client comes first. Rating: 4