The power of Black Lagoon does compel me.
To no surprise, I expected nothing less. After seeing what I saw from episode nine it was a tough order to fill out, and the folks from Madhouse did a wonderful, although less-than-perfect job.
Maybe the best way to do this rant is to show, tell, and wrap it up with just how badass these two episodes have been for me.
Here are two good cuts:
Two OK ones:
And two “you can do better:”
Today’s anime is generally made by a group of teams, each team responsible for a section of material. There is an overseeing person/persons to ensure quality consistency and actual animation consistency. Often however that kind of supervision leaves holes when push comes to shove in today’s busy animation scheduling. It’s hard work and it’s usually what drops the bomb when you see a dip in animation quality mid-season.
It’s not to say any of that happened to Black Lagoon (or if it did, I haven’t really noticed it enough to call it a “dip). But it probably explains the difference between some of the sequences in terms of quality in shading, in the CGing, as well as the use of the background. I mean, you can probably see for yourself.
And it is really with a fine-tooth comb that I’m critizing animation quality of TV anime–something that is just not really worth doing for more than 90% of the time. TV anime is crap compared to animation that is well-funded and produced with good scheduling. I think it’s praise enough that I can even do this reasonably to a show, that there are some good scenes worth looking closer in contrast to its not-as-good scenes.
To wrap it up: I’m certainly satisfied. I was treated with something good. It’s not the greatest and the smartest and the most awesome fight scenes, but it’s funny, charming mercenary drama with something edifying at the end of the day. I’m an easy customer when I like what I see, still.