Black Lagoon

Rei Hiroe's Black Lagoon, serialized in Shogakukan's Monthly Sunday Gene-X since April 2002, drops readers into the lawless ports of Southeast Asia. The Lagoon Company, a four-person crew of pirate mercenaries, operates a PT boat called the Black Lagoon, smuggling contraband and navigating a world where morality is a luxury. The team includes Dutch, the pragmatic leader; Benny, the Florida-born mechanic; Revy, a Chinese-American gunwoman with a hair-trigger temper; and Rokuro Okajima, a former Japanese salaryman who, after being taken hostage, chooses to stay and adopts the nickname Rock.

The manga spans 13 collected volumes as of December 2023, with Viz Media publishing the English edition in North America. Hiroe's art emphasizes grimy docks, neon-lit bars, and chaotic firefights, while the dialogue balances tension with dark humor. The series belongs to the seinen demographic and touches on action, adventure, drama, comedy, romance, thriller, psychological conflict, and survival. Its themes examine the consequences of violence, the search for identity, and the blurred line between criminal and victim.

Madhouse produced a 24-episode anime adaptation in 2006, split into two seasons, followed by a five-episode OVA series titled Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail (2010-2011). By December 2023, the manga had sold over 9.5 million copies worldwide. Critics have highlighted its intense action sequences and morally gray characters, with Revy emerging as a particularly memorable figure in discussions of anti-heroes. The manga entered an extended hiatus after 2021, and no new chapters have been published since.[edit]