3 out of 5

Another interesting balance of character and bullet-flying action romps. Black Lagoon volume 2 kicks off with one main tale concerning, essentially, buried treasure, and then dives into some two-steps-forward, one-step-back (yes – small progress) Rock and Revy bickering, with the last few chapters kicking off an arc concerning some mob assassins who are going rogue.

The treasure hunt and the inter-team dynamics show off what gives Black Lagoon and edge over its otherwise cheesecake / B-movie dynamics: Rei Hiroe will start to scrape at the surface of the moralities (or lack thereof) that drive these characters and their actions. It goes deep without being overwrought – pages of dialogue that are interesting, not exhaustive – but whether it’s due to translation, or that Hiroe doesn’t want to push things too far from center, nothing really cuts to the core; we’ll peel back progress a couple sentences later. Time will tell if that’s purposeful, but at the moment, it feels a bit shallow, especially when the next chapter / arc kicks in without any real indication that such conversations happened. That said, we do get a better grip on how Rock will function within the team dynamics, better justifying his role vs. being strictly the naive audience surrogate.

Hiroe’s art has definitely gotten better within a short timeframe. While I never found pages of volume 1 unreadable, much of the action did feel obscured – just too much going on. You got a gist, but not the details. That happens in spurts in volume 2, but it’s not the default for every action scene, used mainly for points of punctation. Most of the choreography is much clearer, keeping us better immersed.

The mob assassins arc, introduced here, will possibly be another interesting turning point for the series, as it can either be used to better establish the limits of the tone, or “prove” that Black Lagoon is all about blood and violence. I hope it’s the former, but either way, I’m looking forward to digging in to volume 3 to find out.