Black Lagoon (Limited Edition Blu-ray) Unboxing

Black Lagoon is a 2006 television anime series based on Rei Hiroe’s manga series of the same name. It was produced by studio Madhouse with director and writer Sunao Katabuchi. The series first broadcast in Japan on April 2006 for the Spring season.

The second season Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage aired in October 2006 for the Autumn season, while the sequel OVA series Black Lagoon: Roberta’s Blood Trail was released in five parts over the course of July 2010 to June 2011.

Background:

“Rokuro was an ordinary Japanese business man—a whipping boy for the big bosses and corporate high rollers. But when his job to deliver a mysterious disk goes south, a ruthless gang of mercenaries fronted by a gunslinging femme fatale take him into their custody. Abandoned and out of his element, the newly reinvented “Rock” joins up with his kidnappers as a smuggler of the East China Sea.

Take a twisted trip to the city of your nightmares in this hard-boiled shootout from the studio behind One Punch Man and Death Note.”

Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, February 2022.

Black Lagoon to me, stands out a lot compared to other action anime during its time. It has its own style with its character roster mostly filled with people who lived outside Japan which is uncommon, and the story arcs were really interesting. Plus, the English dub is very solid and I liked it a lot.

So it’s not surprise to see the series is still beloved to this day, and while the manga is slow and steady, the anime is still around with its two seasons and an OVA series that continues the storyline. Geneon and MVM first released the television series on DVD before Funimation took over the license in North America for a Blu-ray release. In the UK, KAZE UK picked up the rights and have Manga Entertainment distribute the series, which was also on Blu-ray.

The OVA series did get released by Funimation and KAZE, and Funimation was able to bring back the English cast to reprise their roles which was nice to see. Though while the US still had access to the series, eventually the UK releases started to go out of print. With Anime Limited rescuing a few KAZE releases here and there, it’s a surprise they were also able to rescue Black Lagoon considering Manga Entertainment could have picked it up.

Limited Edition Contents:

Black Lagoon has had a number of releases in English territories. MVM once put out a large rigid box to house the volumes, while Geneon had steelbooks. Funimation released the series as a regular collection, though often labelled as part of the Anime Classics before eventually offering their own limited edition set years later. With Anime Limited taking over the UK & Ireland license, they also providing their own collector’s set for the series, though also labelled as a limited edition this time around.

The package is presented as a rigid box with a digipack to house the discs, a 32-page booklet and a poster. The booklet features episode synopsis, character and illustration artwork from the series.

The artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Anime Limited releases. The limited edition Blu-ray set is limited to 1000 units for SRP £69.99.

The series was made available for pre-order back in October 2021 and was delayed to have a few more pages added to the booklet. It was on offer for £44.99, but with the Anime (Un)Limited discount lowered the price to £40.50.

Physical Contents:

• Rigid Box with clean artwork and digipack packaging
• Info sheet for specification and BBFC description
• 32-page Booklet
• Folded Poster

On-Disc Contents:

Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 21st February 2022

The limited edition release for Black Lagoon contains all 12 episodes for The First Barrage and all 12 episodes for The Second Barrage across three Blu-ray discs, alongside all 5 OVA episodes for Roberta’s Blood Trail on a single Blu-ray disc. All the discs were authored and encoded by Funimation.

The audio options available include Japanese with English subtitles and the Ocean Studios English dub commissioned by Geneon for the TV series and Funimation for the OVA series.

The white subtitles are unlockable for The First Barrage & The Second Barrage, but locked during playback for Roberta’s Blood Trail. The regions are locked to Blu-ray players set to B.

Blu-ray Specs:

Languages	English, Japanese
Audio	Black Lagoon: The First & Second Barrage English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 Black Lagoon: Roberta’s Blood Trail English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0
Video	Black Lagoon: The First & Second Barrage 1080p High Definition Upscale format 1.77:1 aspect ratio Black Lagoon: Roberta’s Blood Trail 1080p High Definition Native format 1.77:1 aspect ratio
Region	B
Subtitles	English
Locked Subtitles	Black Lagoon: The First & Second Barrage No Black Lagoon: Roberta’s Blood Trail Yes
Discs	4 BD-50s

Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:

Disc 3 – Black Lagoon: The First & Second Barrage:

• ‘The Crew’ Behind the Scenes of English Version Production
• CD Commercial (Japan Only)
• Promotional Video 1
• Promotional Video 2
• Second Season Promotional Video
• Japanese Opening “Red Fraction”
• Japanese Opening, Second Barrage
• Textless Closing Song “Don’t Look Behind”
• Textless Closing Song – Episode 15 “The World of Midnight”
• Textless Closing Song – Episode 24 “Peach Headz Addiction”
• Funimation Trailers

Disc 4 – Black Lagoon: Roberta’s Blood Trail:

• Textless Closing Song “When Johnny Comes Marching Home”
• U.S. Trailer
• Funimation Trailers

Unboxing Photos:

Final Notes:

Black Lagoon is available to order through multiple retailers across the United Kingdom. The limited edition Blu-ray can be ordered on Amazon UK and Anime Limited’s store.

(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)