Black Lagoon: Roberta’s Blood Trail is an OVA consisting of five episodes. It takes place back in Roanapur after the events of “The Second Barrage” and can be considered a third season.
After her employer, the head of the Lovelace family, gets killed in the course of an armed conflict between CIA and NSA, Roberta, formerly known as “the Bloodhound”, is seeking revenge by declaring war on the US troops in Roanapur. Obviously, she’s in a very bad mental condition as she’s being haunted by a dead man and taking ridiculously large amounts of happy pills (Rilalin!). Garcia Lovelace, the young master, accompanied by his maid Fabiola, is following her to Roanapur and hires the Lagoon Company to bring her back.
Roberta’s Blood Trail is again very much action-packed. Already in the first episode the “Yellow Flag” gets vandalized for perceivedly the thousandth time. However, besides some really gross de facto castration scene it’s not too gory.
Unfortunately, the plot is kinda abstruse and too long-drawn-out with the result that it fails to get really suspenseful. Additionally the dialogues seem to be a bit shallow, especially when you compare them to the Japan story arc from season two.
Therefore I can only give it 3.5/5 Kurisus.
Finally I present you a review of the greatest and most epic (Yes, better than Battlestar!) scifi show in the verse!!!
“Firefly” is an American tv series created by Joss Whedon (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) which can be classified as a space western. It pictures a dystopian vision of a future in which the two remaining superpowers USA and China have merged into one evil authoritarian regime called “The Alliance”. I really like how elements of Chinese culture and language are integrated into the show. For example most of the cussing is in Mandarin. The story takes place in a new star system in the year 2517 and follows the escapades of the renegade crew of the “Serenity”, a space vessel of the Firefly-class (named after the Battle of Serenity Valley) led by Captain Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and his first mate Zoe Washburne (Gina Torres) who fought on the losing side of a civil war. Further members of the crew are among others Zoe’s husband Wash, the ship’s pilot, mechanic Kaylee Frye and Jayne Cobb (He’s like a trained ape. Without the training!) played by Adam Baldwin who is famous for his role as Colonel John Casey in the equally awesome Chuck.
In the pilot episode Doctor Simon Tam joins as the ship’s physician smuggling on board his sister River (Summer Glau), who has been experimented on in an Alliance facility and now has telepathic abilities. Together they are traveling the fringes of both society and the star system.
the crew of the Serenity
The show which premiered in the fall of 2002 has been cancelled due to Fox´s unreasonable and unaccomplishable expectations in its ratings after only 11 out of 14 episodes had been broadcast. However in 2005 a sequel movie called “Serenity” has been realised, in which we finally get to see the Reavers, a bunch of cannibalistic nomads. The movie resolves many plot points that had so far been unsettled and that way manages to offer some closure.
“REAVERS!!! If they take the ship, they’ll rape us to death, eat our flesh and sew our skins into their clothing. And if we’re very very lucky, they’ll do it in that order.”
After the movie only meagerly made back its budget the franchise can be considered dead, although three graphic novels have been released between 2006 and 2010. However Firefly still has a very active and loyal fanbase.
No, building this must have been what going mad feels like!
As you may have expected I proudly bestow both the series and the sequel movie 5 out of 5 Kurisus and hereby recommend you to watch them immediately!!!
And by the way, Firefly is one of the few examples where explosions and weapon fire in space don’t make any sound. (I know that doesn’t make any sense since there’s no air to hinder the sound waves!)
I’ve been wanting something like this for a while now, but I could never find them for appropriate prices (and sufficient in size). Now I found some in a really small backyard shop that I found by pure coincidence:
From left to right: Rye wholemeal, spelt wholemeal and rice wholemeal flour
Elfen Lied (エルフェンリート Erufen Rīto) is an anime series which is based upon a manga of the same name which was written and illustrated by Lynn Okamoto. It is named after a poem by the German Romantic poet Eduard Mörike.
The show, which originally aired in 2004, follows the conflict between humans and an anthropoid mutant species called “Diclonii” who distinguish themselves by two horns on their heads and invisible telekinetic arms called “vectors”. Prominent themes of this anime are social alienation, identity, prejudice, revenge, abuse, jealousy, regret and the value of humanity. Its tone, brilliantly supported by the excellent score, is mostly sad and melancholic, however occasionally mellowed with elements of comedy. There’s an enormous amount of both graphic and psychological violence that conflicts with an overdose of uber-cuteness. However the show never seems to become distasteful.
The story takes place in Kamakura, Japan, where the main character, a female Diclonius called Lucy, escapes from a high-security facility in which she was held for experimentation. In the very first scene we see her tearing apart a bunch of armed guards with only an iron helmet on her head. Just before she finally manages to break free she gets hit by a bullet which leads to her developing a secondary innocent and child-like personality known as Nyu. Later she is accommodated by a student called Kouta and his cousin Yuka, who then become involved in countless brutal attempts to recapture her.
Lucy using a decapitated body as a shield
Elfen Lied is clearly one of the best anime series ever and you should by all odds give it a try. However, it ends with a very nasty cliffhanger, so I’m afraid I can only give it 4.5 out of 5 Kurisus.
Tonight the scifi series Fringe is back with its forth season premiere called “Neither Here Nor There” on the American Fox network. I’ve been waiting for this very eagerly since the season 3 finale had an unexpected twist at the end that left everyone with their mouths wide open.
the main cast of season 4
Fringe is an American scifi mystery series that premiered in 2008. It follows an FBI department called “Fringe Division” which investigates all kinds of weird and unexplainable occurences (often involving exploding heads!).
The central protagonists are Doctor Walter Bishop, his son Peter and FBI agent Olivia Dunham played by Anna Torv. Walter, who is brilliantly played by John Noble, is a mad scientist who used to work for the government before he spent almost twenty years in an insane asylum. He provides the greater part of the show’s extraordinary humour with his fondness for hard drugs and sweets that even the most disgusting human remains don’t seem to spoil for him.
When the show started it seemed to be nothing but a mediocre case-of-the-week X-Files rip-off. (There are no aliens, though!) However it soon unveiled its enormous potential and became more and more serialized. Meanwhile it has become the most awesome scfi show since Firefly so abrubtly ended.
The series so far obviously gets 5/5 Kurisus!!!
In order to get attuned here’s a video that gives you an idea of Walter’s… well, Walterness:
