Black Lagoon vol. 11

I complain a lot about how long Kentaro Miura takes between volumes of “Berserk” on this blog.  However, Rei Hiroe’s lack of output on “Black Lagoon” makes Miura look as prolific as a Jump artist with a hit series.  Vol. 9 of “Black Lagoon” was published here in July 2010, vol. 10 in April 2015, and this volume hit print back in January.  If Viz had released vol. 11 just a month earlier, then we could’ve said that Hiroe managed to produce three volumes in the last decade instead of two (the difference between Japanese/U.S. publication dates notwithstanding).

As for the volume itself, it’s better than the previous one mainly because the story there finally kicks into high gear and isn’t waylaid by any mid-volume philosophizing.  It kicks off with an exciting internet cafe shootout between Revy and one of the hitmen “brothers” who have been sent to take out disavowed Chinese PLA hacker Feng as Rock helps her escape with the data she needs to save her skin.  After calling in some favors with Eda and the Church of Violence, Rock is able to piece together what’s going on and figure out a way to keep Feng safe. Unfortunately it also winds up leading the burliest hitman brother and his M60 into the police station that Revy found herself locked up in.

It’s all vintage “Black Lagoon” action with the carnage in the police station being a definite high point of the volume.  All the stuff involving the money laundering winds up delivering satisfyingly complex plot twists and turns. Meanwhile, Feng and Rock have some tender moments regarding the latter’s ongoing issues with the freedom he’s found himself with in Roanapur.  Said tender moments don’t hit as hard as they should because they’re also tied to Rock’s lingering guilt over how the previous storyline wound up. Which was over ten years ago in real time.

Hiroe states in his afterword that he regrets that the publication pace of this series is Olympian and that he hopes it will pick up soon.  However, he also mentions that he did an anime series between volumes (the not as good as it should’ve been “Re:Creators”), and that he couldn’t have continued “Black Lagoon” if he hadn’t.  That doesn’t really speak to someone who has a great motivation for continuing their signature series. If Hiroe does want to move on to other things, then he should do that if that’s what’s going to make him happy.  Better to do that and call it quits on this series now rather than take another four years and nine months to deliver vol. 12.

In short, there are some series that are good enough to convince me that the lengthy wait between new volumes is going to be worth it.  “Black Lagoon,” in its current state, is not one of them.