Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail [Blu-ray/DVD Combo]

Deadly assassin-turned-maid Roberta returns to the criminal's paradise of Roanapur, dead set on revenge - no matter the cost. In a backdrop of violent chaos, the smugglers of the Lagoon Company team up with Roberta's employer to save her... or at least to stop her bloody rampage. The five-part OVA Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail (2010) picks up where the last TV series--Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage--left off. Roberta, a maid who suggests the Terminator in long braids, goes on a rampage to avenge the death of Lovelace, her former employer. His assassination somehow involved the CIA, the NSA, Asian and South American drug cartels, and, although the Lovelace family is supposed to be from Venezuela, the Colombian revolutionary group FARC. Flying bullets, knives, explosives, blood, and four-letter words take up so much screen time, there's little left for character development or a coherent narrative. Naturally, the combined forces of the CIA, NSA, and US military don't stand a chance against a pill-popping maid who packs more heat than the North Korean army (including an 18th-century flintlock). Fortunately the mercenary/pirate quartet of Black Lagoon is on the scene. The fragmentary story line includes a nasty anti-American tone: a Cuban military officer comments, "Some American heads would make nice souvenirs." But there's plenty of material to offend pretty much anyone, including a chain-smoking nun, a heroin addict, and a Chinese assassin who speaks a brand of pidgin English that would embarrass Charlie Chan. Leading the charge is potty-mouthed Revy, who calls a dying Hispanic soldier "beaner" before shooting him in cold blood. Black Lagoon isn't the most violent series in the history of anime, but its gleefully sadistic tone makes the nonstop slaughter more repugnant. The endless string of blood and profanity would probably earn Roberta's Blood Trail an X rating if it were released theatrically. (Rated TV MA; more appropriate for viewers over 18: graphic violence, violence against women, extensive profanity, grotesque imagery, torture, alcohol, drug and tobacco use, racial slurs, offensive ethnic stereotypes, offensive religious imagery, sexual situations) --Charles Solomon

(25. Collateral Massacre, 26. An Office Man's Tactics, 27. Angels in the Crosshairs, 28. Oversaturation Kill Box, 29. Codename Paradise, Status MIA)