as Phu Quoc island of Vietnam. When they are not working, the members of the Lagoon Company spend much of their down time at The Yellow Flag, a bar in Roanapur which is often destroyed in firefights. Production Concept and influences Manga author Rei Hiroe said that when he was approached by the publisher Shogakukan to work for a manga project, he offered them different prototype stories that he had planned, including Black Lagoon, which was finally selected. Hiroe wanted to create an action and crime oriented series. For the basis of the story, he was inspired by watching news about piracy cases in the South China Sea in the 1990s, which he thought that fitted perfectly with his desire to make a "dynamic and original" series, adding that pirates "know no borders and are truly free," and that it seemed interesting to work on the subject. Hiroe also commented that at first, the original idea was about medieval pirates, but he changed his mind and made the story about modern day pirates instead. Hiroe stated that he has been influenced by writers James Ellroy, whom he called his favorite novelist, and Stephen King, stating that he learned how to create the atmosphere of Black Lagoon based on his works. Hiroe also called 's manga series Wild 7 "almost like the DNA of that sort of action genre," and mentioned influence from Akihiro Ito (Geobreeders author) and Kenichi Sonoda (Gunsmith Cats author). Apart from manga, Hiroe stated that, from a "purely graphic point of view", he was influenced by the Franco-Belgian comic series Soda, and commented that he liked the atmosphere and storytelling of Blacksad by Spanish authors Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido. Hiroe is particularly influenced by films, mentioning influence from directors John Woo, Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, and by the 1990s Hollywood films and triad Hong Kong films from the 1980s and 1990s. Hiroe mentioned that Pulp Fiction and other films from Tarantino inspired him to balance the action and comedy in Black Lagoon. Hiroe said that although the series is much influenced by American works, he was not worried about the references being lost on the Japanese readers, stating that it can be sensed when the American culture is coming from a Japanese person, so "there's a style in it that can be sensed by Japanese readers," adding that conversely, if people in America read it,