Black Lagoon (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rei Hiroe. It has been published in Shogakukan's seinen manga magazine Monthly Sunday Gene-X since April 2002, with its chapters collected in twelve tankōbon volumes as of August 2021. In North America, the manga is licensed for English release by Viz Media. The series follows the Lagoon Company, a four-member team of pirate mercenaries smuggling goods in and around the seas of Southeast Asia with their PT boat, the Black Lagoon. The group takes on various jobs, usually involving criminal organizations and resulting in violent gunfights. The manga was adapted into an anime television series by Madhouse, which was broadcast for two seasons of twelve episodes each in 2006, followed by a five-episode original video animation (OVA) series released from July 2010 to June 2011. By January 2022, the Black Lagoon manga had over 8.5 million copies in circulation. The series has been overall well received, with critics particularly praising the action sequences. Plot The story follows a team of pirate mercenaries known as the Lagoon Company, that smuggles goods in and around the seas of Southeast Asia in the early to mid 1990s. The Lagoon Company consists of four members: Dutch, the leader; Revy, the main gunfighter; Benny, the mechanic, computer specialist, and researcher; and Rock, an ex-salaryman hijacked by the team and abandoned by his department chief, eventually becoming their negotiator and "professional" face of the group, retaining his old job skills. Their base of operations is located in the fictional harbor city of Roanapur in east Thailand near the border of Cambodia (somewhere in the Amphoe Mueang Trat district, likely on the mainland north/northeast of the Ko Chang island or on the island itself). The city is home to the Japanese yakuza, the Chinese triad, the Russian Bratva, the Colombian cartel, the Italian mafia, a wide assortment of pickpockets, thugs, mercenaries, thieves, prostitutes, assassins, and gunmen. The city also has a large Vietnamese refugee population following the Vietnamese refugees exodus after the communist takeover of Vietnam in 1975. Lagoon Company transports goods for various clients in the American made Elco-type PT boat, Black Lagoon. It has a particularly friendly relationship with the Russian crime syndicate Hotel Moscow. The team takes on a variety of missions—which may involve violent firefights, hand-to-hand combat, and nautical battles—in various Southeast Asian locations, even going as far