Black Lagoon is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rei Hiroe. It has been published in Shogakukan'sMonthly Sunday Gene-X since 2002, and ten collected volumes have been released so far. It was later adapted into an anime television series, byMadhouse, that aired from April to June 2006 for twelve episodes. A second season, subtitled "The Second Barrage", ran for twelve weeks starting on October 2, 2006. A five volume original video animation series, titled Roberta's Blood Trail, was released from July 2010 to June 2011.

Viz Media began releasing an English translation of the manga in North America on August 12, 2008. Madman Entertainment licensed the anime inAustralasia and the United Kingdom. The anime was dubbed and originally licensed in English by Geneon Entertainment in North America; it is now licensed by Funimation Entertainment. Funimation later licensed the OVA, which also was licensed by Kazé in the UK, for release in spring 2013.

 

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The story follows a team of pirates/mercenaries known as Lagoon Company, that smuggles goods in and around the seas of Southeast Asia in the early to mid 1990s. Their base of operations is located in the fictional harbor city of Roanapur in southeast Thailand (somewhere in the Amphoe Mueang Tratdistrict, likely on the mainland north/northeast of the Ko Chang island or on the island itself). The Island is home to the Yakuza, the Triaid, Cuban and French cartels, and a wide assortment of pickpockets, thugs, mercenaries, thieves, prostitutes, assassins, and Gunmen of all sorts. They transport goods in the 80-foot (24 m) Elco-type PT boat Black Lagoon. Lagoon Company does business with various clients, but 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 asPhu Quoc island of Vietnam and when not doing much, 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.