I also feel like there is some value to a mid-series review. If the early volumes of a series I want to try are out of stock someplace, a review like that would help me to gauge whether or not to buy what’s available or wait for the rest of it.

Volume 5 was definitely a bad place to start here, and I mentioned that 6 left a much better impression. I was intrigued by Rock, and even the brief glimpse of the conflicts he had with what he was doing here let me know what might have been in the earlier stories. This wasn’t even actually a good volume for fighting, if volume 6 was any indication of how things usually go. But yeah, the fight scenes are sort of a deal-breaker for me here since I kind of hate the art. I do like how over-the-top they are, though.

I’m with you on the romance/slice of life stuff for the older audiences, too. There are very few action-y series for the older crowd that appeal to me, but usually they qualify as “extreme.” Tenjho Tenge is one of my favorites for that, as is the rather fascinating/repulsive gore in Apocalypse Zero. Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure too, which is way more violent and over-the-top than you’d expect for something that ran in Shounen Jump. I just read a scene where a seemingly healthy carriage horse blew apart and someone climbed out from inside it. :p

evidence of Rock’s crazyness: the PT boat jump? totally his idea.

but it’s a more understated kinda crazy. the sorta crazy one can pull while still Appearing perfectly sane except for what one is actually suggesting be done. heh.

now, if i remember which chapters are in volume 6 [which I've only read the scanlated version of so far. it's on my 'to buy' list in my next order of such things :)] the story telling there IS somewhat confusing. partially because it’s all mixed in with the [already] confusing action scenes. partially because it ties into events in volumes 1 and 2 [which is where you meet the crazy maid, among other things]. also, i believe a fair bit of it is told in flashbacks. i Think I’m thinking of volume six. might be volume 7. there abouts, anyway. it’s a bit easier to keep track of if you know who the major players are, and most of them are introduced, or at least mentioned in passing, in volumes 1-3.

actually, Black Lagoon is somewhat outside of my normal reading area too. [it's currently sharing a shelf/cubby/thing with Yotsuba&!, as evidence of that.] the older the age group the thing is aimed at, the more i Usually slide from the sorta action/adventure stuff into romance/slice of life stuff. none the less, i also enjoy it greatly, in no small part due to the excessively over the top action :D

aaaaand, I’m sliding off topic quite a bit, so I’ll leave it there. fear my lack of ending :D

From this end, there’s been a couple cases where it doesn’t look that way so much, there’s been a few reviews where it sounds like you’re missing out on some of the fun of a volume trying to get your bearings or just end up starting at an odd place.

Black Lagoon’s early volumes are a great opener. Rock’s character development is one of the draws, and the early short missions are nice introductions. Some of the latter ones do work better if you know the characters.

The other draw is the fighting, which doesn’t change as much, so your opinion of the series might not change.

Strangely, standard shounen series are usually a lot better at keeping their art dynamic and uncluttered through action series, where as the seinen/shounen borderline series like this one seem to be where I have the most problem with action scenes in the art. Black Lagoon is actually not the worst offender I’ve seen for this type of series, but I also don’t read a lot of them, so I probably notice the flaws a lot more. It’s far from the worst offender in this category though. Trigun, one of my favorite series, has some of the absolute worst action scenes, but in that case it’s because the art is way too detailed to do what it’s doing.

This definitely wasn’t the best volume to jump in on, but I was still confused in volume six when things were being explained, and in those cases, the details seemed like they wouldn’t have tied into past volumes, so I may just have a problem with the storytelling in general for this series. It may just require a closer read than I’m giving it too, which is sorta my fault as well.

But you saying that Rock is the craziest character kinda makes me want to keep reading. There are a lot of insane people in this series.

as an added bonus, volume 1 includes what seems to be a somewhat iconic incident for the series [at least, it gets mentioned a lot and stuck in My mind]: jumping a PT boat off a wreck/reef [i forget which] so as to torpedo an attack helicopter. not making it up, and it is awesome.

very much not a series to jump in to the middle of though. this is the second review I’ve seen that does just that [the first was with volume 4].

personally i find that most action manga struggles somewhat with big fight scenes [even when there's only two people involved]. tend to end up so cluttered you can’t make out what’s going on. i found that the ones in black lagoon only Really tended to do that when the situation really was chaotic though, so it kinda gave the right vibe, if nothing else. totally understand what you mean there though.

watch for evidence that Rock is the craziest of all the main characters as you read, too :D

yeah.. random ramblings of a random. make what you will of them.