The Dark Tower is the twenty-second episode of the Black Lagoon anime and the tenth episode of Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage. It originally aired in Japan on December 5, 2006.
Summary[]
Revy and Ginji fight Chaka's men with brutal force while Rock grabs Yukio and escapes. At the same time, Balalaika begins the next stage of her plan to violently eliminate the Washimine Group.
Plot[]
At the bowling alley, Chaka glares at Yukio Washimine and asks her why she is acting so nonchalant. Grabbing her up by the collar in an attempt to intimidate her, he taunts her by claiming that he will sell her off to a perverted man who will treat her as a sex slave and force her to do drugs. Entering the sports plaza, Revy and Ginji Matsuzaki walk up to the bowling alley entrance and easily defeat the three thugs guarding the door. Hearing them, Okazaki thinks they are messing around and order them to keep quiet. To the gang's surprise, they see the two intruders, prompting Chaka to grab Yukio. When the latter cries out for Ginji, the swordsman becomes infuriated upon seeing what the men have done to her. Preparing to draw his sword, he declares that he will send them all to hell. Immediately, Revy begins shooting several men while Ginji cuts a few of them, so the gangsters futilely attempt to shoot back. As Chaka shoots at them, he sees that two of his gangsters are hesitant to continue fighting, so he shoots at them instead to coerce them to fight.
Hanada tries to hit Revy with a metal bat, but she dodges the attack and allows Ginji to cut him down. As Ginji finishes killing Hanada, he and Revy dodge more gunshots, awing Chaka. Dragging Yukio by her hair, Chaka forces her to come with him to flee the fight. As he runs down the adjacent escalator, he excitedly remarks that he never thought he would be able to fight Revy. While thinking about how he will confront the gunslinger, Chaka slips on some cleaning fluid at the bottom of the escalator. Getting up, he is baffled at the mess as Rock suddenly hits him with a bowling pin, knocking him out. Upon killing more men, Revy quickly reloads and jumps out from a corner, terrifying Okazaki, who drops his weapon. The Japanese man, trying to speak English, pleads with Revy to spare him as he promises to surrender and give up, but he can only say "I give." Mocking him, Revy asks him what he wants to give to her, and the scared Okazaki shouts "give" over and over again. Enjoying his linguistic struggle, she shoots him dead and notices that Ginji is done. Declaring that they only have a few people left to deal with, Revy points to the map of the building directory and advises Ginji to meet her at the pool after they split up. Smugly smiling, Revy taunts the remaining gangsters who are hiding, joking that she is the "Boogeyman" and will not let them escape Hell's Motel. The men run for their lives, but she easily shoots them all.
Elsewhere in the building, one of Chaka's men ask their boss what they should do next. Frustrated, Chaka only replies that their men are probably dead, which angers his subordinate. When the henchman points his gun at Chaka and retorts that he will not follow him any longer, his boss shoots him first, killing him. He warns the other two men to go look for Yukio, but the men drop their guns and try to run away, so he shoots them as well. Watching the shootings, Revy jokes that Chaka is truly a scumbag and guesses that he has not clashed with Chaka yet. Smirking, the latter grabs a drinking can and confesses that he has always wanted to fight a female gunslinger, asking her to sleep with him. Readying his revolver, Chaka sets up a Wild West-style duel by telling Revy that they will shoot at each other when he drops the can. As he counts down from ten, Revy charges him and kicks him in the face, knocking him to the ground. Also stomping on his groin, she laughs and insults him for thinking he is worthy to challenge her. Although she admits that she wants him dead, Revy walks away and comments that she will let "Jumbo" deal with him.
Angered, Chaka yells at her to face him, but she show him her middle finger and enters the swimming pool room, so he follows her. Entering the area, he is shocked to see Ginji standing before him, and Revy stands to the side to watch them. Chaka tries to provoke him by falsely claiming he shot Yukio, but the unfazed Ginji positions himself and encourages his opponent to attack when he wishes. Anxious, Chaka shoots at him once, but Ginji charges and cuts the bullet in two, awing Revy. The swordsman cuts apart Chaka's revolver, severs his hands, and pushes him into the pool. As he tries to paddle through the water, the gangster curses Ginji and promises to kill him. Meanwhile, in a locker room nearby, Rock stands guard with a broom and mentions to Yukio that Revy and Ginji are likely done since he has not heard any noise. Sitting down with a gloomy look, Yukio asks him why he came. Rock answers that he could not let her be dragged into the criminal underworld, but she responds that he is mistaken about her fate. Looking at Rock, Yukio repeats that he is her enemy.
Shocked, he is confused, but the woman elaborates that she willingly became the 14th head of the Washimine Group. Yukio once again asserts that she was not dragged into her current life and that Rock is her enemy, disheartening him. Slamming a locker in anger, he reminds her that the world she stepped into is a vicious one where people kill and betray each other all the time. In another part of Tokyo, Boris mobilizes the Vysotniki and gives them a list of their targets before they depart. Back at the sports plaza, Yukio asks Rock the same question she did before, to which he again claims that he did not want to see her be dragged into the criminal underworld. Recalling that Tsugio Bandō's death was essentially a suicide, she accuses Rock of having witnessed his murder. Speaking about her yakuza, Yukio assesses that she had no choice because her declining clan was being neglected by the parent clan, and she was the only person who could step up to stop her group's deterioration. She mentions that only someone from a direct bloodline is allowed to succeed as leader, and she agrees with the speechless Rock that it is an archaic rule but one that she is nevertheless bound by.
Angrily confused, Rock rhetorically asks her what will happen to her life by following an undesired rule, reminding the former student that Bandō or Ginji surely would not have wanted her to become a yakuza leader and become a part of the fighting. Having flashbacks to her old life as a student and remembering when her mother and father were alive, she states that her predicament would not have happened had she stood up sooner. Fervently disagreeing, Rock in turns claims that the Kōsa Council is to blame, saying that she is forcing the burden onto herself. She asks him if he remembers their conversation at the café, which included the topic of how people are like dice in the sense that they throw themselves in the direction of their choosing. With the dice quote, Yukio professes that she chose her life and is doing all that she can for her father and his devotees. Not convinced, the angry Rock repeats that she did not have a choice and must not lose sight of that. Crying, Yukio shouts back that he can only say that because he stands in the twilight, also yelling that she must fight for someone if their life, honor and future depend on her.
At that point, Rock recalls what Revy told him in the submarine about how she believed in nothing but power to counter her own powerlessness. Thinking that he himself is powerless at the moment, the ex-salaryman thinks to himself that he has no consoling words to offer to Yukio. The former student reasons that she accepted the burden in order to save Ginji and the others. Glaring at Rock, she asks him why he tried to make a stand for her, admitting that she did not initially understand his words at the café. To his surprise, she deduces that he allowed himself to remain in the Southeast Asian criminal underworld because he sought something different from Japan and his daily life. Despite this decision, she claims that he has neither firmly chosen a criminal life nor a casual life, with him not choosing the light of casual life or the evil darkness but rather, a twilight. Reminding Rock that he claimed to want to save her, Yukio rhetorically urges him to save the Washimine Group if he truly can. She rebuffs the notion that he wants to save her, accusing him of not wanting to lose his normal life that he thought he discarded. Yukio again and again repeats her analysis to the shocked Rock, who tries to console her but is warned to stay away.
In the swimming pool room, Ginji finishes drowning Chaka and mutters that his death is too good for his final breath. Still impressed with his swordsmanship, Revy asks him to demonstrate his bullet-cutting ability a second time. Though she reaches for her pistol, Ginji smacks her hand with the stock of his sheath, warning her that she does not want to spoil the favor he owes her for helping rescue Yukio. He then jokes that she will be unlucky if they have another opportunity to fight each other. At sunrise, the four reconvene and exit the sports plaza. Thanking Rock for coming, Yukio warns him that she hopes to never see him again. On the Marya Zaleska, Boris has called Rock's hotel room number but cannot reach him, making him question what exactly he is up to. Replying that there is nothing for the ex-salaryman to do anyway, Balalaika says that their assault on the Washimine Group will begin at 7:50 a.m., ordering her men to have two squads go in and destroy the yakuza's headquarters, offices, and confirmed hideouts. Boris informs her that the attack team has already moved out, and she proclaims with a grin that Hotel Moscow will teach the "etiquette of war" to the Japanese gangsters. In the past, a young Balalaika is seen enjoying fresh air, and in the present, Rock and Revy travel to their next destination.
Characters and cast[]
- Rokurō "Rock" Okajima — Daisuke Namikawa (Japanese), Brad Swaile (English)
- Revy — Megumi Toyoguchi (Japanese), Maryke Hendrikse (English)
- Chaka — Wataru Takagi (Japanese), Jonathan Holmes (English)
- Ginji Matsuzaki — Kiyoyuki Yanada (Japanese), Michael Adamthwaite (English)
- Yukio Washimine — Houko Kuwashima (Japanese), Lalainia Lindbjerg (English)
- Hanada — Yūichi Nakamura (Japanese), Michael Daingerfield (English)
- Okazaki — Tōru Nara (Japanese), Sam Vincent (English)
- Balalaika — Mami Koyama (Japanese), Patricia Drake (English)
- Boris — Taiten Kusunoki (Japanese), Mark Acheson (English)
- Tsugio Bandō — Non-speaking role (flashback)
- Yoshida — Non-speaking role (flashback)
- Polanski — Non-speaking role
Songs used[]
- Opening Theme — Red Fraction (by Mell)
- Revy and Ginji enter the bowling alley and begin attacking — Unreleased #1 (slow bassline)
- Shootout between Chaka's thugs and Revy & Ginji — Rock the Carnival
- Chaka attempts to duel Revy — 66 Steps
- Ginji and Chaka duel — Unreleased #1 (slow bassline)
- Yukio flashbacks to her normal life, Rock continues talking to Yukio — Behind the Clouds
- Rock recalls how Revy no longer believed in God — Tear Drops to Earth
- Yukio envies how Rock is in the twilight — Don't Look Behind (requiem version)
- Ending Theme — Don't Look Behind (ending version)
Differences from the manga[]
- The part in Chapter 30 where Chaka's thugs think about rebelling but are interrupted by Chaka throwing a bowling ball at them and threatening to kill anyone who leaves is not included in the anime.
- Boris ordering the Vysotniki to continue their campaign and drive off in the vans at night is only in the anime.
- Yukio's explanation of the history between her father Ryūzō and the Kōsa Council's previous head in Chapter 32, as well as Yukio recalling Hotel Moscow's bloodiness, is only in the manga.
- Rock remembering what Revy told him in the U-boat in the "Das Wieder Erstehen Des Adlers" arc is only in the anime.