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In Episode 7 of Black Lagoon, Rock and Revy drop in on Balalaika as part of their errands, and find her watching a series of porn videos, which she's either repeatedly rewinding or fast-forwarding through (I can't tell which).

Balalaika doesn't mention why she's sitting through all these pornos, only that she has "15 more to go". It's clearly for work-related reasons, as she takes no pleasure from viewing them and even mutters "Someone shoot me" as Rock and Revy leave, but I'm really not sure what kind of Russian mafia work would involve watching dozens of hours of porn.

What on earth was Balalaika up to? Is it explained in the manga, perhaps? I know it's probably unimportant in the grand scheme of things, but it's really puzzling me.

F1Krazy
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1 Answers1

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The scene in the manga (ch 9 pg 6-7) this is referencing is only a page and a half long and unless the translation I read was wonky the setup is different than the anime. In the anime as you saw Balalaika is using some sort of playback equipment and fiddling with a porn video and she comments about how she has "15 more to do" and she "should've gotten an intern to do it" which makes it seem as though she's editing the videos, that she's kind of a workaholic and didn't outsource this rather tacky job, kind of a weird scene but whatever, there isn't anything deeper going on. In the manga the scene is simpler and I think it makes more sense, Balalaika is actually just watching porn while the Black Lagoon cronies relay their message, there's no editing equipment, just a TV and then either Rock or Revy says that they have 15 errands to do (not Balalaika). There isn't anything deeper going on here either but it does give some fun characterization to Balalaika who is spending her free time watching porn, full deadpan and can't be bothered to pause it when conversing work with the Black Lagoonies

Gatchwar
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