Somehow Starz Edge– a premium cable channel owned by the same company that owns Manga Entertainment –has gotten hold of two Geneon titles, Black Lagoon and Kyo Kara Maoh!. They’re airing them both starting on the 8th, or at least a couple of episodes of them, and in Black Lagoon’s case, they’re starting with the thus far unreleased second season, Black Lagoon: 2nd Barrage!

Maybe Manga Entertainment is doing a license rescue? Either way, I HIGHLY recommend catching Black Lagoon if you can, because it is epic and awesome and involves incestuous gothic lolita twins. Kyo Kara Maoh!, eh, if it’s something you’d like you’ve probably already seen it. (I think Geneon finished releasing it, at least everything prior to the recent OVA and now the new season…am I wrong?)

About goddamn time! MangaCast spotted some new VIZ licenses on Amazon.com, including the fantastically badass smuggler dramedy Black Lagoon, as well as another work by Vampire Knight’s Matsuri Hino called WANTED, two Arina Tanemura manga– Time Stranger Kyoko and one called Kanshaku Tamano Yuuutsu (no relation to Haruhi; “Short-Tempered Melancholy”) and the manga of Rosario to Vampire. Oh, and another Akira Toriyama work: Cowa!

Also licensed: Ayumi Komura’s Mixed Vegetables, Hisaya Nakajo’s Sugar Princess, and Youzabara Kanari and Kuroko Yabuguchi’s Gimmick!. MangaCast also has covers for previously-announced (I think) titles Cat Eyed Boy, One Pound Gospel, and of course, Slam Dunk.

Okay, Canadian anime fans no longer get to complain about missing out on stuff that’s made available to American ones. Why? Because G4 Canada is airing Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage. Which, by the way, Geneon never managed to put out on DVD. I don’t know how that works, but damn. Because BL:TSB is freakin’ awesome. And its awesomeness can be summed up in eight words: twin gothic lolita assassins with slight incest complexes.

Or in four words: Revy goes to Japan.

So awesome.

Original source: Zannen, Canada

…for a figure of Shenhua, the Chinese assassin from Black Lagoon whose English is as bad as her knife skills are awesome.

I can’t say I’m especially impressed by the face or hair, but the pose is pretty nice and frankly it’s surprising to see a non-Revy figure from the show (I would have expected a figure of Balalaika first), so if I had money to spare my icon would be teetering on the “cart” button.