Balalaika

Origin

As a young girl, Sofiya Pavlovena (ソーフィヤ・イリーノスカヤ・パブロヴナ, Sōfiya Irīnosukaya Paburovuna) grew up in Russia as the granddaughter of a prestigious general of the USSR military. He saw high hopes for her to one day represent the homeland in the Olympics, but her life led her into the air-force. She would rise in rank to a captain of the Vozdushno-Desantnye Vojska paratroopers, and she took part in the Soviet war in Afghanistan. She was the mind behind this elite troop, and her skill with the Dragonov rifle earned her the name "Balalaika". During the conflict, she was scarred over most of her face and body and an explosion. She still continued the fight, but she was drummed out of the military for defying orders. Her only crime was that she had personally taken a Afghani orphaned girl to a nearby village to safety.

She was living alone and in disgrace, but she still had the absolute admiration of all those who had served under her. After her second in command had died after being mixed up in local crime, she rallied her men at the funeral to follow her. They all went into the Russian mafia, and she was made the head of the Hotel Moscow branch in the Thialand city of Roanapur in 1993.

A war among the local criminal organizations was ready to break the seedy city apart. Balalaika and Chang, the head of the Triad, had tried to kill one another personally. A peace deal was organized by Dutch between the various syndicates. They found that coexistence was far more profitable for all parties.

Creation

Balalaika (バラライカ, Bararaika) is a supporting character in the Black Lagoon series that was created by Rei Hiroe. The series first began serialization in Shogakukan's Sunday GX magazine on April 19, 2002.

Her first appearance was in Black Lagoon Volume 1 CH. 0 "Black Lagoon",

Character Evolution

Major Story Arcs

The Black Lagoon

Balalaika outsourced a job to the Lagoon Company to hijack ship and steal a data disc from an employee of Asahi Heavy Industries that contained information of the companies illegal sale of nuclear weapons.As Balalaika was waiting, her men brought in a man that had information that Asahi had hired hardcore PMCs to kill them to get the disc back. She passed this information along to Dutch when he called.

The Lagoon Company arrived at the rendezvous with the disc and a new ally, Rokuro Okajima. In turn, Balalaika sold the disc back to an Asahi Industries corporate manager. He offered to take Okajima, going by the name Rock; but he refused since they had left him for dead. Balalaika offered Rock to come see her if he evener needed anything.

Balakaika had heard Chen, a local gangster, had targeted the Lagoon Company for their cooperation with her, She went to see him personally. He was tied up with a bomb beneath his chair, and she called Dutch just so he could hear the explosion.

Rasta Blasta

Dutch had called in with a rare favor to ask Balalaika to look into the details of a job they had been hired for by the Manisalera Cartel. Seems they had kidnapped the son of Diego Lovelace, Garcia. They had tricked the Lagoon Company into transporting the boy without telling them that Roberta, the Lovelace maid, was out to find him. When Balalaika noticed Roberta's steely soldier's eyes, they looked deeper in on her. What they discovered it that Roberta was the FARC terrorist known as the Bloodhound of Florencia.

Balalaika dispatched many of her squad to come to Dutch's rescue, and they arrived just in tome to stop the fight between Roberta and Revy. In the process, she revealed Roberta's secret to the young Garcia. After Revy and Roberta settled their fight with their fists, Balalaika instructed Boris to see to it that Roberta and Garcia were returned home to Venezuela.

Calm Down, Two Men Arc

There was a meeting of the syndicate leaders that needed to be held becasue word was out that someone was selling drugs outside of the agreed upon limits, but no one was sure who it was. Balalaika was stuck editing porn movies to be distributed, and Revy and Rock had appeared to pass along that her shipment was going to be late. Though she was confused why Dutch sent them personally to tell her that, she asked them to pass along any information they might hear about the current drug dealings.

Bloodsport Fairytale

Things had become personal as someone was in Roanapur killing members of her squad. At the meeting of the local syndicate leaders, all the members feigned ignorance. Reports had later revealed the killers were a pair of twin children. Balalaika put out a large bounty on the head of these kids. Outside of their official meetings, Mr. Chang passed on information he had gathered on Hansel and Gretel. a pair of Romanian orphans who had been sold into child porn and snuff films. They had somehow escaped their imprisonment, but came out as crazed, sadistic killers for hire.

They later discovered that the Twins had been hired by Verrocchio, the Italian mafia leader, to kill her and Chang, but they had turned on him. Balalaika mobilized her men to draw out the killer children, and she was met by Hansel in a public square. Though she appeared alone, her snipers shot out the boy's leg and arm when he moved to kill her. She sat and only listened as the boy cried as he slowly bled to death. To kill Gretel, who had fled Roanapur by hiring the Lagoon Company, she paid off her contact with large sum of money to shoot her in the head upon landing ashore.

Fujiyama Gangsta Paradise

El Baile de La Muerte Arc

Powers & Abilities

Weapons & Equipment

Stechkin APS Machine Pistol

Balalaika's basic weapon of choice are a Stechkin APS machine pistol. The Stechkin APS is a Russian military handgun. It fires 9 mm caliber used in the Makarov pistol. It's capable of both single and burst fire from the safety lever. A wooden or metal stock is attachable to reduce recoil for burst fire. However, Balalaika has never shown to use the burst fire option.

Dragunov sniper rifle

Balalaika is talented sniper. Her proficiency with Dragunov sniper rifle during the Russian campaign in Afghanistan is partially what earned her the nickname Balalaika. This was Soviet Army's slang terms for the Dragunov.

Other Media

Anime

Black Lagoon (2006)

Black Lagoon is the first anime series based on the Black Lagoon manga. The series was directed by Sunao Katabuchi, and produced by the MADHouse Studios and Geneon Entertainment, The first episode originally aired on April 8, 2006. Roberta's first anime appearance was in Black Lagoon - Episode 8 "Rasta Blasta" that aired on May 27, 2006. Balalaika first anime appearance was in Black Lagoon - Episode 1 "The Black Lagoon". Her character in the Japanese series is voiced by Mami Koyama, and the U.S. dub produced by Ocean Group is done by Patricia Drake.