Chapters run monthly and are later collected into tankōbon volumes by Shogakukan. The first was released on December 12, 2002, and to date eleven have been published, the last in 2018. The series first went on hiatus in May 2010. It resumed in January 2013, before being put back on hiatus in January 2014. In the January 2017 release of "Monthly Sunday Gene-X", it was announced that the manga will resume in May 2017; it went on hiatus again in September 2018. The December issue of "Monthly Sunday GX" revealed that Hiroe would resume the series in spring 2019, however the series did not resume its publication as planned. In June 2019, "Monthly Sunday GX" announced the manga will resume in September. The manga has been licensed for an English-language release in North America by Viz Media. The first volume was released on August 12, 2008. "Black Lagoon" has also received domestic releases in many other countries; in France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Mexico, Poland and Finland, by Kabuto, Carlsen, Jade Dynasty, Panini Comics, Chuang Yi, Haksan Publishing, Norma Editorial, Grupo Editorial Vid, Waneko and Punainen jättiläinen respectively. An anime adaptation of "Black Lagoon" covering 9 arcs of the manga was produced by Madhouse, Geneon Entertainment and Shogakukan and directed and written by Sunao Katabuchi, with Masanori Shino designing the characters and EDISON composing the music. The series aired for the first time on Chiba TV from April 8, 2006, to June 24, 2006 (and later on 15 other terrestrial stations), for twelve episodes. A second season, labelled "Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage" and consisting of twelve more episodes, ran for the first time on Sendai Television from October 2, 2006, to December 18, 2006. The second season focuses less on character development than the first season and more on the jobs they do. A five-volume original video animation titled "Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail" that covered the "El Baile de la muerte" arc of the manga was released in July 2010. In North America, Geneon Entertainment announced the license to the series in July 2006. In September 2007, Geneon announced that they had ceased in-house distribution of its series. On July 3, 2008, Geneon and Funimation announced an agreement to distribute select titles in North America.