Black Cat Volume Two: The Catastrophe
Hawkeye
In volume one, the scene was set and the characters were introduced. Black Cat is a ruthless Eraser (Assassin) with a dark past working for a corporation called Chronos. He’s haunted by the words of a sweet girl in a kimono, who often shows up in the same place. Sven is a Sweeper (Bounty Hunter), down on his luck and always out of money. Eve is the worlds 4th most powerful bio-weapon, and also a young naive girl who teams up with Sven after he rescues her.
The story of the Black Cat continues in this volume, as he further questions whether being a heartless assassin is really what he wants. He finally decides that he wants more out of life then killing for the self-righteous corporation Chronos, and quits. His life starts looking up as he becomes closer to the cheerful, but mysterious, girl who wears a kimono. But Black Cat is full of bad luck. Chronos won’t let their prized assassin walk away so easily, and the leader of a Taoist rebel group has his eyes set on him. After a bloody fight involving all three sides, Black Cat finds himself in the care of Sven and the young bio-weapon Eve. Though jaded from past and current events, Black Cat finds himself making new friends and working as a Sweeper with Sven and Eve.
The animation is as good as ever in this volume. The animators manage to show various characters’ superpowers–such as an invisible sword attacking people–in a realistic, believable manner. This is a tricky thing to show, but they nailed it right on the head. The only thing that I really didn’t like in this volume art-wise was the strange outfit they drew Train in after he left Chronos. He went from looking dark, mysterious, and cool to looking like a twelve-year-old wearing his sister’s clothes.
The sound was excellent and delivered excellent voice acting. I really like how the characters don’t sound over-acted during the dramatic and comedy scenes. The music was also still excellent, as well as the sound effects. Neither interfered with the dialog and both added to the atmosphere of the episodes.
Just like the first disc, Black Cat offers no extras other then Text-less Songs. This is disappointing, as I’d really like to see character bios or possible a nice glossary of some kind. Even an interview would be better then nothing.
It’s another big thumbs-up for this series for delivering excellent animation and sound along with compelling story arcs. However, there’s potential for this series to dwindle down to another monster of the week anime, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the next volume.
Entertainment: 9
The story and characters have really got me hooked.
Technical: 7
Nothing but the essentials on this one, but it had great animation and sound.
Overall: 8.5
DVD Features: Epsiodes 5-8, English, Japanese with English Subtitles
DVD Extras: Textless Songs
