Review of Black Cat: Volume 2

Introduction

I haven`t been looking forward to this volume with my usual eager expectations. Following its debut last month, Black Cat seemed on the face of it, yet another piece of Gonzo eye candy, a cliché-ridden story, stereotypical characters all wrapped up in an attractive animation made with just the correct ingredients of humour, action and drama. It`s by the books animation that is the equivalent of the Hollywood summer blockbuster. But I have been surprised by Gonzo animation before. Here`s volume 2 then…

What happens when the world of the sweeper and the world of the eraser collide? It`s not as you would expect, a sanitation accident in a stationery shop. In this case, a Sweeper is slang for a Bounty Hunter, while Eraser is a euphemism for an assassin. When one is paid to kill, and the other paid to bring back alive, then it isn`t a profitable venture to go after the same target, but this is exactly what happens in Black Cat. The sweeper in question is Sven Vollfied, a hard on his luck bounty hunter who despite going after all the big cases, has a hard time keeping his stomach filled, partly due to a strong chivalrous streak that keeps him on the lookout for any damsel in distress. But he has a curious ace in the hole, a vision eye that he normally keeps hidden, but allows him to see five minutes into the future, albeit at great physical cost. The eraser is Train Heartnet, a ruthless assassin who works for the mysterious Chronos Foundation. He survived the murder of his family to take bloody revenge, something that caught the eye of his employers, and since then he has been a cold-blooded killer on their payroll. He brings bad luck to his victims, something that has given him the moniker of the Black Cat. The two cross swords when Sven is hired to rescue Eve, an innocent child who just happens to be an advanced bioweapon.

There are four more episodes to enjoy in volume 2 of Black Cat, Catastrophe. (I hope they don`t run out cat puns before they run out of volumes.)

5. The Departing Cat
The Black Cat being merciful? Train Heartnet`s encounter with Eve has left his foundations insecure. He`s no longer the cold-hearted assassin, much to Chronos` dismay. It`s time he left the organisation. But the only way out is in a body bag. While Sven heals at Annette`s with Rinslet and Eve, Train is dodging other members of Chronos. Chief among them is Creed, a psychopathic figure with a deadly blade and a fascination for the Black Cat. He has his own plans for the assassin.

6. The Cat Under Fire
There is a three-way standoff with Creed, Train and Chronos #1 Sephiria. Sephiria thinks she`s prepared for Creed`s betrayal, but Creed is putting a bigger plan into effect. He`s prepared to have Train at any cost, but he hasn`t counted on Train`s rooftop serenading Sweeper friend Saya. Now Creed has a new target and a new lesson to teach Train.

7. The Wounded Cat
Eve is at her first ever fireworks display, but it`s fireworks of another sort that engage her senses. A massive explosion draws her and Sven to a dock, where they find Train battered and bloody. Train wakes up a week later at Sven`s safe house, still with vengeance on his mind. He`s got a lot of healing to do first, and while he recuperates, Sven is trying to find out what is going on with Chronos. Chronos still want Eve destroyed, and if Train is still alive, that situation remedied as well. They`ve set another of their Numbers on the case, VII, Jenos Hazard, and he`s quick to track down the safe house. Meanwhile Eve has a mission of her own, to bell the cat.

8. The Sweeping Cat
Six months have passed and Train has a new career. He`s teamed up with Sven and Eve, and gone into the sweeping business. Their latest target for arrest is an escaped prisoner who`s hiding out in a small town. Meanwhile Jenos Hazard`s latest mission is against the resurgent Taoist group, a cult thought defeated in the war 20 years previously. It seems that a Taoist performance enhancing substance has fallen into the hands of escaped criminals. He recruits Rinslet Walker into stealing the formula from an escaped prisoner hiding in a small town. After six months, the Sweeper, retired Eraser, Master Thief and Genetically engineered bioweapon are about to cross paths again.

Video

Black Cat`s 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer is a little better than before, but not much. The picture seems clear and well defined at first glance, and Gonzo`s usual action eye candy comes across with only the barest of compression. However, throughout the playback, there are faint vertical lines marring the image. It`s similar to digital banding, but constant throughout, like chunky pixellation. It`s only really apparent in darker scenes, which is an improvement over the previous volume when it was noticeable throughout. I also noticed one moment of minor pixellation in the final episode on the disc.

The animation itself is up to Gonzo`s usual dynamic standards, but I found the character designs a little too basic and unmemorable. The more sedate moments in the animation also fell short of the action sequences.

Audio

You have a choice of DD 2.0 Japanese and DD 5.1 English with optional translated subtitles or signs. There is a nice bit of separation in the stereo track, indeed there is little to separate it from the 5.1 track, which is very front-focused. The dialogue is clear in both versions, and the English dub is one of the good ones.

Features

Just the bare minimum here, with trailers for Ergo Proxy and SpeedGrapher, as well as the textless credit sequences. Still no English language credits.

Conclusion

I was all set to announce `more of the same` and be done with it, especially given the first ten minutes of episode 5. Gonzo have the anime action series down to a fine art, quirky characters, excellent animation, conspiracies and mysterious factions, and plenty of plot twists and turns leading to an explosive and slightly ambiguous climax. Then, halfway through episode 5, it looks as if Black Cat tore up the script, delivering something unexpected, and thrilling.

In episode 4 on the previous volume, Train failed in his duty as a Chronos Number to kill Eve. It doesn`t leave him as much of an assassin, especially when he has developed something of a conscience, and dare I say it compassion. It`s obvious that he will have to leave Chronos, but Train isn`t the kind of man that Chronos can afford to leave alive. If he becomes freelance, he could conceivably become an enemy, and so it is that the rest of the Numbers are assigned to complete the Eve job, as well as permanently retire Train. It`s just that the first person to take on the job is Creed, a veritable psychopath who has a bloodthirsty attraction to Train. It`s an odd relationship that forms between the two, a little like John Ryder and Jim Halsey in The Hitcher.

Creed has his own agenda and his own plans, and he wants an artist like Train Heartnet at his side. It`s bad timing when Train is in the mind of fluffy bunnies and doves of peace. He`s ready to hang up his guns and live a normal life, but Creed doesn`t want that, and he`s prepared to hurt Train until he sees things his way, even if it means hurting those that he cares about. The dark factions and conspiracies begin to unfold, as we learn that Creed as already recruited followers to his banner, and his direction opposes that of Chronos. What follows at the end of episode 6 is what I would term an episode 23 moment. The hero is hurt badly, his confidence shaken, as is his determination to succeed. What would follow is a period of reflection and recuperation before he comes back stronger for a series climax.

But this was just episode 6, and indeed episode 7 does allow Train to recuperate and reflect. At this point I was intrigued in what the show would do next. Were we going to have a series climax at the start of the show, and then actually show the happily ever after? Not quite. Instead we get a reset button of sorts. We jump ahead six months in time, when all wounds, physical and emotional have healed, the characters have settled down into their new lives, and the story can begin again. Apparently while Train, Sven and Eve have been lying low, the forces of Chronos and Creed have been taking a well-earned vacation. Not too much has apparently happened in the interim. The only difference is that Train is a whole lot less gloomy. Evidently hanging around Sven has rubbed off on him. And with the final episode we get back to the routine of "quirky characters, excellent animation, conspiracies and mysterious factions, and plenty of plot twists and turns leading to an explosive and slightly ambiguous climax."

For a moment, the second volume of Black Cat had me perked right up. But as is usual with most Gonzo animation, it`s a safe pair of anime hands that while it doesn`t challenge the old brain cells, certainly leaves them entertained at the end of the runtime.