Anime box-sets for 2009: Part Ten

Black Cat – Box Set

Label: MVM
Certificate: 15
Discs: 6. (24 episodes)
Running time: 552 mins approx
Video: 16.9 anamorphic
Sound: English 5.1, Japanese 2.0
Subtitles: English.
Release date: 23rd November 2009
RRP: £49.99 – AmazonPlay

Brief synopsis:
A third of the world’s economy has come under the control of a secretive organisation known as Chronos, who maintain order and control though the use of their elite “Chronos Numbers“, specially trained enforcement agents both famed and feared for being ruthless, emotionless and, above all, deadly. One of these operatives, Train Heartnet, codename “XIII”, is tasked with the eradication of a new bio-weapon before it can be used to threaten Chronos’s position of power. But when XIII finally comes face to face with his target, and realises that it’s actually a genetic experiment in the shape of a young woman, his resolve wavers and he allows the girl to escape. Chronos are understandably unimpressed with this sudden change of heart in one of their trusted agents and soon the hunter soon finds himself becoming the hunted

Enter Sven Vollfied, a former agent for the International Bureau of Investigation turned bounty hunter for hire. Sven would have all the qualities necessary to make quite the name for himself as a successful bounty hunter but for one major problem; Sven’s strong sense of chivalry and personal pride just keeps getting in the way of him actually making any money. When Sven takes the newly independent Train ain as his new partner they make quite the team, even more so when they’re joined by Eve, the shape-shifting bio-weapon earlier saved from certain death by Train. This highly resourceful, though permanently penniless, team of bounty hunters is ready to take the city by storm, but the city may never be ready for them.

Comments:
Based on the highly popular manga by Kentaro Yabuki (who would go on to use a number of the characters again in his later work ToLoveRu), according to US distributor Funimation, the Black Cat anime was their most profitable and sought after anime release of 2006. This box-set includes all 24 episodes including the elusive fifteenth episode that was only broadcast in its native Japan by a single broadcasting station.

Animated by production studio GONZO in a age before they started stuffing CGI into every scene of every show, whether it needed it or not, Black Cat is a visually stylistic comedy thriller which takes what seems to be quite a tight budget and really makes the best of it. While the animation hasn’t aged as well as many of it’s contemporaries, it’s unconventional use of scene composition and limited colour pallets to indicate moods and lighting schemes keeps this show looking, if not 100% fresh, then at least interesting to the eye. Both the English language version and the original Japanese version have some strong voice acting (eagle eared listeners to the Japanese version will be able to pick out Oh My Goddesses’ Belldandy and FMP’s Teletha Tesstarossa) but both versions, the dub especially, do at times bounce rather erratically between the serious and silly ends of the vocal spectrum which can be quite jarring at times.

And this really is where Black Cat fails to fall on it’s feet in that it doesn’t seem to know if it’s a serious action thriller or a romantic comedy and clumsily tries to mix the two together. When asked the big question, i.e., “will it blend?” the answer seems to be “not very well, no”. The main villains, the “Apostles of the stars”, come over like a bunch of weirdoes with even weirder powers engaging in plenty of over the top posturing in impractical costumes and it can be rather hard to take the heroes seriously during their moments of pathos when you know that in a few minutes the ending titles will kick off with chibi cat versions of the main characters dancing about to a rather silly song. This is a shame as the original manga managed to blend both the serious and comedic elements convincingly without detrimentally affecting either. However, even when all’s said and done, this show does still make for a entertaining viewing experience with lots of action and plenty of character driven storylines.

Extras:
Text-less opening and closing animations, Trailers.

Black Cat – Box Set will be available from most high street and online retailers from 23rd November 2009.