About Amanda Rush
Location: Dallas, Texas
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A group of elite assassins known as the Numbers, a revolutionary organization called The Apostles of the Stars, and a band of bounty hunters, known as sweepers, make up the world of Black Cat.
Train Heartnet is a member of the Numbers, a group of assassins who work exclusively for an organization called Chronos. The mysterious council at the helm of Chronos seeks to control the world (thereby assuring peace), and they use the Numbers to enforce their will. Numbers have no conscious and always make their kill – most especially Train, number XIII, known as Black Cat. When Train meets a young woman named Saya, she introduces him to the world of the sweepers, teaching him about freedom of will. Enamoured with Saya and her way of life, Black Cat breaks from the Numbers and refuses to kill.
But nothing is ever that simple. Creed Diskenth, a member of Chronos’s lesser assassins (known as erasers), breaks from Chronos to form the Apostles of the Stars, a group bent on destroying Chronos, who they view as a corrupt organization. Creed is obsessed with Train (disturbingly so), and intends to make him a member of the Apostles. When Train refuses, Creed does something that will make Black Cat hell bent on revenge.
Enter Sven Vollfield, a self-professed gentleman and sweeper. He crosses paths with Train randomly at first, and then, when Train is sent to kill a nanotech weapon in the form of a little girl (named Eve), Train and Sven go toe-to-toe. Train, on the verge of breaking with Chronos at this point, refuses to kill Eve. She escapes with Sven, who takes her in like a daughter, seeing her not as a weapon, but as a human. Once Creed lashes out at Train, in his grief, Train takes up with Sven and Eve to work as a sweeper, vowing never to kill again.
Sound complicated? That’s only the first four episodes. Black Cat features a vast cast of revolving characters (in fact, the information booklet inside the dvd set is entirely devoted to the different characters), a continuing plot line that makes it difficult to watch episodes by themselves or out of order, and multiple names for most every character (example: Train is also known as Black Cat, Mr. Cat and XIII.) Like a lot of battle-oriented shows, characters go through transformations to grow more powerful (so do their weapons), and the variety of abilities among the characters is virtually limitless. People change sides, change back, drop out and die, so the show demands your full attention.
There are a lot of funny moments (and the white cat joke is there, for fans of the manga), but all of the cat related puns grow very old very fast. The action is fantastic, especially Train’s gunwork, and the animation is beautiful (the music over the eyecatch sounds reminiscent of Firefly). The show watches a lot like an RPG, but that’s okay. The characters are likable (Sven especially), Eve wears great costumes that will make fangirls squeal (especially her Lolita outfits), and the show’s end is very satisfying. My biggest complaints were the endless cat jokes and Creed’s intense, almost sexually deviant, fixation on Train. Other than that, the show is pretty good, and if you’re going to watch it, the complete series DVD set is the way to go.
