Let's get to it, with as less spoilers as I can.
Story
Black Cat takes place in a different world from ours, where we follow our 2 main male characters, Train Heartner and Sven Vollfied. The difference from other cases like that (ex. Naruto & Sasuke), is that the characters share nothing at all in the beginning; the stories are separate.
Train Heartnet is a young assassin under the order of a powerful organization bent on world peace, Chronos. Because Chronos rules over 1/3 of the world's economy, it is essential. In order to protect the organization, 13 special elite assassins were trained harshly; they are called Chrono Numbers. Train, known as "Black Cat", is a heartless and cold person who kills anyone he was ordered to, with no exception or pity. One day, he meets a Sweeper - a.k.a. bounty hunter - named Saya Minatsuki. Unlike him, Saya is cheerful, kind, carefree and disapproves killing. After Saya meeting with Train a few times, he starts changing and slowly leaves missions unfinished; he even starts completely disobeying orders from his superiors. Meanwhile, another member of Chronos, the slightly insane Creed Diskenth, who idolizes Train's murderous aura, does not really agree with Train's change of presonality, and what he does is enough to make you hate him for the rest of your life.
Sven Vollfied is a calm middle-age man Sweeper, who follows a scrict code of chivalry, as he always calls himself a gentleman. One day, he hears about a young girl who has been used for experiments, and has become a kind of monster. Later on, he meets that girl, Eve, at a park and talks with her; and he discovers that she isn't like she was described as. She looks like, and almost is, a normal girl, but who was abused by a rich weapon dealer by having her body filled with nanotechnology, something that makes her able to transform any part of her body as a weapon.
Both stories eventually come together when Sven tries to save Eve, while Train tries to kill her by order of Chronos, which he fails. After Train left his organization through the influence of Saya, he joins Sven and Eve on a wandering journey, as he becomes a Sweeper himself. Two years pass as they travel together. Then, aside from some small side stories about doing Sweeper jobs, the main plot resolves around Train getting revenge on Creed for what he did in the beginning, who by the way has become the leader of a powerful revolutionary group of people with supernatural abilities, the Apostles of the Stars.
We follow Train, Sven and Eve - and sometimes a fourth character, Rinslet Walker, a world-famous thief - as they go on their journey, meeting new people, accomplishing missions, and coming closer and closer to Creed and his subordinates.
The anime was extremely well done. I've heard that, compared to the manga, the anime is not that good. But as someone who hasn't read the manga, I can't tell, so I go with how I felt with the anime alone. The story is great and follows an interesting path, the main characters are enjoyable and likeable as I felt attached to them, the animation is good and the soundtrack is great. Like I said before, the comedy in this show is, unlike other shounen, hilarious. I was laughing almost at every single funny scene that was happening, which were mostly centered on Sven; but the other three also get their share of funny moments. Another interesting thing about the story, is that unlike most "revenge-seeking" journeys, Train decides to stop Creed and bring him to justice, instead of killing him, something which would have served nothing, except changing Train back to his old self he now hates.
There is however, a flaw, too. The world in which the story takes place. It is very confusing and seems to have no laws. It has magical powers, japanese high schools, nanotechnology and bounty hunters with guns, all at the same time. I was kind of illogical how all of these were in the same world, and they never explained anything about it. At the same time, the world itself doesn't play such a big role, so it's not that important, but I would have definitely liked it more, if they actually took the time to explain.
Apart from that, it is a very good anime.
Characters
The four main characters are Train Heartnet, Sven Vollfied, Eve and Rinslet Walker. All 4 of them are great and well-developed, their actions are logical and they know how to be in each situation, depending on their personality and background.
Like I said, Train is a young assassin, who kills whoever is the target of his mission, without second thoughts. His cold eyes, his codename "Black Cat" and his well-known phrase "I've come to deliver some bad luck.", make him a very dangerous and unsociable person. He was changed by Saya Minatsuki, an anti-killing, carefree and cheerful Sweeper, who befriends Train, and even a slight romantic interest was hinted. After some events, he becomes a sort of "stray cat", being lazy, sleepy and hungry, doing whatever he wants, whenever he wants, however he wants. Together with him are, Sven, a middle-aged "gentleman" Sweeper, who almost constantly fails miserably at getting money, making him the biggest comical relief of the show; and Eve, a young girl who is curious about the world and has gotten into reading books after being abused all her life by a weapon dealer, who inserted huge amounts of nanotechnology inside her body. Sven has an eyepatch on his right eye, which has the power of seeing some seconds in the future. He also carries around a suitcase, in which he hides various items, like a machine gun, a net launcher, a grenade launcher and an electrical cable.
Eve, on her side, is amazingly powerful, as she can transform any part of her body into a weapon, at will. The fourth character, Rinslet, is a famous thief-for-hire, who constantly comes in and out of the main trio, which, by the way, is probably the best I have ever seen. She goes around wearing a blond wig to look more helpless, easily manipulates men - except Train - and was a helpful asset, whenever she was with the team. There are also, the other members of Chronos, from which the only really worth mentioning is No1, Sephiria Arks, who's the leader of the Numbers; she is a skilled commander, calm, shows little emotion, but can also be aggresive; she is also fixed with getting Train back into Chronos. (Once again, this is her personality in the ANIME, I know that her manga countepart is different, but here I talk about the ANIME, so please do not rage because of that...)
And now, the antagonists. While I didn't really feel attached to any of them and didn't care much about most of them, I have to admit that the members of the Apostles of the Stars are cool, interesting and strong. Each of them got their supernatural powers from a kind of potion. Their powers vary from fire breathing and bug summoning, to gravity and gun bullets with the power of anti-tank rockets, passing by wind & oxygen and blood. Their personalities, though not much developed for most of them, are well-made and match them. The ones worth mentioning are: Kyoko Kirisaki, a fire-breather energetic high school student who falls in love with Train, much to his anoyance; Charden Flamberg, the calm blood-controlling tall man, who is teaming up with Kyoko, who is more affectionate and less evil than the others; and of course the leader: Creed Diskenth, easily one of the most demented anime villains I have ever seen.
When I first saw him, I already knew he wasn't going to be a normal person; and I was so right. His idolization for Train is so extreme, it becomes creepy and kind of scary, like how he views Train's skill at killing people as some kind of art; and when he becomes the leader of the Apostles of the Stars, he becomes a crazed power-hungry maniac, who wants to become immortal and control the world by controlling the people he feals have the right to live. That type of villain is, in my opinion, the hardest to make interesting. Anyone could think that this is very common antagonist at first. But that idolization, mixed with his extreme psychotic nature, god and supremacy complex, huge power and uncaring for his subordinates, makes him extremely different, making the whole anime different itself.
A last thing worth mentioning is that a very strong bond is built between Eve and the two men, as she sees them as father figures. It wouldn't seem at first, but a relationship like that works as much and even better than love interest. Because of the past Eve, what she needs the most is a person who can guide her in life, something that, Train and especially Sven, do.
Music
The soundtrack for Black Cat is amazing. The music matches perfectly with the scenes, either they are dramatic, action, comical, touching or happy, and makes it even more entertaining and believable. I got pulled by the music and felt its intensity mixed with the different feelings emanating from the different scenes. "Kuroki Neko" in particular is one of my favourite soundtracks ever. The opening song, used for all 24 episodes, is very energetic and deep at the same time, showing all the different aspects of the show: action, sadeness, joy, laughs, drama and seriousness. The 1st ending was funny , but had nothing to do with the anime and the song didn't match at all. The 2nd ending, however, is very beautiful and portrays the sadness Train is going through, after a certain something, through the beautfil song. Great music, without being a masterpiece.
Animation
The animation was done by Gonzo. The only other shows I know it made, are Rosario + Vampire and Kaze no Stigma. The animation was definitely not the greatest. It was well done and it was changing at the different scenes of the show to add more reality to what happens, but it wasn't as smooth as others. It felt lacking at moments, while at other, it was too bright. I don't say it's bad, it just wasn't that great and I didn't feel a kind of bonus from it.
Final Verdict
Story: 9.2
Characters: 9.3
Sound: 8.3
Animation: 7.1
Enjoyement: 9.0
Total: 8.58
Black Cat is a great anime and distinguish itself from other shounen with its very balanced, realistic and well-developed main characters, some amazing comedy, fantastic story and good music. It has both its good and sad moments and you will probably feel the characters' emotions during the different events. I personally did. I highly recommend to action/shounen fans, but to everybody in general, because of the variety the anime has to offer.
This ends my 6th anime review. I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to comment, if you want to express your opinions. Thank you for reading.
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