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Black Cat Anime Review
Dec. 5th, 2018 08:29 pm**This is an old review I am cataloging and may not reflect my Current thoughts on the matter**
Quick Disclaimer: This is a review for the ANIME ONLY, I have not read the manga and have no idea how it differs from the anime, though my general assumption with anime is that the manga is pretty different/usually better.
With that out of the way, I had a fairly mixed reaction towards Black Cat. When I first started watching it, I thought it was going to be a dark, edgy anime about a morally grey vigilante (Sven) and a ruthless assassin slowly learning to have something resembling morals (Train). I thought Train converted to Saya’s style of thinking WAY too quickly - they hung out like what, five times that we saw? I just don’t think that would be enough to counteract YEARS of violent training and trauma. I was also really annoyed they killed Saya just so Train would have a reason to be pissed off/leave Chronos, she seemed like she could have been interesting. But what really got me was that as soon as Train joined Sven and Eve, THERE WAS A TIME SKIP. And suddenly Train is a smiley, reckless shounen protagonist? Why would they skip all of that character development!?
So basically I didn’t get Train. At all. I mean, I thoroughly enjoyed him as a character, but I didn’t understand how he got from point A to point B. Also, the tonal shift in the show was extremely jarring; I thought it was going to be dark and edgy, but it wound up being more of lighthearted action series where the good guys are clearly good, they conquer over evil, and a lot of the villains see the error of their ways and become good guys.
I did really love Eve and Sven as characters. Eve was interesting, fun, and could kick a ton of butt. I loved her deadpan sass, her love of books and fireworks, and her strong sense of morality. Usually kid characters amongst an adult cast are a little annoying (or at least there’s that tendency), but Eve was awesome and managed to be both realistically a kid/young teenager (I don’t actually know her age, but by the end of the series she looked 12-14 to me) and intelligent, capable, and entertaining. Honestly she’s my favorite, and after her Sven because he’s super entertaining and lovable, though I do wish we’d learned more about his past.
The animation was really crisp and pretty, but the camera work was terrible. I never had any idea what was happening during the fight scenes, so much of the violence was off screen or implied through confusing, surreal animation sequences. The scene transitions were also very confusing, and the plot didn’t seem to have much direction. At first I think they wanted to take down Chronos? Or I guess just live on the road as bounty hunters? They never really talked about personal goals outside of their job as sweepers, and they lost their opportunity to do so once they had to stop Creed and his minions.
Also, about Creed. I found him EXTREMELY entertaining, and enjoyed him as a villain, but the anime barely explored his motives at all. I didn’t really understand what his idea of ‘utopia’ was, and while he was obviously obsessed with Train, we never get any flashbacks or explanations as the root of this obsession or any idea of what Train thought about Creed before he killed Saya. And all we got on his backstory were a few brief, confusing flashback sequences without much context. So he came off more like a ‘villain is evil because EVIL’ type of character rather than a complex, emotionally sympathetic but still raving mad and evil type of villain, which was upsetting because he was SO CLOSE to being one, but the writers instead prioritised action and confusing plot over character development.
Oh, and what was the point of Rinslet? I didn’t dislike her by any means, she was fun and seemed smart, but she didn’t really seem to serve any purpose to the plot and didn’t have any meaningful impact on the other main characters. Sure, she was their boss, but she only really seemed to show up every now and then to give a mission or do some computer hacking, and that was it. Actually, in general there were WAY too many characters, especially since only three of them got enough screentime and development to feel like main characters, I just ended forgetting all of their names.
In short, I had a lot of fun watching Black Cat, but I found it very confusing and aimless, and it didn’t do nearly enough with the wonderful characters it had. I think there was a lot of potential there, they just didn’t take all the opportunities for greatness they had. I dunno I’m gonna say it was 7/10, maybe 6.5/10. I’m hoping the manga resolves some of these issues.
Quick Disclaimer: This is a review for the ANIME ONLY, I have not read the manga and have no idea how it differs from the anime, though my general assumption with anime is that the manga is pretty different/usually better.
With that out of the way, I had a fairly mixed reaction towards Black Cat. When I first started watching it, I thought it was going to be a dark, edgy anime about a morally grey vigilante (Sven) and a ruthless assassin slowly learning to have something resembling morals (Train). I thought Train converted to Saya’s style of thinking WAY too quickly - they hung out like what, five times that we saw? I just don’t think that would be enough to counteract YEARS of violent training and trauma. I was also really annoyed they killed Saya just so Train would have a reason to be pissed off/leave Chronos, she seemed like she could have been interesting. But what really got me was that as soon as Train joined Sven and Eve, THERE WAS A TIME SKIP. And suddenly Train is a smiley, reckless shounen protagonist? Why would they skip all of that character development!?
So basically I didn’t get Train. At all. I mean, I thoroughly enjoyed him as a character, but I didn’t understand how he got from point A to point B. Also, the tonal shift in the show was extremely jarring; I thought it was going to be dark and edgy, but it wound up being more of lighthearted action series where the good guys are clearly good, they conquer over evil, and a lot of the villains see the error of their ways and become good guys.
I did really love Eve and Sven as characters. Eve was interesting, fun, and could kick a ton of butt. I loved her deadpan sass, her love of books and fireworks, and her strong sense of morality. Usually kid characters amongst an adult cast are a little annoying (or at least there’s that tendency), but Eve was awesome and managed to be both realistically a kid/young teenager (I don’t actually know her age, but by the end of the series she looked 12-14 to me) and intelligent, capable, and entertaining. Honestly she’s my favorite, and after her Sven because he’s super entertaining and lovable, though I do wish we’d learned more about his past.
The animation was really crisp and pretty, but the camera work was terrible. I never had any idea what was happening during the fight scenes, so much of the violence was off screen or implied through confusing, surreal animation sequences. The scene transitions were also very confusing, and the plot didn’t seem to have much direction. At first I think they wanted to take down Chronos? Or I guess just live on the road as bounty hunters? They never really talked about personal goals outside of their job as sweepers, and they lost their opportunity to do so once they had to stop Creed and his minions.
Also, about Creed. I found him EXTREMELY entertaining, and enjoyed him as a villain, but the anime barely explored his motives at all. I didn’t really understand what his idea of ‘utopia’ was, and while he was obviously obsessed with Train, we never get any flashbacks or explanations as the root of this obsession or any idea of what Train thought about Creed before he killed Saya. And all we got on his backstory were a few brief, confusing flashback sequences without much context. So he came off more like a ‘villain is evil because EVIL’ type of character rather than a complex, emotionally sympathetic but still raving mad and evil type of villain, which was upsetting because he was SO CLOSE to being one, but the writers instead prioritised action and confusing plot over character development.
Oh, and what was the point of Rinslet? I didn’t dislike her by any means, she was fun and seemed smart, but she didn’t really seem to serve any purpose to the plot and didn’t have any meaningful impact on the other main characters. Sure, she was their boss, but she only really seemed to show up every now and then to give a mission or do some computer hacking, and that was it. Actually, in general there were WAY too many characters, especially since only three of them got enough screentime and development to feel like main characters, I just ended forgetting all of their names.
In short, I had a lot of fun watching Black Cat, but I found it very confusing and aimless, and it didn’t do nearly enough with the wonderful characters it had. I think there was a lot of potential there, they just didn’t take all the opportunities for greatness they had. I dunno I’m gonna say it was 7/10, maybe 6.5/10. I’m hoping the manga resolves some of these issues.
