Search - Black Cat Starter Set on DVD

Another Anime Worth Watching

Craig Hintz | 12/23/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I heard about this anime months before it was released, and instantly began hoping for a dubbed version to be released. Now that it's finally out, I felt strangely inclined to comment on it.

First off, and this is just my humble opinion, but I think the dub turned out rather well. The character's voices don't sound forced, or overacted, and seem to convey the emotions of each character rather well. At the very least, none of the lines made me cringe, which is always a good thing.

The plot doesn't develop very far in this first volume. It takes it's time developing, which is a good thing. I don't want to spoil too much of the plot that is there, however, so I'll be brief. What is shown in this volume seems like a fantastic start. From what I can tell, it looks like the anime will revolve more around character development and their relationships than anything else. The story has a serious tone to it, but this is anime, so expect to see a fair shair of silly humor as well. If the idea of a story of near super-naturally skilled assassins, and gentleman bounty hunters sounds appealing, this anime likely won't turn you away, nor should you turn it away.

The soundtrack is great, though I reserve final judgement. From what I have heard, I'm greatly impressed. The music sets the mood and tone rather well. Overall, it has a very Trigun-esque sound, but with it's own flair. The opening theme is a wonderful piece of music, and remains one of my favorites as far as anime opening themes go, or even music in general.

One problem I do have with the show is the ending theme. It's not so much that it's bad. Not at all. It's the fact that it tends to clash with whatever just happened in the episode. The song is just to light-hearted and comical sounding, and this includes the ending animation as well. I restate this thought, after seeing something serious, it seems to clash too much to go to something light-hearted. This however isn't enough to bring down the score for me, as if I don't like the ending animation I can just skip it.

One other problem that some people might see in the series is, as stated before, the fact that it emphasises character development more than anything else, and this means that the plot can seam rushed at parts. For instance, a character might decide to hunt down a bounty head for the reward. It will then skip to the confrontation with said bounty head. There's no detective segment to it, because the emphasis is on what the characters actually do when they find the guy, and not in finding him. This is something that might possibly turn people away, though I personally prefer character development over something slight such as that any day, and I doubt that this would bother anyone enough to avoid the show entirely, since the main plot still packs the punch it would otherwise.

With all that said, I'd recommend most anyone who likes anime. As to those who don't, I still say that you should check Black Cat out, but it's possible the somewhat fantastic, and unrealistic elements of the show might turn you away."

A nice anime, condensed though.

Edward R. Delaney | Roma, Italia | 09/29/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Naturally, there will be differences between a source material and reiterations of it. Black Cat suffers from being condensed into to short of a series. It falls into a weird placement, because two seasons is far too long for it, but it just doesn't seem to have the character depth that the Manga did, but hey- not everything is perfect."