Black Cat Vol. #6
© MVM Entertainment

Mania Grade: B-
Audio Rating: B+
Video Rating: A-
Packaging Rating: N/A
Menus Rating: B+
Extras Rating: B-
Age Rating: 15+
Region: 2 - Europe
Released By: MVM Entertainment
MSRP: £15.99
Running time: 100
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Disc Resolution: 480i/p (mixed/unknown)
Disc Encoding: MPEG-2
Series: Black Cat

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Black Cat Vol. #6 (of 6)

One threat is dealt with, but a new one is about to reveal itself, as Eve's creators decide that it's time she fulfilled her intended purpose.  With that purpose being potentially devastating for the world, it's time for Train and his allies to head into action once more…

What They Say
Will the cat's paradise come to an end?

As the world rejoices in its newfound freedom from terror, their celebration is short-lived as an even greater threat reassembles from the wreckage: The Zero Numbers. Led by traitors from both sides, this new enemy is bent on establishing a "world peace" where salvation comes at the cost of humanity.

As Sven seeks to untangle that which binds Eve, Train seeks to unravel the past from the present. The former assassin's sight must remain true to see this through to the end...

Episodes Comprise
21 – The Lost Cat
22 – The Cat Bares Claws
23 – The Cat's Paradise
24 – The Carefree Cat

The review
Audio:
Audio comes in Japanese 2.0 and English 5.1 versions - I listened to the Japanese track for this review. There's a decent amount of direction used, particularly noticeable during the action scenes, while dialogue and effects are nice & clear. There were no obvious problems.

Video:
Video is presented in its original 1.78:1 aspect, enhanced for anamorphic playback. Presentation has always been one of GONZO's strong points, and this series is no exception, with fluid animation and detailed backgrounds combining to produce a show which really does look good. Even the low-light scenes - of which there are plenty - manage to look good, with some nice use of lighting that highlights the scenes nicely. There were no obvious problems with the transfer.

Menu:
The main menu is a simple grey screen, with an image of a smiling Train taking pride of place to the right of the menu options - Play All, Select Episode, Setup and Extras.  In contrast, an ominous piece of background music plays over the top.  There are no transition animations, so it's all quick and easy to use.

Extras:
You get creditless versions of the opening and closing sequences. That's all, folks.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review will contain spoilers)
With Creed and the Apostles defeated, everyone's assuming that peaceful times are ahead - but that may not be the case.  Rinslet's been digging into something called the Eden Project, a top-secret programme involving nanomachine research.  It was discontinued after a terrorist attack some time previously, but the project's prototypes were never found - now, a number of them have set themselves up to replace Chronos as "protectors" of the world, the Zero Numbers.  Meanwhile, Sven is wondering what the gang's own super-weapon, Eve, wants to do with her life now that the fighting is over.  Just like the others, her desire is for a peaceful life - but as one of the missing parts of the Eden Project, fate may not be so kind...

So after four good, enjoyable volumes, Black Cat began to fall apart a little last volume, when most of the good stuff – all the character work – went out the window in favour of action, as the Shonen Jump roots of the original manga began to shine though.  This volume sadly continues that trend – it's a new situation and a new battle, but after the setup that episode 21 provides we're back to the same story as the gang come together to deal with the threat posed by Project Eden. 

"The gang" includes essentially everyone that Train has fought with or against during the Apostles arc of the story, which makes for a rather unwieldy string of battles as time is somehow found to shoehorn in a little fight scene for them all, however short – at times there's just too much going on in too short a time, making it very difficult to get into the story.  The use of flashbacks and flashforwards doesn't help, either, and instead of a properly enjoyable climax to the show, we get a horribly confused mish-mash of scenes that barely even feels like a coherent story.  For all that this is meant to be an end-of-the-world battle, it rarely feels that there's that much at stake.

There are a few good scenes scattered around the disc, at least.  The final conversation between Sven and Eve before Eve is recaptured, some rather surreal scenes with Eve facing the decision over whether to let Project Eden proceed as planned or return to her friends, and the final "where are they now" scenes of the series which try to give a sense of closure all work well, and it's probably no coincidence that these are most of the scenes that don't involve fighting.

The Eden Project arc is unique to the anime – the manga apparently ended with the defeat of Creed's Apostles – and it does feel very much tacked on to the end, to help the series reach the number of episodes it was scheduled to run for.  As an ending to the story, it's real disappointment.

In summary:
Black Cat closes out with a volume that it really didn't need – the previous volume provided a decent enough ending to the series and other than a few good moments, all that this volume adds is a disjointed series of fight scenes.  After the show's decent start, it's a real disappointment of an ending.

Features
Japanese Language 2.0, English Language 5.1, English Subtitles, Creditless Opening & Closing Sequences

Review Equipment
Toshiba 37X3030DB 37" widescreen HDTV; Sony PS3 Blu-ray player (via HDMI, upscaled to 1080p); Acoustic Solutions DS-222 5.1 speaker system.