Everything about the anime is enjoyable, bearable, sad, happy, funny and so on. The anime creates these emotional attachments to characters. When a friend of Train Heartnet dies, you would cry as they never deserved to die. The series likes to flip all the cliches on their head, the best one would be train's goal: taking 'revenge' against Creed (not in the 'normal' way, Train does something irrational to our thinking)

The only thing that is questionable is the last story arc as it is just rushed and is out of pace. Like most 1 season animes there is a sudden conclusion (in this case the last story arc gets resolved in the last episode). All the fights in the last story arc are very disappointing. (show less)

As a true black cat… I’ve come to deliver bad luck.
Wait; wrong line. Let me start over.

“Black Cat” is an action-packed yet humorous anime, with a fast-paced and well thought-out story that’s easy to follow. At first glance, some parts will seem clichéd, but most of these clichés are turned upside down in quite unpredictable ways. However, the time frame is a tad too small for the plot, and in the last few episodes there’s too much to solve so they get really rushed, leaving a bad aftertaste in this otherwise excellent anime. Four, five, six more episodes and the story would truly have been excellent – but for some reason, I still have to encounter 30-episode anime.

The characters are individual, well thought-out, quite lovable and sometimes really humorous, and character dynamics are well developed – although personally, I find Creed’s infatuation with Train just creepy. ^^° Character development is well done, too; even the at the beginning cold and sad protagonist changes throughout the story. Again, the only problem would be the last episodes. The dialogue generally is quirky with some good jokes to keep you entertained all the way.

Genre-wise, “Black Cat” contains action, friendship, thriller, sci-fi, drama, humour, and a small touch of romance. It alternates between emotional, heavily action-packed, and funny, although to anyone used to mainly comedy anime, it will seem rather dark as its focus lies on underground movements, conspiracies, and the question of where exactly human rights and technology clash. (FYI: That last point, and perhaps the violence, is the reason this anime is rated “mature”.) Personally, I love how it can make you think, though if you happen to hate to be drawn into conflicting issues, you should think twice before deciding whether to watch this.

The animation is absolute top-notch, and although “Black Cat” contains quite an amount of violence, it doesn’t rely too heavily on gore (in fact, in terms of blood alone, it’s no worse than a normal teen-rated action anime). Battles are fast-paced and may be a tad hard to follow. Personally, I found the pace fitting since most fights are gun- instead of swordfights, but you will have to pay close attention. On a side note; I only recently started reading the manga, but so far I perceived it as a lot less chaotic than the anime, so for those with problems understanding the battles, perhaps the manga might be the better choice. Just saying. (For those interested, the manga scanlation is – still – at manga-access.com.) The artwork of “Black Cat” is well-done; facial expressions are pretty funny at times, though the overall tone is rather dark due to its themes. The music fits the scenes, though I’ll admit the opening and ending songs aren’t really my style.
(Side note: Do you know those theme tones that always appear in the midst of an anime episode? Well, the one of Black Cat got stuck in my ears a month ago and I can’t seem to get rid of it. By now it’s funny… ^_^)

Overall, a quirky and in a weird way realistic action/sci-fi/friendship anime with comedy, drama and a touch of romance that draws its viewers in and makes them think. I should utter a warning for violence (not gore) beyond teen level, and for conflicting issues – if you hate to be drawn into those, don’t watch. However, if you’re a mature and open-minded viewer looking for a well thought-out and very well-animated story with action, sci-fi, friendship, drama and comedy, and don’t mind a rushed end too much, I can only advise you to give this a try. (show less)

One word. Three letters. All uppercase. Three punctuation marks. WOW!!!.

This 24 episode anime is without words, what I mean by that is no review or write up or blurb can describe this anime. The only way you can truly appreciate this great anime is by watching all 24 episodes. Do it in one night if you have to, but if you’d like to savour the awesomeness that is this show then it’s best left to perhaps two or three episodes a day.

Okay, so back to the anime, I will not be going into any plot description as that is for all you awesome anime lovers to find out as you watch it. Firstly, the story, without giving too much away it must be said that this show definitely keeps you entertained through all 24 episodes, not once does the story become stale or monotonous and it doesn’t have anything that really distracts you too much. There are a few character side plots, but those are just as interesting to watch as the main story line.

The dialogue is another great component of this anime, it has just enough variety in what is being said to keep it interesting but not over the top tone changes. The drunk guy is especially funny when he rambles on like an idiot.

Action sequences are straight from a Michael Bay film, that is, they are amazing. There are so many different forms of fighting from gunplay to martial arts, to sword fighting to anamorphic kicking ass with pony tails. It’s not constant action though, there are one or two episodes that are calm and serve to describe incidents in the past, or memories. The last episode in particular is quite confusing, but I’ll leave that for everyone to decide on their own.

Animation wise, this anime is superb and straight off of the top shelf. The art is smooth and clean throughout the entire series and is greatly exaggerated by the mesmeric use of colours. One episode everything is as it should look, the next dark colour tones accentuate the dark underlying of the story.

Over all this is definitely an anime to get your hands on, with everything said about this anime I think it really deserved 30 – 36 episodes because it’s just that great!

Review by Matty~~ ^^, for anime-access.com

://HACKtheworld

http://hacktheworldbymatty.blogspot.com (show less)