Anime Pilgrimage RTT

Black Cat – episode 5

November 10, 2005 on 12:40 pm | In Black Cat | 3 Comments

“A Determined Cat”

This episode focuses on Black Cat and leaves Sven to the wayside, and the conclusion is a huge cliché. This is perfectly acceptable because it is revealed that Creed is a psychopath with homoerotic leanings! Score!

Train decides that he no longer wants to kill for Chrono, and thus abandons the organisation. Chronos Number I, Sephiria, dispatches Creed (the rose fellow) to “persuade” Train, but he turns out to be crazy. Therefore by the end of this episode it’s on for young and old in this, the start of a new arc!

The sole Sven scene is enjoyable because it shows that Sven, Rinslet and Eve have quickly formed into something of a unit. Rinslet didn’t really intend to stick around, but it’s not like she’s got anywhere else to go. They’re good people to be with, which is why the shots of Train smiling in the OP kind of concern me.
That’s not even going into all of the messages about the future that are conveyed by the ED …

Anyway, populating Chronos with real people along the lines of Belze, Sephiria and Creed is a much better development than if they had remained as elders projected on a screen. I’m really not surprised about the discord within the organisation, as that seems to be a prerequisite nowadays.
The sheer insanity that Creed brings to the table, and the unabashed jealousy, hatred and ambition is a double edged sword; I love the drama he generates, and I love Shinichirou Miki’s overblown performance, but I hate how much fuel he will provide for the yaoi fire.

Itagaki Shin continues to make Black Cat as visually arresting as possible, although the fight between Creed and Train could have easily been done with less ugly colours. There was a conversation conducted between two members of Chrono, shot entirely in the reflections of the polished floor of the room in which it was set; this just added to the ambiguity of these characters, of whom we are given no real suggestion of position or relevance.
On the other hand, (yukata girl) Saya is right when she says that she can read Train’s emotions effortlessly: for a ruthless killer who doesn’t know what he wants, he’s amazingly expressive.

“A Determined Cat” could really have ended on a better note, but it was a sufficiently exciting episode of Black Cat that effectively kickstarts its second character arc. I won’t pretend that I believe that simply talking to Saya was enough to turn Train – there has to be something more – but this is working out pretty well on the whole.

I just read that this show will be 52 episodes. I hope that the early promise shown doesn’t lead to Black Cat running out of steam and going nowhere (Not that I’m naming any Bleach … ah, damnit).