Black Cat is a 24 episode anime based upon the manga of the same name. However, it is only inspired by the manga as many events and plot elements were changed. The anime has a slow start, three episodes in and you still feel as if nothing is explained properly. All we know at this point is that Train is part of Chronos, he is known as the Black Cat and is a fearsome assassin. Sven is a Sweeper (which is a kind of bounty hunter) that's poor and always hungry but carries a briefcase full of contraptions. Eve is this bioweapon kid and Rinslet is someone in disguise. Nothing about the world is explained and everything seems shrouded in darkness and mystery.
Chronos is an organization whose purpose is to keep the peace... by killing people. Granted, they only target villains such as crime bosses but they aren't painted in a good light. The pacing is slow and the storytelling feels disjointed. While it tries to take the time in revealing Train's origins as a member of Chronos, his relationship with Saya, and eventually the reason that he becomes a Sweeper and journey with Sven and Eve, it doesn't feel like it flows properly. Even after it all happens, the anime still feels like it's taking too much time in setting up the rest of the plot.
Once it finally gets back the initial set up and starts to focus on the relationship between Creed and Train, that is when the pacing picks up and it gets a lot more interesting. This is also because the rest of the characters, under Creed's Apostles of the Stars (whose aim is to reshape the world), are introduced with their own special powers. While all of them show up at once making it harder to remember who each one is, it spices up the blandness that had been permeating the anime up until that point.
The anime gets better from around one-third of the way in and picks up its stride around halfway in. It never elevates itself more than an average anime though. The exaggerated emotions and humor makes it enjoyable at certain points but what drags it down is the lack of an objective. While this is a story about Train and Creed, it feels like it is always pushed to the back in favor of episodic storytelling, which is frankly boring. While we're told that Train is cool and powerful, he is shown to be extremely reckless. To be honest, out of all the fights that he was in, it never felt like he was leagues above his opponent. As a matter of face, there were more than a few times where he got destroyed instead. In the beginning, there is no camaraderie between Train, Sven and Eve. They don't feel like a team since they split up and do their own thing so often, lacking teamwork. It eventually gets better as they get a feel for how each other works but not by much.
Train has a tendency to just leave the group behind and go ahead. This becomes annoying because you don't get the sense of teamwork whenever he does this. Despite the action scenes ramping up in the second half, as well as a more defined objective, there are episodes where something random is slotted in and it feels very out of place. All of the scenes are flashy but lacks substance, which is disappointing and not very fun to watch. It also skews towards campy humor but works well on the whole. The animation quality varies significantly and fight scenes are filled with characters mid-pose with a flashy background.
The major arc is severely rushed. Characters show up with new weapons with no explanations, and the worse thing is that they get another one in the next scene with little fanfare. It's confusing and lazy. The result? We get a disappointing resolution and then the reason for this becomes clear, an anime original arc to round out the story. The sad thing is that they final few episodes are a slew of episodes with poor plot and character motivations that isn't properly fleshed out.
Overall, Black Cat is a subpar anime with a rushed plot. The sad thing is that it horribly adapts the whole of the Black Cat manga and threw away a lot of the character development. What we get is numerous characters introduced who only show up for a handful of scenes, look menacing and then disappear. The story is supposed to revolve around Train and Creed but it lacks any sort of charm and we're left with a poor anime that doesn't make much sense.
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