Black Cat V2

 

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Black Cat is written and illustrated by Kentaro Yabuki and published in 2001 by Shonen Jump. He has also written Yamato Genssoki. Black Cat is rated T+ for older teens. There is violence, language, smoking and drinking, and some suggestive material.

Spoiler Alert!

This volume kicks off with Train, Rinslet, and Sven raiding the home of mob boss and weapons dealer, Torneo Rudman, in search for his secret weapon, a young girl named Eve who has been genetically engineered to transform her body into any kind of weapon she needs to. They succeed in freeing Eve, Rin steals the research, and Train learns his Chronos replacement—a man named Creed—is searching for him. Creed has been using Torneo’s weapons research for his own ends.

Eve decides to join Train and Sven as Sweepers and Torneo is killed by Creed while on his way to prison.

Jumping ahead, we see ourselves at a festival. Eve is amazed at the people and festivities while Sven gets the feeling they’re being watched. Train tries to set Sven at ease but leaves the group in order to lure their followers out into the open. This is where a magic system, called Tao, is introduced. Creed’s henchman is a master of it and tells Train Creed wants to see him.

Meanwhile, Rinslet—who is meeting a new client for a job—is captured by Creed and used as bait to force Train into meeting him. Here we get a glimpse of Train’s backstory and his reason for hating Creed—a woman who Train was in love with was killed by Creed. The two men meet. Creed wants to recruit Train—specifically the Black Cat—to his cause of world domination. Train refuses and they fight, Creed revealing himself to also be a Tao master. Train is willing to die if it means killing Creed and he does manage to cause serious injury before being thrown from the building. Rinslet saves him and Sven and Eve arrive in time to take the two of them back to a safe house. We also discover Creed is gathering other Tao masters to his cause in order to defeat Chronos.

This volume ends with the group deciding to move on with their sweeper business in the hopes of staying out of Creed’s fight. Train fully intends to kill him but his friends come first. Meanwhile, Creed is healing and plotting the next phase of his plans to overthrow Chronos.

Like the first volume, everything moves quickly. Locations change, characters make decisions, backstory is provided, and character introduction and development is all sudden. This keeps things moving but it also prevents the reader from studying each element more closely before moving on. Creed comes off as the crazy, obsessive, and not-fully stable villain who may have a thing for Train (it’s not clearly stated as of this point). He sees himself at the head of a revolution, removing the “old fools” of Chronos, and liberating a third of the world’s economy and infrastructure. Of course, he plans on taking over that economy and infrastructure after “turning the world upside down.” I’m not sure I buy him as a villain since I can’t tell if he’s doing all of this in the hopes of impressing Train or if he has some other motive beyond grandeur and world domination.

I do like learning more about Train. Yes, he’s a goofball, but he has a soft spot for women and children because someone decided to give him a chance. Saya was a sweeper who nursed an injured Black Cat back to health. The two fell in love and for that she was murdered by Creed. Train will always come to the rescue of a woman or child because he believes that’s what Saya would do.

Sven and Eve don’t get much development here, though Eve may be able to sense when danger is near. Again, this isn’t really exaggerated upon just yet. And, unfortunately, Rinslet plays no other role than the damsel in distress, though maybe she’s redeemed a little by jumping out of the building in order to save Train.

The magic system is a bit disappointing. It’s not explained beyond a “martial art” that uses someone’s chi in order to do a specific task. Creed can produce an invisible sword up to 80 meters in length, one of his henchmen can make puppets out of people via a neurotoxin in bee venom, a school girl named Kyoko can cause things—and people—to burn up to 1000 degrees. Each thing is specific to their person and has something to do with this chi that is never explained. There’s also the question of why some people are able to do this and others are not. Perhaps it would make more sense if I knew more about Taoism but as someone on the outside and with no endnotes on the subject, I feel a bit cheated with this. It’s a way to overpower the characters without putting a ton of effort into them. Train is athletic and a master marksman with his pistol, yes there are some impossible moves he performs but he is also able to get hurt. Sven is mortal but he’s inventive and street smart. Creed is meant to be threatening without giving us a physical reason to fear him beyond he’s insane and killed someone in the past. A sword that we can’t see because he made it with his mind isn’t all that intimidating, and I’m not sure it really fits with his flamboyant personality.

The art style is good. Again, the main characters all share the same facial structure while side characters are much more varied. There are some more violent images depicted in the panels this time but it’s always subtle and never grotesque. Most action is shown using lines to indicate movement, but I feel like this means any hits lack any serious weight. I do like how overly intense some of the expressions get between Train and Creed. Everything darkens, lines become thick and jagged, and you can tell there is a real threatening presence when that happens. Those are some of the best images, in my opinion.

I remember liking this series when I was younger but going back to it, I can’t help but notice some serious flaws. Creed’s plan is a bit too large for me to grasp and his motives are unclear. I’m expected to just accept some people are able to use supernatural powers when we’ve already established advanced technology that could be used for the same purpose. Pacing is also a bit off. It feels like we’re too busy sprinting towards the fight scenes without really building up why we should care about the fights or the characters involved.

Anyone just starting out with manga or transitioning into the T rating, this is a decent place to start, but I wouldn’t say it’s great and I wouldn’t really consider it a favorite of mine. 

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