Out of the Black

The first episodes of the broadcast series Black Cat (2005) bring together four unlikely characters in a sci-fi/espionage adventure. Train, The Black Cat, uses his superhuman speed and marksmanship as an assassin. He forges his first bond with a human when he meets Saya, a "sweeper" or bounty hunter who likes to sing from rooftops. Sven, a perennially broke sweeper, tries to talk his way into and out of adventures. This improbable trio collides when Sven tries to rescue Train's next target: Eve, a little girl who's been turned into a killing machine through illicit nanotechnology. A mixture of naiveté and murder, she recalls Lucy/Nyu in Elfin Lied. Director Shin Itagaki uses fast cutting, dramatic lighting and interesting camera angles effectively, and voice actor Brandon Potter gives Sven an appropriately desperate charm. But Black Cat never quite gels: the shifts in tone from comic to heartwarming to dramatic seem jarring, and the characters feel like they walked in from different series.(Rated TV PG, suitable for ages 14 and older: violence, violence against women, brief nudity, alcohol and tobacco use) --Charles Solomon   (1. The Solitary Cat, 2. The Hesitant Cat, 3. The Cat in the Dark, 4. The Grinning Cat)