Train Heartnet, known as the Black Cat, is an efficient, conscienceless assassin. He’s very good at what he does and what he does is kill people. When he meets Saya Minatsuki he starts to question his destiny, enough to give up the life of a killer to become a bounty hunter. But his old life is not so easy to avoid, as he becomes a target for both the Chronos Numbers and the Taoists. With the war between Chronos and the Apostles supposedly over it looks like Train is finally safe...

Black Cat: Volume 6 - Cat’s Nine Lives, directed by Shin Itagaki from a script by Kentaro Yabuki, sees the Gonzo series finally coming to a close with its last four episodes.

Episode twenty one, The Lost Cat: Having returned from their apocalyptic battle with the Apostles, Train and his friends are justified in celebrating. But things are not as settled as they think. Members of Chronos and the Apostles turn against their own number to create the Zero Numbers, whilst Rinslet discovers some information about destroyed research called The Eden Project. With the war supposedly won Sven thinks that the human weapon Eve should be like other children, even if he has to find the money to send her to school. Dejected, Eve runs away only to be captured, by Mason, who plans to use her to initiate The Eden Project.

Episode twenty two, The Cat Bares Claws: Sees Eve in the hands of Mason and the breakaway Zero Numbers faction, and Eve’s creators planning to initiate Eden - which will distribute nano-machines that should eradicate violence from the world. Train and Sven plan to get Eve back before Mason can do this. The gang gets a break when they meet Tearju, Eve’s creator, whilst a world away Eve meets her counterpart Adam, together they will initiate Eden.

Episode twenty three, The Cat’s Paradise: Millions of Nano-machines rain down onto the city sucking the life force from the population. As the threat from Eden is perceived to be global, both old friends and foes join together to stop the vast machine which hangs over the city. With Eve believing that she is in paradise, Adam manipulates her to destroy any resistance in the real world, but will even the combined might of the Apostles, Chronos and Black Cats gang be enough to free Eve and stop Eden in time?

Episode twenty four, The Carefree Cat: With Eden raining down monsters, as a defence mechanism, the remaining members of Chronos and the Apostles battle to hold their ground while Train and his people try to rescue Eve and stop Eden.

Extras remain a pretty much anaemic affair with only a bunch of trailers and the textless opening sequence with the song 'Dain no Hana' ('Diamond Flower') by Yoriko and the textless closing sequence 'Katsuzure' ('Blisters') by Matsuda Ryouji. The audio options remain a 5.1 English track or a Stereo Japanese Track. Out of the two, mostly because it is a show with a lot of action, the 5.1 track was by far the better one. The clean visuals remain the same as the previous discs.

I got the feeling that the show was starting to loose its way a little with this new release. Having concluded the main story arc in Volume 5, this stand alone story feels like it’s been tacked on to make up the numbers. That is not to say that the story isn’t worth watching.

8

Charles Packer