Where I Watch: Black Cat (Dub)

[Wuyabi]

Sven and Blondie are holed up in a hotel. It is morning, and Blondie is suspicious as to why Torneo’s men haven’t come after them. Sven tells her to cut the crap and spill the beans. Here’s the reveal: Blondie isn’t even blonde, and she’s Rinslet! The little girl is a bio-weapon, created with nanotech Rudman stole from the military. Rinslet wants to snag the kid and sell her back to the military for big bucks. Meanwhile, Johnny hangs out on a roof, musing.
At Rudman’s estate, Rudman tries to have the little girl, Eve, kill a subordinate for kicks, but she refuses: “This is not the prey that I am hunting.” Eve kills a few guards in search of her quarry. Knowing this show, it’s probably Johnny.  

[Wuyabi]

Sven spots Eve trying to feed the birds while out for smokes. She sadly introduces herself as a demon while the boys at the villa start a manhunt for her. Eve seems existentially sad about her situation… so Sven makes small talk about pigeons and gets them some ice cream. Huh.

Eve, being your stereotypical anime blank slate, has never had something so delicious before. They small talk about food, and Sven teaches her to feed pigeons with leftover bits of ice cream cone. He promises to get her a hot dog, heading in the direction of a nearby stand… and of course, that’s when Eve gets nabbed. Sven is barely able to dodge the men’s bullets, and can only curse as they drive away, but Eve still has a napkin from her encounter with Sven as a memento.  

[Wuyabi]

Johnny is interrupted from meditating on his gun by our obsessive man in white, Creed. It’s clear that Johnny doesn’t like the attention, but Creed’s not taking the hint, and gets all up in Johnny’s face about his botched job: He trained Johnny better than that! (Insert Crypt-Keeper cackle here.)

Creed plays Mr. Exposition, informing Johnny that the nanomachines within Eve have transformative properties that can change people into one of two different bioweapons, Angels, or Demons. (Guess which one Eve is!) These properties are called “trance”.

Back at the ranch, Rinslet is ticked that her bounty is gone. Sven insists that there is good in Eve, and that, as a gentleman, it his solemn duty to save a Damsel In Distress. Back at Johnny’s, Creed says that Eve isn’t too big of a threat to take down yet. Rinslet/Creed want the plans. The boys think alike: A distraction will draw out Torneo while they themselves get to Eve.

TO BE CONTINUED!  

[Wuyabi]

Ep 4 - The Grinning Cat

Y’know, I’m beginning to develop a grudging affection for this peppy little theme tune. Eve sleeps, and is spoken of as one would a product. Rinslet tells Sven that security’s tight. Sven would like to be more up front about the break-in, and seeks to accomplish his aim with a kitty-faced catnip bomb. His weapon of choice attracts hundreds of cats, which don’t quite serve to distract the guards so much as shock them before Sven knocks them out.

Johnny’s arrived! Yay, more angst! WOO! Runny, shooty, runny, shooty, runny, shooty! Torneo’s men don’t like Johnny-runny-shooty. Rinslet’s in the basement and someone’s stalking her! Johnny runs! Shoots! Opens doors! ACTIONY! Sven’s way behind, but somehow, using his Right Eye of Doom will tip things in his favor.  

[Wuyabi]

Downstairs, Rinslet is learning why you should never go into a strange basement: After using a keycard-slug to open a door, she is astonished when she sees… something other than Eve, who is being commanded by Torneo to hunt some prey. She’s reluctant… so the jerk slaps her, to stifle “the willpower inside of her.” Yeah, he’ll be dead by the end of this episode. Eve tightens her grip on her kerchief-napkin.

Rinslet investigates an abandoned reaserch lab, and finds an oddly labeled disk, and a strangely glowing tank. Johnny’s fast, so Torneo wants something called an NS-Oscillating Amplifier. Sven turns out to be faster. Rinslet sees no rhyme or reason to the freaks of nature in the tanks. Sven feeds Eve a Jawbreaker, and she wipes his face with his now-really-dirty hanky.  

[Wuyabi]

Johnny arrives! Eve turns her arm into a BFS! Now that is cool! The jawbreaker and the promise of a nice dinner is the only thing keeping Eve from showing Johnny her recipe for kitty shish-kebab. That, and Sven’s well-timed punch to Johnny’s face. Torneo isn’t having any of Eve’s plans for an outing, though, and has his crony slam a card onto her chest. (The visual is… disturbing.) This turns her into a spikey-haired, glowing, sword-handed, emotionless killing machine that immediately starts hunting Johnny.

When Torneo turns his guns on Sven, Rinslet pops out of the floor, providing enough of a distraction for the two to get away. Sven and Rinslet make it outside, where Sven launches himself into the fray, and is pierced by Eve’s claw as he rips the card off Eve’s chest. Torneo is not pleased by Eve’s subsequent tears, and is so not pleased by the fact that his lab is exploding that he goes mad shortly before he and his crony are consumed by flames. CALLED IT.  

[Wuyabi]

The gang, including Sven, seems to have made it out okay. Rinslet reiterates that she didn’t set the lab to blow, the person who trashed it before must’ve. Sven tells her that she must’ve enjoyed the fact that it did. Rinslet says yes, the job was personal. Torneo destroyed a military lab in her hometown, killing thousands. Johnny seems intent on adding one more to that body count, but then he remembers Nomiko’s words about a shooter being in control of their gun: “If I don’ wanna shoot, then I won’t.” Thankfully for Eve, today is not a good day to die.

Sephiria and the Ozlings seem to think Johnny got the job done. Nomiko says hello to Johnny and asks him his name. He just smiles, ‘cause he knows I make up better ones! 3nodding blaugh  

[Wuyabi]

I wanna weigh in with my thoughts on the voice cast:

Brandon Potter as Sven - I really wanna hear this guy's natural speaking voice, cause every time I hear him, in any role, he just sounds... odd. It's weird.

Brina Palencia as Eve - Palencia is fast becoming one of my new favorite VAs, with one caveat: When she voices kids using her high register, it comes off as a tad... (winces) inhuman. However, that's put to very good use here.

Jamie Marchi as Rinslet - There's nothing exceedingly notable or notorious about Miss Marchi's performance, but I did detect her Tenessee twang peeking through.

Jason Liebrecht as Train - He sounds grumpy, petulant, and far more suitable to be Syaoran (which, of course, he is), but the ADR Director fo this project specializes in over the top dubs, so, meh.