Manga Preview = Black Cat

Black cat is an epic story with fun characters and great action and comedy. Black Cat follows the adventure of Train Heartnet, a once elite eraser and now a sweeper (bounty hunter) that travel around hunting down the biggest bounties. He travels with his partner Sven Vollfied, who was once a top IBI (International Bureau of Investigation) agent, now has also turned sweeper (it was Sven who brought Train in to the sweeping business).
The story follows the two as they try to make a living in this type of business. They will eventually meet a girl named Rinslet Walker, who is a master thief, and be asked to help her on her next mission. Little do any of them now that they will run into a young girl that will change their lives. Before the mission Sven find a young lost girl named Eve, and after spending time with her find that she has relation to their next target. Sven is badly wounded, but with the help of Train the two enter into the mission with Rinslet. During the mission Sven finds Eve and is told that Eve is a Bio-organic girl that can change her body as she sees fit. After some nice moves by train and the team, Eve joins the group.
In reality Kentaro Yabuki (writer and artist) says that Eve is also to be the main character. He tells that the story has two main characters and two story ideas. One is trains past and how it will affect the lives of his friends, and the second is the growing to age story of Eve.
Now to leave you will the big plot of the series. Train was an elite assassin now as a Chronos Number. He worked for the Chronos organization that owns 1/3 of the world economy. The numbers are people that are masters of one weapon and have been given a version of their master weapon made from a metal known as Orichalcum (the strongest metal known to man in this story). The member and the weapon are given a tattoo of a roman numeral, which train will be given the number VIII (hence the name Black Cat).
When Train was on a mission he meets a girl named Saya Minatsuki. She will change Train’s idea of what it means to be happy. When Train decides to leave Chronos his former Partner Creed Diskenth kills Saya hoping to change Train’s mind back to a killer. It is said that the Black Cat was killed for leaving the Numbers. Soon after the rescue of Eve, Creed finds Train and asks him to join his revolution to destroy Chronos.
The story unfolds from this point as Trains past begins to come back into his life, and his friends try to stay alive in this world that Train used to live in. This story is filled with action, comedy, and sci-fi that are done in a very well told way. You will be drawn into the action from the very first volume. Black Cat is one of those stories that once you finish reading it you will want to go tough the ride time and time again. The complete series is in stores now.

George Scherer