Noein: Mô hitori no kimi he

GONZO did it again! Noein, which was created following the success of GONZO's retelling of Gankutsuou, is a truly mind-altering experience. Kazuki Akane is the creator, he is well-known for his directorial work on the brilliant Vision of Escaflowne series.

Noein is a beautiful series. The plot leans heavily upon principles of Quantum Physics. There are billions of versions of yourself in alternate dimensions. Haruka, a tween girl, finds herself pulled into a battle between the dimensions of Shangrila and Lacryma as Shangrila pursues the destruction of all existence and Lacryma tries to stop them. The key to this is the Dragon's Torque and it is Haruka's good fortune to find out that she's it. Emotions run high as characters meet future alternate versions of themselves as well as confronting images of themselves in the past.

I just can't hype this series enough. The music is beautiful... running from heavy chants for the battle scenes to light-hearted music for the children in the present day scenes. GONZO also pushed their animation to make some of the battles almost completely RAW in how the line work is animated. The characters are interesting in their realism in such unfortunate circumstances... but good as GONZO is, they always have that one blonde crazy guy like usual to entertain the viewer.

If you liked Gankutsuou you will like Noein as well... get the first DVD, you won't be disappointed!

I found this while searching Anime features on Crunchyroll for a long Holiday Weekend...and the short synopsis about a girl, her friends and Quantum Dimension travelers was so off the beaten track I had to give the first episode a try.

It blew me away. Other posters have noted the series delve into Quantum Theory and such, and while there is usually a bit of Handwavium science in most Sci-Fi anime, Noein differs from the usual in that it 'lightly' swings the viewer thru actual light Quantum Theory.

As for the Story itself, it's a Sci-Fi adventure that is one part young adult/Pre-teen coming of age that doesn't dive into the usual anime school age 'soap-opera' formulas. Light hearted and funny at times, and yet it can go into some of the dark raw issues of Growing-up. This part makes it very watchable for kids.

But what makes this story a masterpiece in my eyes, is how the story can appeal to adults. An Adult can watch this story and root for the kid characters while trying to understand where the other adult characters are coming from and why they are the way they are: Yuu's Mother is one poignant case in point. And last, there is the question of the Dimension Travelers themselves.

As for the rest of it, what makes this series work for me is the fact that I could NOT figure out what was going on. WHO were the Dimension Travelers? WHERE or WHEN do they come from? WHO or WHY are they fighting? And WHO is actually on WHOSE side? There is no Prologue explanatory of everything. The Viewer is given bits and glimpses of Who, Why and What as the story progresses, and the Viewer is tasked with putting the puzzle together as things move along. Because this story doesn't follow the usual anime tropes, even a jaded anime watcher can't run thru half an episode and say to themselves: "Okay, I already know what Happens from this point on..."

Oh...and just one artistic shout: The Theme Song/Sequence is simply Beautiful to watch.

I want to agree with the prior review wholeheartedly, but I have to point out that GONZO didn't have anything to do with this series (a notable omission from the staggering number of studios in the credits). The production company was Satelight.

"Noein" is an unconventional looking anime, but the story is rock solid all the way through, and it builds up from a slow beginning into something really wonderful and compelling and unique. It's rare these days to find a show that the creators obviously spent so much time and effort on. The quality of the production is staggering, especially the animation. Highly recommended.

Plot: 8.5/10 -- Rich in detail and very complex. The idea of different universes existing for every choice, with the you in that universe going down a different path, is truly fascinating.

I have to mark it down a little because of the slow pacing and unexplained elements of the story. However, I'm sure someone who has a better understanding of quantum physics would add 0.5 to this rating.

Characters: 9.7/10 -- Watching the main characters develop in Noein is different than in any other anime I've watched. You see how they *possibly* look and act in the future throughout the show (sometimes even more than one possible future version), which creates thoughts and shows the characters from different angles.

My favourite characters were not the main two (Haruka and Yuu), my favourites instead being Ai and Isami. It's both funny and cute seeing them try to hide their feelings for each other as the series progresses, Ai being a fiery red/orange-head and Isami being your average male - Unable to pick-up on signals. Isami's character is probably my favourite due to the future versions of him shown.

The only real bad character point I can think of is Yuu's character - He gets quite annoying with his attitude. The annoyance is worsened by slow plot progression.

Art: 9.5/10, Animation: 9.5/10 -- I can't rate art and animation accurately since I know nothing about it.

Noein looked amazing and fairly unique to me from the moment I first saw it. The start of the show showed that it obviously had quite a big budget, combining CG with excellent art and animation. The show kept up the high quality visuals until the end, although the less important episodes didn't get the attention the more important ones did.

Sound: 9/10 -- I'm probably being quite harsh here - The soundtrack is outstanding. The the choral battle/action music really gets you excited, the dramatic music does its job, the cute/funny music is fun to listen to... It's all great. My only reason for not rating higher is because there aren't too many tracks I'd want to listen to when not watching the series.

Total: 9.2/10 -- All in all, an amazing series. This is a series every anime fan should watch.

I'm not an anime fanatic so my list of anime series Iike is short. As an animator I tend to like the higher budget shows like Akira. Most are so crudely animated it's painful to watch. I almost didn't bother with this series for that reason. However, the story captivated me. I knew it was going to be difficult to follow until more of the future plot line had been exposed and so far, I'm not disappointed.

Animation The only reason I'm going to this much depth in my review of the animation is because other reviewers didn't feel qualified to make comments. As an animator I don't feel much more qualified but like most animators I'm stubborn and opinionated when it comes to my trade. Take with a grain of salt. Obviously my taste in animation is a bit different than the style represented here, so I'll do my best. To poke at those Sins committed in this film that are basic to any animated show. Animation is, after all, a form of acting and a story telling tool. The way it's drawn and timed can impact a story just as much as a actors reading for a voice or editing does. I want to get this out of the way first. The line work is intentionally rough and I really like the sketchy look of the show. It has an unfinished, raw quality that influences your reaction to the characters and gives the show a more honest impression, if that makes any sense. The lack of polish let's you feel that the characters are more personal and believable. The one thing, and it's a big thing, is they extended this rawness to the frame count as well. Here it has the opposite impact on the story, making it feel cheap and rushed. There are entire fight sequences that are around 12 frames per second or much less. Often to the point it looks more like an animatic (placeholder) than a finished product. I had a difficult time watching those sequences. Over all the show stays around the 12 fps range, which is really a shame. This story deserves better. It's obvious this is where the shows budget hit hardest. I especially dislike the exaggerated reactions (screaming, crying, anger) that are often the hallmark of anime. I expect them in anime but the bad frame rate makes it seem as if they were cheating or trying to avoid working on something difficult to animate, and in the end made me feel the people with the money were stingy or didn't get the story well enough to invest in it properly. I've seen work come out of high school art departments that were far better. I hate when things are handled so carelessly. It's an insult to the audience.

Audio I hope someone can clear this up for me. why is it that anime has such horrible over acted voices? At first I thought that it was intentional from the start. A trademark if you will. Then I got Akira on laser disk and watched the program in it's original language. The acting was subtle and very well done. The English translation, however, was loud and horribly exaggerated. It was like someone trying to talk to a hearing impaired individual. I felt as if they think American audiences are dumb so they scream at you instead of acting naturally. For example, a bar scene at the beginning of Akira, a patron leans back in his chair and yawns. In Japanese, it's a normal, somewhat subdued yawn. The English track the guy leans back and in a very loud exaggerated voice goes ERRRR YAAAAWWWWWNNN! AHHHHH It bugs me. Badly. Am I just missing the joke here? Story professional complaints aside, I found myself unable to turn off the player and go to bed. The characters are charming and easily identified with. I wasn't happy with the explanation of quantum theory but it was one of the better attempts at a very difficult to grasp concept. I felt they brushed over important concept and focused on less important ones. The explanation of "entanglement" confused me and I understand the theory! They Have an animation depicting Schrödinger's cat. Rather than explain that theory they used a more convoluted example of sand on a beach, all the while using boxes holding the cat rather than sand. I found the description confusing and far less effective than if they had just stayed with Schrodinger's Cat.

The concepts around quantum mechanics is what make the story hard to follow at first. Eventually you get it just because the events around the characters.

I was enamored with all of the characters. The lady with the southern accent cracked me up. I grew up in Texas so the accent was a bit hard but it coming out of an anime character was jarring to say the least. Ioved it.

This review sounds far more negative than I intended. I have very positive feelings toward the show and highly recommend it. It's entertaining and has a unique take on a common sci if element in today's shows. It is creative and refreshing. I agree with all the other reviews. Don't give up after only a couple of episodes. You won't be disappointed. That being the common theme in other reviews. I really don't see many people doing that though. After all, none of us did, and Im not even that much of a fan. Not to mention animation problems that made my eyes bleed. If I can enjoy it that much then you should love it.