Noir

This show is great. Every Anime fan should have this in his/her repertoire. But please, they could have skipped Mirellies flashback scenes, they very annoying when they pop up now and then. Other than that, I have to say: Just watch it!!!

Although the artwork in Noir is not a style I prefer with its triangle chin and noses, and over-sized eyes, the strengths of this anime are its story and its ability to leverage emotional impact. Without difficulty this could have been fit into less than half the number of episodes that are on the seven DVD volume set since each episode reveals only a small part of the mystery, with frequent near-term and long-term flashbacks.

Mireille Bouquet is an assassin for hire that works alone, at least until a mysterious Japanese girl who has lost her memory shows up. She knows herself only as Kirika Yuumura, which she assumes to be a fake name. However it is obvious from the start that she is even more lethal than Mireille, who reluctantly takes her as a roommate because an artifact that Kirika possesses, a music-box watch with an iconic emblem on its cover that looks like a state seal more than anything else. The watch once belonged to Mirelle's father, who was killed with the rest of Mireille's family for reasons she has never learned.

To make her position clear, Mireille promises Kirika, "when all of this is made clear, I will kill you." Kirika accepts this without protest and even something akin to what appears to be relief. "I'll be ready," she says.

So the girls are in the business together, with the leggy, blonde Mireille in the lead and Kirika doing most of what she is told. Although I am no expert, but it would seem to me that if you are an assassin and you continually get into pitched gun battles with dozens of better-armed foes it might be a sign to question whether you are doing it right. Even if you always win. Mireille's favorite working outfit is a scarlet blouse and black miniskirt with a slit up to the waist, which looks good but is hardly practical. Kirika dresses less flamboyantly but you have to wonder just where do those girls carry all those extra ammo clips? Further, if your life depends on your anonymity why would you go about your work dressed so conspicuously? The music track is slick and sophisticated, but it gets ruined by repetition. The first few times you see action scenes with the themed aria, a Latin verse or two that feels like it has religious overtones to it, it works. After the 20th action scene with the same track playing you want to shut it off. The bad guys are almost always virtually lining up to get shot, being such bad shots themselves I suppose they want to get it over with. For all of that the fight choreography well done and fun to watch.

None of this ruins what is the real point of Noir, and that is the relationship between Mireille and Kirika and their mystery, with the introduction of several other strong women characters along the way. There is no sex or even simple nudity anywhere in the plot, which is a shame because although the writers obviously thought it would either cheapen the production or perhaps distract the story, it would have given more opportunities to break up the repetition that drags on too long.

Noir is an anime set in the near future. Mireille Bouqet is a young girl who happens to be one of the most talented assassins in the underworld. One day she receives an e-mail with the name of her next target: Kirika Yumura. The e-mail has an attachment phrase, "Join me on a pilgrimage to the past." and a melody that was playing from a music box (Mireille's fathers watch) when Mireille's parents were killed. Mireille, whose parents were killed by a mysterious assassin, and Kirika, a girl who has no memory of her past, eventually team up together as assassins.

Noir is a remarkable anime. It has a lot of focus on the story, and the creators take their time to tell it. You don't see any funny sequences in these series, you see the characters hold on to whatever small hope they have left in their life, and you see the two main characters do their job in cold blood and an empty look in the eye. After watching a couple of episodes, I found it hard to take a break away from Noir. It has so much atmosphere, and the feelings of the characters really got to me. The main story has some interesting twists and turns, and at some points it really surprised me, and I never really couldn't be sure that the things I new wasn't going to turn around on me.

If there is anything I should complain about, it should be the flashbacks that you see through the whole plot. They just appear too many times, but in my opinion they bind the story together, and I liked them because of their "Noir"-style, so it really isn't such a big deal.

Noir has great animation all the way, a good plot, some interesting side-stories, and a kick-ass sound track that I regularly listen to on my computer. People who like action-packed anime may get a little bored watching Noir, though.

On first appearance, Mireille Bouquet would strike the most vigilant eye as nothing more harmful than a beautiful young woman who spends her afternoons in the markets of Paris; shopping for groceries and riding to and from her loft apartment on a moped through the cobbled streets of charmingly rustic neighborhoods; a perfect disguise for one of the most deadliest assassins in the world.

On first appearance, Kirika Yumura would strike the most vigilant eye as nothing more harmful than an innocent young girl, living a school girl's life in Tokyo, Japan; another perfect disguise for another one of the world's most deadliest assassins.

The only real difference that sets these two apart is that Mireille stands out as a woman who's never had the obsessed questions of her past answered, while Kirika is literally unable to remember her past.

The only clues that Kirika has ever had to her missing memory are the ones that have now forced her to seek out Mireille's help. Resigning herself to the fact that their lives are inextricably linked, Mireille is forced to team up with this mysterious and dangerous stranger in the hopes of finding the answers she's always sought, while at the same time helping to recover Kirika's lost memory. From this point on it becomes only a matter of time before their quest takes them deeper into a world of dark conspiring forces, savagely intent on bending these femme fatales to their own will and at any cost.

As the first installment of a seven disc collection, Noir: Shades of Darkness is an impressive debut that succeeds through a combination of consummate storytelling, beautiful art and a praiseworthy soundtrack. Audiences will walk away feeling compelled to make space in their DVD library for the entire series.

This is a decent show, lets just get that out of the way. Its crisp, stylish and occasionally beautiful. I thoroughly enjoyed it, however whats frustrating is there are a few simple things it could have done to make it excellent. The basic story is that of Mirielle and Kiryka, a young woman and a teenager who are highly trained assassins. Kiryka, the teenager, has severe amnesia and cannot remember anything about herself, her past or how she can kill so easily. The only thing she know is the name Noir. She tracks down Mirielle and finds she has some connection to her from her past. They agree to team up until the figure out Kiryka's past as the assassin team known as Noir.

The fight scenes are excellent technically, the animation is crisp and top notch and the things these two women can do with a simple handgun is astonishing. However the major problem I have with the fights is the utter lack of blood. Now I don't need blood to enjoy a movie, but the complete lack of blood throughout the entire series (save one seen that the repeatedly flash back to) makes the gunplay seem almost sterile. Just a little blood here and there would give the gunfights a more visceral dangerous feeling. Also some people might take issue with the fact that the gunfight are very James Bond-esque, meaning the protagonists fire 3 shots and you swear 5 people fall, while the so called crack troops the often come up against can't seem to hit anything but air. However if you are able to suspend your disbelief as is necessary when watching anime you probably won't find much of a problem with it.

Another problem I had with this series is the constant use of flashbacks. I don't mind flashbacks when they are important to the story but do we really need to watch the same scene six times? It gets to the point when the director must have been a few minutes short on the episode so they decide to flashback to the same scene again. Also sometimes during the middle of the series it begins to drag a bit. There are times when its slightly boring and slow moving but its not that bad. The English dubbing is fairly good for the most part though some of the English voices seem slightly sedated. The music is haunting and beautiful if somewhat overplayed. All in all its an entertaining series though not on the same level of style as Cowboy Bebop or the same level emotionally as Evangelion.