untitled

Noir

Genre:

Date Submitted:June 25, 2003

Review By:Flaming Monkey

Plot and Runthrough:Everything about Noir is fairly well done. It's art is nice, nothing special but nothing about it is bad. The music is great, with a lot of techno and heavy beats for action sequences. Some orchestral sounds are also abundant, and all the music is very setting appropriate. The music seems to match wherever they go in the world (and they travel quite a bit- starting in Paris, going to South America, Sicily, etc.). The story, too, is an intricate mystery that is slowly revealed at the same time you are getting to know the characters and their pasts.

Characters:Here's a look at the main players:

Mireille Bouquet- An expert assassin, one of the best in the business. She's got blond hair and blue eyes, and looks great in a leather miniskirt (she wears one often). We are not told her past, but gain knowledge of it slowly over time. She's pleasant and cheery often, although still quite a loner. She seems to have coped well with having to kill. She lives in Paris, but knows many languages and travels often.

Yuumura Kirika- A girl who looks about 14, but anything about her cannot be known for certain. It is not her real name, but she's forgotten what that was along with everything about her past. She's an expert killer, probably better than Mireille. She contacts Mireille hoping they can find out about her past together. Kirika rarely shows any emotion in her face or voice, even when she cries her face remains the same. She cries sometimes because she feels no remorse for killing. Kirika starts out in Japan, but is fluent in numerous languages and starts to live with Mireille.

Altena- A woman whom you see many, many times in cut scenes to an unknown location. You don't even hear her name for many episodes. That's about all I can tell you without spoilers.

Final Grading:The story manages to remain, by and large, a series of episodes rather than a story arc. There are a few two-part episodes, but most are self-contained. Eventually, though, most of the episodes begin to tie more and more into the underlying story. I liked Noir, but it didn't totally click with me. I'm not sure why, though. Perhaps it moved too slowly at times, with some of the scenes containing very little in the way of action. Also, I watched most of the episodes in a marathon, so the "stock footage" of Altena near a vineyard became annoying, whereas they might not have had I watched one episode at a time. There were also a number of repetitive flashbacks to old memories. As far as enjoying this anime goes, it was merely pretty good for me. Objectively, though, I give it an 8/10.