Noir is an action flick centered on female assassins and their accidental involvement with a mythical cult of ancient killers. There are many gunfights in Noir, and you will doubtlessly be interested in the mystery behind the cult for some time, but the awkward lack of blood and lame dragged-out direction of the show certainly mar this show down. It could have been better, but it’s still an okay show, perfectly watchable if you are into girls with guns anime. At least music is damn good.

A sinner once passed away will never return, but sins will never vanish and the love will never die.

Originally composed by Tsukimura Ryoue (El Hazard) and directed by Mashimo Kouichi (Madlax) Noir is a show about gunfights and assassins and martial arts; and, you know the deal. It is centered on a female assassin for hire, Mireille, who due to some circumstances happens to team up with an amnesiac killing machine teenage girl, Kirika. It appears the two girls share a common link as both of them have a recollection of a bizarre melody which is bound to play whenever bad things happen and something named Noir, whatever it is, is involved. The show follows its story in a very gushy washy way which is prone to leave its viewers wondering if something is really happening or not, but it does indeed, albeit slowly, move into one direction and even offers a full fledged ending.

My opinion about Noir is mixed to say the least. There is some nice potential in the plot, yet it’s marred down by lame direction and unnecessary gunfight fillers. The permanent cast of characters consists of only four women, and though they are relatively well fleshed out, neither of them is particularly likable, nor particularly memorable (I did like Chloe though). Musical score, though slightly repetitive, is awesome, unfortunately gunfights it usually follows are awkwardly animated (particularly when you consider the fact that there is not a speck of blood in the whole show which IS centered on assassins). Frankly, I tried my best to enjoy this show, but after the twentieth plot hole instigated facepalm I had no choice but to write it down as average. I also had trouble taking the last episodes seriously, which actually turned out to be quite good; ending up discarding many serious moments in yeah, yeah, right fashion. Nonetheless I did have fun with Noir and though the middle of the show could have been much better I was never particularly bored with it (kudos to the great OST there). You will most likely like it if you are into ‘girl assassins in deus ex machina driven dance-like gunfights’ type of shows…

Animation: 3

Animation produced by Bee Train is… in many ways awkward, but not particularly bad when you look at technicals. Well, backgrounds are pretty boring. There are barely any notable sights (you can still notice some nice pan outs at European cityscapes sometimes) with most of the screen usually being taken by blandly colored walls when characters are on screen. On the other hand, you are also treated to some nice ancient ruins and church-like backgrounds to liven the show’s mood up near the end. It would also be pretty nice if somebody could tell Mr.Mashimo Kouichi that people bleed when they are shot because apparently he doesn’t know it. While overall character designs are pretty average on detail and are attractive to an extent, their shapes as well as the complete absence of blood makes them look as if they are made out of gum or something. This gummy feeling seems to plague all Bee Train works which might be the reason why I have trouble taking them seriously I guess. It’s not like people are badly drawn (Chloe is cute and facial reactions always do their job), it’s just… it’s sometimes hard to believe the people on screen are really supposed to be humans. Oh yeah, and don’t even bother trying to distinguish generic guys in black suits, all those damn bastards look the same.

Years have taken their toll and fluidity of animation doesn’t feel as good as it did a couple of years ago. You can notice people going choppy here and there, still frames at awkward moments, and most importantly, the lack of focus on action (sometimes all you see is Kirika’s face getting illuminated by gunfire and then the battle’s over). Still, though plagued by the lack of blood and a number of still frames I still found some gunfights engrossing… to an extent. Personally, I quite liked the fact that the shoot-outs are animated like dances. At the same time, however, it also makes them very unrealistic. I mean, the girls don’t even look at what they are shooting at and they never miss. Generic guys on the other hand miss all the time even if they are shooting from one meter range (they don’t dance though). Apart from dances though there is little evidence of distinguishable direction.

Sound: 4

By now Kajiura Yuki (.hack//Sign, Cossette no Shouzou) is one my favourite anime composers, and you bet, she doesn’t hold back in Noir, which also happens to be her debut show. Her trademark of relatively loud music with vocals (in Noir sounding like an upbeat church chore) is very well implemented and, frankly, I can’t count how many times music alone was enough to keep my interest in the show. I have Noir’s OST in my winamp playlist, and even though its playback number doesn’t compare to .hack//Sign’s, it still is quite a sight to behold. Either way, my point is, music is great, so good actually it alone make this show worthwhile to be checked out. OP Coppelia no Hitsugi by Ali Project is also a very good song (one of my personal favourite OPs actually) and is followed by a really nice artful animation. Heh, it sure raised my expectations for Noir way too high for it to reach. ED, on the other hand, is nowhere near as involving as its OP counterpart, so I tended to skip it a lot.

Voice-acting is up-par for the most part, Mireille having herself fleshed by the veteran Mitsuishi Kotono and other two female leads having the voices of the experienced Kuwashima Houko and Hisakawa Aya. Personally I found Hisakawa Aya’s performance of Chloe the most memorable, maybe because her soft voice managed to sound at the same time both awkward and very fitting coming out from a cloaked assassin.

Story: 3

It seems it’s a trademark of Mashimo Kouichi to take up a plot with potential, screw it up as much as possible in the middle with some irrelevant crap and then wrap it up in a, while not particularly epic, good ending. In other words, his shows are 100% facepalm material; I literally bit my lip when Noir was wrapped in such a nice and to an extent dramatic fashion only to fail to touch me because I was overfed with crap and didn’t have the guts to trust it anymore. If you’ve ever seen Madlax you are sure to know what I’m talking about.

Either way, the first half of Noir is filled with many gunfights and killin’ (without blood) and it takes the appearance of Chloe somewhere in the middle of the show to finally put the plot to some sensible direction. Chloe disappears soon after and from then it goes, well, three minutes of something regarding the plot and fifteen minutes of action or irrelevant dialogues or flashbacks to fill the space. Then somewhere near the end the show finally dedicates itself wholly to the big picture with Chloe’s long-awaited addition to permanent cast. Then it goes okay for the few last episodes and is wrapped up in a nice fashion. Some details of the story (like Kirika’s life before meeting Mireille) are left hanging in the air, but their significance to the plot is not particularly critical. Anyway, the bigger half of the show with random assassinations can easily be enjoyed due to great music work and the last few episodes are quite enjoyable story-wise… if you have any will left to take them seriously that is. Mystery behind what exactly Noir is also gives this show quite enough suspense to keep you from dropping it.

Characters: 3

As I have mentioned before there are only four characters in this show, and, Mireille, who supposedly is the main heroine is also the least interesting of the bunch. Well, neither is Altena a particularly engrossing character appearing near the very end of the show and having nearly no screen-time. Anyway, while Mireille acts as a mediator, narrator and a voice of common sense to, usually, make you yawn; lightly schizophrenic Kirika is more interesting, particularly due to the fact that she can’t quite recall why she can easily kill ten people in a blink of an eye. Personally, I found Chloe my favourite character in the show, probably because unlike the other two leads she didn’t have 20 episodes of irrelevant dialogues to make herself boring followed by the fact that she is the only girl who comes off as a genuine killer out of the three. Nonetheless characters are neither particularly multi-dimensionally deep, nor particularly attractive; more like… average deep and slightly attractive, heh. There is some development going and it seems it achieves what it sets out to do, but observing it is not particularly interesting either. There is also a problem with individuality of characters as, if you have/will see Madlax, everyone, save for Chloe, are bound to overlap with someone in your memories. Seems Mashimo Kouichi is not particularly creative in the ways to deal with his characters. To sum it up, Noir’s cast is your average gathering of slightly attractive characters which though not memorable will make you interested in the show for, at least, most of its running length.

Conclusion: Noir is your average action flick with some awkward shortcomings (lack of blood, laid back direction, boring lead) and some unexpected strengths (mystery, engrossing OST, Chloe); which in the end cancel each other out and still make it an average show. If you are into the ‘girls with guns’ shows, or are a person to enjoy vocal BGMs, you might as well give this show a shot with low expectations. It’s not particularly good, it’s right here on the middle, but while its shortcomings are glaring, you might as well notice some stuff you like (and I did). If you’ve liked Noir you might be also interested in Madlax, which is very similar.