Noir Recommended

Publisher
ADV
Director
Koichi Mashimo
Production
Production IG, TV Tokyo, Victor Entertainment
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
26 episodes
Year
2001

Noir

By Gene Jenkins
20th May 04

Noir comes to you from the ADV Flims Company, and stars Shelly Calene-Black as the beautiful Mireille Bouquet . The sensual, now famous , voice actress, Monia Rial as "Kirika Yuumura". Kouichi Mashimo is the anime series director in Japan. Other main actresses worth noting in Noir, is Hillary Haag as ("Chloe, the true Noir") and Tiffany Grant as beautiful Mistress "Altena"

"Noir" is a very realistic action anime about a young, beautiful blonde hitwoman named Mireille Bouquet, and an even younger Japanese female, named Kirika , whom she takes on as a partner. Mireille Bouquet parents and brother were murdered when she was just a little girl. The word "Noir" in this anime refers to one of the worlds top assasins. The anime is composed of more than 600 mintues on 7 volumes. The artwork is super, cenematography is clean and crisp. The Japanese girl, Kirika, has one of the most innocent looking faces and is suffering with the lost of her memory. She is a superior assasin and an deadly expert with guns, only she doesn't know how she obtained those skills, because her memory is missing. To add tension to movie Merrille has taken Kirika Yuumura on as a partner as she looks for answers to her own past, and has told Kirika that when she finds those answers ...she will kill her. Throughout the series Kirika seems to very gentle in nature yet depressed. She never seems to smile and always looks so sad. It is a very loney life for Kirika. Kirika also appears not to fear death, while Mireille is much more of the emotional type, has a lively personality, and will show fear or anger with little warning.

Throughout most of the series, Merrille's, clothing most often consists of a red blouse, a sexy black miniskirt with a slit in the in the front left foward portion, and some knee high boots that definitely enhances her already high level of femininity and beauty. Kirika, the shorter haired Japanese girl, mostly wears a shirt and denim type miniskirt, although when she is at school , she wears a pleated miniskirt. You won't want to make the mistake of thinking that that's all our young women wear throughout out the series. As they get assigments, to go to freezing countries, or very hot desert countries, they dress according to weather, however most of the time the clothing is as stated, those miniskirts outfits. For those of you who enjoy a few causual upskirt views when there is so much action, Noir has them, but it's questionable whether you will see any panties, as the series is not very strong on sexual situations, despite the beautiful women.

The highlights of this anime is by far the realisitc tense gun battles between the "Noir" duo and countless professional thugs that try to kill them, from bodyguards ,henchmen, to corrupt policemen. Our two female killers are excellent at what they do. They only accept the jobs to kill the worst, most evil criminals. You find out through our two female assasins, that there are so many ways to win a gun battle. For instance in one scene a top criminal knows that "Noir" is in the building of their abandon hotel type hideout. You find, through our two hitwomen, there are so many ways to win a shootout. For instance there's a scene where one of their targets knows that "Noir" is somewhere in the abandon hotel they are hiding. The bad guy steps out into the hallway with his two armed henchmen guarding him, their guns at the ready. When they look at each end of the hallway it's all clear , so they lower their guns and get ready to move out ,when all of a sudden, Merriele runs across the mouth of the hallway firing 3 rapid shots from her silencer equiped pistol, and dives to the other side, sending the 2 henchmen to grunting and droping dead in the hall. That leaves her with just the main target to shoot it out with.

To complicate this exciting series, most of it is shrouded in mystery. Someone, or some group, is obviously watching "Noir". In one instance, that entity tips off the bad guys on the hitwomen's whereabouts . Not wanting to take any chances with "one of the best assasins in the world", the bad guys send in some armed troops in to take care of "Noir". Is the whereabouts of Noir being tipped off to their targets to see how well they stand up against the odds , or it is because they really want them dead? You have to find out when you watch the series. When you are deep into the series, there is the powerful introduction of a new Japanese female character calling herself "Chloe" (pronouced Klo' ee) and proclaiming to be "The True Noir". Chloe too, is a top assasin who skills are with knives and sharp throwing objects. Chloe is very young like Kirika and may even be a even be a teenager, yet her skills with knives seem to make her superior to both our main hitwomen. She is so easy going, very confident, with a slighty raspy child's voice, and yet she will instill a lot of fear in Mireille. At the same time this Chloe never lets her guard down.

Special intricate detail was put in the artwork of this Anime right down to the guns they use. The bad guys are mostly using Sigs while our tragic herorines are using Glocks and Barretas. Even the sound of the guns seemed to be created to simulate the different type of sounds the guns may actualy make when shooting in real life. A Sig has a tendancy to make a quick poping noise while the Glock makes more of a blasting noise. Even the crisp clear sound of the shells poping out of the guns and landing on the floor is put into the anime. The detail to the clothing, background, and set drawings, were all painstaking put together. All in and effort to give you a super anime with a very real feel to it.

Much has been said about the actual title of "Noir". Durring the early days of the movies in America, "film noir" was very popular. It centered on the darker side of human beings with dark sets and shadows during the course of the movie, often laced with danger,violence, and most often filmed in black and white. Noir the anime, attempts to do the same thing and, considering it's in color, I would say they did a superb job. There are camera shots and angles in the picture where the silhouette of the the blonde (Mireille) lights in detail each time she fires her gun in cetain scenes. In the tradition of "film noir", blood is kept to a minimum. Now there is some blood, but not much, as most of the shootings are clean kills.

Noir is quite different from other animes in the extra effort that has been put into the realism of the anime and their characters. There are no funny faces, nor eyes that spin around , or out of heads or flying through the air landing on airplanes. Using top cinematograph methods, the director is able to transfer a crime/drama /action /adventure to you with zooms, pans, camera tilts, and extreme close ups just as the right momment. It permits you to get into the hearts and minds of the main characters. The music is awesome also. It could be described it as contemporary classical that fits the action real well. The complete sound track for Noir is available on 3 CDs.

As you watch Noir you will begin to get very attached to our female characters and you will learn their personalities. From the very lonely word of Kirika , to the determination of Mireille to find out why her parents where murdered. You will see the resourcefulness of the 2 hitwomen as they get out of some of the most sticky, dangerous, situations on the various assasination jobs they accept and escape serious traps as they are sometime persued by different entities that what them dead. Deeper into the episodes you go the more clues of the mysteries are given up about the position of the hitwomen. Mireille having the strong emotional personality that no one is going to string her along , and Kirika the very soft spoken follower, whom teamed up with Mireille just so she can find her memory. You endure the trails and trubulations in this fast paced action crime drama, presented to you with the highest level of credibility of just about any action Anime every made. Noir is a must see, must buy, anime for any serious cartooning fan. Noir is also groundbreaking in it's realistic style. People who don't like it ,are often times are just looking for the mystical magical girls flying through the air, with the funny faces and lots of comedy relief. Those viewers can't handle the deep prolong mysteries that continue throughout the durration of the entire anime, even though the anime has lots and lots of good realistic gun play!

If you think "Noir" is not extremely special then make a list of all of the animes that are just like Noir and send us a copy. I would be suprised to see another one just like it. There are 7 volumes of Noir. The first is packed with 5 epidoes, Volume 2 drops down to 4 episodes, Volume 3 only has 3 espisodes, Volume 4 is back up to 4 episodes, Volume 5 has 3 episodes, Volume 6 has 4 episodes, and the final episode that gives you the conclusion of the mysteries and action, is volume number 7 and it has 3 episodes. That is total of 26 episodes altogether!

The Volumes are titled as follows:

Noir Volume 1: "Shades of Darkness"
Noir Volume 2: "The Hit List"
Noir Volume 3: "The Firing Chamber"
Noir Volume 4: "Death Warrant"
Noir Volume 5: "Terminal Velocity"
Noir Volume 6: "Cloaks and Daggers"
Noir Volume 7: "End of the Matter"

9/10

-- Gene Jenkins 20th May 04

Noir Images