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REVIEW: Noir Blu-Ray


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Fronzel



Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 1906
PostPosted: Fri Jul 31, 2015 9:07 am Reply with quote
Noir is a stand-out when it comes to development and use of the principal characters. It keeps it tight (the truly important cast is only three or perhaps four) and it's wonderful to see even a modicum of subtlety when so much anime is downright declarative.

My favorite such moment might be when Kirika waters Mireille's beloved potted plant (a Leon nod?) and then gasps as if she had done something wrong but Mireille reacts mildly; how much more effective this is than Mireille narrating "I only let this girl stay with me to learn about my past but she's becoming part of my daily life".

Quote:
For Kirika, whose apparent lack of emotion hides a deep hurt and an incredible need for human connection...

One of my favorite parts of the show. "Emotionless girl" is a downright stereotype (especially paired with action premises?) so it's great to see Kirika clearly show she's actually human in the first episode when she wants to say goodbye to her desk at school regardless of the fact that her life there was phony. One of the first shots she appears in is even her waving goodbye to someone at school that we never see, so she isn't even totally isolated.

I'd also like to mention the lack of "filler". The main plot isn't always moving forward but those episodes that don't are always working on some aspect of characterization or theme-building. None of these episodes stoop to "the assassination of the week" and many are outright quite good.

The end of the show gets into themes of sin and punishment that I don't really how they function with the lead pair's motivations which seem very personal; unless that was the point; them rejecting these grand pronouncements with their individuality.
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mpg13



Joined: 17 Jan 2011
Posts: 61
PostPosted: Fri Jul 31, 2015 9:08 am Reply with quote
All three shows in the series are among my favorites. Girls with guns and good stories.
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4404
PostPosted: Fri Jul 31, 2015 9:12 am Reply with quote
I might end up picking this up (or perhaps the DVD release) since I already have Madlax and El Cazador. I only watched part of this, but I think the main problem at the time was that I was watching it through Netflix and it was only available by disc, so between the slower nature of the show and the time between getting my discs, I ended up not finishing it.
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Kougeru



Joined: 13 May 2008
Posts: 5516
PostPosted: Fri Jul 31, 2015 9:14 am Reply with quote
I always found the dub of this show to be lacking. It sounded like most the character's just were not trying. But I kinda got that feeling from most of ADV's dubs from that time period.
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 16 Dec 2008
Posts: 2597
Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City
PostPosted: Fri Jul 31, 2015 10:04 am Reply with quote
Fronzel wrote:

The end of the show gets into themes of sin and punishment that I don't really how they function with the lead pair's motivations which seem very personal; unless that was the point; them rejecting these grand pronouncements with their individuality.


That was how I interpreted it - and if you think about it, spoiler[Altena's idea that if love kills, hatred saves is entirely rooted in her individual experience with the war and the soldier who "saved" her. Those views weren't shared by Odette, who refutes them before Kirika kills her. Even though she doesn't consciously remember what Odette said to her, Kirika essentially is rebelling against Altena's pronouncements (and that idea that Noir must take on the sins of the world) in her search for belonging. By rejecting Altena's version of the Soldats, she is searching for the light (purity) that Mireille talks about in her last lines.] In terms of who she was raised by, that's pretty darn individual.
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Asrialys



Joined: 12 Dec 2006
Posts: 1159
PostPosted: Fri Jul 31, 2015 10:46 am Reply with quote
I can't remember the details, but didn't ADV choose the name pronunciation based on the character's origins or something like that?
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MajinAkuma



Joined: 15 Aug 2014
Posts: 1199
PostPosted: Fri Jul 31, 2015 11:35 am Reply with quote
Coppelia no hitsugi
Nagareru namida wa mou karehate
Chi ni ueta kodoku
Shi wa tenshi no nikoge no nioi wo sasete mau

Noir was the first anime that got me into Japanese songs.


Last edited by MajinAkuma on Fri Jul 31, 2015 11:39 am; edited 1 time in total
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Raebo101



Joined: 17 Mar 2010
Posts: 791
PostPosted: Fri Jul 31, 2015 11:37 am Reply with quote
Kougeru wrote:
I always found the dub of this show to be lacking. It sounded like most the character's just were not trying. But I kinda got that feeling from most of ADV's dubs from that time period.


Umm...

Quote:
On the other hand, the acting in the English track is very good, with Monica Rial (Kirika) and Hilary Haag (Chloé) being standouts. People who are used to them as the Squeaky Queens in dubs should absolutely listen to them here, as it's clear that both women are generally typecast and capable of much more than they tend to be given.


Okaaaaay. So, I guess I'll just have to check out the dub for myself then.
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Fronzel



Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 1906
PostPosted: Fri Jul 31, 2015 11:40 am Reply with quote
Asrialys wrote:
I can't remember the details, but didn't ADV choose the name pronunciation based on the character's origins or something like that?

Corsican rather than French, you mean...although she lives in Paris and you might expect her to assimilate to hide even such a banal part of her past from others.
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WingKing



Joined: 27 Apr 2015
Posts: 617
PostPosted: Fri Jul 31, 2015 11:44 am Reply with quote
Always nice to see a good older show get an updated release. I'm content to stick with my ADV singles for this series, though.

And I also prefer the sub version. Besides the name pronunciation issue, which I'm also kind of a stickler for, a character like Mireille being voiced by Sailor Moon is just too good to pass up.
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Mohawk52



Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 8202
Location: England, UK
PostPosted: Fri Jul 31, 2015 12:13 pm Reply with quote
MajinAkuma wrote:
Coppelia no hitsugi
Nagareru namida wa mou karehate
Chi ni ueta kodoku
Shi wa tenshi no nikoge no nioi wo sasete mau

Noir was the first anime that got me into Japanese songs.
Aye! Same here. Kajiura Yuki, and Kanno Yoko (no involvement with Noir) both got me into J-music before vocaloid and I managed to purchase a few CDs of their OSTs, Noir 2 disc set being the first. Kajiura-san still does BGM for some of NHK World's programmes as I see her name in credits.
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GalicianNightmare



Joined: 16 Dec 2014
Posts: 124
PostPosted: Fri Jul 31, 2015 12:44 pm Reply with quote
Just to be clear, the name "Mireille" is not Corsican in origin. It is a Franco-Occitan name. In French, the name is pronounced as [miʁɛj], whilst the original Miréio is pronounced like [miˈɾɛjɔ, miˈɾɛʎɔ]). Due to the structure of the name, there is no way that the Japanese version can be 100% pronounced correctly. Not like it matters, but still, the name has multiple pronunciations anyway. Secondly, it is obvious that "Mireille" is not ethnically Corsican. Why? Because Corsicans do not have French surnames like Bouquet and descend from Genoese and Tuscans, who had Tuscan surnames. The Corsican language is also just archaic Tuscan, meaning it is pronounced somewhat like Tuscan. The difference between Standard Tuscan and Corsican-Sassarese is the endings. "Tu, su and nu" are found frequently in said Tuscan dialects, whilst "i, a and e" are common in Standard Tuscan and by definition, Italian.
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ElectricDork



Joined: 08 Apr 2010
Posts: 73
PostPosted: Fri Jul 31, 2015 12:59 pm Reply with quote
I bought this set a couple of months ago having not seen Noir before. For whatever reason there was something about the show that had kept me arms length for long time. The subtlety of the writing impressed me but often I found the pacing too languid, and the seemingly endless repetition of certain scenes didn't help. And while the backdrops of Paris are absolutely sumptuous (I'm surprised the review made no mention of them), sadly the animation isn't up to the job a lot of the time.

Kougeru wrote:
I always found the dub of this show to be lacking. It sounded like most the character's just were not trying. But I kinda got that feeling from most of ADV's dubs from that time period.

It seemed to me as though the dub was looking to replicate the subtle, low-key performances of Kotono Mitsuishi and Houko Kuwashima but the nuance wasn't there and to my ears it ended up sounding flat. But maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance.
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4064
PostPosted: Fri Jul 31, 2015 1:03 pm Reply with quote
MajinAkuma wrote:
Coppelia no hitsugi
Nagareru namida wa mou karehate
Chi ni ueta kodoku
Shi wa tenshi no nikoge no nioi wo sasete mau

Noir was the first anime that got me into Japanese songs.


Isn't the first one Ali Project? Never mind, not important.

Noir's soundtrack is so good, I passed on buying the show and went straight for the soundtrack. Though I do have Madlax and that one whose title I always have to look up on DVD, everything I need from Noir I get from its preview in the ADV trailers section.

Noir is a great movie lost in the dead end corridors of a 26 episode series. The core concept of the series seems to confuse the creators behind it; "They're assassins but they're good guys, they are the good guys... in fact, the whole thing is an elaborate teaching exercise... designed and run by a clear villain... because organized crime... needs, well, doesn't need... was it a prophecy or maybe a legacy? Look, assassins are cool, end of story. Except if they're bad. Which they all are. Remember when we had that Japanese killer try to hire that European assassin to kill her, if she turned bad? We really should do something with that premise one of these days..."
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omiya



Joined: 21 Sep 2011
Posts: 1822
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
PostPosted: Fri Jul 31, 2015 2:05 pm Reply with quote
I have the DVD set of Noir, yet to watch it.

The soundtrack from what I've heard on the CD's contain a lot of gems and no fillers, and if it didn't break new ground for anime soundtracks, I'd love to know what earlier anime soundtracks I've been missing out on that were as brilliant and varied as Noir's soundtrack (.hack//SIGN and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles came later for Yuki Kajiura).

the vocal track "Indio" by See-Saw (Yuki Kajiura and Chiaki Ishikawa) can bring me to tears.
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