Noir (2001– )

Two beautiful female assassins travel the world accepting assignments to kill various culprits, and at the same time, having deadly traps set against them by their own employer.

Stars:

Houko Kuwashima, Kotono Mitsuishi, Shelley Calene-Black

Cast

Series cast summary:
Houko Kuwashima	...	Kirika Yumura (26 episodes, 2001)
Kotono Mitsuishi	...	Mireille Bouquet (26 episodes, 2001)
Shelley Calene-Black	...	Mireille Bouquet (26 episodes, 2001)
Monica Rial	...	Kirika Yumura (26 episodes, 2001)
Jason Douglas	...	Additional Voices (26 episodes, 2001)
Aya Hisakawa	...	Chloe (12 episodes, 2001)
Hilary Haag	...	Chloe (12 episodes, 2001)
Tarako	...	Altena (11 episodes, 2001)
Tiffany Grant	...	Altena (11 episodes, 2001)

Storyline

Noir is a tale of assassins, in particular one named Mireille Bouquet, a contract killer who receives a message from a young girl with no memory about herself, but is an incredibly efficient killing machine. The story takes us on a pilgrimage to the pasts of both girls, which leads them to Paris, France, and someone is trying to stop them...

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Plot Keywords:

france | assassin | anime | amnesia | corsica | 

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Genres:

Action | Animation | Thriller | Crime | Drama

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Official Sites:

DVD Vision Japan review VICTOR ENTERTAINMENT INC. [jp] (japanese)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese English

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bee Train, Victor Entertainment, ADV Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

25 min 25 min (26 episodes)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Yuki Kajiura suggested the group Ali Project to join the project. Kajiura had worked as an impresario with the group before.

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Goofs

On a few occasions, when Mireille reads something, she reads from left to right. But when Kirika reads the same thing, she reads from right to left - even when it is shown that the text she's reading is in western writing.

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Quotes

Altena: If love can kill a person, surely hatred can save them.

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Connections

Referenced in Yuki Kajiura Live (2008)

User Reviews

Noir is an animated master-piece that you can't let go of

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.