"Nowâru" (2001) TV series

Seasons:

1

Genre:

Action | Animation | Thriller | Crime | Drama

Plot:

Noir is a tale of assassins, in particular one named Mireiyu Buke, a contract killer who receives a...

Plot Keywords:

Anime | Amnesia | Assassin | Warrior Woman | Art

Cast

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)

Also Known As:

Noir (USA)

Runtime:

25 min (26 episodes)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Certification:

UK:12 (some epiosodes) | UK:PG | Australia:M (DVD rating) | Germany:16 | USA:TV-PG

Company:

ADV Films

Trivia:

Milos Havel is named after two Czech politicians of the series' time - Prime Minister Milos Zeman and President Václav Havel.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Mireille checks the background info and news on Taiwan on her computer, the news text is on Hunan province of Mainland China. Furthermore, there's no such temple in Taiwan either.

Quotes:

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

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Yuki Kajiura Live (2008) (V)

Great bloodless action

I recently purchased this series and having now watched it all I must say I have no regrets. The story was fairly action packed from start to finish. The earlier episode were individual stories for the most part, but later episodes follow a story arc that was hinted at in the opening episode.

In the first episode solo assassin Mireille meets Kirika, an amnesiac who is even more deadly than she is. It is apparent that the two are some how linked as Kirika has a watch in her possession which belonged to Mireille's murdered parents. Mireille tells her that they can work together until Kirika's past is revealed; then she will kill her. The episodes contain a lot of shooting but we almost never see any blood which means this series isn't too gory for younger anime fans. Just under half way through the series another assassin is introduced; the mysterious Chloe who becomes a recurring character who appears to be connected somehow to Kirika.

While the animation isn't the best I've seen it is still pretty good and the music is great. The only weakness of the series I found was the over-use of flashbacks although it wasn't enough to spoil it. Given that the protagonists are girls in miniskirts it is surprising that there is no fan service to speak of, even the one scene that involves nudity is done in a non-gratuitous way that doesn't really show anything. I'd certainly recommend this series to anybody who likes animated action which doesn't include unnecessary comedy moments.

These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.