So I've been in the process of watching this anime for a while now. I've been thinking about getting it for about a year maybe, and only recently decided to finally go ahead and get it. KAA has a decent sub for it. Not up to the usual standards, but it was made at least two years ago, maybe more, so I can cut slack in that regard.

Unfortunately, thats about where the slack ends. I suppose I've been due up for a horrible, terrible, pathetic anime from the good luck that I've been having, and this is it. There is nothing positive I can really comment about the show. Animation is par. Music is old fashioned, unoriginal, not really inspired, and honestly reminds me of .hack//SIGN far too much. It doesn't match the show 95% of the time. SFX are fine, except for some reason, all the bad guys seem to be using the same gun, and it's always some weak ass pistol, like a .22 or something. Meanwhile the main characters switch between that weak ass pistol, and then a giant .45, at least by the SFX. Plot isn't interesting at all. Character development is worse than Dr. Suess.

The animation is fine. I honestly think they probably have the same team that .hack//SIGN did, because the style is pretty similiar, and the characters are basically of the same builds that were in SIGN. Without the MMO getup, of course. I wish that KAA didn't do a WMV encode, but that's not Noir's fault.

I swear there are only 6 songs that are played in Noir, and two of them are the intro/outro. Are there that few moods for the show? I really noticed the music far too much. The thing about music in video is that you don't want it to be noticable, you want it to match the mood and theme so well that you sorta bounce your head to it and then realize that you're bobbing your head to the music because it is so good. You are not supposed to realize that they played this song already 40 seconds ago, and then at the beginning of the next scene, they play it again. As a sidenote that really shouldn't be part of a review, I hate the intro and the outro.

As a note on the SFX, I'm not sure what it is with anime and their obscession with gasps. Just because there's a character on scene doesn't mean they have to be making SOME noise, especially when their mouth is closed! I'm sure this isn't just a problem with Noir, but it's the first time I've really noticed it enough to be angry about it.

The plot is pathetic, and only around episode 13 does it start to seem interesting. Until they mention the name Soldat about 600 times and it sounds less and less imposing every time. Apparently, the "Soldats"--a group with seemingly endless ties around the world, as well as a large supply of what I call "ensign redshirts"--are the main antagonists. They're not very good antagonists. The scary people in the Soldats seem weak, and you eventually learn that basically everybody is a member of the Soldats. A little exclusivity would be cool. An "evil" group where everybody is a member isn't very scary at all. Unfortunately, the plot is really predictable, too. Annoyingly so. Sidenote: whats with this strange ability for bullets to shoot knives in half? Also for the main characters to be able to do that from 50 yards with a pistol? Yeah, yeah, suspension of disbelief fine, but there is a line that you're not supposed to cross.

Character development is terrible. They have this thing about showing Mireille's parents' deaths over and over and over again, as if you didn't catch it the first 10 times they played it for you. Fine, she walked in to the lobby of her house to see her parents and brother dead. Traumatic, I'm sure. But I don't need to see it twice an episode (and sometimes more), thanks. Every time I saw it I wonder how much money they saved not animating anything new. Sadly, that's about the end of the background of any of the characters as you'll ever get. Spoiler: by roughly episode 19 (of a horrid 26, why did I watch the entire show!) you find out that Kirika, the second and last major character, killed them. When she was just a KID, and could somehow hold a large (by the SFX at least) .45 steady enough to hit from probably 10 yards.

In summary, alright animation, music is decent at best but generally doesn't work, plot could have been rewritten by a 9 year old and it would have been better, and the characters were bland and boring.

Bleh. What a waste of 10 and a half hours, and 7GB of space.

Adion is currently listening to: Dieselboy - The Descent (Phunckateck VIP) [6:46]