Noir – The Complete Collection

Richard Mills

at 5:00 am

This was the first real anime I saw. It was on German TV, spoken in Japanesa and subtitled in German. I watched the whole of it there, then Amazon came up with the DVD’s. I still watch this over and over again. My favorite show.
Rating: 5 / 5

S. J. Fisher

at 9:16 am

Noir – 3 Stars

Opportunity missed.

This is a rather inconsistent anime series as its quality seems to vary quite considerably throughout. On the downside there is an over-indulgence in stills (both static and panned) and a distinct tendency to repeat previously shown footage whenever the opportunity arises. This usually goes beyond the demands of art or drama and soon becomes tedious and annoying. It leaves you with the impression that if you were to add all the time spent on stills and repeat footage, barely half the stated running time would consist of original animation, and one can’t help suspecting that this was a conscious decision to reduce production costs. Similarly the animation, plot and dialogue are frequently no better than mediocre. The drawing is often cursory and simplistic and again one wonders whether this results from a desire to minimize effort, as opposed to an expression of confident draughtsmanship. However, once one is several episodes into the series, it seems to raise its standards – the artwork improves, as does the screenplay, and the plot suddenly gets into its stride and becomes more gripping. The old faults do not disappear completely, but they become less intrusive. Sadly, much of the time `Noir’ lacks the subtlety and attention to detail associated with the best anime, but just when one is becoming disillusioned again it will produce a few inspired moments, and sometimes entire episodes at a much higher level.

The concept of a female assassin/agent with an enigmatic and gifted, but naïve and child-like partner has also been dealt with in `Najica Blitz Tactics’, and although quite different in tone, and therefore perhaps they ought not to be compared, in my opinion `Najica’ generally carries it off with more flair and ingenuity. Nevertheless the plot of `Noir’, though somewhat derivative, is generally well told, particuarly in the latter half of the series. It also possesses a hard to define quality which causes the series to grow on you – at least, it did on me. Towards the end I found myself wondering : “If I find this series so mediocre, why am I thinking about it so much?” I must say that on the whole I enjoyed it, although it often left me feeling frustrated or irritated. However, though enjoyable, `Noir’ is by no means outstanding, and left me feeling slightly disappointed because it could have been so much better.

OK, three stars is probably a bit mean, but you can only alter ratings in 20% increments here.
Rating: 3 / 5