It has been 18 years since Koichi Mashimo’s Noir first graced TV screens. And like a fine bottle of Bordeaux, this masterpiece of the appellation Bee Train has matured into a complicated masterpiece of animated storytelling.
The saga of the lovely blonde assassin Mireille Bouquet and her amnesiac accomplice Kirika, Noir weaves a tale of intrigue and betrayal in the European underworld.
For a globe-trotting series, Noir carries a relatively small cast. The central figures are Mireille and Kirika, strong, memorable female leads who manage to exude dignified screen presence yet say less in 26 episodes than most main characters say in their debut.
Mireille is a professional hitman, cold and efficient. Her unattached lifestyle grows complicated when she receives an invitation to “Journey for the past together” from a mysterious Japanese girl. Their first meeting-turned-ambush leads to a reluctant partnership between the veteran assassin and the amnesiac young Kirika who possesses Mireille’s father’s watch, an old Walther pistol, and an eerie calm in combat.
The director creatively uses Mireille’s shooting as a reflection of her repressed emotions. A hardened killer would never tell her partner she was scared or sad. To express her emotions, the director instead used her target shooting as a barometer of emotions, wildly missing bullseyes when confronted by ghosts of the past.
It would be all too easy to allow the likes of Mireille and Kirika to fall into standard anime molds. The curvaceous assassin, the silent Rei Ayanami expat, tight clothes and girls-love undertones—are nowhere to be found. Kirika and Mireille develop an emotional relationship, but are never hinted at as lovers. There are no fan-service scenes, no suggestive poses or extravagant showers.
The only nudity in the show is tastefully censored during an ancient ritual, and two girl-girl kisses are presented solemnly as part of the mafia “kiss-of-death”. Fanservicey gore is also averted. With a body count in the hundreds, Noir could easily have added cheap thrill with gory wounds. Instead, death is presented solemnly, something to regret, not relish in.
A variety of characters emerge as targets and antagonists, and several factions of the Soldats and the Corsican Mafia do receive pleasing characterization, though none relieve the focus of our two leads.
After an action-packed opening episode, the central plot unfolds with the plodding madness of a John Le Carre spy thriller. Kirika’s past, Mireille’s origins, and the provenance of her antique pocket watch unfold tangentially to the business of contract killing and the investigation into the mysterious Soldats.
The first dozen episodes focus on Mireille and Kirika’s contract killings, interspersed with flashbacks in a simulated sepia tone. These flashbacks continues to take on new meaning as the series unfolds. The flashbacks suffer from reused animation, though not enough to detract from the narrative intent. Each episode complicates what begins as a formulaic amnesiac plot. Arms traders and banana republics give way to ancient orders and lost prophecies. Amid risky contracts and narrow escapes, Mireille and Kirika search for the truth behind the mysterious organization Le Soldats, who seem to be hunting the pair.
The first half of Noir is largely episodic, with the occasional two-parter. Two of the best standalone episodes are No. 6 “Lost Kitten” and No. 13 “Season of Hell”. The former involves a contract on an elderly KGB agent, while the latter follows Kirika's artistic liaisons with an older Czech soldier.
The second half features more consistency between episodes as the fates of the mysterious Soldats and the assassin couple Noir intertwine in a dance of death.
If the plot has any glaring weakness, it is in repetition. While presented anew each time, themes of man’s sinful nature, redemption through death, and the conflict between fate and free will are reused too often in non-essential episodes.
This issue is more noticeable during a marathon rewatch, where the same core dilemma might appear in three out of five episodes in a row. Spaced across 26 weeks as originally intended, or watched three episodes at a time as in the ADV home video, the repetitive plot points are much less of a problem.
Despite the heavy religious overtones, fans expecting supernatural revelation may also be disappointed. Noir’s adversaries have very worldly goals of power and influence, and despite the allusions, neither angels nor demons can be bothered to interfere.
Noir’s plot will ultimately prove quite polarizing. The pacing is novel-like, more akin to a Cold War spy caper than anything else in anime. The dreamlike sequences between missions and highly stylized action sequences are emotionally powerful, but often fail to provide satisfactory answers or resolve dangling plot threads. And perhaps that’s Noir’s greatest flaw: it sets up a tantalizing world, yet never fully reveals the depths promised by early plot revelations. The ending scene manages to at once exude finality yet refuse to reveal the fate of Noir, leaving viewers to draw their own meaning from the penultimate events.
Noir could be recommended on the strength of its music alone. The legendary Yuki Kajiura composed the soundtrack. Better known today for her work on Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, Fate/Zero, and Sword Art Online, Kajura’s work from this era is exemplary of her early period, just three years after her first anime soundtrack. Kajiura’s father passed a love of classical music and opera on to his daughter, and that influence is on full display here.
The track canta per me (sing for me…) is written in Italian, and is used to underscore the tragic solitude of the assassin. Killing becomes an almost religious act under Kajiura’s score, and the animation team manages to wring sorrow and regret from their killers to the strains of Kajiura’s violin.
The roots of Kajiura’s present sound can be found in many of Noir’s tracks, as well as some anomalous elements. Solitude by the Window’s accordion is evocative of Kajiura’s Something, Everything Is Wrong from Rebellion Story, while Salva Nos sounds like a missing track from Kara no Kyoukai. Notably absent is the nonsense language of later works, notably Madoka and the infamous “Coffee Soda” of SAO. Salva Nos is passable Latin, while Canta Per Me is delightful Italian and Maze blends awkward English with a charming medieval sound. Why Kajiura dropped this in later works for her invented language is unknown.
Noir’s ambitions scope takes the story across four continents and a variety of locales to rival the best of a classic Bond film. The tale begins in a lush Japanese suburb, where assassin Mireille Bouquet has deployed for her latest contract. The scenes here include anime staples like the cookie-cutter Japanese high school and a tatami matted apartment, but the bulk of the first episode takes place at dusk in a construction site.
From Tokyo the leading pair catch a flight to Paris, where Mireille’s apartment serves as a central base for the deadly duo who adopt the moniker Noir. Across the subsequent 25 episodes, the series sprawls across the Germany and the Alps, a Russian village, Paris and the French countryside, Corsica, Africa, the Middle East, Taiwan, and finally an ancient village nestled in the Pyrenees. Each locale is evoked with hand-painted background art. Sadly, the digital revolution in anime production had been the nail in the coffin for such evocative backgrounds. The technical hyperrealism of a Shinkai film or even the cubist abstraction of Shaft’s backgrounds are artistic in their own right, digital productions lack the tender brushstrokes of real oil and watercolors. Even in the twilight of traditional productions, Noir’s background art is consistently impressive. The animation team but great care into crafting intricate stages for each assassination and gunfight. Gothic churches, Roman ruins, French police stations—each stage for action creates dynamic but believable gunplay. This is further enhanced by the attention but towards the destruction of the environment. Bullets striking steel beams throw a satisfying shower of sparks. Stonework cracks and crumbles with each hit, and such small details as buckshot patterns or a bullet crumpled against body armor are recreated.
Speaking of attention to detail, the firearms of Noir are stars in their own right. Each lead carries a trademark weapon that matches their style and lore. These weapons are seen field stripped in detail, both during the ending credits and in several after-action scenes. The weapons carried by Noir’s bad guys are likewise detailed, with a variety of weaponry to fit each locale and situation. Eastern-bloc rifles and pistols arm Middle Eastern radicals and gulag guards, German bodyguards tote Walters and H&Ks, and rural villagers draw rifles dating to the Great War.
Noir’s realism carries into its animation. With the exception of one later character’s Haman Karn-esque hairstyle, Noir carries a refined realism. Action scenes, though well-choreographed, are weighted believably by gravity—no John Woo gunplay here. People die when they are killed. After a tense burst of action, Mirelle might gasp for breath, or the adrenaline might leave Kirika’s hands shaking after a fight. Our main characters get wounded, are forced to retreat, and occasionally lose gunfights. Henchmen are uniquely detailed, both between gunfights and amid different factions. Scenes often take place at night or in darkened catacombs, and the animation team uses flashes of light in darkened corridors, flickering candles, and shading bordering on chiaroscuro.
Noir ultimately succeeds both on artistic merit and as a character drama. For anime fans who want something to break the light novel adaption monotony, Noir will deliver. Nearly twenty years later, the extravagantly layered plot, stylish gunplay, and beautifully painted European underworld still manage to impress. For a rare example of an anime that slips the bonds of the medium and exceeds not just as an anime, but as a work of art, take a sip of Noir.
Noir… It is the name of an ancient fate. Two maidens who govern death. To ward the darkness from the nursing babes, their black robes serve as shields.
Submitted January 01, 2019 at 11:13AM by SpartanSlayer64 http://bit.ly/2VpNoEv
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