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SUMMARY

Assassins working together under the codename “Noir,” Mireille Bouquet and Kirika Yumura continue their search for the clues that will unlock the mysteries of their intertwined pasts.  The greatest enigma that eludes them is the identity of an organization known only as the Soldats.  All they know is that this mysterious entity that may hold the key to unravel the mysteries of the “black thread of fate” that binds their destinies together and that they may have the knowledge of Kirika’s true identity and the reason for the absent memories of her past.  

In this installment, the two women take jobs ranging from the assassination of an ex-KGB member to a dangerous hit on a well-protected revolutionary leader.  However, things do not run as smoothly as planned.  When a client offers them a copy of a document, a “contract” linking the Soldats to the origins of the Cecilian mafia (a.k.a. La Cosa Nostra), in exchange for the murder of a mafia Don, Noir finds they must face their greatest challenge yet.  When the Don’s heir, Silvana a.k.a. the Intoccabile, rises to the head of the Greone mafia family, she intercepts the “contract” before Noir can obtain it and challenges the assassins to retrieve it from her.  The problem: Mireille knows Silvana from her childhood and fears that she may be no match for the “Brutal Princess” Silvana.

DVD VISION TEST

Video:  Noir continues to be an example of beautiful eye candy.  ADV did a great job in ensuring the video quality of this series was top notch.  Once again, this volume features an anamorphic widescreen presentation, enhanced for 16 X 9 TVs – and it is simply gorgeous  If you are one of the lucky people that owns a 16 X 9 TV, then you will find the picture quality to be nearly perfect.  For those not gifted with the chance to see this in it’s intended presentation, you may notice some slight aliasing of the animation when this is viewed on a standard TV.  Otherwise, there were no other video “anomalies” were evident.

Audio:  For both the Japanese and English language tracks – the stereo quality is excellent.  There is a good balance between the volume of the dialogue, the music, and the sound effects (i.e. no need to adjust the volume frequently).  The 5.1 surround track is also an added bonus and contributes even more depth to the already impressive soundtrack.

Extras:   Mostly standard extras – Production Sketches, Clean Opening Animation, Clean Closing Animation, Original Japanese Promos (for Noir Soundtrack I, VHS & DVD for Vol.3).  This volume also features a collection of ADV Previews including Crying Freeman, You’re Under Arrest Mini-Specials, Wild Arms, Sakura Wars TV, Full Metal Panic, and RahXephon.

WIDESCREEN REVIEW

Acting:  Both the English and Japanese cast members do a great job on this series.  In this volume, my favorite character is the “Brutal Princess” (the Intoccabile), Silvana Greone. Heather LeMaster, the English VA for Silvana, did an excellent job in capturing the essence of her character.  You could tell that thought was given to every line of dialogue – no words were wasted here.  In fact, I felt she added a lot to the character’s personality.  Silvana could have been played as a simple, cold, mob diva, but, somehow, LeMaster was able to make her seem like more.  Yumi Touma, the original Japanese voice actress of Silvana was also very impressive in this role.  She did a great job in portraying the eerie calm, yet commanding, presence of Silvana.  Both actresses should be given some sort of award for best portrayal of very cold and calculating psycho mob diva. 

Like that last volume, the actresses for Mirielle and Kirika continued to do great jobs as well.  This time the actresses for Mirielle got a chance to stretch the role a little more as the character exhibited a glimpse at her weaknesses (particularly in showing her level of fear and intimidation upon confronting Silvana).  Ms. Calene-Black does a great job at portraying this side of Mirielle.  While it’s hard to judge Kirika as she is a character who doesn’t get to exude much emotion, both the English and Japanese actresses do a fantastic job.  Both Ms. Rial and Ms.Kuwashima do well to portray Kirika’s few emotions, and are particularly convincing in getting the audience to feel pity for Kirika’s need to know her true identity, and the confusion she is faced with.   The supporting characters are also very well acted. 

While I normally prefer the original Japanese tracks, the quality of the English dub definitely gives me a tough choice over which I prefer in this series.  Kudos should be given to all of the VA’s and to the Director’s (Kouichi Mashimo – Japanese and Matt Greenfield – English ADR Director) for the great performances.

Fan Service: Not much in the way of fan service this time around.  Lots of guns and violence.  Only a few shots of the girls in their cute pajamas.

FINAL SPIN:

I am still amazed at the profound attention to detail in the backgrounds and animation, as well as the amount of research.  I found myself rewinding some parts just to get a second glipse at some of the beautiful background art.  Also, after reading some of the production notes and viewing the production sketches, you can get a very good idea of the amount of thought that was put into the planning of the series.  This volume’s production notes include insight into the choice of guns that would be used by each character.  (FYI – Kirika uses a Beretta M1934, and older, Italian-made gun, and Merielle uses the German made, more modern, Walther P-99).  If you listen closely, you may even notice the difference sounds that each gun makes.  The designers even made sure that the firing sounds matched closely with their “real world” versions.    (This is probably best listened to on the 5.1 surround track).

Besides the gorgeous animation, great acting, and detailed sound, the story here also becomes more interesting.  The best thing about this volume is that the audience gets more insight into the main characters.  Here the audience is drawn to feel more pity for young Kirika as she struggles with finding out who she really is and we also get to see the normally hard-edged, fearless Mirielle reveal that she isn’t so fearless. 

While the Soldats mystery is intriguing, I kind of wish that particular plot element were be developed a little sooner.  So far each episode seems to be following a formula:  the girls get a job, the do the job (sometimes more successfully than others), and then they either get some clue for the Soldats or they are left further behind).  The two-part Intoccabile episodes were probably the best so far, simply due to the level of character and plot development.  Previous episodes, while still entertaining, didn’t really seem to do much to progress the story along.  At least this time, the re-use of footage from previous episodes, in the form of flashbacks, wasn’t quite as repetitive and distracting as it was in Volume 1.

Another aspect I enjoy about Noir is figuring out where some of the influences for the series came from.  For instance, the recurring use of the melody played by the pocket watch is almost reminiscent of the recurring melodies played for dramatic purposes in such films as Citizen Kane.  Also, in episode 7, The Black Thread of Fate, it was interesting to see they story unfold through jumping around in the time-line of the story.  This reminded me a somewhat of films like Pulp Fiction, or Memento, where the story is told by jumping forward in the time-line of the story and jumping back to a past event. This method of story-telling is an interesting way to get the audience looking at the story in pieces, as though you are putting together a puzzle to see how it all fits, and how the characters came to be in their present situation.  Most TV series generally use the more linear style of story-telling, so sometimes it is refreshing to see it presented in a more abstract method.

Needless to say, this series is really starting to grow on me, and I’m definitely looking forward to future volumes.  It will be interesting to see where all of the threads lead, once these mysteries become more unraveled.  So, if you enjoy stories of intrigue and mystery, perhaps you’ll also want to make “a pilgrimage to the past” with Mirielle and Kirika.

Some Interesting Facts:  Could there be another “easter egg” on Volume 2 of Noir?  If you bought Volume 1, and you still have the nifty decoder glasses that came with it, look at the back of the production notes booklet that comes with Volume 2, and you’ll note another cryptic message that may lead to more hidden extras.  For those who may be wondering what “intoccabile” means, it’s Italian for “untouchable.”  Here’s another interesting tidbit of info:  fans of Evangelion may recognize the English voice for the new Noir character, Altena.  It’s none other than Tiffany Grant, best known as Asuka from Eva (source:  www.imdb.com)

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