Noir review

Noir review
Year it was made: 2001
Studio: Bee Train
Distributor: ADV films
Format: Series
Where I saw it: On DVD (personal collection)
Subbed/Dubbed/Both: Both
Genre: Action/Drama/Girls with guns
Lenght: 26 episodes

Story: 9.5/10
Characters: 9.5/10
Animation: 9/10
Art: 10/10
CGI: N/A
Fanservice: 5/10
Action: 9/10
Music: 10/10
SFX: 10/10
Japanese VA: 10/10
English VA: 9.5/10

In depth review
When I read other reviews about Noir I hear things like it's slow, boring, the pacing is all wrong and it's a watered down version of Gunsmith Cats and Serial Experiments Lain. This is not the case. The reason why people think Noir is slow is they misunderstand what this anime is trying to do, which is creating an atmosphere through the art and music, that sucks you into the experience. As for the pacing, it's perfect with a nice mix of action and story. Noir is one of the best action, drama, girls with guns series out there. This anime is about a female assassin, Mireille Bouquet who receives a mysterious email from a teenaged girl named Kirika Yuumura who is also an assassin. Kirika asks Mireille to go on "pilgrimage to the past" with her which means killing a lot of henchmen and other assassins who get in their way. I would tell you more about the plot but then I would have to kill you.

The story in Noir is very original and interesting to watch. What makes Noir interesting is that it doesn't reveal plot details all at once but rather takes it's time to develop to the story. One of Noirs greatest strength is the characters. It's Noir greatest strength because of the interaction between characters, for example Kirika and Mireille relationship, where their forced to work together but their don't really trust each other which is interesting. On the action side of things there are plenty of shoot outs and on the fanservice side of things there is surprisingly very little except for a one or two scenes and a shojo-ai scene in episode 25.

The visuals are excellence with great animation (but the animators cheated a little, so their don't get a perfect score) and the backgrounds look amazing. Noir also has excellence audio from the realistic gun shots and sub-machine gun/assault rifle sounds to the music composed by anime music goddess Yuki Kajiura. The voice acting is great in both Japanese and English with anime legend Kotono Mitsuishi as Mireille in the Japanese track and ADV veterans Shelley Calene-Black, Monica Rial, Tiffany Grant and Hilary Haag in the English track.

Noir is one of the best action/mystery series out there which deserves a cloak and dagger 9.5/10.

What ever happen to the Airborne? Part 2

History of the Canadian Airborne

On July 1, 1942 the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion was formed and then send to Europe in July of 1943 as part of the 6th British Airborne Division under British command. The 1st Can Para fought in almost every airborne operation during World War two and was disbanded at the end of the war. Canada still needed Para-troopers however and the airborne was reborn and renamed, finally settling on the name the Canadian Airborne Regiment.

One more history lesson to go.

Nadesico review

Yume wo nose ging e atsui omoi daki habatake (hishou) mirai ga kagayaku sekai e tatakae GEKI-GANGAA 3.

Martian Successor Nadesico review
Year it was made: 1997
Studio: Xebec
Distributor: ADV films
Format: Series
Where I saw it: On DVD (personal collection)
Subbed/Dubbed/Both: Both
Genre: Mech/Comedy
length: 26 episodes

Story: 7/10
Characters: 9/10
Animation: 6/10
Art: 6/10
CGI: N/A
Fanservice: 8/10
Music: 7/10
SFX: 8/10
Japanese voice acting: 8/10
English voice acting: 8.5/10
Action: 8/10

In depth review
Martian Successor Nadesico is like police academy but in the sci-fi mech genre with a lot of odd characters like Yukrika the ditzy captain, Akito a cook/mech pilot, Ruri a 12 year old genius and Ms.Inez who explains anything and everything (there are more odd characters on this on series but I can't mention them all because there are so many). This series basically parodies Macross, Gundam and Evangelion. It also has an anime within this anime called Geki-ganger 3 which plays an important role in Nadesico. The interesting thing about Nadesico is that it can go from comedy to serious very quickly and pulls it off seamlessly. Nadesico is about a war between the earth and the Jovians who are from the moons of Jupiter. Earth is getting it's ass kicked and the largest company in the solar system Negal builds the Nadesico to fight the Jovians and save their Martian colonists. Akito colony was attacked and he was teleported to earth, mysteriously. Akito wants to return to Mars and as luck would have it he runs into his childhood Yukrika who is also the captain of the Nadesico and is hired as a cook.The Nadesico is headed to mars on their rescue mission but can they succeed with there ship of fools.

From a visual stand point Nadesico is not that impressive with average art and sometimes sub-par animation. The audio is also nothing to write home about but the music and sound effects have a classic mecha anime feel to it.

If you ask me this anime gets 8/10 but no one asked me..........whatever.