Rating: Summary: I Know No Fear Review: The grisly adventures of Mirielle and Kirika continue. Four episodes on this DVD, and another riddle for your decoder glasses. The first episode finds Noir hunting an old agent of the KGB who has long since repented for his days of killing and murder. But his victims cannot forget, and they will not forgive. Noir is hired to exterminate him, but Kirika finds herself liking this old man, who reads stories to children, tends to the hungry, and cares for stray cats. Then Noir is in the midst of a revoloution, and Kirika has been badly wounded. When she is captured, Mirielle must choose between saving herself, or risking everything to save Kirika. One of the few episodes where there is visible blood. What follows is a two-part story about a member of La Cosa Nostra, or the mafia to the rest of us, and her ties to Mirielle's past. Noir is hired to eliminate a mob boss, with payment being a document that will give information about Les Soldats, the shadowy force behind Noir's existence. Mirielle must face an dispassionate killer with no remorse, or fear, in order to retrieve the document. Featuring more of Kirika's almost first nature killing talent, and great amounts of humanization, plot, and angst, the series continues to intrigue. Not for the younger set, but well worth the effort.
Rating: Summary: Better than average "shoot-em-up" Review: The second volume of Noir shows me that this series is continuing to evolve into a deep, engrossing Anime drama; and that is a good sign. DVD #2 contains stories that delve deeper into the origins and motivations of the series' two main characters. It is more enterttaining than the first DVD due to the "more action, less flashbacks" formula, thankfully. Fans of this genre should love this series since it contains core themes in common with all good Anime titles: Decent to Good animation, an interesting story and characters and well constructed action sequences.
Rating: Summary: Unraveling slowly... Review: This is the 2nd DVD of the Noir series, with four complete episodes. As expected, the story is unraveled slowly as the series progresses. We are given 4 very good episodes here, and I loved the 2 parter. This is the same Noir that you saw in the first volume, with all of the style intact. Unfortunately, the repeated flashbacks are also intact, and for that I must doc 1 star. Still, this is a great series for the spy/action crowd.
Rating: Summary: And the beat goes on... Review: This Noir DVD starts out with filler, but ends with story. The first two episodes, while somewhat touching and action filled, don't really do much to move the story along, thou they do help develop the characters of Mireille and Kirika. Episodes 8 and 9 are a two part story, focusing on Mireille's past and a Princess from her past. I don't want to give too much away, but we finally start to understand all those flashbacks. The DVD has the normal amount of extras, a cool fold out, but as it only contains four episodes, I was slightly disappointed.
Rating: Summary: And the beat goes on... Review: This Noir DVD starts out with filler, but ends with story. The first two episodes, while somewhat touching and action filled, don't really do much to move the story along, thou they do help develop the characters of Mireille and Kirika. Episodes 8 and 9 are a two part story, focusing on Mireille's past and a Princess from her past. I don't want to give too much away, but we finally start to understand all those flashbacks. The DVD has the normal amount of extras, a cool fold out, but as it only contains four episodes, I was slightly disappointed.
Rating: Summary: Quel dolce souno.... de passati giorni.... Review: This show is original and constantly surprises you. Ok, so it does get a bit predictable in the end, but what show doesn't? It's not your normal "Ouh, girls fight bad guys, lots of action"-show. This show actually has depth and a good plot to it. But the constant flashbacks are a bit annoying, especially if you, like me, watch at least 3 episodes at every setting. It feels like the makers were trying to make the episodes longer by inserting flashbacks that we'd already seen before because of a lack of material. Another thing that the show has going for it was the great score and lyricized songs. However, it's still a bit odd how every single character in the show spoke Japanese although the show took place in France and that most of the songs with lyrics had lyrics in Italian. But the songs are nonetheless great, Canta Per Me being the greatest. Too bad there isn't any Karaoke version of it out there. I'd love to be able to download it and sing it at my weekly school assembly. All in all, this is a good show. Download it (the fansub), buy it or borrow it from friends. Great show, great characters, great music.
Rating: Summary: Not all it's advertised Review: You know, I tried... really tried, to get into this series. It came highly reccommended from a friend, but in the end, I couldn't get past the tenth episode. The characters became so old, and two dimensional by then, that their every expression and reaction were already old hat. There really wasn't any territory left to explore except for the ladies true origins, and by now, I just don't care anymore. The episode regarding the ex-KGB spy was easy to see through, and had nothing new to offer. And "Intocabille" was worse. The culture of the Italian Mafia was thrown out in favor of one closer to the Yakuza, and with the multi-flashback scenes, it felt like the two episode story took up the entire series. I actually fell asleep during the first watch and had to go back to see what I missed. Even then, I fought to stay awake. Overall, the series peaked at episode three. Going beyond that, it turns into a blur of the same story in a different backdrop.
Rating: Summary: Not all it's advertised Review: You know, I tried... really tried, to get into this series. It came highly reccommended from a friend, but in the end, I couldn't get past the tenth episode. The characters became so old, and two dimensional by then, that their every expression and reaction were already old hat. There really wasn't any territory left to explore except for the ladies true origins, and by now, I just don't care anymore. The episode regarding the ex-KGB spy was easy to see through, and had nothing new to offer. And "Intocabille" was worse. The culture of the Italian Mafia was thrown out in favor of one closer to the Yakuza, and with the multi-flashback scenes, it felt like the two episode story took up the entire series. I actually fell asleep during the first watch and had to go back to see what I missed. Even then, I fought to stay awake. Overall, the series peaked at episode three. Going beyond that, it turns into a blur of the same story in a different backdrop.
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