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Noir - Shades of Darkness (Vol. 1) - With Series Box

Noir - Shades of Darkness (Vol. 1) - With Series Box

List Price: $44.98
Your Price: $40.48
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: really cool
Review: Im usually used to watching comedy anime with goofy characters who are usually really hyper as hell and stuff and not at all serious. But I still really liked noir. There may not be any comedy or overly crazy characters but it still is one of my favorite animes. Also the main characters kirika and mirielle arent seen wearing skimpy clothes like in other animes and they also never need to be saved. Its a really cool anime and its worth checking out.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: NOIR IS THE BEST.
Review: hahaha Noir is so good! I haven't seen an anime this great in a long, long time.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Show!
Review: This is a great show! It's got awesome scenery and beautiful landscaping, about the best voice-acting ever, really awesome music and awesome action sequences! There's nothing not to like about this show! Overall it's a great show... and I suggest it to most people!

If you like this try: Gunsmith Cats

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Partners?
Review: Though Mireille and Kirika work together, there is a lack of true partnership in this first installment of Noir. Some might think this would interfere with the quality of the show, but it does not. It adds to the show by allowing us to see how they adapt to the other's presence in their life.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An abnormal anime (in a good way!)
Review: Noir, a wonderful anime brought to the US by ADV Films. This anime is different. It is set in France and has a European feel to it. It is about two assasains trying to find-or avenge- their pasts. I recomment this for anime fans and non-anime fans alike. It is rated 15+ from it's violence(with no blood) and it's "mature themes"(their assasains, that is a muture theme I guess...)
-Lord Kronos Phoenix

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great
Review: I really loved this series, it's so exciting, and at the same time very dark and misterious. At first, it starts a little slow, but after chapter 3 you will get so anxious to see what happens next. I really like Kirika skills, I think she rocks. Also the background it's so european that you will feel that you really are in France, also the music is so cool and it's better when the action scenes start. Mirielle and Kirika are a real good team, both are incredible assasins, so I don't think they can be beaten so easily.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Les deux vierges règnent sur la mort...
Review: When professional assassin Mireille Bouquet gets a strange e-mail with a picture and a cryptic message, she at first deletes it. "Whatever. This is stupid," she says aloud. But the picture turns out to be of her future partner, Kirika Yuumura. The two form a partnership and delve into each other's pasts, attempting to find the reasons behind the killing skills they both possess.

NOIR is an extremely psychologically-backed series. Mireille outwardly lives a normal, carefree life--but she's hiding a dark reality. Kirika is openly different, but she also hides her skills as a killer. Much of the Shades of Darkness DVD deals with establishing just how unstable both girls are, and how stable they pretend to be. As the story progresses, the mystery of Les Soldats unfolds, although much of this aspect of the story is not accentuated in Volume One.

Another testament to the greatness of NOIR is the music, done by Yuki Kajiura. The haunting music box melody that is featured throughout much of the series, the Latin hymn that plays during battles, and the beautiful Italian singing backed by guitars and violins--all of it adds up to a purely wonderful soundtrack. And as a connesieur of opening themes, I give NOIR's opening, Coppelia's Casket, a spot on my top ten list.

Be forewarned: After watching the first NOIR volume, you'll be in it for the long run. It's not an anime you can buy the first volume of and then leave behind. The story, the art, and overall literary quality is addictive. It's loaded with enough symbolism and irony to make your literature teacher go mad. NOIR is one of the most stunning up-and-coming anime titles, which you won't want to miss! (Rated 15+ for violence and mature themes)

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Technically Superb, but Barren and Empty
Review: Noir deserves praise in one respect: it is technically excellent in every way--the animation is smooth, the character designs are wonderful, the music is top notch. The problem is that these wonderful parts are assembled into an emotionally barren whole.

For its story, Noir relies on two old standby plots: the amnesiac, and the person haunted by past tragedy. The difficulty is that both plots require characters that one can care about; neither of the main characters is likeable. Mireille is a professional assassin, taking jobs from whomever to kill whomever--it's all just money. Kirika is an amnesiac whose only skill is to kill, so that's what she does. Neither has qualms or misgivings; neither is trying to become better. They team up as the assasins called Noir merely to pursue selfish desires.

The essence of the problem, then, is that there's exactly zero reasons to prefer that Mireille and Kirika kill their targets rather than vice versa. After one disc, I didn't want to know Kirika's oh-so-secret past. I didn't want to learn about Mireille's oh-so-tragic childhood. I didn't care. These characters don't deserve the technically superb world they inhabit, because they are so lifeless and empty. The most that can be said about them is that they are utterly amoral, and wouldn't even make interesting villains, let alone heroines.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: BEST SHOW EVER!!!
Review: Noir is awesome! One of my favorite animes of all time. The artwork is great. Very colorful, great locations. The Story is excellent. A girl with amnesia who has special abilities, An assassin with a mysterious past. A pocketwatch playing a hauntingly familiar melody. An unknown enemy. Watch out or you'll get sucked in. The music is the best out of any anime I've ever seen. Gives you chills when Kirika and Mereille battle the odds, killing the enemy to the driving beat of a beautiful operatic piece - Salva Nos and Canta Per Me. Kirika came up with some of the coolest devices imaginable to overcome her opponents. The characters were very in-depth, you didn't know whether to love, hate or pity them. The ending had me on the edge of my seat!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Canta Per Me Addio...
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.


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