Noir

"Make a Pilgrimage to the Past with me" - Kirika says this to Mireille in the very first episode, and thus the story of the assasin duo "Noir" begins. This dark series takes you on a journey to discover the secrets of two women, one whose past haunts her to this very day and the other who can remember no past at all. The secret of one lies in understanding the other and vice versa.

Noir begins ambiguously enough. Professional Assasin Mireille Boquet hears a hauntingly familiar melody over her computer in conjunction with a new assignment. Compelled to discover more, she meets with a young girl who knows herself only as Kirika. The relationship is fraught with danger right from the start, but these two each recognize that the other has the hidden ability to help them come to grips with their inner problems.

Despite her age, Kirika is easily on par with Mireille as an assassin if not a little better, yet she often wonders "I can kill people so easily, but why don't I feel sad." Working with Mireille as part of Noir, the two settle into a mutual partnership that quickly adds to the legends that the name Noir already inspires as a longstanding name for assassins in the underworld.

The first 10 episodes in particular examine the lives of the two women through the assassination missions and the viewer is allowed to glimpse the surface of the many difficulties inherent to the lifestyle, both physically and emotionally. Though they mostly kill bad guys who one could argue deserve their fate, the show isn't all black and white, and on many occasions left me asking "Why does it have to be this way."

Later in the series, a shadowy organization begins to reveal itself, teasing the two women with potential answers to the questions that they harbor and drawing them deeper down a path fraught with religious overtones and philosophy that make sure the path to truth is going to be as painful as continued ignorance... almost.

Mireille Boquet is the older (though that's not saying much) half of Noir who brings chic style, experience, and professionalism to the duo. She doesn't seem like she would fit into the typical assassin archetype, but the audience is not left wanting for answers. Gradually, over the course of the series, you can sneak a few peaks into her ice-cool facade that let you come to understand that she may kill people but she hasn't killed her emotions. Watch for it.

Yumira Kirika. That's not her real name but it's all she knows. Knowing nothing of her past except that she was to find and work with Mireille, she's a terribly lonely and extremely sad girl who almost never smiles. In fact, those rare occasions when she does smile, you can't help but smile yourself. She has natural talent at the assasin gig and emerges as the better part of Noir in this respect.

Chloe doesn't make an appearance until later in the series, but she is another female assassin, very childlike and full of wonder on one hand, but deadly serious and down to business on the other. She has an important part to play in the fate of our two protagonists.

These three are all you really need to know about. Everyone else in the series is pretty much a bit player. Yet there's enough here between them that it'll keep you engaged throughout. I was hard pressed to feel any anger, hatred, or dislike of these characters despite the lifestyle and the choices that they often made. The whole series is focused on understanding them.

The animation is top notch. The James Bond style opening is not quite a perfect fit for the series, but was enjoyable nonetheless.

Noir is a weighty series, and many episodes don't end on a happy note, but there are frequent gun battles and, well, assasinations, that take a little liberty with realism to showcase some extremely well choreographed fighting. You can usually count on one of these in every episode, but they don't grow tiresome and mostly don't feel tacked on.

The Japanese voices of the three characters succeed admirably, and in fact, are required to succeed in their roles to pull off a believable show. If any of the 3 had suffered from poor casting, the series would be dramatically lessened, owing to how much it focuses on presenting them to the viewers.

The music is top notch. Some of it is overplayed a little bit, especially the song that always plays during the killing bits, but I never truly got tired of it. Chloe has the perfect theme for her character, and Mireille and Kirika's themes are right up there as catch tunes with a bit of a spiritual sound to them.