Noir, one of the most controversial anime series of the last two years (26 TV episodes, April 6 through September 28, 2001, produced by the new Bee Train animation studio, recommended for ages 15+ in America), is full of contradictions: a hard-boiled intellectual action series with beautiful style but minimal action and intriguing but basically unsympathetic characters. Two young Paris-based female assassins search for their past in a moody, slow-paced yet violence-filled quest that is invariably compared to the movies La Femme Nikita and The Professional.

Kirika Yumura, a Japanese high school girl recently moved to Paris, approaches Mirelle Bouquet, a blonde beauty barely into her twenties. Kirika is an apparently mind-wiped amnesiac who knows only that her history is a fake cover story, that she is a well-trained killer, and that she should contact Mirelle who is also a top-notch professional assassin. Also, she has Mirelle's father's pocket watch which Mirelle has not seen since her parents were murdered fifteen years earlier. Mirelle is torn between wanting to kill Kirika to keep her own secret, and adopting her as a partner to help find out what sinister force from their pasts is trying to manipulate both of them.

Noir has so many secrets within secrets that it is difficult to summarize without spoiling anything. The first 10 episodes are comparatively light, self-contained adventures of Mirelle and Kiriko (code-named “Noir”) filling murder contracts around the world, demonstrating their prowess in getting through impenetrable deathtraps, with mere hints of their mysterious adversary. With #10, the presence of their enemy becomes too ominous to ignore and Noir turns into a serial. Mirelle’s own past is slowly revealed, showing how such a cute young girl could become a skilled assassin; and both gradually discover the existence of a hidden international crime organization that was ancient before the Mafia ever existed.

Common complaints are that the plot is overly enigmatic, the atmosphere of impending tragedy is too depressing and none of the characters are really sympathetic. You can feel sorry for Mirelle and Kiriko once you know their histories, but Mirelle works too hard at being brassy and never developing emotional attachments, while the sad-faced gamin Kiriko is so withdrawn she does little (outside the action scenes) except stand around silently.

Common accolades are that the plot is clever (you feel that all 26 episodes were closely worked out from the beginning), all the weapons look realistic and the artistic settings of urban Paris and the Corsican countryside (the most frequent locales) are beautiful. The hauntingly addictive music by Yuki Kajiura has been so popular that the two sound track CD albums are a constant sell-out at anime import stores. There are unusually informative comments from the production staff published in booklet form in these DVDs. Even the anime fans who feel that Noir does not entirely succeed agree that it is ambitious, imaginative and challenging, especially for a TV anime series.

Risky Safety: Omishi Magical Theater. V.1 - V.3.
TV series (24 episodes), 1999-2000. Director: Koji Masunari. V.1-3, eight episodes/80 minutes. Price & format: DVD bilingual $29.95. Distributor: AN Entertainment.

The cute Omishi Mahou Gekijou Risky * Safety (an adaptation of cartoonist Rei Omishi’s children’s manga, animated by the A.P.P.P. studio) was part of satellite channel WOWOW’s Anime Complex II TV program, weekly from October 5, 1999 through April 4, 2000. This enabled WOWOW to experiment with shorter-than-usual formats within the half-hour timeslot; Risky Safety is only 10 minutes per episode.

Risky Safety is intended for preadolescents, but it is so ethnically Japanese that it may be more suitable for students of Japanese culture than for American children (especially with its excellent but extensive “translation and cultural notes”). Moe Katsuragi is a young girl (upper elementary school or lower middle school) in the throes of a puppy-love crisis. Her emotional trauma attracts two tiny apprentice spirits, impish Risky who encourages her to commit suicide so he can take her soul to hell, and angelic Safety who frantically tries to improve Moe’s morale. However, both share the same body and have to fight over which one has control of it. Both are so comically incompetent that Moe is soon giggling out of her depression.