ThatAnimeSnob

Noein is a show with a very interesting concept that is bogged down by the erratic pacing. Which is not the worst thing that can happen to an anime, because most of them have downright BAD presentation of their ideas. But first a few words about who produced it. It is animated by Satelight, a minor studio in the fileld. Amongst their several works, this is the only one I liked for its several interesting concepts. It is directed by Akane Kazuki, who also made the exceptional Escaflowne. He has a very moody style in his works and that makes him stand out.

SPECIFICS

Moving to the premise. It is about two alternative realities that are connecting not only through space but also through spacetime. So the core difference is how people called dragon knights spacetimetravel in a different world that is like their own with the difference it is 15 years younger than their own, where they were still kids. They are aiming to find an element there that lacks in their own reality, yet is crucial for not intergrading their world with a third alien one.

What further makes the anime more believable is its constant use of quantum physics terminology as means to excuse how everything works. Words like causality, diverge, and waving sound a lot more scientific in the ears of the more demanding viewer, than just saying it was a fireball spell, or a teleportation staff. It still feels like magic from a point on but hey, if it was hard facts this wouldn’t be a series rather than a documentary.

The 15 year gap helps to further perceive the change the characters had after a great calamity struck their world. If it was taking place at the same time it would be much harder to feel how all these years of misery changed them to the heartless and cruel people they are. Also, unlike conventional time travel stories, interacting with one another does not cause those pesky time paradoxes since they are considered to be different realities and not the same timeline. That means there is no fear of screwing around with the future. Isn’t that wonderful? It makes the magic panacea of time resets not possible; so you know there won’t be a hocus pocus ending.

The production values are very good for this sort of anime, although the artwork quality varies a lot in style from segment to segment. It feels blobby here, sketchy there, and awesome elsewhere. This diversity can be perceived as either artsy or lazy depending on your point of view but it is definitely not consistent and feels like ten different groups were working on it without trying to normalize it in the final version. Yet this is supposed to be a show about the alteration of reality and the bending of spacetime, so in a way all that are excused in-story. Nothing is constant; visuals included.

The animation is definitely very good, as the body motions and the camera angles are great and help you to immerge in the setting completely. The way most backgrounds and big objects are done with 3D doesn’t look very crude, nor irrelevant to the 2D foreground as it happens with most anime; the animators really paid attention to such details. They are not super awesome and aesthetically pleasing all the time but they fit with the overall.

The visual effects are really funky, trippy, and epic when it comes to action. The world constantly changes when the dimensions overlap, time freezes, colors change, and the warriors do some really cool stunts when they are fighting and their cloaks take shapes according to what happens. There isn’t much of battle choreography but at least it looks fluent and dynamic enough to keep looking.

The soundtrack is basically lots of sad sounding jpop pieces, a thing I am not fond of in the least. They are also not very memorable in the longrun but do fit the overall mood of the show. The BGM on the other hand has some really cool orchestra and chorus pieces during moments of tension or action, which turns the whole thing into amazing levels of coolness. Voice acting is good, although it feels kinda too serious at emotion-heavy times and makes it a bit harder to get into what the characters feel at that moment.

Despite all the cool stuff that happen in the story and its very well handled premise, I can’t deny how it has a big chunk of naivety and plot armor in it, as means to prevent things from going crazy or ending in just one episode. The exposition of the story happens mostly with forced monologues by characters that half the time would normally have no reason to mention them so analytically, since they already know all that very well. This is clearly done to inform the viewer of what is going on but it still feels sloppy in terms of realism. Also, Haruka and the other kids seem to take all the really creepy things that happen around them WAY too light when any normal kid their age (and they ARE normal) would scream, get mad, call the cops, and be hospitalized from the shock. Yet again and again they just consider all the lethal and unworldly events around them to be unimportant and return to their silly carefree lives. Furthermore, the Dragon Torque artifact Haruka wears, as well as the ghostly figure of Noein are plot devises that offer lots Deus Ex Machina in the form of teleportation and clairvoyance, which weakens the tension considerably. It also becomes harder and harder to accept the dragon knights having such a trouble to just grab a little defenseless kid for so many episodes and instead waste time talking, and fighting amongst each other while their world is fading away. Hey guys things are simple; do your job or don’t bother.

So basically the story keeps on finding poor excuses to stall the completion of the mission with lots of foolish side tracking and easily avoided internal conflicts. The pacing is otherwise NOT slow as there is always something interesting going on. From slowly getting to understand what is going on, to further learning more aspects about each character’s personality and mentality. It’s just that there are several genres going back and forth, and sometimes the switch happens in a sloppy way. There is a big contrast between the carefree life of the kids and the morbid world the warriors come from, so when you see them fighting for their lives on minute and fooling around the exact next feels a bit off aesthetically pleasing. Again, I feel it is because there were lots of teams working at the same time like in the artwork part, and each one went in to produce its own segment that didn’t necessarily fit in with all the rest in a logical line of thought. But hey, as I said it is about reality fading before your eyes, so it is somewhat excused. At least you are offered a lot of meat and in small pieces each time, thus you will not be bored with the whole deal right away. Even the quantum explanations, as confusing as the may be at first, they are easy to grasp if you already know the basics or are a bit open minded.

The characters are interesting on a basic level, meaning that they are lively and easily likable for their attitude and mentality. They are still hard to be seen as plausible after awhile, since as I said they are not behaving realistically, since their line of thought is blurry from all the different people working on this show. And even if you break down their personalities, they will pass as silly to the most part. Haruka plays out as a mature and brave girl for her age (in fact TOO mature) and Yuu is her “emo without much of a reason” friend who needs to grow some balls after seeing his badass future self. And Karasu is the almost stereotypical anti-hero with an overprotection syndrome. Anyways, they are well presented but not highly excused to be as such. If you can deal with their behavior annoyance then you will like them a lot.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Despite the usually sloppy and convenient way everything unfolds, Noein is very enjoyable and accessible to most audiences but NOT the too-casual ones. You see, it was forgotten rather fast by most and not because it was a bad show but because it wasn’t too cliché and simplistic enough to appeal to moe lovers or shounen fans. And it sure wasn’t about kindergarten explanations around magic so it can’t be grasped by the average high school dropout. Plus it came out in a year good shows were abundant and Studio Satelight is not a major group most care to follow. I could even say the inconsistent visuals may put off a lot of viewers who prefer consistent and highly detailed models. The way I see it, it has a bit of everything and handles its premise without ever contradicting it. And above all the ending is not a magical reset, the thing most famous anime run to do as cheap means to offer a happy ending to the masses who want happily ever after finales. It would definitely be a lot more interesting if there were fewer episodes, faster pacing, and the characters behaved more plausible, yet all that don’t detract too much from enjoyment. I recommend it as a medium/high series that tries harder than most to tell a good idea. Not too successfully but it succeeds a lot more than most to be uncommon and intriguing without contradicting its themes or going for a cop-out ending.

SUGGESTION LIST
Steins;Gate
Madoka Magika

And now for some excused scorings.

ART SECTION: 8/10
General Artwork 2/2 (artistically chaotic)
Character Figures 1/2 (generic)
Backgrounds 2/2 (basic but fitting with the feeling of the series)
Animation 1/2 (very good in action scenes but otherwise basic)
Visual Effects 2/2 (a bit crude but very fitting)

SOUND SECTION: 7/10
Voice Acting 2/3 (a bit corny but fitting with the feeling of the series)
Music Themes 3/4 (not great but fitting with the feeling of the series)
Sound Effects 2/3 (ok I guess)

STORY SECTION: 7/10
Premise 2/2 (interesting)
Pacing 1/2 (erratic)
Complexity 1/2 (not much but there)
Plausibility 2/2 (despite the magical aspect of technology, it is very well presented and excused in-series)
Conclusion 1/2 (messy but solid)

CHARACTER SECTION: 6/10
Presence 1/2 (generic)
Personality 2/2 (rather cheesy but well founded)
Backdrop 1/2 (generic and simplistic but it’s there)
Development 1/2 (messy but it’s there)
Catharsis 1/2 (messy but it’s there)

VALUE SECTION: 6/10
Historical Value 1/3 (still remembered by some as an interesting retro title)
Rewatchability 1/3 (low because of too much slow and chaotic pacing)
Memorability 4/4 (extremely tragic to the point of forever remembering it)

ENJOYMENT SECTION: 8/10
Good stuff if you see past some annoyances.

VERDICT: 7/10