Review of Noein: To Your Other Self - Vol. 2

Introduction

Noein hit like a bolt from the blue with Volume 1 a few months back, a dimension warping anime with a slice of life flavour. The first five episodes were packed with ideas, introduced several fascinating characters and jammed in an expansive story into its runtime. As I recall, I described it with "something of an X-Files feel to it with a soupcon of Sliders, all set against the coming of age drama of a group of school friends in the seaside town of Hakodate during summer." I found it a little haphazard and disjointed, albeit compelling, and it was really only by the fifth episode that it felt as if the pieces were beginning to fall into place. For me the coin was in the air as to whether Noein could pull out a coherent narrative, or if it would remain somewhat incoherent for the remainder of the series. With Volume 2 now here for review, I can find out.

For friends Haruka, Yu, Miho, Ai and Isami, the hardest question has to be what to do over the summer. That, and Yu is stressing over being forced into university by his overbearing mother. Rumours of ghostly apparitions inspire Miho to suggest a `fright night`, but no one is prepared for what phantoms they will see. The gateway across time and dimensions is opening up, and wraith like figures are coming through searching for the Dragon Torque. They need to retrieve it to save their own world from the deadly Shangri-La dimension, but the Dragon Torque just happens to be embodied in Haruka. The weird thing is that Haruka finds one of the strangers, Karasu to be oddly familiar. This second volume of Noein contains four episodes, repeated across two discs for extra soundtrack goodness.

6. Dimension Of Tears
Karasu has returned to La`Cryma with Haruka, but he is reluctant to hand the Dragon Torque over to his superiors. Haruka is taken from him by force, and he winds up imprisoned. The powers that be in La`Cryma have finally got their hands on the Dragon Torque, and they begin planning for the defence of their realm against Shangri-La. Haruka is resourceful though, and she manages to escape her captors. She isn`t ready for the world that awaits her, and a strangely familiar face confronts her. In the `real world`, Yu is having a hard time coming to terms with what he witnessed, and the friends are at a loss at how to rescue Haruka.

7. Important Person
The future version of Ai from La`Cryma explains the history of her shattered world to Haruka, and while she recognises the Haruka of her own world in the young child, she`s determined to use her to save La`Cryma. But some believe that La`Cryma is beyond salvation, and have made a deal with Noein to betray their world. The portal opens and the forces of Shangri-La attack. Haruka is placed in the heart of the defence, and the battle is about to be joined, which is when Karasu escapes.

8. Secret
Haruka is back, and her rescuer Karasu severs his link to La`Cryma in order to protect her. But Yu finds this development difficult to stomach, he feels impotent when it comes to protecting his friend, and his frustrations increase when he has another confrontation with his mother. He winds up at Haruka`s place after a night on a bench, where she is already hiding Karasu.

9. Crossing Time
Karasu decides to have a heart to heart with his younger self, just as Yu`s mother turns up to give him a piece of her mind. Haruka`s mother diverts her, and the reason why she is so hard on Yu finally becomes clear, albeit through a wine bottle. Yu is about to finally face up to his mother, when the dimension wavers and she vanishes.

Video

Noein is one gorgeous looking anime, one of the prettiest I have seen. It gets a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer on these discs, and the image is clear, sharp and unblemished. Made by the same company that created Heat Guy J, Noein takes the blending of 3D CG and traditional 2D animation one step further. The character designs are a step removed from traditional anime, and in that respect the show establishes a style of its own. It has a bright, hazy feel to it, appropriate to the summertime setting, and the animation is fluid and expansive. It looks like a theatrical animation at times. On rare occasions the characters do revert to a more minimalist feel, most notable here in the world of La`Cryma, but that seems to be a conscious creative decision, rather than a lack of budget. The action and effects are also astounding as demonstrated repeatedly in the episodes here.

Audio

It`s a two disc set, which means that Manga have included the full range of soundtracks once again. Disc one offers DD 2.0 and 5.1 English and Japanese, while Disc 2 offers DD 2.0 English, as well as DTS English and Japanese tracks. As usual I went for the original language. Noein is a show with plenty of action packed moments, which are well represented in the surround track. The music also has a singular style that adds to the quirky individuality of the show. The incidental music has an almost mediaeval feel to it, while the arrival of the Dragon Knights is usually heralded by some ominous choral music. There are no problems with the English dub either, as the voices suit the characters well (although Atori sounds a little stereotypical), and the dialogue flows naturally.

Once again, following on from the first volume, yet another Manga release in 2007 has dubtitles instead of translated subtitles. That is subtitles that follow the English dub word for word, rather than subtitles translated directly from the Japanese dialogue. But Noein is one of those anime that has a dub that seems very closely translated from the Japanese anyway, and other than the occasional colloquialism, the dubtitles seem to stick quite closely to the Japanese dialogue. I certainly had no complaints watching it. There is a degree of inconsistency though, with La`Cryma now spelt Lacrima for the duration of this volume.

Features

The discs come with psychedelic animated menus, with the wormhole motif of many a dimension warping sci-fi show. You can choose from the four episodes from the main menu, but there is no play all option.

Disc 1`s major offering is the On Location: Part 2 featurette, which sees Director Akane Kazuki and Voice Actress Kudo Haruka (voice of Haruka) visit the seaside town of Hakodate in Hokkaido. It`s a graphic demonstration of why the anime looks so splendid, as the major locations are all taken from real life. It`s impressive just how accurate the anime is, while pervading the story with a fantasy feel. You also get some interviews here that add some background to the process of making the anime. The featurette ends with a 3-minute promotional video for the series.

You`ll also find a one minute long slideshow gallery, which presents some rather blurry images from the show.

Disc 2 houses the usual Manga trailers, this time for Karas, Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig, Naruto, Highlander and Hellboy. There is also the Manga Attacks promo.

Conclusion

What concerns I may have had about the direction of this series have been laid to rest by this second volume. The fifth episode began to tie together the various threads established earlier, and the four episodes in this volume really build on that. Noein is really turning out to be a fine blend of sci-fi mystery and `slice of life` drama, which work together well. The characters are interesting, and the story really gets compelling. Where the earlier episodes had storytelling styles, and narrative threads that hung loosely together, now the story seems very much of a piece, and the more frivolous and humorous aspects of the show don`t seem as out of place.

We begin with Haruka stepping through the metaphorical looking glass and ending up in La`Cryma, hardly a wonderland. She gets to see the dystopian future world at first hand, and we as the audience get the background of the Dragon Knights filled in. The future versions of the friends are shaken by the appearance of Haruka; someone who has long since passed from their world, and their beliefs about the nature of reality, and responsibility to their own world are shaken. Some manage to stand firm, while some like Karasu see an opportunity to put right mistakes they once made in their own world. Haruka`s appearance in La`Cryma is enough to fracture their fragile unity, and the fractures widen the longer she stays there. We also see more of Shangri-La, and learn that Noein has been sowing some seeds of dissent himself. But as yet, his motivations remain clouded.

Back in Haruka`s world, we return to the slice of life drama that seemed so much of a distraction in the earlier episodes. But now it is very much at the heart of the story. Yu`s disagreement with his mother intensifies, exacerbated by the presence of Karasu, his older alternate self. Karasu sees the boy he used to be, his flaws in bold relief, and understandably takes the opportunity to do something about it. Yu`s dismayed that even his older self doesn`t understand him. The situation gets a novel resolution however, as Haruka`s abilities as the Dragon Torque are what provide an insight into the mind of Yu`s mother.

Two strong halves to the disc make this a satisfying watch that fulfils the promise of the first volume. The down side is that the supporting characters introduced in the first volume get somewhat short shrift here. Of the friends, Miho keeps coming up with ever more bizarre conspiracy theories regarding Haruka`s disappearance, Isami develops a crush on his teacher who is helping them look for Haruka, a fact that leads to relentless teasing by Ai, and the series resident Mulder and Scully, Kooriyama and Uchida get what barely amounts to a cameo in these episodes. The psychopathic villain of the piece, Atori, spends the episodes in the background, getting used to life on Earth, and sparing a little time to machinate.

To bring the story into focus, something had to give, and by diminishing the superfluous elements to focus on Haruka, Yu and Karasu, watching this disc becomes a more rewarding experience. Of all the new series debuted this year by Manga Entertainment, Noein is by far my favourite. The quality of the animation is consistently high, and the story is convoluted yet compelling. And even though I hate dubtitles on general principle, the dubtitle track on Noein is damn near acceptable. A promising series just gets more interesting. Make a little shelf space for Noein.