Category: Finished Series: Action

Thanks A LOT to Cos, for mentioning the fact that Noein 24 had actually been released for a couple of weeks now. The fact is like this: at July 9th, the French fansub group BFT released the final episode on Tokyo Toshokan. They told in their description that they translated the final episode from Chikyuji’s fansub (who released a French fansub two days earlier) because Shinsen Subs was so slow. Unfortunately, they wrote this in French, so the only ones able to understand these words were french people, who didn’t even need to know this as they already had their final episode subbed. When I saw this at first, I only noticed the word vostfr, which stands for the french fansubs. And I have a suspicion that I’m not the only one who reached the same conclusion. I can understand a bit of french, but most of the time I’m not motivated enough to spend effort in trying to figure out what it says. A huge mistake. Thanks again to Cos, for making me realize this.

Long story short: if you want to see Noein 24 with english subs: download BFT’s version. It is indeed in english.

Anyway, about the episode. It was utterly, utterly INCREDIBLE!! This episode SO belongs into my list of best endings EVER! The entire episode was so incredibly touching, the pacing was extremely exciting and not to mention the fact that the graphical and musical department worked overtime this episode. And both of these departments already were amazing!

Like I said before, I don’t cry a lot during anime, and even if I do, It’s just a bit, not much. But Noein has managed to do the impossible. During the entire final part of the episode, I had to cry. I’m sortof embarrased by this. But that’s how good this episode was, folks.

I would love to do some kind of summary on this episode, but I do feel that I wouldn’t do it justice. So many things happen at once. Everything was just perfectly directed. In the end, Noein proved to be worthy of being one of the best anime ever. It’s too bad the series ended. I would have loved to see more of this. Let us hope that in the future, more anime as Noein will appear, not afraid to experiment with the boundaries animation.

Memorable Moment: The Entire Episode. If I do have to select one of them, it would be Tobi’s last scene.

Okay, I could almost scream at the end of this episode. That was such an incredible cliffhanger. In fact, the entire episode was incredible. Noein finally shows his real body, and that was just absolutely freaky. It’s the same Karasu, but incredibly pale and skinny. His acting turned this into something totally magnificent.

He also reveals what turned him into Noein. Apparently, his old teacher, Haruka, Isami, Ai and himself got in a car crash, and he was the only one to survive, and see his friends dying in front of his eyes. They were seventeen at that point, which means that it was a very fragile age for Yuu. He couldn’t bear the fact that he’s lost his friends, so he started travelling through dimensions. The only things that he noticed just consisted of sorrow and pain. He was just oblivious for the peace and happiness that went on. That made him decide to turn all of the timespaces into one Shangri’La. He gathered some power, and started preparing his plans. (interesting note: Miho was not inside the car. Did she have any influence on what happened afterwards?)

I remember that a while ago, I stated that the creators probably wouldn’t focus around Atori’s past. Boy, was I wrong. At the beginning of the episode, the creators just found enough time to show a bit of it, and it’s incredible. In a certain way, Atori is just like Noein. He saw his sister dying, right in front of his eyes. The fact that he ends up with only one arm of her left only makes this better and better. A thing like that really breaks you, and that was indeed the thing that turned Atori in his evil self from the first couple of episodes. However, after he met up with Miho, he began to change again. He just needed somebody who cared for him, which is the same thing with Noein. I’m wondering how it’ll end up. Will Noein be destroyed in the end, or will he cease his attempts to create Shangri’La? Or both?

In any case, Atori is just an amazing character. Miho really made him to stop care about himself, but yet, he didn’t lose his entire personality. He’s still gloomy and cold, but when he sees Miho, he really wants to change himself. So awesome. In any case, he hasn’t shown up at the latter half of the episode, so he’ll probably come with a big finish in the end. Isami, Ai and Miho are meanwhile sent back to their own dimension. And I loved Haruka’s mother at that point. It’s, of course, incredibly hard to predict how someone will react when their entire house has disappeared, along with your daughter, though the creators managed to execute this perfectly.

Karasu had a bit of an expected part. Yuu gets to be the one who’ll save Haruka, of course, so they need something to distract him in order to give Yuu the opportunity to go to Haruka alone. So, the creators send a couple of monsters in order to kill them. Still, the fight that Karasu had afterwards was totally awesome. If not for the extremely messy animation.

Back in the normal world, meanwhile, the great big jerk carries out his plans, and we get to see the results in the next episode. What happened before was Haruka’s father opening up a few security holes for Kosagi, Uchida, Kooriyama and Tobi in order for them to be able to infiltrate the great big jerk’s ship. Kosagi and Tobi, meanwhile, begin to lose their existance, and so, they’re being left behind. When they arrive at the main control room, the great big jerk only gets worse, when he actually shoots Kooriyama, and threatens all of the other crew on board. Even Haruka’s father can’t do anything against it. Still, I absolutely love the fact that the children are fighting their fight, while the grown-ups are also fighting their on fight. You can notice so many subtle differences. (Interesting note: what happened to Tobi and Kosagi? You surely can not tell me that they’ve finished playing their parts in this anime).

Haruka and Yuu were totally adorable. They make such a good couple. Noein also gets scarier and scarier by the minute. Though what really got to me is the fact that Haruka actually showed sympathy for Noein. Not only in the awesome cliffhanger, but Noein also holds some kind of monologue about how he was abandoned. I could be wrong, but when he told about his history and his suffering, I think he was looking for attention. And indeed, Noein is a lonely being. An extremely lonely being. He really longs to be able to socialize a bit. Though this longing really did something with his mind, and instead, he’s not planning to create a humanless society, making himself only lonelier than he already is. If that was even possible.

Still, we’re at the last episode, and as far as I know, there are two questions remaining: who the heck is the old guy who seems to be in every single dimension that Haruka visits. And what was the meaning of the phone? La’Cryma seems to be destroyed now, as we see the council collapse during this episodes. This makes you wonder what happened to Amamuki and Kosagi’s daughter. Overall, this has been an amazing episode. It wasn’t as great as episode 22, but it sure does come close!

Noein suddenly accomplished the impossible: it surpassed itself. This episode was utterly, utterly incredible. It focuses around Isami, Ai and Miho as they grow up, and also gives some hints towards what made them change towards Fukurou, Kosagi and Amamuki. As always, it’ll be very difficult to give a good summary of Noein, as there are tons of things happening at tons of different places at tons of different times and tons of different timespaces with tons of different characters.

Before I continue, I have to make a very embarrassing confession. I actually cried during this episode. I almost never cry. Up till today, only Full Moon wa Sagashite managed this, and now Noein comes and just accomplishes this like it’s nothing!

Anyway, Noein, in order to attempt to win her for him, shows Haruka one of the possible futures for her friends. Believe me, it isn’t going to be pretty. Everything starts with Isami’s grandmother who died. As his parents died before, they have nobody to take care of them, so a distant relative came up and offered his help. This means that Isami and Ai had to be separated. Ai also grew away from Miho. Back in Shangri’La, Atori refuses to go out, while Miho makes him do it. He was just so adorible when he listened to her. Just compare this to the Atori of the beginning of the series.

Miho, Isami and Ai meanwhile are already attending highschool. Miho’s combination of having weird ideas and being rich doesn’t fare her too well, as she gets bullied in a horrible way. She doesn’t have any friends at all, and people are openly making fun of her. It was just too sad to see her, locked up in a toilet, and seeing the once so cheerful Miho suddenly victim of one of the pranks of her fellow classmates again. This is probably what turned her into the cold-hearted Kosagi.

Isami doesn’t have any better luck. He grows up to be a true delinquent, hitting people for fun, stealing money, the usual. He’s totally forgotten about his love for Ai. When she meets him, she tries to talk to him, but he then begins shouting at her. This is probably what turned him into the kind-hearted, though determined Fukurou. These were also great scenes to make the strange use of graphics stand out to their best. The messy art really added up to the scenes at which Isami kept kicking another one of his victims.

Back in the current timespace, things aren’t going too well either. Firstly, Haruka’s mother comes back, and suddenly sees that her entire house is gone. Of course, she freaks out and goes to Yuu’s mother, who manages to calm her a bit. An amazing scene again, the reactions also totally fitted.

The great big jerk is at the verge of putting his experiments to the test, at the major displeasure of Haruka’s father. Kosagi, Uchida, Kooriyama and Tobi are on a mission to try and stop them. This will probably be their final goal for the scenes, as the great big jerk has absolutely nothing to do with Haruka, directly.

Yuu and Karasu aren’t doing a lot during this episode. They mostly spend their airtime getting to Haruka. As Shangri’La is a timespace full of incoherences, the two of them must have an iron will to save Haruka, instead of iron feet. At the end of the episode, it becomes clear that Yuu’ll be the one to protect her, as he gets to be the one teleported. I wonder what the final role of Karasu might be. He still needs to do something over the last two episodes.

Back to Miho. Things get even worse, when she eventually locks herself up in her room, for two whole weeks. When her mother finally manages to get her to open her door, it appears that all of the psychological strain caused her amnesia. I’ve said it somewhere before on this blog, but I’m an incredible sucker for stories featuring memory loss. This made me absolutely love this moment.

But wait, there’s more. Isami and his gang get into a fight with another gang. The other gang is no match for them, but then one of them comes with a knife. He’s frozen with fear, but when Isami gets too close in order to stop one of his gangmates from doing something stupid, the guy with the knife charges, and manages to cut out one of Isami’s eyes. This explains Fukurou’s scar. More importantly, this is when Isami begins to realize what a jerk he has been, and he begins to hate himself. His gang-members run away, and he’s left all alone. Can it truly get any better?

Certainly! Ai still practices football. Then, she hears about Isami and tries to rush towards his house. Then, her knee begins to act weird, and she falls down with pain. When she gets to the hospital, the doctors give her the news that if she doesn’t amputate her leg, she’ll die within three months. Three friggin’ months! Besides this scene explaining why Amamuki doesn’t take part of any action, it was one of the best ever!

Things get even better when Miho attempts to take in an overdose of pills, Ai attempts to jump off a building, and Isami attempts to kill the one who took out his eye. Haruka, as she’s been watching this for all this time, can’t bear any more of it. Her thoughts reach Yuu, and he jumps to Isami, stopping him, and telling him to meet Ai. Miho is saved by Atori, who managed to show up, and the teenage Isami is the one who makes up with Ai. Best. Scenes. Ever.

Noein only strenthens this effect by showing his face for the very first time. He keeps trying to get into Haruka’s mind, by reminding her that Yuu was the one who didn’t manage to recover from his miseries, unlike Ai, Isami and Miho. It seems that Haruka’s death was just too much for him, and it turned him into Noein. So, what was the difference between Noein and Karasu? Why did Noein change, while Karasu didn’t?

Overall, this episode was just totally incredible. The best episode of Noein yet. I’d gotten a bit demotivated from the inconsistent releases, though this episode really reminded me why Noein is one of the best anime ever. Period.

After the eventfullness of episode 20, we get to see another intermezzo. This’ll either be the last one of them, or episode 23 will be the last intermezzo. In this episode, all the pieces are moved to be ready for the grande finale. There are so many different parties, and they all feel like they still have something to do in this show. And that with only three episode left. I tried to make a quick list off all the parties, as at the end of the episode:
– Haruka
– Yuu and Karasu
– Noein
– Ai, Isami, Miho and Atori
– Kosgai, Uchida, Kooriyama and Tobi
– Haruka’s father and mother
– The idiot who plans to excecute the magic-circle project
I think this won’t be too much altered. Anyway, about the episode. The person I absolutely loved was Atori, again. At the beginning of the episode, it becomes clear that he has yet to fully returned to his old self. He’s extremely grumpy, but he does keep his nice self. Then, at one moment, he loses control and goes berserk, and Miho really manages to stop him. I so love this, for the biggest part, he’s back to his old self again, but his love for Miho remains, and I doubt that that will ever go away.

This episode was overall a good episode for the different couples in the show. Not only for Miho and Atori, but Isami and Ai also have a nice and intimate scene at the end of the episode, and furthermore, Haruka’s father and mother meet up with each other again.

We also get the information we’ve all been waiting for: why the La’Cryma-Haruka died. She sacrificed herself in order to become part of the La’Cryma main computer, in order to protect the timespace. This brings up an interesting issue. Remember the phone in episode 14? Could it be that that call was made by the Haruka, whilst in the La’Cryma computer? I also still want to know who that old man with the hat might be. I’m going to laugh if it turns out to be another version of Yuu, but still, he has to have some kind of connection.

Overall, I really enjoyed this episode. Especially when Atori or Haruka’s dad came into the picture. The latter really seems determined to undo his past mistakes, which only promises some great scenes for in the future.

I knew it! The future version of Ai does return. This time, she meets up with Yuu and Haruka from the past. Kosagi’s daugher brings them to her at the beginning of the episode, after the dragon’s torque saved them from the desperate Kuina. I just like this character more and more. At the beginning of this anime, I so would NOT have thought that he’d end up this way. Anyway, Atori regained his memory, but somehow, he doesn’t return to the bad side. That is surely an awesome development. To see a sick and demented guy like him join the good guys. I’d love it if he were to play another big role at the rest of the anime.

Holy god… this show ends at episode 23, if I’m not wrong. That means that there are only three more episodes to go before this incredible anime. I’m really curious about the ending. We still need another plot twist, as I don’t see the end of this episode make up for a number of three episodes. It’ll probably involve Haruka, in some way. And of course we get to see how Noein became who he was.

Because yes! We see Noein confirm his true identity. He has to have a very good reason in order to make it not based on coincidences. But then again, I feel that Noein has been neglecting this part a bit. Anyway, it’ll still be interesting to see.

The rest of this episode was even more awesome than the first part. Seeing how the first part already was amazing, it really says something about the quality of the second part. This really is one of the first times that I actually truly enjoyed the romance between the two main characters of a show. Those who’ve been reading some of my reviews and know about my dislike towards most main characters must know that this happens very rarely.

Another thing that really added up to this episode was the fact that the backgrounds are just too beautiful to be true. Starting from the dystopian La’Cryma to the utopian Shangri’La, everything looks gorgeos. And if that wasn’t even enough, the CG really gives that extra edge needed to blow you off your chair. And have I already mentioned that the music was as good as ever in this episode?

This episode mostly focused on the differences between adults and children. Especially Kooriyama and Uchida are put in the spotlight. They’re both struggling to survive in the grown-up world, and against that total idiot of a boss of Haruka’s father. It doesn’t really work out the way they wanted. Haruka struggles with the topic of remembering. She realizes that precious memories will be forgotten once you get older, and already starts to notice that this is happening with herself as well. Overall, it was nice to see, although it could’ve been a bit less time-consuming.

The plot developments in this episode were awesome. Even though this was just an intermezzo, we get to see a very nice cliffhanger for next week. I expected Noein to hit first, but Kuina strangely hasn’t given up yet, and is as stubborn as ever. In the current timespace, Atori also gets involved in a huge plot twist. Of course, we don’t get to see what it means, as the cliffhanger prevented us from finding out.

I’m hoping that the next episode will feature a bit more music. Noein’s got the most awesome music ever, the scenes really get an extra boost out of it. It’s just that it doensn’t use it often enough.

This time, we have a Kuina episode. We get to know him a bit better, and just like in the last episode with Kosagi, we get to see his breakdown. I guess it was meant for these two episodes to focus on the La’Cryma cast, before Noein is to introduces his final schemes. I’m wondering if the future version of Ai will get her part in the next episode. But then again, I’ve noticed that Noein only brings the number of consecutive episodes which closely relate to each other to the level of two. I’ve seen that in lots of cases, but never have I seen more. Especially not when it’s so obvious as here. I do believe, however, that she’ll play some part further in the show.

Anyway, this episode, even though it had a lot of similarities with the previous one, also featured a lot of difference. Especially now you could clearly notice them between the similarities. For example, Kosagi goes in because she’s angry at Karasu and wants revenge. Kuina only goes in out of fear and despair, as a last possible option, while Kosagi wanted to go no matter what. Kosagi remained in the current timespace afterwards. Kuina is back in La’Cryma. (It’s just a hunch, but the moment he’ll be in the spotlights again could be awesome, depending on the creator’s choices). Fans of the Noein-fight-scenes will also love this episode, as we get another piece of art in front of our nose. It wasn’t as good as the Fukurou vs Karasu-fight, but there were certainly plenty of influences to see.

There were a lot more other events happening during the episode than just the scenes about Kuina. We get some more overall info about La’Cryma, the researchers learn some more things the viewers already knew, Haruka sortof ‘awakens’ (she has a weird voice when she does, by the way. I can’t help but like it) and Noein takes another step in his plans. This step will probably have a great influence on the rest of the story. What kind of influence? Well, we have to wait for the next episode to find that out.