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Feature Presentation:
This series is cool. Where can you see two young female assasins that kick butt & leaving us poor guys behind? They are beautiful to look at, to die for, litterary. Mireille works as an assasin for a living, but now she is teaming up with Kirika & become NOIR. Mireille & Kirika are searching the truth about her past, but will they find it? I do enjoy that the place of the story is in France. As each episode past, you get little clues about their past, but what does it really means? As they try to incover the truth, they are attacked by an unknown enemy. There is plenty of action, suspend & drama. To top things off, the music is very good, but does it sound familiar to another Anime?
Video:
ADV Films did a very great job. I found no problem, the image are clear & the color looks perfect. To top things off, the series is feature on Widescreen format. If you got a Widescreen TV, you're going to enjoy this even more. The episodes are on a different track, so there will be a small loading time when you move on to the next episode. I do note that you can skip all those warnings & logos when you first load the DVD by just pressing the "Menu" button on your remote control.
Dubbing: English:
The dubbing is really great. Since the story is base in France, there is alot of French accent in most of the characters that interact with the main characters. They even left out original Japanese dialogue in the beginning of the first episode, posibility pointing that the story started in Japan. They pick the cast very well, especially for Kirika, soft & innocent at the same time, but cold like a true killer. It's about 80% of the original Japanese.
Audio 01: English 5.1:
Unable to test it, since I don't have a 5.1 surround system, I can't really say much.
Audio XX: English 2.0:
Just letting you know, there isn't an English 2.0 audio track on this DVD. This is artificially made from the 5.1 audio track, that's why I noted it as "XX". I found no problem with the audio, but I bet it would be alot more interesting with the 5.1.
Audio 02: Japanese 5.1:
Unable to test it, since I don't have a 5.1 surround system, I can't really say much.
Audio XX: Japanese 2.0:
Just letting you know, there isn't an Japanese 2.0 audio track on this DVD. This is artificially made from the 5.1 audio track, that's why I noted it as "XX". I found no problem with the audio, but I bet it would be alot more interesting with the 5.1.
Subtitle:
ADV Films have selected a great font, very easy to read. They use yellow for the introduction, ending themes & the Japanese dialogue & white for Japanese signs & text. There are two tracks of subtitling. One track is for the sign subtitling & the other one is for the Japanese dialogue. I might note that every odd numbered episodes, the intro & ending subtitles are in English, while the even numbered episodes are in Japanese on this volume.
Menu Option:
The menu is also in widescreen format, but if got just a regular full screen TV, it will display in that format with no problem. The menu is really simple. I think the image came from the main theme. It's just a plain blue background. There isn't a "Play All" feature, just the selections of the 5 episodes on this volume, "Screen Access", "Set Up" & "Extras". When you select one of the episodes, you get a guy getting shot. The main theme is playing in the background. Other sections, there wll be different animation & other background musics will be played.
DVD Extras:
There isn't much extras on it, just a non-credit opening & a production sketches related to the episodes on this volume. There is also the original trailers of this series.
Packaging:
Wow, the packaging is pretty white. I haven't seen many with a white background cover. You get to see Mireille & Kirika on the cover with the mysterious clock. In the back, you get to see Mireille & Kirika in the cornor, with a screenshot from each episode. The insert have the same picture as the back, following the same style as the cover. There is also a little something extra, a secret message box, but you need a special kind of glasses to read it. Inside the insert, there is production notes on how the series was created, lots of information on the series is right there. It's pretty cool. On the DVD disc, it's pretty plain, all black, with Mireille in the background & "Noir" as the title.
PC Viewing:
Watching it on the PC is the same as watching it on the TV. Very clean, no problem at all, very little pixel (little squares popping in & out), both normal mode & full screen mode. The sound is just great. Since the episodes are on different tracks, it will take time to load when you move on to the next episode. Like on your regular DVD player, you can skip the warnings & logos when you load the disc, just use the "menu" option to go to the menu screen.
Overall DVD Rating:
I say females kicks butts. If you love action, suspense & drama, this series is for you.
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