Alternative TitlesEnglish: Noein: To Your Other Self Synonyms: Noein: Toward Another You Japanese: ノエイン もうひとりの君へ
Information
Type: TV
Episodes: 24
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Oct 12, 2005 to Mar 29, 2006
Duration:
25 min. per episode Rating:
PG-13 - Teens 13 or older
L represents licensing company
StatisticsScore: 7.841 (scored by 14787 users)
Ranked: #6802
Popularity: #534
Members: 33,119
Favorites: 491 1 indicates a weighted score
My Info
Popular Tags
action adventure drama sci-fi |
SynopsisIn the near future, a violent battle takes place between the dimension La'cryma (protector of humanity) and the dimension Shangri-La, bent on the annihilation of all space-time. A group known as the Dragon Calvary is dispatched through space and time, searching for the only thing that can stop the invasion: the Dragon's Torque.
In the present, twelve-year old Haruka and her friend Yuu, are contemplating running away from home when they meet a member of the Dragon Calvary named Karasu (Crow). He believes that Haruka possesses the Dragon's Torque and claims to be Yuu from fifteen years in the future...
(Source: DVD Complete Series Box Set) |
Characters & Voice Actors
Staff
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Akane, Kazuki
Director, Script, Storyboard, Creator |
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Aketagawa, Jin
Sound Director |
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Yasuda, Kenji
Episode Director, Storyboard, Animation Director, Assistant Animation Director |
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Kikuchi, Yasuhito
Episode Director, Key Animation |
Reviews
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marusamarento
6 of 8 people found this review helpful
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24 of 24 episodes seen
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| Overall |
9 |
| Story |
8 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Character |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
Noein has the dubious honour of being the first thing I ever bought when I opened my current account several years ago. I first heard of it when reading about Crispin Freeman on Wikipedia (we've all had inexplicable moments like that, right?). Seeing as I hadn't heard of it before I decided to exercise my right to participate in the capitalist structure of our society and bought it from Amazon.
Noein is quite a surprising choice to get licensed and dubbed for Western consumption. I can think of many other titles that are perhaps more commercial (or even more deserving). Noein starts out unremarkably, in the typical anime fashion: group of friends encounter mysterious mysteriousness. More specifically, while doing a test of courage, twelve-year-old Haruka and her group of friends run through a reportedly haunted part of the city when Haruka sees something her friends can't - blue snow falling from the sky. This leads to Haruka and her friend Yuu's quest to save the universe from imminent destruction, as the evil alternate dimension Shangri-La attempts to destroy all of space-time. So - the usual.
What initially drew me in to Noein was the sci-fi plot, which is actually based on the Many World's Interpretation of quantum mechanics. Shangri-La, the 'evil' dimension, and La'cryma, home to the Dragon Cavalary seeking to put an end to Shangri-La's machinations, are not simply enemies vs enemies. In fact, it could be said the Dragon Cavalry are fighting themselves - their evil doppelgangers, to be exact, versions of themselves that diverged at some split in space-time. This is an interesting commentary on the nature of development, especially juxtaposed with the adolescent uncertainty our protagonists grapple with - what school to go to and ultimately what to do with their lives. To equate the choices we make everyday with the principles of quantum ambiguity is a very clever move on the creator's parts, making the scientific theory approachable and the seemingly-normal choices of our characters full of suspense.
While the plot is has an overarching theme and direction, the action is mostly character-driven, coinciding with the series' themes of ambiguity and alternate realities. Unfortunately I would say the characters are probably the weakest point of the series. As twelve-year-olds, they are irritating, as I'm sure is true to life. Yuu is pressured by his over-bearing mother to get into the best school despite being tortured by doubt over his own future, while Haruka is more adjusted though pretty much ignored by her own mother. Their group of friends have various problems, such as unrequited love, which are explored in subsequent episodes. Personally, I would have preferred the protagonists to be a little bit older, as I don't think much is gained by having them be so young, as they act high-school aged anyway.
Of course, their present-day manifestations are quite different to their future selves. Without giving too much away I can definitely attest that the changes between how we see our protagonists in the present day and how we see them in Shangri-La and La'cryma is fascinating and is the catalyst for some of the most shocking twists of the entire series.
The art is a mix of CGI and line-drawing, and I think for the most part it looks great, though there are a few moments where the CGI wobbles a bit before finding its balance. The colours used are bright and vivid, though in La'cryma they are notably more subdued. Remarkably, there were only two animators for the entire 24-episode series, and changes in their style as they alternate episodes are noticeable, but not distressingly so.
The music used throughout is perhaps a questionable mix of more ethereal j-pop and classical scores. The opening song grew on me over the course of the series, though I do think it's forgettable, it has a melancholic feel. Tangentially, I love the shots of snow in the opening.
I watched this in the English dub, which I would describe as adequate to good. I found that the protagonists (Haruka voiced by Melissa Fahn, Yuu voiced by Yuri Lowenthal, and Kurasu voiced by Crispin Freeman) were very expressive and their voices fit the characters believably, whereas the side-characters (Ai voiced by Dorothy Elias-Fahn, Isami voiced by Bryce Papenbrook, and Miho voiced by Lara Cody) are less convincing, though they are on the periphery of action for most of the series.
At 24 episodes, the series does deliver a consistently entertaining and suspenseful plot with a satisfying conclusion. However, if that doesn't leave you sated, the DVD does contain some extra material, most notably a gag reel. I have to say, while maybe not suitable for children, it's obvious the dubbing team had a lot of fun and the results are extremely amusing and almost worth watching the show for on their own merit.
Overall, Noein is a gem of a series with themes of isolation, friendship, personal responsibility, fate and quantum mechanics. Noein consistently delivers a fantastic sci-fi story that looks great and provokes the tantalizing, torturous question: who will you be if you take a bad turn or make the wrong decision?
RRP: £14.00
Format: Animated, Box set, PAL
Languages: English, Japanese
Number of discs: 5
Classification: 15
Studio: starz home entertainment uk ltd
DVD Release Date: 22 Oct 2007
Run Time: 604 minutes
Originally posted at marusamarento.wordpress.com read more
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Alexius
106 of 142 people found this review helpful
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24 of 24 episodes seen
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| Overall |
10 |
| Story |
10 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Character |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
After completing Noein, I was left with the sensation you rarely get after finishing a series or movie where you personally think almost every little thing was done just right. There's very little else to say to try and express my tremendous respect and appreciation for this series. I personally believe it was orchestrated magnificently and its message carried across powerfully.
Most of all, what I truly respected in this series was its character-driven action, as opposed to plot-driven action. The characters were so fleshed out and their relationships and backgrounds so completely delved into, I had grown to feel like they were real people I knew. This was further effective in the juxtaposition that was utilized between future and present selves of these characters (which I will refrain from spoiling further about). The development of relationships between and of the numerous characters in this series, Yuu most of all, was unimaginably compelling and convincing, giving the series an overall true feeling of completion and purpose.
Haruka, most of all, pulled me into the series more and more with the further displays of her distinctive features. Having the ferocity and absolute concern of Hermione from Harry Potter, and the curiosity and strength of Lyra of The Golden Compass, the pleasant down-to-earth character of Haruka was one that you would simply be honored to be friends with. Despite her rough upbringing, her inner strength and selflessness were clear and well-presented in a realistic manner. Yuu, too, was a realistic character suffering from a harsh upbringing and from the effects of strained familial relationships. The relationship found between Yuu and Haruka, and their development, is what I truly believe to be the defining point of this series.
The story, too, gives this series what I believe its distinctness and genius. Carrying across a story filled with Quantum Mechanics, and a great deal of everyday storytelling in a little town in this mix, I believe that the timespaces and parallel universes shown in this series to be an absolutely interesting and entertaining interpretation of Quantum Physics and many of its theories. The unique settings and conflicts only help to improve upon this story.
The only problem I had with the story was the sometimes slow pace of it in the middle of the series. Whereas a lot of information and details given were important, I believed that if I wasn't motivated enough to finish the series, I might have stopped just because of that slowness.
In terms of art and sound, I believe that Noein also delivers. The art was particularly special (even though there were some parts I believe the CGI to be sort of distracting) with its mix of CGI and line art, and the classical music used was clearly appropriate.
Overall, this was one of the most enjoyable, if not the most, anime series I've ever watched. If given the opportunity to watch this series, I suggest and strongly recommend to not let it pass.
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Recommendations
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Both anime is about time-travelling and the mechanism is used excellently in both stories. Noein spends a bit more time with the "future" worlds than Steins;Gate does and feels a bit more darker/moody than Steins;Gate because the latter had more funny dialogue. Aside from that, Steins;Gate generally had better characters so expect some differences in characterization (Noein had a younger cast in the present timelines), but character developments in both was quite well done.
Noein is the "kiddo" version of Steins;Gate. Both have time-travel plot, and in both the hero wants desperately to save the girl he loves and his friends from a terrible event and at the same time prevent an horrible future to humanity. Both are a great watch.
Parallel worlds, time travel, convergence, unlimited possible futures, hopelessness, despair, different space-time theories, inability to escape from fate and of course people who (un)willingly screw everything up... They share so many tropes! Even the character design is somewhat similar, although Noein takes more risks, I'd say. It seems to me that Steins;Gate is more otaku-oriented while Noein is more of a slice-of-life and romance. Nonetheless, both anime excel in plot twists and characterization, as well as entertainment value.
Both anime deal with time travel, quantum physics and theories of diverging time lines.
Travel through time lines, different dimensions, a continuous struggle for a better future and prevent chaos.
Also in both anime the protagonist struggles to protect the girl he loves and friends that he appreciates.
Both shows depict Time traveling with unlimited possibilities. Both shows that the main character has the ability to view the other timelines.
Noein focuses more on the Dragon Knights from La'cryma (one of Earth's possible future) coming to the present to retrieve an 'object' called 'Dragon Torque' in order to save their world. As the Dragon knights enters into this timeline (the present) by accident, one of the Knights realised that this timeline is very similar to theirs and swore to protect the dragon torque at all costs. The others insists that it is just an illusion and the torque is just a tool, but he swore to not cause damage into this timeline.
Steins;Gate focuses on one group of people who managed to create the worlds first time machine. The main character kept experimenting with it and realises that it can be used to change the past, present, future by sending just an message. He tries to help his friends to change the world into a pleasant world for them when he realises that, for each message that he sents, one of his friend would be killed a day earlier. Whats more, they found out that a few years later, a corporation would use their time machine to rule over the world, turning everybody into human slaves. In order to prevent these from happening, he needs to cause minimal changes onto a world to save his assistant to prevent this incident to occur. Thus he set off going trough crazy amount of time trying to save both people.
Both shows can cause a viewer to be confused although Noein's confusion occurs later in the show compared to Steins;Gate.
The two anime share a lot of background concepts, in particular parallel timelines and time travel within the framework of quantum physics. There are some subtle differences in their interpretations of these concepts and they differ quite a lot in their presentation, however they are both excellent, highly recommended sci-fi titles.
Both are Sci-Fi anime dealing with time travel and alternate realities/worlds. However, Steins Gate is the grown-up version of Noein--it does not have the amazing musical score that Noein has, but it definitely has more mature themes. This anime makes you think, while Noein captivates more than anything (though it certainly makes you think too).
Give this anime the first 10 episodes for plot and character development--THEN it gets exciting and addictive. But all of the episodes are beautifully done (acting and artwork are amazing). The artwork stays amazing throughout the whole series--there were probably only a couple of moments when I thought it was less than the best. Highly recommend both anime.
Some similarities include:
- Both consider time travel and infinite possible futures.
- Both are incredibly confusing for most of the show, so watch out. They also take a rewatch or two to fully understand (even then, there's still some confusion!).
- Both revolve around relationships with friends, family, lovers, and generally keeping together to reach a greater goal.
Some differences include:
- Noein is more fantasy whereas Steins;Gate tries to be more realistic.
- The art styles and music played throughout the shows are very different.
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Both have similar feels to eachother, and have a sci-fi element, and also involve a bunch of kids.
Denno Coil and Noein tell rather unconventional stories in which children must deal with extraordinary circumstances such as a cybernetic world that mingles with reality in the first case and time travel in the second case. In both cases, a different dimension threatens to bring about destruction and the possibilities that arise from the existence of different worlds is handled in an intelligent and highly original way. For a fresh take on sci-fi themes with out of the ordinary character designs and very fluid animation these titles are a must see.
Maybe Dennou Coil doesn't have battles like Noein, but it has a similar feel to it. Both have kids, high tech devices and mysteries
Both anime involve kids and are Sci-Fi.
Denno Coil is more of a Slice of Life, while Noein has action
In both shows we have different worlds that intertwine and children who travel trough them in order to explore many interesting things.
Dennou Coil is also a sci-fi adventure revolving around children whose world is crossed with another 'universe' (virtual reality in this case). It also boasts endearing characters, a well-developed world with unique sci-fi elements and some surprisingly cool action-scenes. So if you liked Noein, check out Dennou Coil.
Even though the storylines of these series are pretty different, both Dennou Coil and Noein and unique, innovative series with elements that you don't see very much in most anime. Both have a similar feel to them, involve high technology, and contain common thematic elements.
What at first glance seems to be a children story turns out to be involving well written story with a twist. Writing is convoluted and infodumbing. Characters are developing throughout the series. Great production quality especially motion animation. Finally there's imaginative and original setting
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Opening Theme"Idea" by eufonius
Ending Theme"Yoake no Ashioto" by solua
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