Catalyst Castle

I just finished watching the series Noir, so here's my review:

The series follows the story of two young female assassins who embark together on a personal journey to seek answers about mysteries from their past. Yumura Kirika has no memory of her past. She awoke one day with only an identity she knows is fake, a gun, and a mysterious watch. Mireille Bouquet has repressed memories of her parents' unsolved murder, but Kirika's watch begins to bring those memories back.

During the course of the series, they are lured into more and more traps by a secret organization named Les Soldats ("The Soldiers" in French), and eventually find themselves caught up in a globe-spanning conspiracy.

The plot develops at a steady pace, gradually revealing more secrets and surprises until the very end. Amidst the danger and intrigue, they still find time for a good amount of character development. The conclusion of the series was as satisfying as the journey.

The anime is somewhat unique among serious anime stories in that it takes place squarely in the real modern world. The action takes place in various countries, mostly in Eastern Europe. The creators scouted locations just like they would for a live-action production, and scenes that take place in Paris and other real-world cities are based on actual locations. The guns and other props, and costumes, were likewise drawn from actual real-life sources. While a lot of these details will go unnoticed by most viewers, I think the effort put into it probably helped the show capture a realistic feel.

The animation wasn't as stunningly beautiful as some I've seen, but it was consistently good, and there was some clever use of lighting and camera angles that made it rather exceptional. The musical score was also very well chosen and conducted. It's cool to see various musical themes carried throughout the series, and some of the music they choose for the action scenes was great.

The action in the show was pretty well done. The fight scenes aren't especially flashy, but they're made interesting by Mireille and Kirika's clever tactics. Also, while the series did feature plenty of gun-play, there was very little blood and nothing gruesome. Actually, I thought the way they handled the violence and killing was rather mature. Rather than trying to justify the main characters' violent lifestyle, or trying to make it seem appealing, they made it obvious that the violence was actually quite pointless and tragic. While they didn't exactly shove that message in the viewers' faces, it was definitely a running theme throughout the whole series. This combined with Kirika's amnesia, and the extensive action scenes, actually reminded me a bit of the Bourne movies.

Roleplaying
Because of my obsession with roleplaying games, I tend to watch most movies and shows with an eye for what I could take from it and apply to gaming. Here are some ideas from Noir.

Amnesiac characters: Rather than having a player create a background story for their character, have them begin with no memory of their past, and let the GM fill it in as they go. I've done this once with my Times Forgotten campaign. It's worked out alright there, but not every player might be up for this idea.

Play Wushu Open: This show actually reminded me of a free generic RPG I read recently called Wushu Open. The show features numerous battles wherein the main characters mow down a large number of nameless evil minions, punctuated by more intense battles against a single more worthy foe. Wushu Open features rules for descriptive action of exactly this type.

Shadow Conspiracies sans Sci-Fi: Some time ago I was working on writing a sci-fi mystery/conspiracy/thriller RPG called Shadow Conspiracies (working title). This anime strikes me as a good example of what that RPG might be like if played without the sci-fi elements.