show review
by wsl on 2021-03-02 09:06
Rating:4
Approval:-
Visuals :Since this anime has such and so many positive rewires I felt like shearing my experience to balance things our a bit as a viewer who saw this in 2021
Animation In 2020+ this animation is barely avarige, it has some good shoots but some characters are flat out unpretentious and ugly, some may call it art I call a black cape, or white mass doped on the screen like some ink low quality. When it come to the character sometimes i felt the creator did not even try like : Lets use a skill disgusting thing comes out of the character back, than it goes back like tumor when the combat ends. So un-creative. Animation: below avarige = 4
Sound: cant say I was a fan of the music or the theme, and i feel asleep several times, good if you need a good night rest, but the combat and some character could had their own theme, lets compare this to master peace Card Captor Sakura that is actually 10. and lets say 1 to no sound at all. Would I be bothered if they cut all the music in this anime even the intro (that i chose to skip several times), I have to say no nothing memorable. But it was not bad or terrible. Music "it was there" = 4. As for the character voice some was grate like Karas but I dont see how the beadass with the beadass voice developed in 10-15 years from the whinny kid in the series. Most character voice's ware forgettable. lets say it had at least some character voice in it that was good, comes out from this 2 on avarige Sound =4,5
Story Lets say if you get a quality story that you love is 10. Lets say if you get gibberish that is to complex its a 1 well weather I'm not smart enough to understand this series or too smart to find to many mistakes I say it was closer to gibberish than science or being smart. The story states: You can travel in time but you cant change anything, but the whole anime is about changing the future from one point, and to keep it safe from another. Yet you can travel time while even your existence means you and your timeline or where you travel changes. I don't get where they wanted to come from. :D If this is confusing to you all don't watch this anime this was jut the iceberg. The story from my respective ended in episode 7 and from there it was miserable filled songfest I HATE IT. I rarely diverge from I like this series to "when will this boring hell end" but this garbage made that possible. First 7 episodes = 7 everything after 1 Conclusion Story =4
Character Lets see likable characters :Kaminogi Haruka cute you want to protect her she was well made. Mukai Miho, adorable unfortunately rarely on scree. Anyone else, lets see black caped guys and girls their agenda with all their power's fail to little girl and little boy, fight and fail...and fail again and again and again. Why because one of the guys they tried, decided hay I swap side. The character quality was pore both in personality, and design, they did not even stay to their personality's (changing ideas and sides). some character ware quality mask....and to make up time it needs to finish it thy draw a white "blob". On Karas's defense he was beadass but still made no seance. The character ware designed to make the poorly made and wanting to sound smart story function and nothing more. Cant say I liked any of them to the point i started to skip parts because i did not care any of them so much, and just wanted to get to the end (this is something i almost never do with films series or anime). Characters =2
Value An all out disappointment has no value, a thing the make people happy has value. People who start with this as their first anime no doubt will be turned off, at least in the majority, I'm surprise so many people do love it I lets balance my "dislike" (3) for this anime with their love (8) Value = 5
Enjoyment: First 7 episodes ware grate. Than it ended in my mind and I did not care more, but I did not wanted to skip it because first 7 episodes ware that good, so it become torture or close to it as I pushed myself to watch more episodes hoping for something good. In the numbers: Firts 7 episodes = 7 good the rest of the anime: not worth my time yet it tricked me to care =1 on avarige: Enjoyment= 3
Conclusion: The fight scenes ware not so grate, the fighter characters ware ugly, and the lack of good battle music or passion made them visual and enjoyment wise lacking. While there ware cool stuff an ideas in it , the execution needs more skill. ~ Where is the perfection I so got used in animes I miss DragonBall, Naruto and Bleach.
If you want to watch this anime for the story it wont make seance, everything is salved with a "deus ex machina" and it has to make no scenes . aside the episode is ending Time save the plot (get it "time") , that is why its bad.
Time travel rarely dos make scenes but still it wot change the outcome for the viewer.
I don't recommend this anime to anyone. if you really have lot of time watch the first 7 episode than quit it there is nothing after that that worst wasting time on.
Final Verdict 4/10
show review
by _engoria on 2013-08-08 12:50
Rating:6
Approval:-
Noein took me a good while to watch, more than a month, actually, which is highly unusual about a moderately long show like this. It does seem to serve as a warning that something's not alright.
Art & Animationa decidedly average case here. Noein sports some funky designs here and there, and complete blandness everywhere else. The "monsters" are looking cool and interesting and mysterious, the characters are downright forgettable, environments are as boring as can be, with a few special fx here and there to spice things up. Technically, animation, likewise, is an ok effort, but nothing more. Cool monster designs can't elevate Noein above mediocrity.
6/10
moderately cool OP, very average everything else, with no standouts. perhaps memory's foggy, so, as a safeguard, gonna give it a 7 here, even though I don't remember why I should. but it wasn't bad, too.
7/10
meat and bones of most reviews. Noein is an anime that offers a relatively fresh take on a save-the-world scenario with seemingly psychologically deep heroes, anti-heroes and a great confusion between the two. It also employs quantum magic, meaning every explanation or story mechanic can be always excused with "magic!" kind of explanation, reducing the value of any intrigue related to magic mechanics to 0.
So what's left is the promise of characters, their interactions and relationships. It does start out fairly well here, angst, emotions and character care for each other out the roof. And then it kind of stops.
No, really, I have no idea what took all these 20+ episodes. A bit of character aspect y is shown here, then x there, then we have a small change in character z, and so on. It's a chain of these small character events, that ultimately don't amount to anything, save for a few trivial results here and there (of the sort "it's better to be nice towards other people"). There are a couple of episodes that were genuinely effective and dramatic (various futures and whatnot), but then they get drowned in a sea of "nothing much going on".
I did like most of the characters, except, perhaps, the angsty ones, and their setups do have some depth, but it never really goes anywhere of significance.
quantum intrigues get 0 from me, I hate asspull magic. characters and their problems get, hmm, 7 for characters themselves, 5 for their emo stories.
Noein is a slow anime about a kind-hearted girl with an unusually large burden on her shoulders. Not exactly unusual, when put like that. It's also about quantum magic. That's bad. There's little drama here and there, but mixed in with quantum bs aspect of it all, it loses its meaning. So its value can't be too high, I think you're better off watching something else, but if you've seen most of the good stuff, then this is a solid average title that stands out just because it's not the usual fanservice all over the place as is typical of modern anime and no story of worth at all. Noein tries to have a decent story, it really does. In my personal case, the story doesn't fly at all, but someone else might be moved by it.
So value might be 6 (average, but almost good), but my enjoyment, well, 4 is a bit too harsh, 5 seems accurate.
show review
by ThatAnimeSnob on 2011-09-26 09:20
Rating:7
Approval:83.8% (4 votes)
ANIME MINOR JEWELS SERIES
Full list of the review series can be found on this page, 3rd post from bottom:
http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?uid=251338&show=userpage&do=blog&blogid=29009&page=0
Noein is a show with a very interesting concept that is bogged down by the erratic pacing. Which is not the worst thing that can happen to an anime, because most of them have downright BAD presentation of their ideas. But first a few words about who produced it. It is animated by Satelight, a minor studio in the fileld. Amongst their several works, this is the only one I liked for its several interesting concepts. It is directed by Akane Kazuki, who also made the exceptional Escaflowne. He has a very moody style in his works and that makes him stand out.
Moving to the premise. It is about two alternative realities that are connecting not only through space but also through spacetime. So the core difference is how people called dragon knights spacetimetravel in a different world that is like their own with the difference it is 15 years younger than their own, where they were still kids. They are aiming to find an element there that lacks in their own reality, yet is crucial for not intergrading their world with a third alien one.
What further makes the anime more believable is its constant use of quantum physics terminology as means to excuse how everything works. Words like causality, diverge, and waving sound a lot more scientific in the ears of the more demanding viewer, than just saying it was a fireball spell, or a teleportation staff. It still feels like magic from a point on but hey, if it was hard facts this wouldn’t be a series rather than a documentary.
The 15 year gap helps to further perceive the change the characters had after a great calamity struck their world. If it was taking place at the same time it would be much harder to feel how all these years of misery changed them to the heartless and cruel people they are. Also, unlike conventional time travel stories, interacting with one another does not cause those pesky time paradoxes since they are considered to be different realities and not the same timeline. That means there is no fear of screwing around with the future. Isn’t that wonderful? It makes the magic panacea of time resets not possible; so you know there won’t be a hocus pocus ending.
The production values are very good for this sort of anime, although the artwork quality varies a lot in style from segment to segment. It feels blobby here, sketchy there, and awesome elsewhere. This diversity can be perceived as either artsy or lazy depending on your point of view but it is definitely not consistent and feels like ten different groups were working on it without trying to normalize it in the final version. Yet this is supposed to be a show about the alteration of reality and the bending of spacetime, so in a way all that are excused in-story. Nothing is constant; visuals included.
The animation is definitely very good, as the body motions and the camera angles are great and help you to immerge in the setting completely. The way most backgrounds and big objects are done with 3D doesn’t look very crude, nor irrelevant to the 2D foreground as it happens with most anime; the animators really paid attention to such details. They are not super awesome and aesthetically pleasing all the time but they fit with the overall.
The visual effects are really funky, trippy, and epic when it comes to action. The world constantly changes when the dimensions overlap, time freezes, colors change, and the warriors do some really cool stunts when they are fighting and their cloaks take shapes according to what happens. There isn’t much of battle choreography but at least it looks fluent and dynamic enough to keep looking.
The soundtrack is basically lots of sad sounding jpop pieces, a thing I am not fond of in the least. They are also not very memorable in the longrun but do fit the overall mood of the show. The BGM on the other hand has some really cool orchestra and chorus pieces during moments of tension or action, which turns the whole thing into amazing levels of coolness. Voice acting is good, although it feels kinda too serious at emotion-heavy times and makes it a bit harder to get into what the characters feel at that moment.
Despite all the cool stuff that happen in the story and its very well handled premise, I can’t deny how it has a big chunk of naivety and plot armor in it, as means to prevent things from going crazy or ending in just one episode. The exposition of the story happens mostly with forced monologues by characters that half the time would normally have no reason to mention them so analytically, since they already know all that very well. This is clearly done to inform the viewer of what is going on but it still feels sloppy in terms of realism. Also, Haruka and the other kids seem to take all the really creepy things that happen around them WAY too light when any normal kid their age (and they ARE normal) would scream, get mad, call the cops, and be hospitalized from the shock. Yet again and again they just consider all the lethal and unworldly events around them to be unimportant and return to their silly carefree lives. Furthermore, the Dragon Torque artifact Haruka wears, as well as the ghostly figure of Noein are plot devises that offer lots Deus Ex Machina in the form of teleportation and clairvoyance, which weakens the tension considerably. It also becomes harder and harder to accept the dragon knights having such a trouble to just grab a little defenseless kid for so many episodes and instead waste time talking, and fighting amongst each other while their world is fading away. Hey guys things are simple; do your job or don’t bother.
So basically the story keeps on finding poor excuses to stall the completion of the mission with lots of foolish side tracking and easily avoided internal conflicts. The pacing is otherwise NOT slow as there is always something interesting going on. From slowly getting to understand what is going on, to further learning more aspects about each character’s personality and mentality. It’s just that there are several genres going back and forth, and sometimes the switch happens in a sloppy way. There is a big contrast between the carefree life of the kids and the morbid world the warriors come from, so when you see them fighting for their lives on minute and fooling around the exact next feels a bit off aesthetically pleasing. Again, I feel it is because there were lots of teams working at the same time like in the artwork part, and each one went in to produce its own segment that didn’t necessarily fit in with all the rest in a logical line of thought. But hey, as I said it is about reality fading before your eyes, so it is somewhat excused. At least you are offered a lot of meat and in small pieces each time, thus you will not be bored with the whole deal right away. Even the quantum explanations, as confusing as the may be at first, they are easy to grasp if you already know the basics or are a bit open minded.
The characters are interesting on a basic level, meaning that they are lively and easily likable for their attitude and mentality. They are still hard to be seen as plausible after awhile, since as I said they are not behaving realistically, since their line of thought is blurry from all the different people working on this show. And even if you break down their personalities, they will pass as silly to the most part. Haruka plays out as a mature and brave girl for her age (in fact TOO mature) and Yuu is her “emo without much of a reason” friend who needs to grow some balls after seeing his badass future self. And Karasu is the almost stereotypical anti-hero with an overprotection syndrome. Anyways, they are well presented but not highly excused to be as such. If you can deal with their behavior annoyance then you will like them a lot.
Despite the usually sloppy and convenient way everything unfolds, Noein is very enjoyable and accessible to most audiences but NOT the too-casual ones. You see, it was forgotten rather fast by most and not because it was a bad show but because it wasn’t too cliché and simplistic enough to appeal to moe lovers or shounen fans. And it sure wasn’t about kindergarten explanations around magic so it can’t be grasped by the average high school dropout. Plus it came out in a year good shows were abundant and Studio Satelight is not a major group most care to follow. I could even say the inconsistent visuals may put off a lot of viewers who prefer consistent and highly detailed models. The way I see it, it has a bit of everything and handles its premise without ever contradicting it. And above all the ending is not a magical reset, the thing most famous anime run to do as cheap means to offer a happy ending to the masses who want happily ever after finales. It would definitely be a lot more interesting if there were fewer episodes, faster pacing, and the characters behaved more plausible, yet all that don’t detract too much from enjoyment. I recommend it as a medium/high series that tries harder than most to tell a good idea. Not too successfully but it succeeds a lot more than most to be uncommon and intriguing without contradicting its themes or going for a cop-out ending.
And now for some excused scorings.
General Artwork 2/2 (artistically chaotic)
Character Figures 1/2 (generic)
Backgrounds 2/2 (basic but fitting with the feeling of the series)
Animation 1/2 (very good in action scenes but otherwise basic)
Visual Effects 2/2 (a bit crude but very fitting)
Voice Acting 2/3 (a bit corny but fitting with the feeling of the series)
Music Themes 3/4 (not great but fitting with the feeling of the series)
Sound Effects 2/3 (ok I guess)
Premise 2/2 (interesting)
Pacing 1/2 (erratic)
Complexity 1/2 (not much but there)
Plausibility 2/2 (despite the magical aspect of technology, it is very well presented and excused in-series)
Conclusion 1/2 (messy but solid)
Presence 1/2 (generic)
Personality 2/2 (rather cheesy but well founded)
Backdrop 1/2 (generic and simplistic but it’s there)
Development 1/2 (messy but it’s there)
Catharsis 1/2 (messy but it’s there)
Historical Value 1/3 (still remembered by some as an interesting retro title)
Rewatchability 1/3 (low because of too much slow and chaotic pacing)
Memorability 4/4 (extremely tragic to the point of forever remembering it)
Good stuff if you see past some annoyances.
VERDICT: 7/10 SUGGESTION LIST
Steins;Gate
Madoka Magika
show review
by chozopuffs on 2008-08-10 08:25
Rating:6.33
Approval:72.2% (3 votes)
Hey AniDB, it took a long time, but I finally just finished watching Noein and I'm gonna throw in my two cents...
Animation
The overall look of Noein immediately brought to my mind the Gamecube title "Legend of Zelda, the Wind Waker." The characters eyes and emotions, they seemed similar... it's an unusual look thus far in my anime experiences, Google yourself up some screen caps. Noein gets points for having a unique and distinctive look.
Of particular note, the animation style of Noein is not consistent for its 24 episodes. It changes periodically from scene to scene, which for some could be a deal breaker... for me it was probably the best part of the animation and added to the overall unique flavor. In episode 2 the senior artists add a lot of detail to the battle that takes place between the Dragon Knights. The style gets sharper and a bit angular, the quality goes up a notch to almost feature-film like detail. It's a shame Noein doesn't maintain this level of quality... the unique shape of the characters looks really good like this
However, the other alternative style is also very cool... for episode 12 (and a few parts of episode 24) the opposite happens and the animation becomes extremely sketchy and unpolished, almost like a flip book. The coloring changes accordingly and it provides a really REALLY fun look. Again, it's not maintained, only for the duration of a battle scene... if somehow Noein kept either or of these styles it'd be a ten of ten, however it doesn't for whatever reasons. Still, it's altogether nice of the eyes and the actions and emotions are well drawn out and felt effectively.
• Looks/Visuals : 8/10
Sound
The Op/Ed of Noein was completely passable for me, skipped it every time after the first. It's standard pop. The score throughout the series though was very fitting. It's background music, repeats quite often, but is effective. I doubt you will remember it. The voice actors are quite good, all express the correct emotions and sound right for their characters... for the most part, save the villain they're all regular human voices... nothing extreme, they do the job good enough to enjoy, but the sound of Noein isn't necessarily it's strength, though certainly not a weak link.
• Score/Voice Acting : 6/10
Story
Without doubt, Noien is pure sci-fi... quantum physics, parallel universes, there is some complicated terminology and ideas at work here. You'll have to use Wikipedia for some help understanding the concepts... I saw in the core story of Noein the age old analogy, "if a tree falls in the woods and no body is around to see or hear it, does it make a sound?"
It felt as though Noein goes about trying to answer that question... which of course is not answerable... hence the dilemma I felt Noein ran into. It's too deep... you just get lost along the way. So points for trying and using a unique concept, but it's going to fry your brain trying to get your head around it... add onto all of that the romance and action/adventure elements (they're handled much better then the sci-fi element)... well... unfortunately the story becomes muddled and incoherent... by episode 17 I had to take a break from Noein for a few weeks and just accept that the story (and my interest in it) got lost along the way, perhaps in a parallel dimension filled with car keys, remote controls, and single socks.
• Story : 6/10
Character
Here's why I came back though. The primary characters have some good depth. I was curious enough about them to put aside the fact that the story doesn't completely make sense and I came back to see how they all turn out in the end. There are quite a few main characters and a large dose of secondary ones and they all have some fun angles that make them stand apart from each other and round them out. I'm not going to get into specifics, but they're a fun lot and are strong enough to get you past the hurdles of complex jargon spat out from time to time that attempt to advance the unfolding drama.
• Characters : 7/10
Value
Save the cool animation segments of episodes 2 and 12 mentioned above, I regret to say I would not consider returning to Noein. Though the characters are fun and brought me back to conclude this series, the story is too disjointed to care for a second go round and I only give it the score I do for it's admiration to attempt to tackle so difficult and rarely done a topic...
• Value : 5/10
Enjoyment
If you've read this far you should have guessed by now that I enjoyed Noein, but didn't love it. For a time I fell frustrated with it, but not to the point I was happier giving up on it. Perhaps in an alternate time stream I did... but in this one I write it, I came back and finished it off and feel "okay" about it, but more so look forward to my next anime series having wrapped this bad boy up. It was more satisfying to know I saw it through than to actually see it through. Though most of its tags are true, Noein is not underated in my opinion as the AniDB label says... it's simply "unique". Give it a go if you are curious and ready to play with some of the less common sci-fi elements. Had it focused more on the action and less on the sci-fi, it'd be more my cup of tea I guess... If anything check out those action sequences in episode 2 and 12, they're very fun though certainly not depictive of the Noein experience
• Enjoyment : 6/10
•Overall : 6
Not for everybody, but for the rare few a gem for sure. ... Enjoy!
show review
by black26 on 2007-10-17 03:23
Rating:9.66
Approval:40.5% (2 votes)
This anime is simply marvelous. The first episode hits you like an anvil over the head. The animation, sound and story are asolutely spectacular and original. And each episode leaves you wanting more.
The concepts of death, friendships, love without time and space, and infinite possibilities. I honestly cant think about words to describe Noein because every single moment of it leaves you in awe.
The animation is so original, that it actually depicts the emotions and tensions of every moment and individual.
The sound is crisp and the soundtrack is so beautiful and every moment is elevated with power.
As for the value, this anime meant so much to me, that looking forward to each episode became part of my college experience.
The characters display various concepts of humanity that you cant help but relate to each and every one.
The story might seem very complicated at first but as you learn about the characters, and the obstacles they have faced and will face, you will not be able let go of the story. It will grab your heart and mind. Noein is truly an orginal and beautiful masterpiece.
::More from this review::
show review
by supafrog on 2007-10-16 21:10
Rating:9.16
Approval:-
Noein is one of the most unique shows out there, anime or otherwise.
Animation: This is one of the hardest parts for me to review. On one hand, the environments feel so real and bursting with life that it is easy to be drawn in. The many CG effects used throughout are breathtaking and mesh beautifully with the backgrounds. On the other hand, however, the character designs detracted greatly from the overall sense of tangibility this series offers. All the deigns are extremely simplified and they seem like cardboard cut-outs of cartoon characters thrown into the real world. Hair is one massive blob that pokes out here and there, eyes are squares with irises, and the overall quality of drawings takes a nose-dive during fight scenes, though thankfully, the quality of the drawings in this case is inversely proportionate to the fluidity of the fighters, and was an acceptable sacrifice in order to make the fight scenes more exciting. There were also several animations that were used repeatedly, sometimes several times an episode, throughout the entire series, but they were beautiful, so seeing them several times isn't a big distraction.
Overall, I feel the animation offers so much, and I try not to lower the animation score because of character designs, (after all, that is art) I feel that these over-simplified designs allowed for less depth.
Sound: The sound in this series is absolutely fantastic. Lantis, the section in charge of Noein's music, is giving Bee-Train a run for their money. The OP was especially noticeable. I am usually not patient enough to listen to an OP I've already heard once, but I sat through Idea by Eufonias many times. I am no music expert, so I am terrible at describing the sounds of various BGMs. Just take my word for it; the music in this series is good. Very good.
Story: I felt that the story for Noein was very strong. It's definitely interesting and unique. This isn't your typical Mad-Lib anime story, replacing names of powers and character weaknesses in the blanks, but is very 3-dimensional. The many abstract ideas and quantum mechanics applied are en effective tool to get the viewer to pay attention to the words. The many minutes of characters explaining the theories wasn't very interesting, mostly because it was complete nonsense, partly because i couldn't understand half of it. (as a side note, Shinsen-Subs does a decent job in trying to explain these theories to keep you from getting too lost) The story was detailed and with few holes, but it was bogged down by technicalities.
Characters: Obviously one of the stronger parts of Noein, the entire premise of this series is the effect of the environment on the person in the present will effect the kind of person he becomes in the future. Even though most of the main characters are younger than your average show, they are still very dynamic, though admittedly very mature for their ages. This was almost perfect. I was disappointed when the characters' possible futures were shown because they left out two of the most important.
Value: A good story and great characters coupled with fantastic animation and sound make Noein highly worth watching again, recommending, and it also reiterates a tired-but-true life message; the choices you make are not only going to invariably effect your future, but may also effect the futures of those around you.
Enjoyment: Well obviously I enjoyed it, but you will too if you like: A. Amazing graphics, B. Awesome music, C. Well thought out stories, D. 3-dimensional, lovable characters, E. An interesting sci-fi atmosphere, or F. Any combination of the above.
