Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Noein ~To Your Other Self~

Full Title: Noein ~To Your Other Self~
Genres: Adventure, Drama, Psychological, Romance, Science Fiction
Episodes: 24
Uploaded By: Mavrik
My Age Rating: PG (Language, Violence)

Fifteen years in the future a violent battle is taking place between Lacrima, a time line that protects humanity, and Shangri-La, a time line that plans the annihilation of all space and time. Lacrima is losing and desperate. In a last ditch effort to achieve victory, a highly trained crack team known as the Dragon Calvary is sent through space and time to locate and secure the Dragon Torque, an object of immense power that could change the tide of the war in Lacrima's favor. Meanwhile, present day in another time line, Yu Goto is thinking about running away from home. He's fed up with the cram school his mother forces him to go to. His loyal best friend, Haruka Kaminogi, wants to run away with him, so that they can always be together. While they are contemplating what decision to make, the Dragon Calvary arrive into their spacetime and try to kidnap Haruka, believing her to be the Dragon Torque. Things get only more complicated when it is learned that one of the members of the Calvary, Karasu, is Yu from the future.

This anime is ground in pure hardcore theoretical science. The technical jargon that spews from the mouths of the characters who actually have a clue whats going on is mind boggling. However, the series is well aware of just how far out there it is and accommodates for its bizarre concepts by means of a crash course explanation of multiple universe theories, space-time travel, quantum physics, etc. about three-fourths of the way through its run. Besides all this nonsense, the series is a fantastic and easy run through. You'll have no problem watching all of it once it gets started. In many ways it's a coming of age story for Yu, but it is also a wonderfully deep look at humanity. The series makes use of the Copenhagen Interpretation theory, beautifully explained by Schrodinger's cat metaphor. Although it may sound like nonstop mumbo jumbo, don't let the hardcore science fiction part deter you; there's enough explanation to cover all of the parts smoothly.

This series was well produced. The art style they used is purposely unorthodox, which the viewer may or may not initially like. After awhile, I tended not to notice it, but you might. The animation is crisp and smooth. The music is really quite stunning. The storyline is bizarre but well written. Some of the dialog (the relational dialog, not the technical) is cheesy in places, but I've seen much, much worse than this. This one was dubbed over very well, even keeping the original cheesiness for the scenes that have it. The opening is kinda boring but watchable. The ending sequence is better. If you have a complaint against the series it will be either about the bizarre drawing style (which I found refreshing in its own way), or the above mentioned science overload. It's overall an impressive series, and I would recommend it to anyone. Who knows? You might even learn something...

My Rating: 8.8/10 (Excellent)

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