On Bob's "upcoming releases" I saw that the final DVD of a series called Noein was coming out, and he's selling the entire series as a bundle for $63. It was originally broadcast in 2005.

The usual first stop on figuring out if it's a waste of time was to visit Chris Beveridge and to read the letter grades while skipping the spoiler-laden reviews. He says C B- A- A- and hasn't reviewed the final disk yet because it isn't officially released until tomorrow. Before I make a final decision I'll want to look at his final review, but at the least what this is telling me is that it's a good series that starts slow. I can live with that.

Here's the blurb from the first DVD:

Fifteen years in the future, by high-level scientific power, a violent battle takes place between the dimension La'cryma, that protects humanity, and the dimension Shangri-La, that plans the annihilation of all space-time. The key to stopping Shangri-La's invasion is a mysterious object known as "The Dragon's Torque." A group known as the Dragon Calvary is being set through space and time to find it.

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 has the Dragon's Torque and claims to be Yuu from fifteen years in the future.

The fundamental idea is intriguing. "Everything you know is wrong", "reality is breaking down", are staples of SF and fantasy; that part's fine. In this case it's about alternate realities. The stars are middle school kids, one boy and one girl -- and that's fine, too, if it's handled well. The girl, at least, turns out to have special powers. But one twist here is that one of the characters they meet from an alternate dimension is, or claims to be, an older version of the boy. Not his future self, so much as an alternate version of himself grown older. And that's a concept with interesting possibilities if it's handled well.

It might be kind of dark. I'm willing to take that chance, if the story is otherwise a good one. As to fan service, it doesn't appear to be that kind of show.

Other things going for it: Chiba Saeko has a bit part. I do like her voice.

Did any of you watch it originally two years ago? What did you think of it? (No spoilers or google-link-dumps, please.)

UPDATE: Jeff Lawson watched it. At least as of that post, he liked it.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 05:20 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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