Noir

[CDLviking]

It's kind of a cut and paste job of different parts of the mass. Though it may be a part of some other specific prayer.

I didn't know about those easter eggs. Dang it! But, I have too much anime to watch to go back and get those just for easter eggs.

[TrigunX89]

Ooh, I didn't know either! *bookmarks* Can't wait to try them!

[EricTheFred]

I'm a big fan of this series, for a couple reasons. One actually is the use of the music. It is a series of carefully crafted motifs that are slowly layered on, throughout the series, in the same fashion Wagner liked to do in his operas, as a part of the storytelling. And it almost always was such that the story would have been diminished without it. There is a strange sort of consistency running through all of it. Despite pulling many different genres together (high church service music, mediterranean folk, jazz, classical) it all ultimately fits snugly together.

Another topic mentioned was questionable religious content. I agree, except that I had the distinct sense that Mireille and Kirika both ultimately considered that same content questionable. In my mind, it seemed that they could see, or at least were beginning to see, how wrong some things were. Their heartfelt objection to the theorem "if Love can Kill, then Hate can Save" is just the most blatant example of this.

The kiss (the real one, not the kiss of death) was "appropriate" in the sense that it DID have a reason... but I personally believe they could have found another (less fanservice-y) way to get the idea across. They were on the subject of Chloe's over-the-top obsession with Kirika, which had begun when they were six or seven years old (never quite nailed down to my satisfaction what the age of the three girls was when Mireille's parents are killed) and they were trying to show how far gone she really was.

Finally, excessive flashbacks: watch it again. Notice how, with many of these, you are either slowly given more and more of the flashback, as the series progresses, or given more and more of the context which makes the flashback important.

This is a purposefully slow-moving story. And it took about three trips through the box-set before I really felt I was getting all the pieces. But I truly believe this is one anime that qualifies for the title of "Masterwork".

[freerock1]

Just finished the series tonight. The finale gets a thumbs-up from me. Without giving too much away, it provided a good resolution to the tention near the end between Mirielle and Kirika. Also a very positive message of self-sacrifice, almost drawing a parallel (in my mind at least) to John 15:13.