Synopsis
One quiet afternoon at her Paris apartment, professional assassin Mireille Bouquet gets a strange email from Kirika Yuumura, a Japanese schoolgirl, who proposes they "make a pilgrimage to the past" together. At first, Mireille dismisses the message as nonsense, but she changes her mind when it starts playing a song she remembers from her childhood. When the two meet in person for the first time, they are suddenly attacked by armed men. Mireille handles the assault skillfully, but she is surprised to find Kirika is also highly capable in combat, taking down several gunmen on her own. Despite her deadly efficiency, Kirika admits she feels no remorse for the people she kills. She also has no memory of how she learned these skills or even her true identity. Sensing a connection between their pasts, Mireille agrees to work with Kirika. Together, they set out to uncover the secrets of their histories. Using the code name "Noir," the pair's fragile partnership is put to the test as they take on jobs, each mission bringing them closer to discovering who they really are.
Background
Noir is the first original anime by director Kouichi Mashimo and studio Bee Train, which focused on the "Girls with Guns" sub-genre. It was later followed by two spiritual successors: Madlax in 2004 and El Cazador de la Bruja in 2007. Together, they are considered to be a Girls with Guns trilogy, even though the three TV series are unrelated story-wise. A live-action adaptation of the anime series produced by TV network Starz was planned to release in the summer of 2012. But following a two-year hiatus starting in March 2012, the project was canceled in January 2014.