Synopsis
On a quiet afternoon in her Paris apartment, professional assassin Mireille Bouquet receives an odd email from a Japanese teenager named Kirika Yuumura, proposing that they undertake a "pilgrimage to the past." At first Mireille dismisses the message as nonsense, but she reconsiders when it plays a familiar melody from her childhood. When they meet face to face, both women are attacked by armed gunmen. Mireille handles the assault skillfully, but she is surprised to see Kirika’s own combat prowess as she takes down several enemies alone. Despite her lethal abilities, Kirika confesses that she feels no remorse for her killings and has no memory of where she came from or how she learned to fight. Sensing a connection in their pasts, Mireille agrees to work with Kirika. Under the code name "Noir," the two form a tentative partnership as they carry out various missions, each step bringing them closer to uncovering the truth of their origins.
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.
