Noir Vol.7 [DVD]

Disk 7 also gives us some of the fan-service that we'd been missing to date. And a poignant scene when we see that Kirika has finally achieved peace and happiness - and we know that it cannot last.

If I have to pick nits with the series, it's that it was dub-titled (in about four places sub-titles appeared without matching Japanese dialogue, presumably reflecting the English voice script). In all but one of the cases, it was just adding some suggestion of "noises off" for a distant crowd, so could be ignored. The last - which happens on this disk - changes the tenor of a scene - whether one character calls another's name in warning or not. And in a series - and an episode in particular - that relies heavily on subtle nuance as to what the characters are feeling and how they are reacting, that's a big change to make.

Having been put off the American voices and mispronunciations on the first disk, I can't comment on how that version developed.

So far as the DVD itself goes, this is the standard Noir disc, with clean start and end credits, trailers and the nice production sketches. It also contains an interview with the english dub version's main voice actors, for some reason; how many anime fans watch it dubbed? I watched about 2 minutes of this and had to turn it off; compared to the interviews with Houko Kuwashima, Kotono Mitsuishi and Aya Hisakawa on vols. 3, 4 and 6 respectively, this had nothing of any particular import or insight to add. I'd have far preferred to see an interview with the writer and/or director.

Despite this small waste, and the fact that the whole series (like any other 26-parter) would fit onto 3 discs quite happily, I'm giving this 5 stars because I enjoyed it so very much that I'm happy to pay over the odds, seeing as how this is the only way the average consumer can congratulate and encourage the series' makers.

As a dvd, noir offers alot of extra's such as previews and interviews with voice actors and alternative languages. I did find how ever that the interview with the english voice actors was boring and pretty use-less as an insight into the show.

I don't see how a sequel could be possible, but I would certainly check it out.