Noir

Noir is an anime original series created by Ryōe Tsukimura and directed by Kōichi Mashimo, the founder of Bee Train. 

Noir is part of the Girls With Guns Trilogy and is the most well known. It is focused on 2 female assassins who must find out about their past while taking on contracts. One is a Japanese and the other is a Corsican and there appears to be some relationship between the two as the story progresses.

  Kirika is a Japanese girl with amnesia who finds herself in Paris living with another girl Mireille. The two team up to become assassins as they try to recover Kirika memories and their strange relationship. The duo are lured into traps by a secret French organization that appears dedicated to their destruction. 

The story was interesting and had a modern feel.The symbolism and lore behind the scenes was fairly interesting. The characters were ok and you wanted to root for them. Thankfully, the tone manages to remain consistent throughout the story without any attempt of misplaced comedy. The art and  visual style are very good.  

The action was simple and predictable however. The anime is notable for its lack of blood due to censorship. The pacing is pretty slow as to be expected for niche genres like the neo noir. Sometimes a lot of the plot just feels it goes nowhere due to the pacing but things speed up in the second half and appear to make more sense. The music was good and the animation was excellent.  

Overall, it was enjoyable and worth the watch. 

It gets 4 out of 5 stars.