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If I had seen Princess Tutu as a ten-year-old, I'm positive it would have blown my mind and I would have considered it the greatest anime ever. Watching it as an adult, I was able to appreciate certain aspects of the show, but I couldn't quite connect with the story. I absolutely loved the music, the ballet theme, the fairy tale deconstruction stuff, and the metafictional aspect of the plot. Those are like literally my four favorite things: classical music, ballet, deconstructing fairy tales, and metafiction. If I were on a dating website that would be my list of interests right there. And it all ... works! All of those elements come together to create a unique and cohesive viewing experience. In particular the short fairy tales narrated by the old woman at the beginning of each episode are a lovely touch.

And yet most of the time I spent watching this show, I kind of wished I were rewatching Revolutionary Girl Utena instead. Don't get me wrong, Princess Tutu is not an Utena rip-off. It's a good series in its own right. It's just...definitely for kids. Take the humor, for example. There's this cat teacher guy, right, who threatens his students with marriage in virtually every episode. And it's sort of funny the first few times, except it's mostly creepy because his students are all...well, his students, and also in like elementary school I think? Then there are Ahiru's friends, who exist basically to wail in high-pitched voices and make goofy super deformed faces every once in a while. (Lilie, the blond friend, is coincidentally voiced by the same actress who plays Nanami in RGU; to get an idea of her character in this show, imagine Nanami at her most obnoxious moments, then crank that up a few notches.) The story is admirably complex and subversive for a show aimed at a young demographic, but still straightforward in the telling; every plot point is spelled out for the viewer and the characters have a tendency to announce exactly how they feel. After a while I began to long for something a little subtler, a little more layered...a little more like Utena.

Which doesn't mean that Princess Tutu is bad, just that I'm not its intended audience. So take my rating with a grain of salt.

Noir is a pretty cool anime, which had the potentially to be totally flipping sweet. Unfortunately there isn't really enough plot or thematic variation for a 26 episode series, and after a while the show begins to feel repetitive. Some gruff-voiced crime boss guy will be introduced, and then Kirika will look all forlorn and be like watashi wa...dare???, and Mireille will be like ooh look a pocket watch, this really takes me back to that time when--and then this awesome song with operatic vocals will start playing which is their cue to start shooting dudes, and at the end there will usually be a ... standoff wherein two parties point guns at each other and lock eyes for a long time while the camera pans slowly across their inscrutable gazes, and those are pretty much the basic ingredients for an episode of Noir. Don't get me wrong, Noir does all of these things well, with a nice sense of style. There's generally a lot of thought put into the framing of the action sequences so they don't get too redundant, and the vibrant international locales (brought to life with lovely background artwork) provide a rich atmosphere.

But despite these surface touches, the actual substance of each episode doesn't vary a whole lot. The few episodes which attempt to introduce new ideas stand out as highlights, like that one with the Russian KGB guy trying to atone after being responsible for an ethnic cleansing. If all of the episodes had been as layered and complex as that one, Noir would be the aforementioned "totally flipping sweet" masterpiece it could have been. But ultimately the show plays it safe, content to strike the same notes and cover the same thematic ground repeatedly. As much as I like what Noir does, I would have liked to see it do more, to reach farther and go deeper.

The ending still managed to give me the chills though. I didn't realize how invested in Mireille and Kirika's friendship I'd become until the last few scenes, which are pretty gut-wrenching. Their relationship is the heart of the show and the reason why it succeeds as more than just an exercise in style. They really do make a good team.