Another post on Noir.

Last year I mentioned my revisiting of Noir, and then on Tumblr I went through it in Japanese with Subs for the first time.  I did all of it but either I forgot to post about the rest on Tumblr or forgot to Tag them.

One thing I forgot to talk about was how Noir anticipated not only my interest in Anime, but also my French Pulp Fiction fascination as well.  It was years after I already loved Noir that I first stumbled upon Paul Feval, and started reading articles on CoolFrenchComics.com

And the Les Habits Noirs lore with the emphasis on Corsica made me think of Noir, but so did the Secret Society themes in other works like those of Sue and Dumas.  And since CFC was talking about this stuff in the context of WoldNewtonUniverse style crossover speculation. I quickly developed a Headcanon that the Bouquets were descended from the Bozzo-Corona clan somehow.

Something else I want to comment on is how Noir is an interesting Anime to watch as a Christian, and I'm one who's views have changed over the years, but certain core points have not.  What I've become is a Universalist, the unchanging core is that God's Love is Unconditional.

Many times my fellow Evangelicals like Chuck Missler like to observe how The World often seems to understand the Problem, the Bad News, but is just lacking the Solution, the Good News, The Gospel, like this quote attributed to Socrates though I've yet to find it verified in a primary source.

"It may be that the Deity can forgive sins, but I do not see how."

The thing about Noir, and it may spoil it somewhat to say this, is that the original Soldats and Altena seem to to be well aware of the Problem, but are seeking a Solution that is totally twisted.  This aspect of Noir is I think a major part of why it appeals to me personally, though that was probably not the creators' intent.  But that is the nature of Art.

If you're curious what my view of The Gospel is you can watch the video below.