Synduality: Noir – 12 (Part 1 Fin) – Back to Black

When a third core coalesces between the towers, Michael and Tokio charge in to take it out, but are instead taken out themselves by a barrage of Ender firepower. That means It’s All Up to Kanata, but between his inexperience and Noir’s ongoing crisis of confidence (insisting she’s a “dud”), things don’t go well.

When Daisyogre loses its blade arm and most of its offensive power, Noir even starts to question whether she’s actually a Magus, let alone one deserving of someone like Kanata (needless to say, she’s underselling herself and overselling Kanata). But then a switch flips suddenly she’s Noir with a Tan, using elite Magus Skills to deflect enemy fire and calling Kanata a hack at every possible opportunity.

Noir’s saucy alter-ego refers to herself in the third person as Mystere, and she makes it quite clear that she doesn’t want to be awake, and would prefer if she hadn’t switched places with Noir, who is some kind of Safe Mode. For all her sassiness and impatience with Kanata, Mystere is also hella good at her job, using a second offensive Magus Skill to Yeet a bunch of beams of light, shattering the core’s armor and blowing it to smithereens.

After the victory, for which everyone praises Kanata, Mystere tells him she’s going back to sleep and doesn’t plan to see him again. I love how Koga Aoi changed up Noir’s voice to make it more natural and more hostile. I also love how Range and Dolce are scouring the battlefield for crystals and end up chased by a surviving Ender. They’ll never learn!

Back at a grateful Rock Town, the victorious Drifters kick back. Michael tries and fails to propose to Maria, how has some wine with Claudia and notes that she’s not old enough to remember the first Silver Storm. Tokio wants to have another heart-to-heart with Kanata, but Ellie and Ange warn him that now may not be the best time.

After two days, Noir wakes up, but she’s still Mystere, and still doesn’t want to be there. In a clever demonstration that this is definitely not the Noir we know, she finally pulls her oversized coat over her shoulders, something Noir would never do. She also informs Kanata that she’s been trying to get Noir back but she isn’t responding.

So as we close the book on cour 1 of 2 of Synduality, Kanata now finds himself with a completely different Magus, and Ciel is ordered by Macht and Schnee to keep observing to determine if Noir or Mystere is the Key they need. Also Tokio apparently knows Macht, and wonders what he’s up to in Rock Town. The big Ender threat is defeated, but there’s clearly more story to tell and more mysteries (mysteres?) to unravel.

This is, again, and as ever, perfectly serviceable and nominally entertaining without being particularly groundbreaking. Above all, it’s well executed, and the production has remained consistently above average. As such, I’m looking forward to Part 2, due to air in Winter of 2024.

Synduality: Noir – 11 – The Two (Purple) Towers

Kurokamen and Schnee report that they, along with Ciel, have the Magus Key and her current Master in their hands. Their shadowy boss, named Mr. Weisheit, orders Kurokamen (who he calls by his real name, Macht Ewigkeit—to eliminate the master.

While this is standard practice for anyone searching for Paradise, neither Macht, Schnee, nor Ciel seem particularly happy about having to kill Kanata. Meanwhile, his longtime protector Tokio remains unconscious in a medical tank.

Ciel acknowledges her orders as she heads to pick up Kanata and Noir in Tokio’s carrier, only to find he’s readying Daisyogre for the battle at Rock Town. Ciel realizes she doesn’t want Kanata to die, so much so that she’s willing to defy her orders to eliminate him.

She begs Kanata to run away instead, with her, but he declines. He can’t leave Rock Town, Tokio, Ellie, and all the others in the lurch. He has to do what he can. Faced with rejection, Ciel once again steels herself to eliminate him with her electro-fingers.

Back at Rock Town, Michael sets up a line of defense with Drifters from home, Desire, and Baccarat. Even Range and Dolce show up, initially only to watch everyone get their asses kicked, but when they’re ambushed by Enders and accidentally flee to the front line, they give the impression to everyone that they’re not so bad after all, coming to the town’s aid.

The battle is a grueling one, with Drifters running out of ammo and becoming exhausted left and right. But just as Ellie and and Ange are surrounded and look to be out of options except for Ellie to call out for Kanata, there Kanata is, her knight in shining armor with a newly modded-out Daisyogre.

Obviously, Ciel never went through will killing him, as Macht ordered her to continue observing and supporting Kanata instead. Unlike their boss, he has a hunch that he has potential to help them achieve their nebulous “Ideals”, and Schnee feels the same way: it would be a shame for him to die.

Thanks to Kanata the Drifters defending Rock Town have their second wind, and in preparation to make their advance on the twin Ender Storm towers (atop which the cores sit), Claudia and Flamme launch a one-time mega fire cannon that paves a way for Michael, Kanata, and three other Coffins.

As they climb the towers and meet heavy Ender resistance, back in town Tokio finally comes to, and immediately gets dressed. As he expected, Maria has his Coffin fixed up and ready to go; no time for physical therapy. It’s a good thing, too, because Kanata loses his rifle and alerts pop up all over the place.

Just as Kanata rescued Ellie in the nick of time, so too does Tokio take the stage at the most dramatic moment. He tosses Kanata a spare rifle, and they fight off the Enders side by side until the path is clear to one of the Ender Storm’s cores.

They pierce their core, while Michael pierces his…but something’s wrong. The Storm has stopped, but it doesn’t crumble or fall over. Instead, the third, true core coalesces between the two false ones, like a threatening, purple Eye of Sauron. To underscore the importance of this development, a lot of the characters appear on the screen like the end of a Gundam or Macross OP. The next episode will be for all the marbles.

Synduality: Noir – 10 – Growing Up Fast

Some old tinkerers are working on some modifications for DaisyOgre, excited and proud that young Kanata is finally coming into his own as a Drifter. But their work is interrupted by a massive Ender storm that devastates the entire Boneyard camp.

Back at Rock Town, Mam gathers all of the Drifters to inform them of a pressing emergency: the “Silver Storm” has destroyed numerous camps and is headed straight for them. The Drifters are split into investigation teams and town defense.

Kanata wants to join Tokio with the investigations. Tokio is initially jokey in his responses, but when Kanata presses, he is more firm: Kanata should stay put, where it’s safe. Kanata feels otherwise. Ultimately, they’re both snotty brats to Mam, who tells Tokio to take Kanata already.

As Kanata prepares DaisyOgre in a hurry (and concerns Ciel), Tokio has a bad flashback to when a younger him was held back by Mouton as another young man—perhaps his brother?—looks back at him defiantly. Kurokamen and Schnee land at what I believe is the same site where Kanata found Noir, searching for the “Key to Paradise.”

Tokio’s carrier arrives at the Boneyard, where there’s nothing but ruins and rubble. Kanata fans out, snapping back at Tokio when he tells him not to go too far. It’s a bad time for Kanata to be puffing his chest out, as this is by far the largest threat our cast has encountered in this series.

It’s almost jarring how serious things are and how high the stakes have suddenly become after nine episodes of relatively lightweight adventures and character introductions. But there were hints of this threat sprinkled throughout those episodic outings, and now the shit is hitting the fan.

Ellie’s team spots the rapidly approaching Silver Storm, which gets bigger and more menacing as it consumes settlements. Back at the Boneyard, Tokio fights off a Parasitic Ender, while Kanata, on his own, is suddenly surrounded by three of them.

Within moments he loses an arm, his gun, and his footing. Noir couldn’t detect any of them in time, and in her head says she’s still a “dud.” DaisyOgre is a sitting duck when the Enders prepare to finish him off, but Tokio swoops in to shield him from their projectiles.

It occurred to me that Tokio’s brief but nightmarish flashback, as well as how hostile Kanata had been to him, may have constituted death flags, and sure enough, the Parasitic Ender spears impale him in multiple spots. With Tokio out of commission, Kanata and Noir seem doomed.

But the show has mercy on them as another savior arrives: Claudia and Flamme. They take out the Enders, stablize Tokio then load him and his Coffin onto theirs for travel to Rock Town. Claudia promises she’ll send someone back to pick him and Noir up.

The immediate threat may be past, but the Silver Storm is still primed to turn Rock Town into dust. Before Tokio departs with Claudia, he tells Kanata “we’re all depending on you now,” in order to make clear it’s not that he doesn’t believe in his abilities, just that he’s worried about his little brother’s safety.

But Kanata knows he can’t stand in his brother’s shadow forever, so he resolves to find a way to disperse the storm and save Rock Town and his friends and family—with Noir supporting him, of course. After nine weeks of being mostly a nuisance, the Enders finally have teeth, and Synduality finally has stakes.

Synduality: Noir – 09 – Not So Black and White

While driving through the rain on his way to Traders Nest with a sleeping Noir, Kanata witnesses gunfire outside: a lone Drifter taking out a Coffin that seems to be infected with a parasitic Ender. The pilot than hops out and walks through the rain without a protective suit, which is definitely abnormal.

Kanata continues on his way, and when he arrives at Traders Nest he immediately geeks out at all the stuff that’s for sale, particularly cheap second-hand Coffin components. Noir, borrowing Maria’s words, says that no matter how old they are, men can still turn into boys at the drop of a hat.

While Kanata does look like a boy in a metal candy shop, the pilot who walked through the rain strides in like a full-grown man, his very Noir-y looking Magus in tow. The shopkeeper says word is the guy is watertight and has been piloting a Coffin since the collapse of Amasia and is responsible for Amasia’s collapse.

Rumors also indicate the man knows his way around Magus memory, something Kanata is very interested in. But he’s so excited, he asks the man to talk to him without so much as introducing himself. The man walks off with his Magus without responding, leaving Kanata only with the knowledge that Noir is good at shoplifting.

That would have been that, except they run into the man’s Magus in the food market while she’s buying a ludicrous amount of soy sauce (and Kanata and Noir are admiring real organic bananas). The Magus, named Ada, is a lot friendlier than her master, Alba.

When Kanata describes Noir’s issues, Ada (voiced by Ishikawa Yui) says it’s normal for a Magus to reformat their memory after their previous contract is terminated. Unless Noir is from a lab during the “Amasia period”, Alba may be able to dig deeper into Noir’s primary memory. Noir wants to do this, because she believes there’s more to her than she currently is.

After Ada serves Kanata and Noir real coffee, Alba returns from an errand and grudgingly agrees to lend his know-how to potentially help Noir. The process will take some time, though not a full day, and Noir will be in Sleep Mode for the duration. Kanata need only stay by her side during the reboot.

The parasitic Enders pick this time to attack Traders Nest, and a trio of Magus-less Drifters are too weak to handle it, with one of them losing their life without much fanfare. Alba sorties with Ada and tells the remaining two Drifters to buzz off so he can do his job.

Ada unleashes “Ignition”, her Magus Skill, and incinerates all of the parasitic Enders in one fell swoop. Among the derelict Coffins is one from Amasia, so Alba checks it out, but insists on doing it alone while Ada stays in their Coffin.

When Noir comes to, Alba and Ada learn that Noir has no abnormalities, and that no further memory data exists within her system. However, they also learn that she’s essentially been operating in a constant state of overdrive. While it explains why she sleeps so much, it’s a little anticlimactic that that’s all we learn about her.

Noir apologizes for still being a “dud”, but of course Kanata doesn’t feel that way about her. If she doesn’t have any old memories, they’ll just have to keep making new ones, and snapping more photos along the way. In private, Ada makes mention to Alba of a “black box” within Noir that they could not open or decipher, so some mysteries yet remain within her.

Synduality: Noir – 08 – Mouth to Mouth

Ellie has a dream about laughing at something Kanata said when they were little, and him looking pained. She wakes up thinking it was an awful dream, but at least she gets to go on a date with Kanata today. Only, he kinda invited all the women he knows except Ma’am, Schnee, Dolce, and the waitress at the bar. Their destination: Satellite Aqua, a water park.

That’s right, it’s Synduality: Noir’s Pool Episode, and it wastes no time putting everyone in swimsuits. Maria, Ange, Claudia, and Flamme are determined to help Ellie succeed in snagging Kanata once and for all. To that end, they recommend she wear either a slingshot string bikini or just stickers, but she settles for a cute two-piece that he likes just fine. Meanwhile Noir, who sports a one-piece, shows off her unique, submarine-like swimming.

Kanata asks Ellie to help him swim, as he doesn’t know how, but the lesson is interrupted by a surprise concert from Ciel, who declined Kanata’s invitation because this was the errand she had to do. After her extremely popular (and profitable, at least for Tokio) show, she tells Kanata he inspired her to follow her dream and do the show. When she offers to help Ellie with his swim lesson, Ellie tells Ciel she can do it alone with him, and skulks off.

A concerned Kanata gives chase, but when he grabs her shoulder she plunges into the pool and a leg cramp keeps her under the water. Despite not knowing how to swim, Kanata dives in to rescue her, and the next thing she knows, she’s regaining consciousness after someone—apparently Kanata—gave her mouth-to-mouth. That would mean she wasn’t conscious for her first kiss.

Ellie laments that her feelings for Kanata may not be as powerful as Ciels, but her big sis tells her she shouldn’t worry about intensity, only taking advantage of opportunities to show him that she does like him. She gets than chance when Maria keeps Noir occupied, and Ellie apologizes for laughing at his dream of finding Histoire, which she knows was mean.

To her surprise, he had forgotten that she was mean to him at all, since it was so long ago, and in the years that followed, she helped him out again and again, proving her quality as a friend. When asked, he clarifies that it was Ange, not he, who gave her mouth-to-mouth, but he and Ellie end up in a position to kiss for real when Noir arrives to protect him.

All the talk of “ambushes” and “attacks” has her thinking Ellie has hostile intentions with Kanata, when in reality she simply wants to get closer to him. Considering this is a two-cour series, I’m sure she’ll get another chance or two to make her feelings clear. But since this is Kanata, she’ll have to be extremely clear.

Synduality: Noir – 07 – An Audience of One

When Kanata leaves Noir in Maria’s care for a day and a night for Magus maintenance, Ellie believes it’s finally her turn to strike while the iron’s hot. Unfortunately, Kanata isn’t as alone in his garage as she expected: as thanks for rescuing her from Range, Ciel has decided to keep Kanata company in Noir’s stead. Unlike Noir, she’s a lot better at household chores…and flirting.

After the house is made spotless, Ciel helps with Daisygore maintenance, singing while she works. She then whips up a homemade dinner for Kanata with real vegetables, offers to share her shower with Kanata “to save water” (he declines vociferously) and pays him a visit at his hammock in the night. It’s here where Ciel learns that Kanata treats Magus and humans the same because his mom was a Magus.

When Kanata tells Ciel about the lost paradise city of Histoire, she sneaks off in the night to make a report to some unknown organization, revealing that there’s more to her than just Kanata’s a second wAIfu. The next morning, Kanata can sense that Ciel’s being more distant.

He talks about this to Ellie at the canteen, and Ellie is eager to help out her childhood buddy when he tells Tokio “there’s no distance between them,” not knowing quite how happy that makes her. Kanata decides that the best way to cheer Ciel up is to take her somewhere. Little does he know if he hadn’t stopped a bit short and thrown her off balance, Ciel was ready to zap Kanata unconscious so that she could steal Noir.

Kanata has taken Ciel to a remote ruin of an old theater or concert venue, telling her she can sing there as loud as she likes to her heart’s content. Moved by this gesture, and Kanata’s continued treating of her like a human being, Ciel breaks into song for an audience of just Kanata. In her thoughts she admits that despite the fact her heart isn’t supposed to burn, he’s set it ablaze.

The impromptu concert is interrupted by rain that wasn’t in the forecast, which soon leads to an Ender attack. Not to worry; Ciel proves she’s a Jill-of-all-trades by hooking up to Daisygore and synching with Kanata, then obliterating all of the bogies while singing another song. Ciel can truly do it all, but that’s no longer a surprise considering she apparently works for a shady organization that considers Kanata and his dream a threat.

Mouton escorts Noir home, and she has a clean bill of health from Maria. Noir sees Ciel clinging to Kanata and determines that they’ve become closer in the day she’s been gone (though she doesn’t seem to exhibit any jealousy).

While Ciel mentioned one day finding her ideal master, it looks like she’s content to stay with Kanata and Noir for now. We’ll see if her developing feelings for the super-duper nice guy will overpower her sense of duty to that shadowy organization.

Synduality: Noir – 06 – The Ciel’s the Limit

Unexpected bad weather sends Kanata, Noir, Tokio and Mouton to Baccarat Nest. If Desire was the nest of lust, Baccarat is the nest of greed: everything can be wagered or staked. Tokio gives Kanata his share of their most recent Drifter earnings and proceeds to literally lose his shirt (and almost his underwear) gambling. Kanata and Noir look around, and eventually hear the voice of a songstress Noir recognizes as Ciel.

Noir introduces Kanata to Ciel, who can tell cares about Noir, and even teases him by asking if he loves her (he’s not ready for that question). Noir also reports there was nothing on the camera Ciel fixed, so Ciel uses it to snap a photo of Kanata and Noir, to commemorate the moment.

Kanata and Noir then bump into the man in the black mask and his sleepy Magus Schnee, and Kanata proceeds to lose all his money as well. At the same time, Range and Dolce arrive at Baccarat still sore about losing the Maguses they captured, only to find one of them, Ciel, is right in front of their noses.

Range grabs Ciel and Dolce slaps a restraining collar on her; he claims her as his property since she signed her deed over to him, even though he tricked her into thinking it was a consent form to ride his Carrier. Since this is Baccarat Nest, there’s no law firm she can run to…but fortunately, she has allies in Noir and Kanata.

When Range sees the demand for winning Ciel’s deed, he assigns himself a bookie and starts taking entry fees for a battle royale, the winner of which gets the deed. While Kanata is broke, Noir pawns her beloved camera, confident she and Kanata will win. They proceed to use what they’ve learned in the field to make quick work of the other opponents.

Range and Dolce again turn the tables by announcing that they themselves will be in the second round of the battle, accompanied by three henchmen coffins. Gotta love how cartoonishly nefarious they are, especially Dolce with her Ojou-sama laugh.

The man in the mask decides to enter the battle in order to even the odds, having taken a liking to Kanata and Noir. When Kanata asks his name, he says he’s not ready to give it, so Kanata just calls him Kurokamen, or Black Mask.

Mask and Schnee deal with the three henchmen, leaving Kanata and Noir to battle Range and Dolce. Kanata powers through Range’s barrage of insults, but Daisyogre runs out of ammo, he and Noir end up with Range’s gun pointed at their coffin’s head.

That’s when Noir starts to convulse, as if in pain, then take on ethereal form and leap out of Daisyogre. Her clothes and hair turn black (i.e. Noir), and she rains a massive thunderbolt down on Range and Dolce, whose skeletons are visible as they’re electrocuted, adding to their whole Looney Tunes vibe.

The baddies are vanquished once more, and with Kurokamen classily bowing out, Kanata is the winner of Ciel’s deed. Just when I thought Ellie would now have to contend with two AI waifus back home, Kanata cancels his contract with Ciel, rendering her free to continue wandering the world looking for the Master of her dreams.

Before they part ways, Noir takes the camera Tokio bought back with winnings (no doubt betting what was left of his and Mouton’s clothes on Kanata) and snaps another picture to commemorate her and Kanata’s new friendship with Ciel. All’s well that ends well.

There remains absolutely nothing groundbreaking or original about Synduality: Noir, but I don’t think it’s trying to be either. It’s just trying to be an entertaining episodic action/adventure anime with tinges of comedy and romance and bright, fun characters, vehicles, and locales. No excessive brainpower is needed, which works out just fine for a Monday evening.

Synduality: Noir – 05 – Marital Blitz

In a distressing cold open, a Drifter is surrounded by sinister black coffins who take his Magus captive. So of course I feared Noir would meet a similar fate later in the episode. That’s especially true when Kanata and Noir encounter Claudia and Flamme in the Rock Town market, selling the crystal they took for themselves.

All Claudie can offer them is lunch and some advice: if they want to get better at “becoming one” as a Drifter-Magus pair, she recommends they visit the maze at Fes, which is almost certainly a trap. In the meantime, Noir is determined to “become one” with Kanata, culminating in her declaring that they are “husband and wife”.

The two start eating, drinking, even brushing their teeth in unison in hopes that they’ll become a better tuned duo on the battlefield. Noir wants to take a shower with Kanata, but he forbids it. And when Noir wants to sleep in his hammock with him, he finally relents, only for the weight of the both of them to break said hammock.

Nevertheless, they fall asleep on the floor, and that’s where a very confused and outraged Ellie finds them. She’s even more distressed when Noir says they’re husband and wife, and asks if love is even necessary in a marriage. Clearly, they’ve been sold another bill of goods by Claudia.

As expected, the maze is indeed a trap, and Claudia sold Kanata and Noir out for a payday, earning her some more villainess brownie points. Fortunately Tokio knows something is up, since Mouton reported the Type Zero Magus abductions like the one we saw in the cold open.

No sooner do Kanata and Noir enter the maze of Fes than they are surrounded by the same sinister black coffins, which are launched from flying carriers. Kanata is able to evade them for a few blocks, but eventually they’re surrounded.

Before one of the black coffins can pry open the rear bay where Noir is, Tokio’s coffin arrives and knocks a couple of the coffins away. He’s joined by Ellie and Michael, and even Claudia shows up, albeit just to make sure Kanata isn’t hurt.

She explains that her client was looking for a certain Type Zero—even Flamme was checked out—they have deep pockets, and Flamme ain’t cheap to maintain, so she had no choice but to take the job. But not unreasonably, Kanata wants payback for being played the fool not once but twice now.

Claudia doesn’t make it easy at first, as she uses smoke bombs and shadow clones to confuse her opponent. However, once Kanata and Noir are on the same page, he maintains evasive maneuvers while Noir locks on to the weak spot on Claudia’s coffin that she hasn’t gotten around to fixing. With one shot, her coffin is disabled, and she’s at Kanata’s mercy.

However, having won the fight, all Kanata does is recommend a cheap and eager tinkerer to maintain her Type Zero: Ellie’s sister Maria, specifically. That way, perhaps Claudia won’t have to resort to betraying him again in the future. I won’t hold my breath, but if she were truly heartless she wouldn’t have come to check on him, so who knows.

As for Kanata and Noir, to Ellie’s relief they were unable to complete the maze of Fes, which is akin to a lovers’ trial. That said, even though she’s able to work up the courage to ask Kanata to go through the maze with her, they’re not able to as the maze has been ruined by the battle with the black coffins. Poor Ellie…never any luck…

Synduality: Noir – 04 – Drifter University

Kanata has the Coffin (i.e. mech) and the Magus (i.e. copilot), but is eager to gain Drifter experience, so he endures the japes from more seasoned drifters to ask Ma’am for a job. She has one to offer, and Kanata is determined to carry it out by himself.

He even insists Noir simply provide navigation support, not fight the battle for him. However, his first battle “on his own” doesn’t go so well, and avoids becoming a total disaster because the Mini-Enders he fights are so weak, and he’s bailed out by a new Drifter.

This Drifter and her pyrophilic Magus assumed Kanata was in real trouble and intervened, as is the Drifter’s Way. However, when he gets out to meet and thank the pilot, she puts him in a headlock and then teases him with her ample bosom.

Her name is Claudia, and her Magus, a Type Zero like Noir, is named Flamme. Flamme is your typical bubbly loli who nicknames everyone, but Claudia is a cool as she is hot, and she has a job for a newbie like Kanata if he wants to gain some Drifter XP.

The mission is simple: one Coffin will carefully mine a gigantic AO Crystal Claudia has isolated, while another will defend it from the Enders that are sure to be attracted to said crystal once the green shield is down. Kanata wants to be the defender, and is ready to risk his life, so Claudia agrees.

When asked why not just mine the whole area, Claudia says she wants to leave the beautiful, sprawling daisy field intact, for Flamme’s sake. Flamme runs into the field with Noir and makes her a crown of daisies, which symbolize purity and innocence.

When Flamme has a rare dark moment when she says she’ll never “get it back”—presumably referring to her innocence—she walks it back as a joke, saying she can always update her memory. Upon hearing this, Noir gets a flash from before her memory was purged, and the elderly tinkerer/Drifter who last interacted with her before Kanata found her.

I’m sure Noir will keep getting little flashes of her memories, and I wonder how that will affect both her personality (which remains extremely slight due to the amnesia) and her relationship to Kanata (who isn’t exactly Mr. Personality either).

That said, Kanata is good at fixing Coffins, and gets a peck on the cheek from Claudia for doing maintenance on her Coffin. She also warns him that Type Zero Maguses like Noir and Flamme cost a pretty penny to maintain, and there are unsavory types out there who would try to steal her—indeed this has already happened once.

Unlike his first battle, Kanata is able to stay calm and collected and take down one Mini-Ender at a time until he has six kills to his name. However there’s a seventh Mini plus one Intermediate that gives him problems. That’s when Tokio swoops in and rides the large, wheel-like Intermediate and blows it up from the inside.

Kanata is a little miffed he had to be rescued again, but failure is the greatest teacher, and he’ll need less help as he gets better with time. He also learns a valuable lesson about trusting strangers when Claudia and Flamme make off with the crystal—50-5o did seem overly generous split.

Kanata and Noir take the minor betrayal in stride as the lesson it was meant to be. He admires Claudia fighting solo out there in the wild, making the bank needed to keep Flamme running. If he wants to be a proper partner to Noir, he needs to get better, and Claudia and Flamme helped. The latter even gave their Coffin a name: Daisyogre.

The main things keeping Synduality from being great (rather than simply good) are Kanata, who is a pretty lame and generic MC, and the absolute anonymity and inanimateness of the Enders. The CGI wheels looked okay, but at the end of the day they’re just wheels.

Fortunately for Synd:Noir, the setting remains fun and compelling, the battle animation is decent, the soundtrack is varied and superb, and the colorful cast of supporting characters, including Claudia and Flamme, make up for Kanata and Noir’s blandness. I also appreciate the fact Kanata isn’t getting too good too fast. This is a two-cour series, after all—it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Synduality: Noir – 03 – The Great Cause

Ellie, bless her heart, is excited Kanata is finally a drifter, and wastes no time setting up a mission they can go on together, as a treat. But when she arrives at Kanata’s hanger, only Noir is there, pondering the meaning of a message from Tokio saying he’s taken Kanata to the hedonistic Desire Nest to pop his cherry. Ellie invites Noir to join her and Ange on what is now a rescue mission.

While Tokio does manage to nudge Kanata into the arms of a couple of comely employees of a swanky club in Desire, his own carnal designs are dashed when his butler magus Mouton starts chasing him, believing his yoiung master wants to have a race. While en route to Desire, Noir learns that Ellie and Kanata grew up together, and they also pick up a mysterious magus named Schnee on the side of the road.

Luckily for both Kanata and Ellie, he’s made to wait in a comfortable sitting room until his number is called. A formally dressed, masked gentleman asks him if it’s his first time, then declares, to Kanata’s shock, that it’s his first time too.

It becomes pretty clear that this fellow is the one Schnee refers to as “My Lord”, and she was willing to walk to Desire to return to his side. When Enders attack Desire, Ellie sorties with Ange, leaving Schnee to drive Noir—and Kanata’s coffin—into the city.

Noir and Schnee arrive just as Kanata’s number is called and the general alert is sounded. Literally saved by the bell. The ladies fill the gentlemen in on the situation. Schnee’s “Lord” tells her he came to Desire alone to try to find the “Goddess who will take him to Paradise” for “the Great Cause”.

Ellie is just hanging on with Ange when an attacking Ender is snared by Kanata. I loved Ellie’s elation upon learning he’s there, only to observe that he has a lot to learn about fighting Enders. That’s fine with Ellie; she doesn’t need a white knight; fighting beside Kanata is enough.

Unfortunately, even the both of them aren’t enough against a particularly tough group of Enders, but they are bailed out by Schnee and her Lord dazzling the stage in a snow white coffin. He elegantly slices through all of the remaining Enders with an energy sword while Schnee covers his back by projecting herself outside the coffin, a trick neither Ange nor Noir (at the moment) can pull off.

When the battle is over, Schnee accidentally lands the coffin in a puddle of mud and apologizes to her Lord, but he’s okay with a little grime in the name of the “Great Cause”. This inscrutable masked gentleman is sure to return again, as there’s something “nostalgic” about the scent around Kanata. That said, if Noir was the one he was looking for, you’d think he’d have noticed her when she arrived at the club with Schnee.

In the end, Ellie still gets to go on a mission with Kanata like she wanted, while Tokio and Mouton spent all night running around Desire Nest, and clearly exhibit the signs of the runner’s high. All’s well that ends well, and while the CGI Enders are pretty much whatever, I still enjoyed the new characters and watching Ellie and Kanata finally team up.

Synduality: Noir – 02 – The Contract

After Kanata and Noir’s first battle together, their mech (they call them coffins, but that’s a bit macabre) is toast. Maria helpfully offers some spare parts, and also suggests they head back to the ruins to see if they can find Noir’s coffin, and possibly her memories.

It’s a solid premise for a second episode: offer up an adventure beyond the confines of the admittedly cool-as-hell city while also peeling back the mystery of Noir a bit.

In the ruins, they encounter a kind of Air & Space Museum where Maria locates Noir’s coffin. Unfortunately, the mech’s memory is wiped clean. But in its cockpit is an old-fashioned camera, which Kanata starts to believe could help Noir get her memory groove back.

The simple search for Who She Is is then interrupted—crashed, if you will—by Range and Dolce, two villains straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon.

But never mind, at least for the moment: Kanata is a Drifter now, and Tokio wants to celebrate at the bar. Kanata is eager to repair his and Noir’s coffins, but relents and goes with Tokio, leaving Noir with Tokio’s Magus, Mouton.

While Mouton tidies up the place (his elegant catch of both Noir and camera is brilliant), Ellie and Ange have eye’s on Range’s punked-out Magus and lieutenant, Dolce. There’s just something beautiful and hilarious about watching her eat ruinously expensive fresh vegetables while everyone stares resentfully.

At least according to Tokio’s memory, Dolce was once a simple farm girl, but look at her now: right hand to an elite Drifter we learn (rather some fairly clunky exposition) was kicked out of Rock Town by Michael for stalking Maria.

These guys have a lot of history together, adding to the lived in feel of the setting and its characters. When Range sees Kanata, he lays into him for having failed the Aventure entrance test, something Ellie never knew.

While Michael scares Range and Dolce away (much more bark than bite, those two) Kanata skulks away, much to Ellie’s dismay. That said, his mood improves appreciably when Noir and Mouton welcome him home and the latter assists him with repairs to the coffin.

Noir falls asleep watching, and an exhausted-from-work Kanata isn’t far behind. How could you not love these archetypal dorks?

I find my appreciation for Ellie growing all the while. Yes, she’s the lonely corner of the love triangle, but the fact that she cares about Kanata more than being with him means she avoids being your standard jealous third wheel character.

More than pining for him, she’s a good person who doesn’t want others to suffer, even if she has to hear him whining about whether Noir wanted to board Range’s carrier, as caught by a neighborhood eye in the sky.

When Ellie visits Kanata, Noir has gone missing, and she offers to help him track her down. Unfortunately, Range and Dolce get to her first, and in her current state, she is easily manipulated into boarding his rig with a promise of fixing her camera that will never be fulfilled.

The one who fixes it is Ciel, a fellow captive Magus who is introduced singing beautifully. Before Noir can inspect the now-charged camera, Kanata and Tokio arrive, their coffins riding one of Maria’s rockets.

The constant mugging from Range and Dolce, the fact their pursuers are strapped to a rocket like Wile E. Coyote, Noir discovering she can exude electricity like Ciel and uses it to aid her effortlessly cool escape and dive into the rear of the coffin to interface with Kanata…there’s a lot going on and it’s all goofy and fun as hell.

Suffice it to say, with Noir by his side, Kanata is able not only to hold his own against Range and Dolce, but force them to abandon their rig and run home with their tail between their legs.

With the princess successfully rescued from her devious kidnappers, it’s time to cap the victory with a kiss. But what follows isn’t a kiss of lips, but Kanata’s thumb kissing the little panel on Noir’s neck. All Magus have them, and when pressed, the presser forms a contract with that Magus.

You could say that Noir and Kanata are now officially a couple, though that depends on how his relationship with her will unfold. I’m not sure if Ellie is resigned or defiant as she watches the contract be made—maybe both. In any case, her beloved Kanata has a new friend like her, and is now a Drifter like her.

Knowing what we know about Ellie thus far, I imagine both of those things make her happy…and she won’t give up the fight. As for Noir, we’ll see if the contract changes her personality like it did Maria’s newest Magus. In any case, I’m ready for the next crowd-pleasing maximalist pulpy adventure.

Synduality: Noir – 01 (First Impressions) – Two to Tango

With Gundam Mercury over and Nier:Automata yet to resume, I need a sci-fi fix this Summer, and Synduality:Noir looks to scratch that itch. I’ll level with you: perfect it ain’t, but it makes up a lot for its shortcomings with some nice character moments and top-notch production values.

Bear with me: since this is a sci-fi show, there’s lots of jargon to absorb. In a post-apocalyptic world, Drifters are agents who go out into the unprotected lands to forage for resources and loot, while either avoiding or combating Enders, twisted monsters that have taken over much of the planet.

Kanata works for the cocky lone-wolf Drifter Tokio, and on one mission he happens upon an unconscious Magus—a kind of android. Rather than leave her there in a bed of roses, he decides to take her home, but not before they end up in a fight with Enders.

Once that fight is over, Kanata and Tokio head home, which is a futuristic city covered in protective domes. Upon arriving, their vehicle is subjected to decontamination. They then head to the auction to sell off Tokio’s bounty: a giant red crystal (very Final Fantasy touch) that’s a little bigger than his Drifter rival Michael, whose Team Aventure is much bigger.

Upon bringing the Magus home, Kanata presses a button on her back and her clothes disappear. Before he can correct this, his friend Ellie, who has a long standing crush on him, arrives at his pad with her friend and Magus, Ange.

The two young women are scandalized by what they see, and assume Kanata lost his virginity when the Magus wakes up and says she’ll “take him to paradise”. I enjoyed Ellie and Ange’s sisterly rapport throughout; there’s something about Ellie’s design and expression and voice that makes her very rootable, even if she probably doesn’t stand a chance against the “new girl”.

But while the Magus (delicately, precisely voiced by Koga Aoi) is awake, she doesn’t know who she is. When Kanata, a collector of items from the before times, tells her about his dream (apparently instilled in him by his late parents) to find the semi-legendary old city of Histoire, she’s more interested in his vintage washing machine.

While his boss Tokio and Michael continue to drink (and perhaps flirt), Kanata takes the Magus to Maria, Ellie’s older sister and Magus expert. Maria welcomes them with rocket fire, but once she actually meets the Magus, she’s as intrigued as Kanata: this is a model she’s never seen.

Before Maria can do any more research, there’s a massive attack by a swarm of Enders, some of whom break through the dome and threaten the residential zone. Tokio, Michael, and Aventure sortie to aid the city’s defenses (the leader is a tiny old woman in a mech suit).

When Ellie is cornered by Enders, Kanata comes to her rescue, much to her delight, but she’s a Drifter and he’s a civilian, so she tells him to scram. He does so, and switches out his carrier for a mech in the hangar. He boards it and takes off, asking the Magus to stay put.

When a boss-level Ender threatens Ellie, Kanata returns in his mech, but without a Magus aboard he’s pretty much out of control, like a driving school student on their first day at the wheel. At best, he’s a sitting duck for the Ender boss.

And here’s one of the show’s flaws: the Enders, while creepy-looking little snooters, are nevertheless mindless monsters and thus not very interesting. There’s also precious little mortal peril to be had; I expected Ellie or Tokio or someone to die in the battle to show the Enders are a serious threat.

Instead, even the boss kinda stands around, allowing the Magus girl to run up to Kanata’s mech, request and gain access to the rear compartment, and interface with the mech, forming the same Drifter-Magus symbiotic connection as Tokio and Mouton, or Ellie and Ange.

The HUDs inform Kanata that his Magus copilot’s name is Noir, and while she couldn’t even keep her jacket sleeves from sliding down her arms, in the cockpit of a mech she’s an artist, making quick work of the boss Ender with an acrobatic melee attack.

Once the battle is won, Ange eggs on Ellie by telling her to stay on her toes vis-a-vis Kanata, as she may just have a new rival. As for Noir herself, once Kanata says her name and she accepts it, her emotionless demeanor softens and she actually smiles.

Synduality is nothing groundbreaking either premise or visuals-wise, but it is a solidly executed sci-fi yarn made with care and attention to detail. There’s not a whole lot to Kanata personality-wise (no doubt in part because he’s an audience stand-in) he’s surrounded by a host of more colorful and dynamic characters.

The enemy is generic and the jargon is thick, but nevertheless this was a strong and entertaining enough opener to justify sticking with it—or to borrow the slogan from the promo art, stand by it.