Marathon #4

I first caught Noir when I got into the HDTV game; INHD was showing what they called The Anime Network, and their one representative program was Noir.

In Hi-Def. 5.1 sound. Heh.

It usually showed at various timeslots and I was rarely able to catch it, though it was definitely eye-candy I wanted to see. Still, catching random episodes, I wasn't quite catching on to the plot. I'm not all that big an anime fan, and haven't seen much of anything in the last ten years outside of Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. But Kirika's brooding gunplay was very captivating, and the pair were definitely attractive. (...a good screencap site to take a peek. Spoilers, of course!)

Then I caught about three of them in a row, starting with the 2nd act of Intoccoble. You know, the one with the "Kiss of Death". Only in the dub, she doesn't say "Kiss of Death", and not seeing the 1st act, well... Let's just say the "yuri bait*" succeeded in snaring me in the trap. ;)

(* I didn't even know WTF that meant until a couple of weeks ago when my obsession with the show let to extensive Google sessions. And I probably still don't know WTF it really means...)

Anyway, just as I was hooked, they (INHD) exiled the show to 4:30AM!! Yikes! Admittedly, it was more like it's original Japanese timeslot for West Coasters, but for me, disaster! I have a day job; a close proximity to a real life. And record HD? No HD DVR yet, and Firewire + DVHS would run $500 plus waiting forever for Time-Warner to swap the cable box.

So I picked up the whole DVD set. The box, the t-shirt, the whole thing. I paid a little extra shipping to make sure it would show up for the weekend. It did, on Saturday. I was oddly estatic. An odd, excited anticipation. Not a normal thing for me.

This was exactly two weeks ago.

That evening I started at the beginning. I was drinking a bit of Chinaco Anjeo (okay, more than a bit), so I wound up taking a break at the Uncle Claude episode, then finished it up on Sunday.

Whoa.

Like I said, I'm not much into modern anime, and I haven't done marathons like that since college. But Noir owned me that weekend. Then that whole week as I started it again with the subtitles. I had to actually go to work, so I only did a few at a time. Friday night I started a 3rd run, which I finished Saturday. Last week.

Today I've started run #4. I've just finished a dinner break and I'm about to start disc 6. I figure I'll watch 6 & 7 twice before going to bed tonight.

And maybe, just maybe, I'll go for run #5 tomorrow.

Hello, my name is Bill, and I'm a Noir-o-holic.