Noblesse
Production I.G.
Fantasy, Supernatural
Crunchyroll
Noblesse was originally a Korean manwha which was published as a webtoon – if you’ve not heard of those before they’re a series of short comics released online (mostly for free). There have been increasing popularity in them of late with series such as Lore Olympus being picked up for adaptation. Noblesse is one of the older series, having originally started publication in 2007 but only recently reached completion in 2019. This also isn’t the first animation released, with a short ova series (Noblesse: Awakening) released back in 2016. It’s a name I’d heard before, but not actually a series I’d ever gotten around to checking out until now. And honestly? I wasn’t hugely impressed. From the first episode, this feels very much like a series that was created over ten years ago, giving off the same kind of vibes as shows like Vampire Knight and Blood +. Not a bad thing by any means, as both shows were enjoyable in their own right, but in this case… it unfortunately just feels old fashioned and unoriginal in terms of the plot.
The series centers around Raizel, a noble immortal who wakes up from a long 820-year sleep in modern-day times and currently is masquerading a school, which his servant runs. Very little is known about him in the first episode with him mostly just watching silently at the people around him – it’s almost comedic in fact. His servant, Frankenstein, is more proactive and it’s through him and the modified human, M-21 that we really discover more of the story. It’s hard to say if any of these characters are really likable, however, and mostly it just feels a little like you’re watching a bunch of pretty boys standing around not doing much.
Still, the volatile beginning of the episode, featuring a group of terrorists does point to a deeper storyline to come, as does the hints of M-21’s past which are explored. It very much feels like we’re jumping into a story that has already begun and the viewer is playing catch up. Honestly from this first episode though, we came away knowing very little at all about the protagonist, Raizel, and as such it’s hard to form any sort of opinion on him at this point. The mismatch in tone carries over into the series’ opening and ending, which whilst featuring some gorgeous animation in the latter, doesn’t really seem to fit what we’ve seen of the series so far. The animation of the series itself is equally gorgeous, but I honestly found myself being more intrigued by the “villains” at the beginning of the episode thanks to their more expressive designs and interactions than in the main cast.
Overall, I found the first episode of this series rather underwhelming with very little to prompt continuing watching. There’s some promise of an interesting storyline to come with mentions of a supernatural organisation and human experimentation but so little really happens to show this in the first episode that it’s off to a rather slow start.
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Noblesse episode 1
An intro episode doesn't offer too much originality, which is a shame given the popularity of the original webtoon.
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2 Comments
If u håvëñt watch øvā first, watçh itt áš iįt provides the îñfo nėèded
To understand thé c çurrent adäptàtioñ
That makes total sense, Blank! I’m aware there is an ova adaptation also but I was just reviewing this as a stand alone for now which was a little confusing for anyone new to the series to follow.