Monday, January 04, 2021

'Noblesse' Is Pretty Basic, yet Somehow Magnetic

Noblesse tells the story of Cadis Etrama Di Raizel, the eponymous Noblesse.  Raizel belongs to an ancient and powerful race of immortals called “Nobles”, who have taken it upon themselves to become humanity’s guardians.  And being the Noblesse, Raizel is considered as the most powerful and important Noble, as he’s not only the protector of all other Nobles, but he also has the authority to pass judgment on Nobles who commit malevolence.  However, one day, he disappears from the Nobles’ island nation of Lukedonia, which lead to a number of Noble leaders considering him a traitor.  As it turns out, due to reasons still unrevealed in the anime, he’s in hibernation for 820 years.

Waking up in 21st century Japan, Raizel reunites with his devoted servant Frankenstein, a brilliant human scientist who have attained for himself superpowers that surpass even that of most Nobles.  While waiting for his master’s return, Frankenstein founded a private high school, which he intended to be a place where Raizel could lead a happy, normal life – the opposite of the lonely existence he used to have while holding the office of the Noblesse.
And indeed, Raizel, because of his youthful look, gets to pass off as a teenager and start partaking in the high school experience, falling in love with ramen and becoming friends with human classmates Yusuke Tashiro and Manabu Kase in the process.  Soon, his circle of friends further expands with M-21, Takeo, and Tao – modified humans who used to be agents for the evil organization called the Union, but has since defected to become Frankenstein’s loyal employees – and Regis K. Landegre and Seira J. Loyard, young Nobles from Lukedonia who has become transfer students in Frankenstein’s school.

However, even in this more pleasing new life, Raizel is still not free from conflict, since both the Union and Lukedonia are out to get him.  But with Frankenstein and his new friends at his side, he has more than enough to take them on.
Noblesse completes the trio of manhwa (i.e. Korean manga) – the other two being Tower of God and The God of High School – that made history in 2020 as the first Korean Webtoon properties to be adapted into Japanese anime series.  However, despite literally breaking new ground for anime, I don’t know if they’ll come to be known as a “Big Three” of sorts, as they weren’t really as impactful as I thought they would be as a collective.  Now, I found all three to be enjoyable to varying extents, and each of them evoked genuine excitement in me at some points of their respective runs.  However, to be honest, I don’t think any of them reached “great” territory.

Among the three, Tower of God turned out being the best in quality.  While it isn’t great, it’s still quite good – more imaginative and tighter than the other two combined.  It was what made me optimistic about anime adaptations of Korean manhwa – the aforementioned “new ground for anime.”  And as a result, I anticipated The God of High School to up the ante.  At first, it seemed like it was indeed going to do so.  Unfortunately, it eventually lost momentum.  It started being all over the place as it progressed, and in the end, it merely felt like an okay but derivative show.  Then came Noblesse, which I hoped would bring it all home for the trio.  However, it ended up being the least striking of the three.  The God of High School disappointed, but at least, it was able to make noise.  On the other hand, Noblesse had no sense of hype, for it offered the most basic things among the three.
That being said, it seemed like it was with Noblesse in which I strangely had fun the most.

Actually, there was a 31-minute ONA (Original Net Animation) released back in 2016 called Noblesse: Awakening (this means that, Tower of God may be the very first manhwa to have a Japanese anime series adaptation, but Noblesse is technically the very first manhwa to have a form of Japanese anime adaptation), and the 2020 anime series is a sequel to that.   In other words, before I could watch the series, I must watch that ONA first.  This was initially a turn-off for me, as I thought it would be a hassle.  How dare this anime series require this chore before I can watch it?

However, I ended up really enjoying the ONA.  Even though the short runtime prevented the storyline (it covers the entire first arc of the manhwa) to be expounded with more depth and substance, it felt like it managed to tell a well-realized narrative where it sufficiently fleshed out the relevant characters and lore to win the audience over.  I got thoroughly hooked.
Afterward, I generally had a fun time watching the Noblesse series.  It isn’t a remarkable show, but it was still one of the fall 2020 anime that I looked forward to watching the most each week.  Although I recognized that it had a couple of hackneyed aspects and that some parts of its script felt undercooked (similar to The God of High School), I came to shrug them off.  All in all, the 13-episode first season of Noblesse never failed to entertain me.

I really can’t put my finger on why I get to like this anime.  So, let me just enumerate some of the things that worked for me.  First, Raizel and Frankenstein being so OP in a way that’s so badass and cool.  I especially enjoyed it whenever Raizel forces opponents to bow down to him through sheer mind power, and the fact that the usually composed Frankenstein becomes bloodthirsty when he has to fight.  Second, the endearing “nakama” dynamics the developed among Raizel and his friends.  Third, the vampire-esque, gothic vibes inherent in Raizel, the Nobles, and their society.  Fourth, the humor.  There weren’t that much comedy, but whenever the anime got comedic, it often made me laugh.  Fifth… er, there must be a fifth one (and sixth and so on), but it escapes me as of writing.  The bottomline is, Noblesse is not a particularly noteworthy anime, but it had enough stuff that I found desirable to keep me immersed on it in a weekly basis.
For lack of a better analysis, let’s just say it has that “addicting” factor that makes it a magnetic watch.

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