The Winter 2024 Anime Preview Guide

Synduality: Noir

The calamitous Ender storm has been stopped, but Kanata and his fellow Drifters can't rest easy just yet. During the battle, a mysterious new personality emerged from within Noir's tangled circuitry, calling herself Mystere and wielding power far behind her counterpart. Now, it's up to Kanata to figure out just who Mystere is, how she's connected to Noir, and uncover the mysteries of Pascale, the Magus' previous master.

Synduality: Noir is a television anime of Bandai Namco Entertainment, Bandai Namco Filmworks, and Bandai Spirits' Synduality project. The anime series is streaming on Hulu or Disney+ on Mondays.

I'm happy to have Synduality: Noir and its particular brand of mid-'00s mecha-style fluff back in full force. While this show largely flew under the radar in the summer season, it won me over with a combination of charm and a willingness to use its dual cour episode count to let the characters goof around rather than focusing too much on its inevitable looming plot. Surprisingly, this premiere is more of the same, which is a little weird considering that the previous cour ended with the revelation of Noir having a second personality called Mystere, who claims to have been the original. While you'd expect that to result in the show either dumping out a bunch of new lore to explain this or trying to dig into the mysteries surrounding her existence, instead, we just spend a lot of time with Kanata and Mystere hanging out in the hopes that something they do will bring Noir's consciousness back to the surface. Honestly, though, I wouldn't have it any other way, as it's the kind of low-key character interactions the show excels at, and it's fun watching Mystere switch between throwing insults at Kanata every five seconds and trying to wrap her mind around such complex concepts as pools or idol concerts.

Of course, it's not all fluff. We do get hints that there's more to the split between Noir and Mystere's personalities than Mystere seems to be aware of, and the episode ends with her coming to terms with the fact that her original master has long since died. Again, it's nothing amazing, but it works. I'm glad the show is opting to keep Mystere around as another cast member by having her freely swap with Noir rather than just keeping her in the background whenever the show's mysteries get addressed. Really, that more or less sums up how I feel about this show. It's far from the most impressive thing out there, but it's pretty fun for its simplicity, and I enjoy its particular brand of simplicity. With that in mind, I'll admit that I don't really have any particular excitement for the show's actual overarching plot and am mostly here to watch the characters bounce off each other. I am at least a little worried about how much this season will maintain my interest whenever the story moves into high gear. For now, though, I'm still having fun, and while I imagine there aren't too many other folks on the market for this show's brand of mid-00s nostalgia, for anyone who does happen to vibe with that, then this should continue to be a pretty good time.

At the end of season one, I was a bit anxious about where Synduality: Noir was going. It had just thrown a big shakeup into the mix that, while interesting, could easily displace all the charm and fun of what came before. The series was at its strongest when it channeled the laid-back vibes of 2000s mecha shows, letting its cast act like dumb teenagers and get into goofy hijinks. The arrival of Mystere, and the looming threat of a larger plot mean all that chemistry might get put on the backburner, which would be a shame.

Thankfully, this return seems conscious of how big this change to our central dynamic is and takes great pains to ingratiate us to Mystere, even as she bristles against damn near every cast member and lets us get to know her as more than just a plot device. Her assertive, often dismissive personality is a far cry from the curious and deadpan Noir. Still, after the events of season one, Kanata finally has enough confidence to bark back against her bite, which gives their dynamic a distinct energy from his awkward but mutual partnership with Noir. Yet Mystere also reveals a softer side, reminiscing about her times with the mysterious Pascale and their adventures 20 years prior, or quietly finding satisfaction in seeing how much humanity's quality of life has improved since she was out of commission. The Ranma-esque twist at the end of the episode also ensures that Noir and Mystere will stick around. That's a great choice and helps assuage a lot of my biggest hangups going into the second half.

The drawback is that this return is decidedly more somber and lowkey than anything before it, and there's not much time spent with the extended cast – unless you count the extended shower scene with Ciel and Mystere. I guess Ciel figures if she can't be Kanata's one-an-only, then she'll need to butter up both sides of the partnership. There's also little action, outside of Tokio and Mouton fighting some thugs in a scene straight out of a martial arts film. What little we get from the rest of the characters is fine, but they're at their best when everyone bounces off each other's personalities.

On the plus side, the final scene finally gets the ball rolling on Kanata's long-delayed quest to find Histoire, hopefully giving this second cour more direction now that we're through with introductions. If the series can maintain the fun tone of its first while integrating a stronger overarching story, it could prove to be a really good time. Here's hoping.