English Dub Review: Noblesse “What Must Be Protected / Ordinary”

Overview

Based on the manhwa (Korean Manga) written by Son Jeho and illustrated by Lee Kwangsu. Noblesse tells the story of M-21 a failed bioweapon, and supposedly the only survivor of his group of guinea pigs from a secret organization called “The Union”. Now he’s attempting to lay low as a security guard presided over by a mysterious immortal named Raizel (Ray Chase) and his devoted servant Frankenstein (Sean Chiplock). But The Union isn’t going to just let M-21 retire so easily…

Our Take

For an anime based on a Korean Manga that came out in 2007, I didn’t realize there was so much history behind it. But upon research, the show itself is technically a sequel to a 30-minute OVA called “Noblesse: Awakening” that came out in 2016 and isn’t even dubbed at the time of this review. Why Crunchyroll bothered to cover this show and not give the prequel a dub to make it part of this series could’ve added more context and coherency to what’s going on and would’ve been a great way to establish the main characters and reveal some of the story’s plot instead of jumping into what feels like “Episode 2” which is a bad decision no company should never make.

It would be like starting Black Clover, Bleach, Jojo, or any other anime-action series at the 2nd episode. All the context behind everything that happened in this OVA that Crunchyroll ironically has ownership over, and they couldn’t even give the OVA an English Dub to make it part of the show? Also, the last time something like this happened, Funimation didn’t release all the dubbed episodes of Dragonball GT on DVD only to complete them years later due to fan outcry on a DVD under the label “Lost Episodes”. Aside from that major problem, the pacing doesn’t feel horrendous and the art feels pretty standard for the show and was quite action-packed, and the animation team behind it, “Production I.G” has a decent track record of beloved Anime franchises under their belt. Hopefully, Crunchyroll will someday come around to fix this mess, but if you were a fan of the manhwa this show is based on, you might feel right at home.