Noein: To Your Other Self (ノエイン もうひとりの君へ Noein: Mō Hitori no Kimi e) is a science fiction anime television series directed by Kazuki Akane and Kenji Yasuda and produced by Satelight. The series is 24 episodes long.
The English version was produced by Manga Entertainment. In North America, the series was released on five Region 1 DVDs, the last released on September 18, 2007. In the United Kingdom, the first three volumes were sold individually, while the last two can only be purchased as part of a series collection.
The Sci Fi Channel (United States) began airing Noein as part of its Ani-Monday programming block on June 18, 2007 at 23:00 Eastern Standard Time. The show moved to midnight on October 2, showing back-to-back episodes. The Australian Broadcasting Company's digital-only channel ABC2 started broadcasting the series on Tuesdays at 7:30pm AEST beginning on August 21, 2007. The series will conclude on January 29, 2008.
Fifteen years in the future, a violent battle using fictional technology takes place between two "timespaces": La'cryma, a possible future of our own universe, and Shangri'la, a dimension intent on the destruction of all space and time. The key to stopping Shangri'la's invasion is a mysterious object known as the "Dragon Torque" (竜のトルク Ryū no Toruku). A group known as the "Dragon Knights" is sent through space and time to find it. In the present, twelve-year old Haruka and her friend Yu are contemplating running away from home when they meet a member of the Dragon Knights named Karasu. He believes that Haruka is the Dragon Torque and appears to be Yu from fifteen years in the future.
Noein employs a conception of time as a dimension that resonates with other "timespaces." Haruka's Dragon Torque, which affects this relationship, takes the shape of an Ouroboros.
Noein makes use of several interpretations of quantum physics, particularly Hugh Everett's Many-Worlds Interpretation, which views the universe as branching off into an infinity of possible states of varying probability. It also draws from the Copenhagen Interpretation, which suggests that an observer or measurement is important in determining the decoherency of the probability. In the anime, Haruka possesses "supreme observer" status in the multiverse, thus enabling her to determine the sole outcome of an event just by "observing" one of the possible futures of the event.
In one episode, Uchida candidly explains to her bodyguard Koriyama the paradox of Schrödinger's cat, whereby a cat is ambiguously suspended (exists in a "superposition") between life and death until observed. This act of measurement forces the cat's existence to "collapse" into one of the two possible states. She also mentions Albert Einstein's famous remark, "God does not play dice."
While the Many-Worlds Interpretation implies a divergence of timespaces, the anime also includes a possible future in which timespaces converge, an end the series' chief antagonist, Noein, works to accomplish.
- From
Wikipedia