List of Noir characters

The Noir anime series has a small cast of characters, and it primary follows the two protogonists Kirika Yuumura and Mireille Bouquet. Other characters, except Chloe and Altena, usually only appear in a single episode.

Kirika Yuumura
Kirika Yuumura (夕叢霧香) is a schoolgirl who has lost all memories of her past, knowing only that her true name is Noir. It is not known whether her real name is Kirika Yuumura, as the only thing that links her to this name is a student ID card with her photo and that name on it. She meets up with Mireille in the first episode with an offer to make a pilgrimage to the past. She is an excellent markswoman and uses a Beretta M1934, but can also use a great variety of mundane objects as well. Kirika's theme music is 'Canta Per Me', Italian for 'Sing for Me'.

Mireille Bouquet
Mireille Bouquet (ミレイユ・ブーケ) is a Corsican woman born into a powerful crime family, Mireille and her uncle are the sole survivors of a brutal attack on her family. The reason behind the murder of her family was that her parents refused to have Mireille raised by the Soldats to become Noir. After her family's murder, she would later be trained by her uncle to become an assassin. Already a well-established assassin, she receives an email from Kirika with an attachment of a familiar melody. She agrees to work with Kirika because of a watch that Kirika has which is identical to one her father had. However, she tells Kirika that once the truth is revealed, she would kill Kirika. Ironically, the codename Mireille chooses to work under, after teaming up with Kirika, is Noir, assuming the role that her parents wished for Mireille not to have. Mireille uses a Walther P99, a modern firearm developed in the 1990s. Mireille's theme music is 'Corsican Corridor' and 'Salva Nos'.

Chloe
Chloe (クロエ) is a mysterious figure that appears about halfway through the series, she claims to be the True Noir (her name may be significant, given the similarity in pronunciation between "Chloe" and "Kuroi", the Japanese word for black). Though she is about Kirika's age, she is extremely skilled as an assassin, a quite remarkable fact since she uses throwing knives instead of using guns. Chloe is very faithful to Altena and works for the Soldats, enjoying a position of considerable authority. She was witness to the murder of the Bouquet family by Kirika, an event which caused her to look up to Kirika. There are also strong suggestions later in the series that Chloe's feelings for Kirika are actually romantic. Chloe's theme music is 'Secret Game' (in addition to the instrumental song 'Chloe'). Chloe is also the personal favorite character of Noir's composer Yuki Kajiura.

The Soldats' most feared assassin uses her trademark daggers to kill with no mercy for Altena, and she introduced herself as the "True Noir" to Mireille and Kirika when she first meets them. She makes a brief appearance in episode seven, and is first introduced in episode ten when she is ordered to assassinate Judge D'Estaing.

Chloe fights mainly with daggers, and her unique skills are superior to those of Mireille's and equal to those of Kirika's. She quite enjoys taunting the pair with the fact she knows everything they want to and at the same time idolizes Kirika. She plays a pivotal role in the events that are being crafted by the hands of Soldats.

As a child, Chloe witnessed Kirika's execution of the Bouquet family, and idolizing Kirika's work, she wants to become an assassin like her. Like Kirika and Mireille, Chloe was destined to become part of Noir. When she became Altena's personal bodyguard has never been revealed.

After Chloe first encountered the pair, she appears often to taunt them and watches over them (mostly Kirika). Some examples of her idolization of Kirika is when she received a fork from her and treasured it, or when she saves Kirika from being killed several times throughout the series. Chloe apparently does not have any interest in Mireille, as she said that she would kill Mireille if she gets in the way of Altena's plans.

When Mireille finds the location of a book the Soldats holds, Chloe shows up and makes Kirika remember part of her past simply by reading the prayer-poem. Later, she nearly shoots Kirika, which makes her to remember more of her past—specifically, when she killed Mireille's family. She says that is her final guidance for Kirika to travel to the Manor.

When Kirika enters the Manor, both Altena and Chloe explain her relationship with the Manor. Preparing for the ritual, Kirika and Chloe simply share their relationship as Noir "saplings", and Chloe says after the ritual she would invite Mireille to have tea again, and Kirika replies that there is no need for the third sapling. The situation changes when Mireille arrives at the Manor, and the former pair then fight each other.

As soon as their fight ends, Chloe intends to kill Mireille for disturbing the ritual. Mireille is almost killed by Chloe and suddenly Kirika, who has returned to her usual self, stops Chloe.

Angered by Kirika's betrayal, Chloe fights her. During their fight, she confesses that she is jealous of Kirika's happiness with Mireille. Kirika begs Chloe to stop; Chloe, hearing this, lets her guard down before she rushes to kill an injured Mireille. Kirika stabs her with the fork before she can kill Mireille. As she lays dying, Chloe embraced Kirika one last time before dying peacefully. Standing in front of Chloe's corpse, Kirika says that Chloe was her other self.

Altena
Altena (アルテナ) is the high priestess of the Soldats - an ancient, secret society whose power clandestinely reigns over the globe. As a high priestess who traditionally holds control over Noir, the most highly skilled assassins of the Soldats, she holds immense authority and transcends even the governing body known as the Soldats Council. She makes brief appearances through the beginning of the series and first introduced in episode six. Altena is always seen wearing a robe and is never shown to have left a place known only as "the Manor". She is the one who raised and trained Chloe as Noir, who acts as her personal bodyguard.

Little is known about Altena, but her ultimate goal involves "Le Grand Retour", an event which will revolutionize the Soldats and change its present form. As such, there are those in the Soldats who oppose her. Altena goes by her own philosophy of "If love can kill people, hatred can save them."

Not much is known about her past except that her homeland was destroyed during a war in her childhood and it was implied that Altena was raped by a soldier as she was wandering along the streets of her ruined village. Altena goes by the belief that if love can destroy others, hatred can perhaps save. When and how she became the high priestess of Soldats has never been revealed. Although her appearance is that of a kind and merciful mother, Altena in fact is skilled with guns.

Altena lives a medieval lifestyle in a place the Soldats considers as their holy site called "The Manor" along with Chloe, subsisting on the produce of a vineyard. There, she keeps watch over Kirika Yuumura and Mireille Bouquet - the other "saplings" for ritual revival of Noir while playing a motherly role to Chloe who acts as her personal bodyguard. Altena sends Chloe to initiate contact with the pair, aiding them from time to time. She also assigns Chloe assassination missions under the name of the Soldats. It was later revealed that Altena was the one who gave Kirika her Beretta and the mission to execute Mireille's parents.

Altena, who believes that the Soldats of the present time have been corrupted by power and greed, works towards an event known as "Le Grand Retour" (French for "The Great Return") for the purpose of returning the Soldats to its "original state" with the process of reviving Noir. This caused a conflict with some of the Soldats Council members whom disagrees with Altena's ideology on the future of the Soldats. While Altena sees the Soldat's given termination order on Mireille and Kirika as a trial, the Soldats members opposing Altena attempt to make use of the opportunity to kill the pair as a means to stop Altena's plans.

After Kirika returns to the Manor, Altena prepares for the ritual and summons other priestesses of the Soldats to the Manor. Everything was going well prior to the arrival of Mireille at the Manor in which Chloe was killed in the ensuing confrontation between the three candidates of Noir. The priestesses, not knowing that Mireille and Kirika had no intentions of succeeding as the next generation of Noir, were surprised that the pair had turned against them after Chloe's death. When confronted by the leading priestess Borne while the rest of the summoned priestesses make a last ditched attempt outside to stop the pair, Altena calmly states that the transpired events are of no surprise, and the ritual will proceed nevertheless. Borne then concludes that Altena has no consideration over the eventual fate of the Soldats in her zeal to revive Noir and brands her a traitor. Altena shoots Borne as the latter tries to subdue her.

Betrayed by both Noir and the Soldats, Altena maintains the ritual at the Manor dungeon (an open volcano) where she confronts Mireille and Kirika. She taunts Mireille by referring to her parents as lambs who had merely served as one of the many sacrifices necessary for the growth of the Noir "saplings", leading them to this very place. Mireille was on the verge of killing Altena in her anger but eventually concludes that Altena is someone who is not even deemed worthy of killing. Altena then injures Mireille with a gun hidden behind her robe and entices Kirika to kill her instead. Kirika hesitates to kill Altena, who then opens fire on Mireille. Kirika, remembering her promise with Mireille's mother, shields Mireille with her body. Altena dies as Kirika brings both her and herself over the lava pit.

Les Soldats
Les Soldats (French for "The Soldiers") is an organisation which has a central role in the story. According to Altena, "Les Soldats" was founded by a group of people about a thousand years ago. They had survived a great war which had cost the lives of numerous people. The first members of "Les Soldats" swore to protect the innocent and defeat evil. Both Altena and Chloe are members of this organisation.

It is revealed in the anime that "Les Soldats" was responsible for the killing of Mireille's family, and also for the chase attempting to kill Mireille and Kirika during their quest. Altena's fraction of the organisation is striving for an event known as the "Grand Retour" ("The Great Return"); however, a conflict has arisen between Altena and the very core of "Les Soldats", apparently about how to initiate the plan of realising the "Grand Retour". Altena states that "Les Soldats" has been consumed by the very greed it once swore to undo, and her goal apparently is to revert this situation.

Odette Bouquet
Odette Bouquet (オデット・ブーケ) is Mireille's mother, but nothing is known much about her except that she is the spitting image of Mireille. After witnessing the deaths of her husband and son and before Kirika kills her, she asks Kirika to take care of Mireille as she believes they will share the same fate in the future.

Claude Feyder
Claude Feyder (クロード・フェデー) is Mireille's uncle. Following the death of Mireille’s parents, Claude evacuated young Mireille from Corsica in hopes of helping her escape a similar fate, swearing allegiance to the Soldats in exchange for Mireille's safety. An excellent assassin in his own right, Claude taught Mireille the killing arts and made her the talented assassin she is in the series. He appears in France and reunites with the now adult Mireille after what seems to be a chance encounter. Claude later reveals that he is under the order of the Soldats to kill Kirika and advises Mireille not to interfere and make the same mistake as her father did—namely, going against the Soldats. However, Mireille was disappointed at the fact that her uncle had associated himself with the Soldats and maintains that the Soldats are her enemies for killing her parents. After Mireille learned the truth behind the circumstances in which Claude joined the Soldats, she reluctantly shoots him in their confrontation. Moments before their face-off, Claude remarked that Mireille is indeed the daughter of his brother, after seeing that Mireille had inherited much of her father's personality.

Silvana Greone "Intoccabile"
Silvana Greone (シルヴァーナ・グレオーネ) is also informally known as the "world's most brutal princess". Silvana has purple hair and eyes, dresses mainly in purple and uses a dagger in melee combat. She befriended Mireille in their childhood and taught her a lesson about fear. The traumatic experience left a mark in young Mireille, causing Silvana to become the person she feared the most.

Silvana is referred to in the underworld by the title of "Intoccabile" (Italian for "untouchable") after personally executing her own father for breaking the code of silence. She lives peacefully in Sicily just before her grandfather summons her to take control of the syndicate after her uncle Don Greone was assassinated. Silvana quickly learns that Noir is behind the assassination of Don Greone, and takes the contract which contains clues linking to Soldats. After her encounter with Mireille at her manor, Silvana awaits the pair on the island of Sicily.

She fights and tries to stabs Mireille with her own dagger, but it is shot and broken by Kirika. She then takes Mireille's gun but was trembling. Mireille, seeing this, immediately stabs Silvana with her own dagger. Before dying, she gives them the contract and congratulates Mireille for overcoming her fear.

Shaoli
Shaoli (シャオリー) is a cunning, professional assassin who uses deadly poisons to kill her enemies. Shaoli was hired by a Hong Kong crime boss named Hong Yiban to fight against the Soldats and Noir. However, when she finds out a Soldats' messenger leaked their information out, she betrays Yiban and decides to join Soldats by killing the mole.

Shaoli later meets Chloe and asks her if she can join Soldats, but Chloe says they do not need her. Angered by this, Shaoli rushs to kill her, but before she could get her chance, she is killed by Chloe.

Remy Brefford
Remy Brefford (レミ・ブレフォール) is one of the Council members of the Soldats. After Kirika entered the Manor, he requests that Mireille join them but is rejected. He then gives her the location of the Manor and wishs her best luck. At the end of the series, he is still with the Soldats, and he says to Mireille that Altena's death does not mean anything has ended.

Borne
Borne (ボルヌ), along with Marenne, is one of the two leading priestess among the group of Soldats priestesses who are summoned to the Manor by Altena for the Noir revival ritual.

Borne confronts Altena after the remaining two of the Noir turns against them before the ritual, which was something both she and the priestesses did not expect to happen. After realising Altena's true intentions, she declares Altena a traitor to the Soldats and tries to kill her while her back is turned against her. However, she is pre-empted and killed by Altena instead.

Marenne
Marenne (マレンヌ), along with Borne, is one of the two leading priestess among the group of Soldats priestesses who are summoned to the Manor by Altena for the Noir revival ritual.

When Kirika and Mireille intrudes the Manor, she wields a longsword and engages the pair in melee combat in the hall. Marenne dons a suit of metal platings underneath her robes which makes her impervious to gunshots aimed at her torso. She was eventually taken down by Kirika who threw a dagger aimed at her unprotected neck.

The Three Mafia Saints
The Three Mafia Saints consist of three mercenaries who work under Silvana Greone: Paolo, Dominic and Francesco. When Silvana fights Noir, Francesco was killed by Mireille. Later, the remaining two fight Kirika, and eventually they were defeated.

Paolo

Dominic

Francesco

Milosh Havul
Milosh Havul is a retired member of a Foreign Legion. Kirika happens to meet him near the long riverbank. Inspired by his talents, she decides to start drawing and becomes very good at it. Milosh tells her that he will join the Legion again. When Kirika tries to gives him a parting gift, Milosh is accidentally killed by a mercenary who aiming for Kirika. It is his death that makes Kirika starts hunting the killers.

Judge D'Estaing
D'Estaing is a corrupted court official who was assisting a group of corrupt police officers carry out unlawful acts without fear of legal reprisal. He is targeted by both Noir and Chloe; Chloe, however, tells him that he is being targeted. This makes him attempt to ambush Mireille and Kirika. However, although he was warned by Chloe, he is killed in the end.

General Reimann NATO Fox
Reimann is a retired general who now living peacefully in the Swiss Alps. Chloe and another group of hitmen target him, but the hitmen are killed by Chloe. Reimann soon realizes that Chloe is Noir and asks her not to hurt his comrades after his death. Later, the syndicate that is after him is terminated by Chloe.

Reception
Josh Mohs of Active Anime comments that Noir's "strong character interactions are usually enough to pull you through" the pacing problems he saw with the series and further states that, along with the series' "unique twists", the "intriguing character dynamic definitely elevate[s] it above the rest of the competition."