Noein: To Your Other Self is a science fiction anime series directed by Kazuki Akane and Kenji Yasuda. The series, produced by Satelight, is 24 episodes in length. The English version was produced by Manga Entertainment. In America, the Sci Fi Channel aired Noein as part of its Ani-Monday programming block starting on June 18, 2007.

Noein takes place fifteen years in the future, where a violent battle is taking 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). A group known as the “Dragon Knights” is sent through space and time to find the “Dragon Torque” (which is the key to stopping Shangri’la’s invasion). The Dragon Knights travel by a cable system that is a lot like what a deep-sea diver might use. Meanwhile, in the present, a twelve-year-old girl named Haruka and her friend Yu are about to run away from home when they meet Karasu, a member of the Dragon Knights. Karasu appears to be Yu from fifteen years in the future, and he believes that Haruka is the Dragon Torque.

Noein employs the concept of time as a dimension that resonates with other “timespaces”; the series also includes a possible future in which timespaces converge. The series also makes use of several interpretations of quantum physics.

Haruka is one of the main protagonists in the series. In this timespace, she was a typical elementary school student until her friend Miho takes her on a ghost hunting trip. On that trip, she met Karasu and starts to learn who she really is. Yu, another protagonist, is Haruka’s classmates in this timespace; in other timespaces, he is Karasu and Noein. In this timespace, they have several friends: Ai (Haruka’s best friend who is an expert soccer player), Isami (gives the impression of being a “tough guy” but has a fear of ghosts), and Miho (who believes in aliens, ghosts, and the supernatural). In this timespace, the characters live in Hakodate, and the animators went to a lot of care and detail to recreate every square mile.

La’cryma is a timespace 15 years into the future. In this timespace, all beings have been transformed into quantum beings at a macro level due to an incident that occurred in the past. Here, the Dragon Knights exist to protect the timespace from Shangri’la, as well as to enter into other timespaces to find the Dragon Torque. Each Knight has access to various weapons formed from their “layze,” known as Spin Weapons. Shangri’la, meanwhile, is a timespace created by Noein.

Noein has been released on five DVDs in North America, with the last one released on September 18, 2007. I think this anime has a very interesting premise and also contains some very nice looking animation (it’s a combination of 2-D and 3-D animation). I would recommend this series to anyone who enjoys science fiction, action, romance… and perhaps even some quantum physics.