Well, I wasn't entirely honest about ignoring Noir, as I have the first 3 volumes somewhere. When it first came out, naturally I was drawn to the idea of a hot chick in a mini skirt traveling around the world killing people, unfortunately that's all I ever saw in those first 3 volumes. They get a note or a message, they go somewhere, Les Soldats sets a trap for them with hundreds of guys bearing nasty weapons (not unlike the DOA trailer), Mireille and Kirika pull out their little pistols and kill everything in sight without so much as missing a shot. Bo-ring...
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Noir to a degree as I even have Yamato's statue of Mireille, but the whole girls, guns, swords, hereos thing is just silly to me.