An Abusive Relationship Drives A Young Woman To Madness In The Animated Music Video “Noir”

Today’s Cartoon Brew pick is the haunting new music video for “Noir,” animated by Nikita Kibirev and featuring lyrics and vocals from Adiiilya and music by Szdåt.

The animation in “Noir” is breathtaking and looks like it could have been pulled straight from a big-budget Hollywood feature. Yet, the backgrounds, lighting, camera, layout, character design, modeling, rigging, animation, compositing, and sound design were handled exclusively by Kibirev.

Based in Portland, Oregon, Kibirev is a 3d generalist, concept artist, and motion designer who says his passion is “to bring ideas to life and solve creative problems by developing entertaining and lasting visual experiences.” In the case of “Noir,” he succeeded fantastically because we can’t stop thinking about the video.

“Noir” touches on themes of codependence and predatory behavior while offering a distorted metaphor for an abuser – toxic masculinity represented as lycanthropy. In it, a young woman arrives home after a night of partying but finds herself trapped inside by an unseen menace. After a failed attempt to solicit help from the authorities, she makes an ill-advised call to an abusive ex, who quickly pounces on the opportunity to insert himself back into the woman’s life.

According to Kibirev:

I wanted to convey the full range of emotions that a person experiences when trapped in the suffocating grip of a toxic relationship, from paranoia to the unsettling feeling of gaslighting by those who should protect you. When adiiilya approached me with the song, she told me that this track is part of a triptych of songs exploring the life cycle of a destructive relationship – the rise, stagnation, and fall of a couple that should never have been together. “Noir” sits in the middle, capturing the moment of the darkest night; when she accepts her ex-lover back, he drags her even deeper into the shadows of their destructive relationship.