Noodle

Template:Band Member Info

“	Believe in yourself. Try different things to grow more powerful, don’t ever feel small. Even if you really are small.	„
	~ Noodle

Noodle is the official lead guitarist of Gorillaz. She also wrote the entire Demon Days album.

Background

Noodle was born in Osaka, Japan on October 31, 1990. She spent a portion of her childhood in Japan as a subject of a classified Japanese super soldier project under the management of the Japanese scientist, Mr. Kyuzo.

Noodle, along with 22 other children, were trained with the sole purpose of fighting as soldiers of the Japanese military and government. After the children were deemed too dangerous and unstable for combat, the project was scrapped. Mr. Kyuzo was then ordered to dispose of all possible traces of the failed experiment, as well as its participants.

After killing the other 22 children, Kyuzo was reluctant in killing Noodle. Rather than killing her, Kyuzo placed her in a state of amnesia through the use of verbal commands. The phrase used to place Noodle in her state of amnesia was known as Ocean Bacon. After temporarily clearing her memory of the project, Kyuzo smuggled Noodle to the United Kingdom in a FedEx crate and falsely reported her death (along with the other 22 children) to his superiors.

Noodle arrived at the doorstep of Kong Studios in 1998, in a FedEx crate. Once the crate was taken inside, Noodle sprung out of the box and performed a guitar solo (which 2-D described as "200 demons screaming in Arabic. Brilliant!"). She ended her solo with a 20-foot high karate kick and saying a few words in Japanese before bowing and saying the word "Noodle". This resulted in her earning the name "Noodle" (her only currently known name) and replacing Paula Cracker as the band's lead guitarist.

Gorillaz Phase 1: 2000-2001

Noodle at the age of 10.

Noodle was about ten in this phase. She mainly played the guitar, but also provided vocals for the Gorillaz, most notably the track "19-2000". In numerous idents and music videos alike, it became obvious that Noodle was talented at much more than just music. She is also proficient at martial arts. During this phase, she couldn't speak English, except for a few phrases including "yeah" and "duh" (apparently she could also say "she turned my dad on" and "get the cool shoeshine" as seen in the 5/4 storyboard and the 19-2000 music video).

Post-Phase 1 to Pre-Phase 2: 2002-2004

After the band's abrupt breakup, Noodle traveled back to Japan by herself to learn about her forgotten past. During her stay, she visited a sushi bar in Osaka where she heard a waiter tell the bar's chef that he needed an order of "Ocean Bacon". Upon hearing the phrase, Noodle simultaneously regained all memories of her previously concealed past (which included her ability to speak fluent English as well as every other known foreign language). After her sudden revelation, she returned to Kong Studios, which had fallen into a state of disrepair during the bands' absence. She also discovered that the studio had become infested with hordes of undead zombies. Using Kong's security surveillance room as a "safe house", Noodle slowly cleansed the complex of its unwanted inhabitants, although the band never came back. During her stay at Kong Studios, Noodle laid out the concept plans for the 2005 album, Demon Days. After completely ridding the building of the zombies, Noodle embarked on a mission to reunite with her bandmates.

Noodle at Pre-Phase 2

Gorillaz Phase 2: 2004-2008

Noodle in her bunk at a capsule hotel during her stay in Japan.

This phase featured the album Demon Days, written by Noodle herself (now 13-14), which contained the song "DARE", the first song featuring Noodle doing almost everything, including instrumentals and singing.

At the end of this phase, Noodle was considering leaving the band for a while, so she planned to leave after filming the final music video, "El Mañana". During the filming of the video, Noodle parachuted off the floating island from the "Feel Good Inc." video after it was gunned down by two armored helicopters. When filming was complete, Noodle had disappeared; causing panic across the set and everyone on it, except for Murdoc. Her used parachute was found amongst the wreckage of the crash site. This caused many to believe for a while that Noodle had been killed off. These rumors of Noodle's supposed death were finally laid to rest, as Murdoc assured everyone that she survived, and they had staged the crash to get rid of Jimmy Manson, who had hidden away in the windmill, thinking he was part of a plot to get rid of Noodle and take her place with the parachute. Murdoc claimed, in the Gorillaz book Rise of the Ogre, that Noodle was "off in the Maldives, just chilling out". However, in the epilogue of the book, a transcript of a radio broadcast from Noodle is printed out.

Another similar radio broadcast could be heard in the basement of Kong Studios on the official Gorillaz website.

Murdoc later "confessed" that Noodle was stuck in hell, but he had allegedly saved her. He was drunk at the time, so it is unknown if what he said was true or not. 

Gorillaz Phase 3: 2010-2012

Noodle as she appears in Phase 3.

Four years after her disappearance, Noodle embarked on her journey to reunite with her former bandmates. She was formally seen last in the "On Melancholy Hill" video, sporting a cat mask onboard a cruise liner known as the M. Harriet. During the voyage, a crew member notified her that the ship was being attacked by pirates and that he was sent to escort her to the ship's lifeboats. Without speaking, Noodle opened her luggage and armed herself with a Thompson submachine gun. It's assumed that she is seeking revenge for being marked dead by Murdoc. After shooting down one of the two pirate fighter planes, Noodle was forced to abandon the M. Harriet which was sunk by a dive bomb torpedo released by the second plane. She is later seen in a lifeboat being lifted out of the water atop Russel Hobbs' head, who is currently in a noticeably larger physical state than usual. In the canceled Rhinestone Eyes video, she and Russel make it to Plastic Beach and reunited with 2-D and Murdoc.

Noodle later makes a brief appearance in the music video, "DoYaThing", as 2-D looks into her room. Most of her facial injuries seemed to have healed since the events of Plastic Beach. However, the house they are staying in (212 Wobble Street) is suffering foreclosure; what happens next is uncertain.

Noodle had absolutely no dialogue in phase 3. She was not a part of the recording process for Plastic Beach and instead was replaced by Cyborg Noodle on the album.

Gorillaz Phase 4: 2016-2017

Gorillaz - The Book of Noodle

Days after the attack on Plastic Beach, Noodle awoke in a strange Japanese fishing village. She was nursed back to health by an old pearl diver named Chiyoko, so Noodle took a job as her apprentice to repay her kindness.

One day, deep beneath the waves, she opened an unnaturally big pearl shell, and accidentally released an ancient demon from hell. Noodle learned this was Mazuu, a shape-shifting devil that could take human form. The only way to destroy it was to remove its head from its body. And so, for years, Noodle pursued Mazuu across Japan. Finally, she had tracked it down to Tokyo, where it had risen to the top of the criminal underworld.

Disguised as a geisha, she infiltrated their headquarters, The Demon's Lounge. While Mazuu was distracted, she chopped off its head. Its earthly existence was over. Escaping Mazuu's sumo bodyguards, she packed herself into a box with dried fish, bottled water, and a copy of Moby Dick. Her package was addressed:

West London, England - c/o Murdoc Niccals

Noodle on the Humanz album cover.

Noodle is later seen in the "Saturnz Barz" music video, wearing glasses with a pink lens on the right eye and a green one on the left. The music begins when Noodle starts to play a record in the basement of the house. She then gets attacked by a snake-like monster with one eye.

Later in the "Strobelite" music video, she dances with 2-D while Murdoc is off doing some shady business and Russel is sleeping.

Gorillaz Phase 5: 2018-2019

File:CCB2BBD4-C5A3-421F-8F25-51AD7D955156.png

In the music video for "Humility", she is seen playing chess against Remi Kabaka Jr. (voice actor for Russel), while wearing a Hello Kinky shirt. She moves a piece resulting in a checkmate, causing Remi to pull down his glasses in shock (revealing another pair of glasses). For the Tranz music video, she temporarily dyed her hair orange.

Upon Murdoc's escape from prison, he sent Noodle to Patagonia to track down El Mierda, who he claimed was the guy in the "Strobelite" video who he was talking to, and was responsible for framing him for smuggling. Noodle arrived in Patagonia but was surprised to find a short and very old man claiming to be El Mierda, who had never even heard of Gorillaz. After contacting the prison, she learned that Murdoc, in fact, had been imprisoned for parking fines, not smuggling, and he had broken out the very day he would have been released. As she vented her frustrations that Murdoc must have done this all to take attention away from 2-D, she noticed a yak approaching her in the distance. Upon closer inspection, she was shocked to realize Murdoc was tied to its back.

File:GORILLAZ x G-SHOCK - In Conversation

In the first of the G-Shock Ads, Noodle brings the rest of the band a message sent to them by G-Shock's inventor Mr. Ibe asking them to send the watches to outer space. In the second G-Shock Ads, Noodle and Murdoc hand out watches to the aliens at a party in outer space. She's also the one who catches 2-D and saves him when he falls out of their vehicle. G-Shock did an In Conversation interview with Noodle and 2-D, with Noodle being the translator and giving her own answers.

Gorillaz Phase 6: 2019-Present

During a brief hiatus for the band, on the 3rd of September 2019 while visiting Iran to see Lake Urmia, Noodle made note of how climate change had taken a toll on the lake. She came to a realization regarding the fleeting state of nature on Earth, and sent a post-card to Murdoc, 2D, and Russel at Studio 13 with a message detailing her desire to build a machine and see the world before it’s gone. The post-card arrived at Studio 13 on the 12th of September.

Phase 6 Noodle

The machine was activated on the 28th of January. The following day, the band announced their next project, Song Machine, a multimedia series of songs/music videos released episodically through 2020, as a continuously-updating playlist via streaming services.

In the first release, "Momentary Bliss," Noodle and the rest of the band casually record the song in Damon Albarn's studio with slowthai and Slaves, with Noodle playing guitar and dancing alongside Damon Albarn.

In Desole, during the portal trip to Lake Cuomo, Italy, Noodle wears monster mitts while playing guitar to blend in with the monsters surrounding the lake. Noodle also conducted an interview herself with the episodes guest, Fatoumata Diawara.

In Aries, in a race with the rest of the band in Morroco, Noodle stops in the middle of the race to text Russel and expresses concern for 2-D, who is riding a motorcycle with Murdoc. She then closely follows 2-D & Murdoc and calls out 2-D's name, who is unaware she's behind them.  Despite her efforts, Murdoc unfortunately still manages to inject 2-D with a truth serum syringe. In the aftermath of Aries, Noodle restrains Russel while he physically assaults Murdoc for hurting 2-D. The Machine Bitez following Aries is the first of the Machine Bitez to feature Noode, making it the first time all four band members were heard together in an audio recording since phase two.

Characterization

When first conceptualizing the depiction of a guitarist for Gorillaz, Jamie was initially considering depicting her as a 17-year-old adolescent girl carrying guitars but Albarn noted that the idea was too similar to what Jamie usually draws and suggested that Jamie should create "something different". Taking Albarn's advice, Jamie came up with the first official Noodle, a 10-year-old Japanese girl. Later, Jamie drew her as 13 years old, and since then, he said he has "aged" her further.

Quotes

• Despite the language problem, you picked up pretty fast that Noodle was into music in a real way. - Russel Hobbs (Rise Of The Ogre)
• We weren’t really Gorillaz until Noodle arrived. - 2-D (Rise Of The Ogre)

Trivia

• In Phase 1, Noodle's singing vocals were by Miho Hatori, the lead singer of the Shibuya-Kei band, Cibo Matto. For "DARE," her vocals were provided by musician Roses Gabor.
• Tina Weymouth has erroneously been credited as having voiced Noodle due to providing backing vocals on "19-2000." Noodle's performance in that song was purely that of Miho Hatori.
• Noodle's speaking voice was provided by Haruka Kuroda from Phase 1-2 and briefly in Phase 4. Kuroda also provided Noodle's singing voice during the Gorillaz LIVE tour, as well as providing the second guitar: she also wore a replica of Noodle's signature radio helmet, as seen in her silhouette from behind the screen.
  • Beginning with the Casio interview, Noodle is voiced by Haruka Abe. Kuroda noted in an interview on the podcast Hallelujah Monkeyz she is unsure why she was recast and has received no word from the creative team (besides being inexplicably called into a Noodle audition by her agent), but she suspects her age may have been a concern.
• Phase 1 Noodle's radio helmet was inspired by the one worn by the character, Gum, from the 2000 Dreamcast video game, Jet Set Radio.
• According to the Gorillaz MTV Cribs episode, she likes Johnny Thunders and Richie Sambora.
• In 2016, she became the global ambassador for Jaguar Racing. 
• In On Melancholy Hill, Noodle has a shotgun and a Tommy gun (we don't know if she still has these)
• Phase 1 and 2 Noodle also had a GameBoy Advance. 
• Although Noodle's primary instrument is guitar, she is actually is a highly skilled multi instrumentalist who can play every instrument known to man.
• As of 2020, her real name is still unknown.

Gallery

The full image gallery for Noodle may be viewed at Noodle/Gallery.

External Links

• Instagram: 私は Noodle