Anime Like Phantom Requiem for the Phantom

AKA: Phantom-Phantom of Inferno

Genre: Criminal offense Drama

Length: Television series, 26 episodes, 24 minutes each

Distributor: Currently licensed past FUNimation. Too streaming on Crunchyroll.

Content Rating: TV-MA (Violence, deaths, sexual material, mature situations.)

Related Series: OVA (2004)

Also Recommended: Gunslinger Girl, 91 Days

Notes: Based on a game by Nitroplus, released in Japan in 2000, released in the US past AnimePlay, 2002. Co-ordinate to Wiki, yous could play it either every bit a "dark action/drama" or as a "romantic drama"- the anime definitely prefers the "night action" management, though I gather that various bits and pieces are used from unlike game "routes".

Rating:

Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom

Synopsis

A young man awakens only to be attacked past a young adult female calling herself "Ein" (German language "Ane".) She gives him the name "Zwei" (German language "2")- since he'due south forgotten all his past, including his real proper name- and she trains him for the new role he's being forced to have, as an assassin for a group chosen Inferno, that "assists" upstart gangsters to take over the territory of others- but secretly wants to control those it "helps".

"One time you kill, everything in the world changes... y'all won't exist able to accept people with a kind heart similar you're able to right now" - Reiji Azuma (AKA "Zwei")

Review

The "They Made Me A Killer!" genre has a long history, both in live-action film (from La Femme Nikita to this twelvemonth's Carmine Sparrow) and in anime, from the execrable Crying Freeman to the considerably better Gunslinger Girl. The prove currently nether review is, in my opinion, one of the ameliorate efforts of the genre, in spite of some absurdities of the plot.

And then let's go some of the stupid stuff out of the mode earlier we go to the series' strengths:

(1) No thing how skillful you are, and even to prove a point, you exercise NOT go into a gunfight with just one bullet (a la Andy Griffith'due south Barney Fife), especially if you have good reason to suspect there might be Two armed people coming for you;

(2) People shot iii or 4 times at point-blank range, who so fall into the ocean, seldom simply get over it without SOME kind of assistance.

I was going to have a tertiary betoken hither well-nigh our principal protagonists passing themselves off as high school students two years later, simply fifty-fifty though neither of them really looks similar a teenager, the Wiki commodity on the game says that Zwei is 15 at the time Inferno gets hold of him, so I gauge it'due south not impossible for him to pose every bit an ordinary high school senior despite how he's- uh- drawn. (Ein's historic period is completely indeterminate.) Simply isn't it amazing how 2 years makes so lilliputian deviation in their appearance, but makes a earth of divergence in the appearance of another character (who I would not cartel to name here!)

Now that nosotros've got some inanities (and, at to the lowest degree, oddities) out of the fashion, allow's consider the show'south virtues:

Inferno is an interesting instance of a seemingly very successful enterprise that is more a fleck dysfunctional at its core. Sure, it'southward constructive at clearing out the "respectable" onetime-guard gangsters in favor of its aggressive newcomers by the most fell means possible (including going after families, and this function of the testify was painful to watch, peculiarly concerning Zwei); but within Inferno there'south private ambition, every bit certain members cutting quiet side-deals of their ain, and plot to stab others in the back if necessary to get what they want. There are two main factions. 1 is led by Claudia McCunnen (despite the spelling in the subtitles, it'due south pronounced more similar "McKinnon" equally far as I tin tell.) Claudia is the sort who will use physical intimacy- or at least the promise of it- to get what she wants, and she obviously wants to lure our young, handsome, and incredibly talented assassin Zwei into her personal service. The other main faction is that of Scythe Chief (real name Giuseppe), the rogue psychologist who, through psychological conditioning and brainwashing, really turned normal man material into the remorseless (or so he intended), super-capable killing machines we take in Ein and Zwei- the term "Phantom" is reserved for the killer who'due south the absolute all-time at this terrible task.

But there's a flaw in Scythe Primary's programme- he hasn't completely extinguished the humanity in his assassins; they're not the perfect robots he intended. Zwei is our POV character, and we can see that he retains quite a scrap of a conscience, and a rebellious streak as well. Zwei'due south grooming is, as noted in the synopsis, handled by Ein rather than Scythe Main- for ALL the assassins he PERSONALLY oversees the grooming of are women; there's a rather potent Pygmalion complex in Scythe Master, and, alas, information technology works both means- he loves his creations, and they, in turn, are loyal to him (whether through whatsoever natural feelings or, more than likely, through workout), a habit of thought which even Ein finds it hard to pause, despite Zwei's best efforts to become her to think for (and wait out for) herself. Scythe Master has a flair for the theatrical- he thinks he controls all events, like the author of a play- and this delusion might be his greatest weakness.

For her function, Ein is hard to read. She's a pragmatist, in contrast to Zwei's idealistic personality. She usually speaks in a monotone (she tin feign a more natural speaking manner, with emotions, if she needs to play some office in preparation for a hit), and not only does she seem resigned to her fate, she also coldly recommends that Zwei accept this life as well, telling him that, in fourth dimension, he will "come to feel nothing" just like she does- or rather like she THINKS she does; for Zwei begins to quietly stir some feelings in her over again (jealousy emerges rather early in the procedure), and if she could be kept from recidivism, she might be able to suspension her psychological chains.

But that proves a VERY big "if". And even if she and Zwei wrenched themselves complimentary of Scythe Primary and Inferno, where would they go? I was watching the motion-picture show Goodfellas again recently, which is based on the true story of a gangster (at to the lowest degree he asserts it'southward true), and that picture does help explicate something I've often wondered almost- why does the impermanence of the gangland life (and its frequent tendency to suddenly end horribly) have whatever appeal in the first identify? The Goodfellas reply is for the "perks"- you go to boss others effectually, brutalize whoever you lot like (except for "connected" persons), and live the "high life"- great food, frequent company of the opposite sex, swanky hotels and gambling, etc. Simply our assassins here, Ein and Zwei, don't even accept THAT (though Zwei does, as noted, become Claudia's "boy toy" for a while.) What they've got, mostly, is a pile of expressionless bodies- and vengeful family unit members (peculiarly vengeful Law-breaking family unit members) who will NEVER let them take the return to a normal, peaceful life that Zwei wants (and tries to pursue, both with Ein and later on with Cal, the "sister" of a victim of a crime continued with Inferno's activities.)

The plotting here is adequately complex; events happen thick and fast in the bear witness. The pacing here is at least as adept as the all-time thriller anime serial I've seen, such equally Ajin: Demi-Human. I was NEVER bored, and equally proof I marathoned most of this (26 eps!) in a unmarried weekend. Nosotros acquire the deepest hopes and motivations of a number of the characters, even if they're usually people who won't survive to the end of the evidence, and we can at least care near the ones who themselves are nonetheless capable of caring for others. Sure, in that location's a fleck of melodrama in the death scenes- all the master characters get a few words before shuffling off into the Bang-up Beyond- but this bear witness, much more many others, has actually EARNED its license to do melodrama. And there are some interesting musings about life, expiry, freedom, and murder (for case, the quote at the beginning of this review) that defenseless my attention and, at times, appreciation.

The background art here is splendidly detailed, from the rust on a swing's chains to a beautiful night cityscape. The opening ballad (through Ep. 19), called "Karma", has a dreamy appeal, though the endmost song (again, through Ep. 19) is a discordant, screechy affair that reminds me of the more than annoying Rozen Maiden songs. Merely the last seven episodes close with an absolutely gorgeous ballad chosen "Transparent" (accompanied by some nifty visuals as well.) There seems to have been a lot of care taken in matching the lyrics of the songs to the themes of the testify.

A fast-paced bear witness despite its length, which devotes considerable thought to its letters, though it is, probably inevitably given its milieu, a grim, maybe fifty-fifty nihilistic journeying; viewers are cautioned non to expect whatsoever "sunny days" here to final very long for our cast members. I particularly felt bad for a character named Lizzie Garland, an Inferno "field operative" who ultimately proves that a RELATIVELY sane and sober character is no match for the madness and evil of a earth like this. It's certainly one of the best game-based anime series I've seen. — Allen Moody

Recommended Audience: FUNimation rates TV-MA; Righstuf suggests 17+. Nudity, murder by firearms violence (rivers of blood, but we're at least spared obvious gaping wounds), implied sexuality, and numerous other adult themes throughout.

Version(due south) Viewed: Streaming on Crunchyroll.
Review Condition: Total (26/26)
Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom © 2009 Bee Train, Nitroplus/Project Phantom