Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom is being made by Bee Train. It’s based on the visual novel, Phantom of Inferno.Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom is hard to explain. The story moves like a snail. The characters are mysterious and void of personality. The music is incredibly over-the-top and half of time doesn’t fit with what’s happening. To top it off, it’s based off a visual novel. More often than not this is a recipe for disaster, but in this case it works.The story follows Zwei. After witnessing a murder, he’s kidnapped by the Inferno group. Because they can sense his innate talent, his memory is erased and he’s forced to work as an assassin. Aside from a few training montages, nothing else really happens in the first two episodes.Phantom relies heavily on its mysterious plot, hoping that curiosity will keep the viewers coming back. That’s not to say there aren’t other reasons to watch. Because this is a story about assassins, there are plenty of explosions and maids shooting people in the head to satisfy even sadist’s thirst for violence.
If you took all the uncomfortable rape scenes out of Kite, or if the assassins in Gunslinger Girl were of legal age, you would have this show. It’s everything great about these “brainwashed assassin” shows without any of the creepy stuff.
Phantom is being directed by Koichi Mashimo, who also directed Noir and .hack//SIGN—two very slow paced shows. If you enjoyed either of those titles, you shouldn’t have a problem with Phantom.
At the end of the day, the average anime fan will probably hate this show. If anything you’ve read so far peaks your interest, you should check out the first episode. At the very least, you’ll get to see Zwei have a knife fight with a girl in a creepy mask, and when was the last time you saw that in an anime?
News from the editor: FUNimation will stream episodes of Phantom: Requim for the Phantom iwthin 24 hours of its Japanese airing.
