Phantom was a great, polished show with plenty to like about it. The characters had “real” personalities, and their struggles were identifiable. The entire cast was excellently written and convincingly voiced. The animation was very well done, surprising because Bee-Train had been on a downward spiral since El Cazador back in 07. I would actually argue they had started sucking since .hack//Roots a year earlier, but I digress… The music was absolutely phenomenal, and ranks as one of the BEST OSTs in recent memory. All in all it was a great package from start to finish… Save for the outstandingly bad ending. Now before we get to the ending, I feel it’s necessary to touch on the characters and story a bit. Spoilers abound, but then again you shouldn’t be reading this anyway if you didn’t finish the show.

Reiji (Zwei) was technically the protagonist of the story, and he grew through the story to become a relatable character as an assassin with a conscience, but the three lead females (Elen/Ein, Cal/Drei and Claudia) ended up stealing the show — Just as well since Phantom is based on a Visual Novel, and they were already the feature attractions to begin with. Each of the three lead females had their own charm; Ein’s kind but stoic demeanor, Cal’s orphan imouto appeal, and the seductive yet manipulative Claudia were all immensely interesting. They each developed through the story in their own way, and they became believable, complex beings with their own motivations and desires, especially Cal in particular.

The rest of the cast was less pronounced, but the many side characters did their jobs dutifully. I don’t want to delve into too much detail, but I feel I need to at least mention Gohda, Shiga and Lizzie, all of whom satisfactorily fulfilled their small roles. Hell, even Scythe Master in all his douchbaggery was kind of interesting as the villain that just wouldn’t die, and we never really knew what the hell he was thinking to the very end. Yes I just said Scythe Master was interesting. What the hell am I smorking?!?

That said, the seiyuu were simply outstanding. I’m not a seiyuu whore, so I don’t keep up with every seiyuu and every role they do. The voice cast was fairly prolific, and in passing I’m familiar with most of them in some way or another. They all did a pretty good job portraying their respective characters, though the stand out performances were again, the three female leads (Ayahi Takagaki as Ein, Miyuki Sawashiro as Cal, and Aya Hisakawa as Claudia). I felt Takagaki had the standout performance, as I think quiet characters are harder to portray than all other archetypes. Seiyuu that do quite characters have to take a “less is more” approach with quality over quantity in their delivery, since quiet characters don’t get a whole lot of lines.

Moving on to the story, you could say I’m a sucker for secret organizations, conspiracies and assassins — Which is pretty much what the show revolved around. Come on, you can’t say the premise of a secret organization controlling crime syndicates around the world with superhuman, brainwashed assassins isn’t interesting. Light spoilers follow in this very brief, simplified version of the summary. The story was intriguing and complex without ever becoming overly convoluted, beautifully paced and presented. Phantom was about the struggle of a young man who was kidnapped and forced to become an assassin against his will by the secretive Inferno, and then later rebels against the organization while helping the three heroines who aided him along the way. The recurring themes of death and betrayal constantly pop their heads through the course of the show. In the midst of his life as the world’s most feared assassin, he finds several short-lived glimpses of the peaceful life he desires but will never have.

Phantom’s portrayal of assassins isn’t romanticized. It’s not “sexy” or “cool”. It’s rough, gritty, and violent — A tormented existence filled with emptiness and pain, as seen with the three characters that assume the mantle of Phantom. We see the sins Ein and Zwei carry with them, but it’s seen most noticeably with Cal’s transformation from a sweet, naive girl into the cruel, vindictive Drei, the most clearly visible of a change from innocence to sin. Cal’s reason for becoming Drei, a revenge fueled vendeta against Reiji, was ultimately flawed, but I could understand where she was coming from. As William Congreve’s famous line goes, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”. Without delving too much into this complex story, every character had a reason for doing what they did, and the will of wits they played against each other was magnificently orchestrated.

Reiji tried so hard, and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter. Linkin Park’d.

The story was absolutely gripping from the get go and continued to get better with each episode as the various characters schemed their own plans, making the plot more entangled and complex. Furthermore, the show was broken up into three distinct arcs separated by time skips, with each act building upon the one before it, all leading up to the climax. For the record, it was a great climax too. All Hell broke loose once Drei hit the scene in act three, clamoring for revenge against her once beloved Reiji. Though the duel between Ein and Drei was omitted (for shame too), we still got an epic shoot out with Ein and Zwei against the new Number Sister Phantoms, ultimately leading to the death of Scythe Master (who lived 26 episodes too long). Once the dust settled, it looked like we’d get a happy Ein end… Or as happy as ex-assassins could be anyway.

It really did look like we’d get a good end for a great show. You know, Ein finally finding happiness in her newfound freedom with Reiji at her side. It wasn’t meant to be though, because Bee Train wanted the last laugh. The penultimate scene, a peaceful plain in Mongolia. Ein is in a field of flowers while Reiji gazes at the sunset. A man passes by on a horse drawn cart behind him. Suddenly t tiny, almost indiscernible silenced gunshot… And Reiji crumples to the ground, killed in the penultimate scene by a nameless character passing by on a cart, all the while Ein continues to play in the field.

WTF?! After all the hardships, tribulations, and suffering he went through, including having to kill one of the people dearest to him, arguably the top assassin in the world gets picked off in the next-to-last scene by a character that doesn’t even have a name? From what I’ve heard from fans that have played the VN, Reiji was supposed to live. It was as close to a happy ending as ex-assassins could possibly get. I wasn’t expecting a cliche VN “happy end” per se, I at least expected Ein and Zwei to carry on together, as anime endings are supposed to imply. Pardon my French, but what a giant dick slap in the face trolling by Bee Train.

Since I love making sports analogies, I’ll make one here. Phantom as a whole was making record time in the 400m (or your track event of choice), and then it fell flat on its face a few centimeters from the finish line with that ending. It was so very, very good up to that point, but falling on your face is still falling on your face. That terrible ending left me with a sense of emptiness. I didn’t know what to feel at first. I just felt empty. Then after a couple days I raged, possibly against a machine of some sort. Reiji was a great character and deserved much better than such a meaningless death. He did at least grant Ein’s wish to return to her homeland and finally make her smile… But I guess we’re also supposed to assume Ein gets killed shortly thereafter as well. Talk about unsatisfying. Main characters dying at the end of their tale is nothing new like with… Let’s say…

show

But those were good, memorable deaths justified by good writing. Reiji’s death was just random as hell. He wasn’t supposed to die, in fact his new life expressed the repentance for the many lives he and Ein had taken. But noooooooo, he got cheap-shotted while he wasn’t looking. Ugh. This almost made me rage as much as the time a certain fan favorite character in Claymore got cheap-shotted. You know, I’ll just forget this ending ever happened, substitute my own where Reiji lives on with Ein, and then go play the game and save Drei with the power of love or something. Yes, that’s what I’ll do.

PS: This was much longer than originally intended. If you read the whole thing, I commend you and give you a delicious peanut butter cookie. The tl;dr version is that this was a piss poor ending to an otherwise great show. No cookie for you if you skipped straight to the end though.

Time skips in anime are nothing new. They advance the story a specified period of time and make characters older when necessary. In the case of Phantom though, a certain character somehow time skipped more than everyone else in the show’s alloted two year time skip. This post contains spoilarz (o-em-gee) for Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~ episode 21. Don’t enter if you don’t want to be spoiled.

While little Cal did transform from an adorable loli sidekick into a kickass, totally tappable (if mentally unstable) young lady, the transformation into Drei defies common logic. I mean, come on. Just two years ago she looked like this.

Anime age is a touchy subject when no age is given. I originally thought Cal was about 10-11 when she came into the story, but that would consequently make her 12-13 after the time skip. So in hindsight I’ve raised her pre-timeskip age to 13 maximum, which would still only make her 15, but how many 15 year olds look that slammin’ except Yoko Littner? Cal’s physical development in this two year span is pure BS. I guess for all purposes and intents we’re not supposed to question Cal’s ambiguous age and simply place her in the same range as Reiji and Ein (17-18), so that she can stand on equal footing with her predecessors more easily. The inevitable duels between Ein/Drei and Reiji/Drei wouldn’t be nearly as gripping if Inferno’s two previous Phantoms were duking it out with a girl that still looked like a child. It’s also an excuse to have another blonde fanservice character since the token blonde fanservice character from the first two acts is dead. Aye, Claudia will be missed — Such a great character in her own right. But we have Drei now. She’s hot and mentally unstable. That’s even better.

In the off chance this does have something to do with experimental aging drugs, please don’t tell me else I snipe you from an undisclosed perch for spoiling the story. It would explain a lot though since Cal’s still basically a 12 year old in an adult’s body.

Minor nitpick aside, Phantom keeps getting better as it slowly builds to its climax and is the best show currently airing not named Bakemonogatari. For once in a long while Bee Train hasn’t dropped the ball. I’m eagerly anticipating the next episode and the duel between the contrasting beauties, Ein and Drei. I’m genuinely conflicted who to root for, so I’ll support both sides. Go Ein! Go Drei! Fighto dayo!

PS: Scythe Master is still a douchebag. His death will bring me immense pleasure.