Phantom: Requiem For The Phantom Is Reminiscent Of Le Femme Nikita

I went into Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom cold

. I had no idea what it was about and had a vague expectation that it the secret sequel to Boogie Pop Phantom. I was wrong, but not disappointed in the least! Phantom is a tale about assassins, another genre I dearly love. Yes, the title of the show is repetitive and makes the English teacher in me cringe, but the story is solid. The anime is based off a video game in Japan, one of those text choose-your-path ones. There was also an OVA that went before the TV series, so I assume the repetitious use of "phantom" in the title is to differentiate between the two.

The story is very reminiscent of Le Femme Nikita (The original French movie, not the TV show) in that the anime starts with an organization who appears to be kidnapping ordinary people off the streets to train up and brainwash into being uber assassins, which is what happens to our protagonist, a young Japanese man who wakes up alone in a bunker in the middle of a desert. He can't remember his name or any of his life before the bunker, except that he was a tourist. A taciturn girl named Ein is assigned to be his trainer. He must become her perfect partner in the art of assassin-ry or else be terminated. He's given the name Zwei. Of course Ein and Zwei are soon caught up in the machinations and inner power struggles of the crime organization they (unwillingly) work for, Inferno. (I will admit I was half expecting the leader of Inferno to be revealed as a vampire at the end of the series. You'll understand once you see him...)

Ein ended up growing on me as the anime proceeded. You end up feeling more sorry for her than any other character and her loneliness and grim resignation to her fate is almost palatable. The whole anime is very dark and a tad depressing. Still very good and worth watching, but something you might want to wait on if you're feeling the slightest bit blue. It's rare for a story to do such a good job at showing how NOT in control the main characters are of their own destinies. As they are ordered and driven from one event to the next their humanity chips away bit by bit, revealing that in the end they are only pawns, not even thought of enough to be shown the bigger picture. Realizing that you're nothing but a tool and you don't even know for sure who is welding you would do a fair number on your psyche.

If you enjoy your hitman/assassin stories or you have liked the anime Noir, Darker Than Black, or (hopefully the censored version of) Kite than I think you'll really enjoy this title! Give it a try and help spread the word about it!

by: Michelle Tsuki

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