Review of Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom
If I had to rate it I would give it a 7/10 and that is being generous. The best thing about this anime is honestly its action plot. The romance is horrendous, the drama is okay but by the end you're so numb to it that even the ending leaves you like 'of course, why wouldn't it end that way'. Honestly there are only 2 parts in it that really made me super sad, Clau and Cal both of them and that is mostly because they left so much unanswered and super rushed. Like Clau had SO much shit left to explore in her characterand it was incredibly odd how it ended, we still have no idea what she actually wanted nor whether she actually intended to betray those people. Cal basically was just batshit crazy and all of a sudden she has a revelation where she isn't crazy anymore?
The first half is actually really good in my opinion, it was a very satisfying watch and they didn't rush. But if I had to I would split the series into 3 different parts, 'Training', 'Working', and 'Running'. Training is really good and a bit of working is also good, but the rest of the series is really meh tbh. I wouldn't quite call it 'trash' but it definitely felt like they planned to have WAY more episodes and then had the budget cut.
All-in-all the series will definitely leave an unsatisfied taste in your mouth. The ending was horrible and didn't even really end, they added characters just to try desperately to increase the amount of connections you had to people who died. Like seriously, Mio added NOTHING to the series, the entire series would've been just fine without Mio's little background story as a yakuza princess. It is definitely a great series for the action but as far as the background story goes? Nah it is a trash backstory that leaves you thinking half the characters are retarded. It has a DBZ feel to it concerning the 'power' of characters that constantly fluctuates to fit with a retconned story line, and the 'drama'/'romance' is about as fulfilling as an overcooked piece of cheap chicken nugget.
Would recommend to anyone who just NEEDS something to watch, but all this series does is try to make you cry (I'm really easy to make cry and I didn't even shed a tear). But anyone that wants a satisfying story (they should've ended it in the battle against scythe) find something else I promise there is nothing here for you.
Should you watch it? Depends if you have nothing better to watch. Super duper overrated, huge plot holes with gaping issues in character development. People seem to love the show because it has an 'angel beats' tragedy feel to it. I would avoid this show if at all possible unless you're desperate for a terrible tragedy story that makes no sense by the end.