Review of Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom

Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom. I had seen this anime on various top 100 lists, and it took my friend's recommendation to finally watch... and honestly, I was fairly disappointed. From monotonous episodes, idiosyncratic plot points, and often redundant characters; this anime is a good example of how an interesting concept initially presented well, goes downhill quickly. Story: 5 In my opinion, the story is the weakest aspect of this anime. It opens up in an interesting way, the world seems vibrant and interesting, and the insinuation of assassins killing for the mafia seems enticing. However, soon, the anime is plagued with awful time skips andpacing, the reasoning for various actions becomes void as more and more characters and groups are introduced, with a lot of emphasis put onto them, but with very little meaning conjured. I often found myself bored with the preaching of morality, and could see what was going to happen before it happened.

Art: 6
The art is nothing special. Everything is okay. The scenery is okay, the action sequences are okay. The character's visual design is okay.

Sound: 7
I like the first opening and ending a lot. The various different OST implemented in this anime were quite good, and very fitting for the mood that was trying to be conveyed. The gunshots sounded good, the voice acting was nothing special, and the noises of vehicles was pretty good.

Character: 7
Although there are many redundant characters, I would say the anime's strongest feature are the protagonists, and to an extent, the antagonists. The protagonists are in an interesting context, so understanding the various emotions and thoughts evoked by this context was often interesting. We see as they grow together, and how emotions change. The antagonists (who you could argue was everyone) were somewhat unique, from a manipulative, artist obsessed mad scientist type, juxtaposed to a sexual manipulator, obsessed with greed and power type.

Enjoyment: 6
This anime is a pain in the arse because it had the potential to be one of the better made, but fell right on it's face. Perhaps if this anime was shorter, it would be more enjoyable as there would less drawn out, ridiculously arduous segments. Overall I rate this a 6, if you are someone who has seen a lot of anime, I would recommend not bothering with this anime as it does nothing new. It pushes no boundaries, and lot of the dialogue and narrative is monotonous and samey. But, if you're relative new to watching anime, this could be an interesting watch if you have a lot of time.