Review of Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom

“Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom” is a story of an amnesiac forced to become an assassin for a crime syndicate. It’s also better than it sounds on paper. There are three main heroes in this show: Ein - The prototype assassin. A young girl brainwashed by a mad scientist archetype to become the perfect weapon. She’s broken in so many ways that You could create a trauma bingo card with her. She shows little to no emotions outside the ones she puts on as a show during missions. Out of all the assassins she’s the most tragic one of all and at first it’s really hardto like her.

Zwei - our “main” main hero. A Young man stripped of his memories and forced to become an assassin. In the beginning he’s hesitant to become an assassin and plays along with the training only as a means of staying alive but as it turns out, he has a knack for killing. As a character he’s the most boring one of them all. He only gets interesting once he decides to take on a mentor role. Before and after that he’s just bland.

Drei - The most interesting assassin of them all. Unlike Ein and Zwei she hasn’t had her memories erased by the mad scientist. Instead what was nurtured in her was her hatred towards Zwei (her mentor). We see her in two stages of her life. As a scared child and as a proficient, and a little bit unstable, assassin. Her interactions with Zwei in all of them are what makes this character truly fascinating and likeable.

The plot consists of 3 arcs with Zwei in each of them but his role in the narrative changes slightly. The first one is more of an Ain story with Zwei acting as our intro into the world and having his training to become an assassin.
The second arc is purely Zwei’s arc. It shows him as a competent assassin bored with life and as a mentor.
The last arc is the story of Drei and her hate with Zwei acting as a conflicted secondary hero forced to face the consequences of his actions. This arc also deviates a lot from the tone of the first two, at least in the beginning.
All of them are pretty competently written with few holes but nothing infuriating or nonsensical enough to break the immersion. Actually the worst parts of the writing all stem from people suddenly deciding to be morons in the last act of every arc. Yes… it is bothersome but somehow it never broke my immersion. I guess even when they act like idiots it’s somehow still in character for them… except Claudia, that one was whacked.
The show also doesn’t romanticise the crime underworld it uses. From the beginning it’s obvious that there is little trust between most people, stabbing someone in the back is common and schemes to gain more power would make Machiavelli salivate are common.

To be honest despite its flaws with pacing, especially towards the finale, and minor plot holes, the show is really skillfully written and executed. It’s the type of show that’s seriously not for everyone, it’s slow paced in the beginning, a lot of pieces are missing until the end and doesn't have much exposition dumps (with is alway a plus in my book, I hate when an anime treats it viewers like idiots). I think anyone who likes broken characters (psychologically, not the bs of SAO broken), interesting interactions between them and a solid plot, will like this show.