Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~

[BlackDove]

I liked the first ep. Will be watching further.

[Futile Resistance]

Good to hear. I'll be giving this a whirl.

I got punk'd by that stupid german episode of... whatever crap it was.

[Futile Resistance]

Saw the first ep. Depending on the pacing of the next few, I might just hold off and marathon it once the series is complete.

Animation was top notch and fitting background music.

[Anubis]

I'm a little late to the party with this one, but I hade just watched the first few today and have enjoyed them. Very different to any I have watched so far - it makes a nice change in pace for me. I'll be following it throughout the rest of it's run.

[BlackDove]

This turned out to be pretty epic.

[Anubis]

This turned out to be pretty epic.

QFT.

Easily pick of the season. Worked perfectly from start to finish.

[Futile Resistance]

Hrm... Time to marathon it then.

It had troulbe keeping my attention after the first ep, but it could be that I wasn't in the mood for patient drama.

[M.Steiner]

Did you finish this in the end, Fut?

I just watched the last episode of Phantom last night. Will spoiler for anyone that hasn't watched it, pics included so be warned ^^

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The ending did leave me jumping between 2 interpretations of what I thought actually happened I'll admit. I said the majority of this to Anny earlier during our chat but thought I would add my thoughts here as well! ;

My first thought on the ending was that the cart driver was a hitman as you hear the silenced gun shot as he slowly drives past behind Reiji, the shot kills him but just in time for him to see Ein truly smile. Then I'd considered that Ein killed herself with one of the missing petals of the purple flower(s) you see focused on as she lay lifeless on the grass looking up at the sky, though I was not 100% certain on that part. But, then I started to wonder if I had got the first part of that wrong for a few reasons and started to doubt myself.

The first was that it didn't make sense to me why just Reiji would be assassinated and thought surely the hit would have been on both of them and not just him. Only one, single, silenced gun shot was heard so I ruled the idea out that he shot the pair of them. He couldn't have known she was about to die either and thus saw no point in shooting her plus there was no blood on or near her body which could have indicated a gunshot wound..
The two big parts that made me doubt my first thought though was that there's a closeup at the end of a single bullet casing which can be seen laying on the grass with some flowers in blurred view just below, which to me looked similar to the purple ones Ein was by. I assumed since I was being shown that frame closeup that it was pointing at something else.. A few moments before this you clearly see the cart driver coming up the road in the distance, it's a dirt path with no grass of flowers covering it. So if the cart driver was the one who shot Reiji from behind, wouldn't the shell have dropped to the floor on said path as he drove by and not on the grass?. So I started to wonder then whether Ein had shot him now that she knew as much as she wanted to and he had seen her smile, that the cart driver was just some random dude and was used as a deliberate red herring and to obscure the view at the exact time you hear the shot, and then Ein commits suicide and the pair of them die together.

I took a few quick pics for reference and just to make sure I wasn't seeing things lol.


Anny cleared some of that up for me though by saying the director had confirmed that Reiji had been shot by the cart driver and that Ein had eaten the poisonous flower petals to kill herself as I had first suspected. That being said, I still wonder why the bullet is on the grass and not on the dirt road and why the hitman didn't shoot both of them if this was the directors intention. Maybe he originally intended the audience to decide for themselves what they thought happened before he came out and confirmed the real ending and doing that he made a boo boo in that those 2 things don't really fit or make much sense when you go with that particular view at least not to me atm, I'll have to ponder on it some more!


Also, I did have a couple of nit picks. Like I felt the arc with Cal as Drei perhaps needed some more work. Her hatred towards Reiji was understandable when she had spent those couple of years building up her hatred towards him for thinking he had gone and abandoned her but at no point did he even try to explain things to her from what I remember. That he didn't abandon her at all but thought she had been killed in the explosion at his apartment and had spent those 2 years believing she was dead. Whilst I doubt that would have made much difference as I don't think he would have been able to reason with her by this point anyway and it had to come down to the duel, it would have been nice to see some exchanges like that when they met again for the first time as I did find myself thinking "f*****g say something, explain it from your point of view!" lol.
My other gribe was the appearance of Cal/Drei herself. Maybe the character design of her younger self could have done with looking a bit older or her older self looking a tad younger but in the space of those 2 years the amount in which she changed seemed a bit too far fetched for me whilst I did still like her character & story.

Lots of standout scenes - Scene in which Reiji kills Cal, final scenes with Scythe Master on his stage, Lizzie & Claudia on the beach and of course the end scene.. but too many to list heh. There was some fantastic music throughout as well, one particular piece I'll have a look through the music collection for tomorrow (Starts at 06:34 in this clip for anyone interested, spoilers ofc), that appeared in eps 23-26 and usually at epic moments. Have been unable to find out what it's called just through youtube clips but tis probably my favourite from the show along with Karma & Haitoku no Gajou so hopefully I'll find a copy ^^

(Oh and as a big fan of L11on it was nice to see the similarities there and even a visual reference to it heh, also the little nods to the two Martin Scorsese films starring Rober De Niro; Taxi Driver ("You talkin' to me?") & Casino. Both one of my favourite actors & my second favourite director hehe.

Anyway. All said and done and which ever way I looked at the ending initially I saw both as being very fitting and satisfying for the type of show it was. Overall it really was an excellent series so there's another here who would certainly recommend it. I shall look forward to rewatching this in a year or so!.

[Anubis]

Yeah, Phantom certainly turned out wierd regarding the ending controversy.

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As I mentioned to you the other day, my original view on the matter (and I believe BD's too) was that both had been shot, and the empty case you see on the grass was the bullet used to kill Ein. Apparently the fact that the ending was unclear proved unpopular, however, which forced the director to come out and confirm that Ein died after eating the petals of the poisonous flower.

In some ways I wish the director had not said anything at all, because I still feel that my original interpretation fit the show better.

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Reiji dying without ever seeing Ein's smile, and Ein herself never getting to do anything after she finally found herself. A very tragic tone for what was a great tragedy show throughout.

But still, regardless of the issue the show was still great throughout. As I said to you the other day, I'm glad that you appear to have enjoyed the show as much as I did

[SSX-Ava]

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I went through all that for them to just f***ing die....I'm now depressed. Good going.

Could they have made Cal's breasts any bigger? Oo

Quite a good show though.

[M.Steiner]

Did you have the same problems with the ending that I did Ant or is that just me?

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Problem being that If the cart driver assassinated Reiji like I originally thought and Ein ate the petals (only 1 bullet so I instantly disregarded the idea that both could have been shot) and the Director later confirmed, then why did he shoot just Reiji and not Ein as well?
Not only that but if that was the intended ending then why was the bullet casing in a different place to where it would have been had the cart driver been the shooter? It would have been on the dirt road NOT over on the grass near the flowers. I can understand there being controversy surrounding the ending and whether one thought it was a fitting end to the show or not, you get that with any show finale and you can't please everyone. I'm not one of the people who disliked the ending either. It's just the fact that this version of the ending just doesn't add up, 2+2 is not making 4 here lol.
So I'm still of the opinion that the director messed up, he should have kept quiet and left the ambiguity of it intact and so the continuity errors would be mostly hidden heh.

If it wasn't for those problems I had with the ending and the unbelievableness of Cal's character design changes I'd have given it a 10 personally. Still a great show all the same and a damn shame you can't buy a legit boxset of it. The US looks to be getting a set in January so hopefully we will too, though it's not Blu-Ray unfortunately just DVD. Will have to get it if so.

[SSX-Ava]

The ending felt messy as opposed to it being done with artistic ambiguity. Thats personal preference though. I generally love abit of ambiguity in films, what isn't explained can sometimes amplify the power of a scene. However this time it left me abit empty. Twenty six episodes: two of which were full recap jobs, you'd have thought they could have put a little more into the ending.