Phantom in the Twilight Archives | Page 2 of 2

Phantom in the Twilight Episode 4: My Friend Was Taken As A Hostage, And I Don’t Seem To Care

Posted on August 3, 2018August 1, 2018 by Karandi

Remind me to not rely on Ton if I’m ever kidnapped. She’s really not at all focused on saving her friend. That little bit of plot insanity aside though, Phantom in the Twilight is actually shaping up to be a pretty decent show this season.

As main heroines go, Ton is kind of problematic on a number of levels, not the least of which is that she’s the least interesting of the cast and she has no chemistry with anyone but they force her into situations where her emotional connections are supposed to matter. I find it so odd watching her flit about and how casually she just accepts that they can’t figure out where her friend is. While her crying and moaning continuously wouldn’t be any better, it feels like this should be some kind of pressing concern that impacts upon her as a character.

However, instead of dealing with the kidnapped friend who is happily getting a river cruise with the red-haired wolf from last week, we turn our attention to the third of the supernatural waiters. This episode is very much Toryu’s, starting from his back story with Ton’s grandmother and hi losing control in the city while out on a shopping trip with Ton. It’s actually a pretty interesting back story and it does allow Ton to show that she hasn’t just been chilling since being dragged into the supernatural nonsense. She’s still a novice but she is definitely learning and her saving the day here is quite fitting (as is the heavy assistance she receives to do so).

One thing I particularly liked about this episode was that at times there was genuinely a question of whether or not they could overcome this particularly trial. A few times it very much seemed like they wouldn’t succeed and that gave it a bit of tension and excitement. Also the initial attack on Toryu was pretty brutal and yet still seemed to fit with the show so far. While I wouldn’t actually call it a dark show by any means, it isn’t all sexy vampires and wolf boys fighting over tea or coffee.

So I’m actually enjoying this series more than I expected. It definitely has its issues but right now I’m having fun with it.

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Karandi James

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Phantom in the Twilight Episode 3: Two Wolves Meet Under a Ferris Wheel

Posted on July 27, 2018July 24, 2018 by Karandi

As silly as some aspects of this show are, I can’t help but have fun while watching it. While I strongly suspect that when they explain the villain’s motives it will probably be a disappointment, Phantom in the Twilight has so far been enjoyable enough to watch, even though it isn’t great.

Have I mentioned I kind of have a thing for anime guys with animal ears? Wolves are okay, though I’d definitely prefer a fox.

Some spoilers below, if you are inclined to care.

Luke faces his destiny in a showdown under the ferris wheel, or I guess they could have gone that path. Mostly Luke, who already figured out that another werewolf was involved last week and clearly knew who, goes off on his own and meets his brother who just happens to be the kidnapper. They reminisce about old times, try and kill each other, there’s some outside interference but fortunately Ton and the others show up because Ton wants to rescue her friend (Luke), oh and she might try and save Shinyao while she’s at it because that was the whole point of last week to save her kidnapped friend.

On that front, they are really stretching the plot just a little bit too far now. Two weeks in a row Ton has gotten within reach of her friend and they still haven’t saved her. it’s like someone just keeps moving the piece of cheese further back and yet they forgot to load the trap so nothing actually happens as we progress.

Still, we get some entertaining moments with Wayne, a brief history lesson on a whole bunch of jargon and Ton’s grandmother, a fight between two werewolves, a gatling gun being used on some kind of green glowing demonic dogs, and a cup of tea, so this episode has enough going on to keep you interested. All things consider, this is kind of reminding me of quite a few anime I’ve watched in the past that are fun in the moment but don’t have much real impact and are quickly forgotten. Maybe it will rise above that in later episodes, but these first three episodes seem to have pretty much cemented this as a watchable entertainment that leaves little lasting impression.

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Karandi James

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Phantom in the Twilight Episode 2: Old School Vampire Alert

Posted on July 20, 2018July 18, 2018 by Karandi

I was pleasantly surprised that episode two of this was reasonably decent given the first episode’s shortcomings. The focus is very much on Vlad but the other characters definitely get a little bit of a look in as this supernatural story continues.

It has been awhile since vampires actually had issues with garlic, crosses, running water and were held to the belief that they couldn’t enter a building without being invited and while Buffy made good use of the mythology around vampires, most stories take great liberties with discarding the old legends or openly scoffing at them. While that doesn’t make this show any better, it does make me more interested in it if the characters are going to have a more traditional portrayal (despite all appearing to be generically good looking, young guys). If that was the only thing episode two offered, I’d probably still be more inclined to watch this show than I was last week, but overall I was generally left with the impression that this episode was better.

Ton was still not what I’d consider a great protagonist, but on one or two occasions she actually called Vlad on keeping information from her even if she didn’t press the point. The introduction of Wayne was kind of entertaining and I can see him being immensely useful as a plot device but he was just kind of fun as a character. Even Luke and the other guy (I keep missing his name) got a bit more detail about who they were and there was groundwork laid for an ongoing story with Luke that looks like it will get fleshed out next week.

Of course, the attention was on Vlad a lot and his vampire powers are pretty cool. He’s fairly stereotypical as a character and yet not annoyingly so, but he may not be all that interesting to some viewers. Plus he has absolutely zero chemistry with Ton so the scenes with the two of them that could have been charming or fun mostly end up being just a back and forth of flat dialogue that does progress the plot but isn’t overly interesting.

I think i’m in with this anime though. The heavy supernatural focus in this second episode really sold it to me and even though I’d like a bit more from the cast, there were improvements from episode 1 to episode 2 and hopefully they will continue.

Previous Reviews:

Episode 1: This Season’s Hot Guy Cafe Brought To You By Vampires and Werewolves

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Karandi James

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Phantom in the Twilight Episode 1: This Season’s Hot Guy Cafe Brought To You By Vampires and Werewolves

Posted on July 11, 2018July 9, 2018 by Karandi

This is one of those stories where potentially it could end up quite good or it could end up being a mess, or it might just become formulaic and dull, and there’s really no way to tell from the early episodes. Welcome to Cafe Forbidden where the staff aren’t exactly as welcoming as you would think.

Ton is our walking cliche of a protagonist who travels to London to go to school and immediately gets robbed. Only she gets robbed by an invisible assailant and end up running into a strange cafe that turns out was started by her great-grandmother. Ton really doesn’t have much going for her in this episode other than some over exuberant reactions to being in London and then getting to run around a lot.

I mean, the guys at the cafe aren’t exactly subtle when one of them clearly says he knew her great-grandmother who has been dead for 100 years and even though he gets cut off, Ton doesn’t question that for a single instant. She’s one of those protagonists who could quickly become quite annoying given she seems fairly happy to just let the plot push her wherever it needs to. About the only positive is that at least it is her friend who gets kidnapped at the end of the episode and not her.

The one thing this episode did have going for it was that it didn’t draw out the supernatural reveals. Right from the theft it is pretty clear that magic is afoot and by the time we have a werewolf (or guy with wolf ears) fighting a pack of goblins it’s all pretty much a given and this is the aspect of the show I’m most interested in at the moment. Hopefully the second episode consolidates some of the better points of the show and maybe gives Ton some actual purpose other than to be the designated clueless person in the series.