Does this show remind me of something oddly familiar? Hunting ghosts that look like Youkai and sealing them? Yep, it is, but this time it’s lighthearted.
After watching this episode, it was definitely something. Sure, people who don’t like fanservice will probably get turned off, but it doesn’t really bother me that much. The main focus is on Haruhiko and Mai who team up with each other to capture ghosts, monsters, spirits or Youkai called phantoms. They were created as a result of a virus that spread throughout the nation as a result of someone bombing a laboratory. The said virus infects the brain and causes people to perceive imaginary things like phantoms as real. In addition, certain humans can gain abilities to seal them, thus leading to clubs being formed with the sole purpose to capture them with a form of compensation.
At a glance, the premise is very interesting, but nothing too special. The first battle was entertaining as Mai fights against a fire phantom physically while Haru was late and quickly made a sketch so that they can seal it while ruining his sketchbook in the process. Apparently, they seal phantoms to earn an allowance, but it seemed that they caused some physical damage to the school grounds that they didn’t get anything. In short, they have to recruit more people to do better.
One of the first people Haru tries to recruit is Reina, who can seal phantoms by sucking them into her mouth. Yep, while she has a familiar voice, it seems that Mai won’t need Haru anymore considering that she can simply have Reina seal them. As expected, Reina is also a big eater too, which makes me surprised why Haru didn’t become bankrupt over offering her lunch in order to recruit her.
While the show plays around with the usual clichés of Haru becoming an accidental pervert as he tries to prevent it, it makes me wonder why is he even around? Aside from being a so-called information database, he is pretty much useless since Reina can replace his role and that he forgot to buy a new sketchbook to seal some pole phantoms that were doing the limbo.
In short, while Musaigen no Phantom World is nothing too special from the first episode, it was still very entertaining to watch so far given how lively the characters are and the humor along with the action in some of these fights. Still, I wonder how things will go from here as Haru and Mai build a stronger team to possibly face off stronger phantoms. We’ll have to wait and see. Still, it’s quite amazing to see how Mai manages to defy physics in order to past the lowest possible level without hitting the bar or falling in limbo.
For the time being I’ll give the show the same approach I gave Amagi Brilliant Park: marathon it when it’s over and ignore internet reactions.
Maybe it’s the best course of action, but for me, I plan on continuing watching it regardless.
Well you are covering weekly and you have not been upset by the premiere so yeah.
Really didn’t have any issue with the fanservice as much as people were complaining about it. If anything, the phoned in and rough humor was the only thing that made wince, but that is just KyoAni being their usual goofy selves when it comes to the directing. Not all a great premier episode, but looking forward to rest, especially with seeing how the source material was only 2 volumes long.
Sure, some of their shows have so and so first episodes, but hopefully this show will be enjoyable given how lighthearted it is. Still, it makes me wonder what they can do with only two volumes. A good possibility that it will be a expanded a little bit more so they have enough source material for 12/13 episodes.
Not just only Phantom, the main problem I have is that these type of shows aren’t playing to KyoAni’s strength at all. They are good at visually magnifying the subtleties (character expressions, etc…), which is why most of KyoAni’s slice of life are so good-they are a master at their craft. KyoAni’s greatest strength is that they don’t need a thousand words to tell a story, unfortunately Phantom’s source material require a thousand words to tell a story, which is a common problem found in Phantom’s many other light novel brethren, especially the supernatural ones.
While I haven’t take a look at the source material, it’s understandable why Kyoto Animation may not be as good with stories involving supernatural elements. One has to explain what is these supernatural stuff and given that Kyoto Animation only really done one purely supernatural show, it’s probably not their biggest strength compared to slice of life stories as you mention. Maybe things will be different this time, but we’ll see.
A bit too much in the fanservice department, but I don’t really mind that much. The action was pretty nice, and I like Reina’s voice actor. I think it’s the same from Gochiusa, that Blue Mountain girl. That polite voice, I’m a sucker for those. Overall not a bad start, but there are definitely better anime to watch this season, than this one. I’m watching like everything this season, so don’t mind me 😛
Yep, it’s an enjoyable start, but hopefully things will become interesting as the other characters get introduced. But yes, for me at least, there is not that many shows compared to previous seasons that I find interesting.