Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Phantom in the Twilight's Heroine Kicks Ass
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rahzel rose
 Subscriber Posts: 831 |
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YES, thank you for this. Phantom has really been making my Mondays. Ton is a treasure to watch, and I really like all of the other characters as well. Except the crazy computer guy. He’s just annoying. But it’s so nice to see Ton be her own sassy person and kick some butt.
Also RIP Chris. That genuinely hurt until he showed up again in the chibi plus bit. Please be with Shinyao (and Ton) forever thanks. |
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rizuchan
 Posts: 980 Location: Kansas |
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It's so frustrating that good Otome stuff never gets talked about here till so late in the season. Do they all have really formulaic first episodes or is it just that none of the usual preview guide writers like Otome? I feel like I skip over all the good stuff and never get a chance to go back and watch it later.
Also, I can't decide, is that red-haired guy Matt from Death Note or a buffed up version of 707 from Mystic Messenger? |
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Rosiero
Posts: 124 |
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I'm confused. This column says a lot of things that make me think I might like this show, but it also unironically tells me to watch insipid garbage like Dance with Devils. I'm not sure how to feel.
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 2655 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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I LOVE otome stuff - in fact, this was my number one request for weekly streaming reviews! It's more that they just don't get voted in for coverage.  If it makes you feel any better, I am planning a full review of this and 100 Sleeping Princes at season's end.
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Merida
 Posts: 1946 |
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I didn't expect anything from this anime but it turned out to be pretty entertaining. Ton is awesome and even Shinyao who seemed to fit the 'damsel in distress' part at first, turned out to be not quite as helpless. The guys are less cliché and ...intrusive than it's usually the case in similar shows, too.
And the chibi segment is probably my favourite part of the show. 
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rizuchan
Posts: 980 Location: Kansas |
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I'm sadly aware that there's zero interest in Otome stuff for the weeklies, I meant more that Otome never sticks out in the Season Preview Guide - it seems like it always gets "This is standard otome fare, if you like that stuff, you'll like this" which is unhelpful to me because... even as a fan of it, there's a lot of mediocre, cookie-cutter stuff I don't feel the need to waste my time on, and by trying to filter that out, I miss a lot of good stuff too. That said, this one did get fairly high scores in the Summer Preview Guide, so it's probably my own bad for overlooking it. I'll be glad to read the reviews when they come out... just praying for a season full of mediocre stuff so I can finally catch up on my backlog. 
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MavenRaven
 Posts: 30 Location: USA |
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Can I ask why this show is called an "otome" anime? I'm a little behind, on episode 6, but so far there has been basically no romance at all. The flirty wolf guy flirts with every lady, and the vampire seems so hung up on Ton's great-grandmother, he won't make a move. Not to mention the jiganshi and ghost boy seem to have no romantic interest in her whatsoever.
I can understand calling an anime adaptation of an otoge an "otome anime", but unfortunately those series tend to be mediocre. But Phantom in the Twilight is a supernatural action series that isn't based on an existing game. Is it lumped together because it "looks" like an otome game? And what even is an "otome" anime (besides the aforementioned adaptations)? Is it basically what a reverse-harem is supposed to be called now? |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11601 |
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I was just thinking how surprising this series is while watching the last episode and realized that the heroine the boys are ostensibly supposed to protect is actually more powerful than any of them. Their main role besides backup has just been to get her up to speed on the supernatural world. Even side-damsel has some major mojo up her sleeve.
I'm pretty sure Chris spoiler[isn't all that dead (he did mention spoilers). Either the bullets weren't silver or Ton has some resurrection magic or something. If he is sort of dead and comes back as "someone else" then it will probably be up to Shinyao to flex her restoration muscles to fix things. I suppose she could just be all empathetic and form a relationship with the new version, which would be ok too.] |
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rizuchan
Posts: 980 Location: Kansas |
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I mean, I think you could get pedantic and argue that "otome" as a genre refers to games, so "otome anime" would have to be an adaptation of otoge, but "otome" originated as a term for female anime fans that love pretty boy characters (but aren't necessarily into BL, which would make them fujoshi). So I think of "otome anime" as any show whose main appeal is the pretty boy characters. Those kinds of shows tend to be reverse harems, but could also apply to say, male idol shows that don't have any female characters. That said, I think style and story have something to do with it too - like even though Ouran is a reverse-harem about pretty boys, the story is much more like a shoujo romance. And then there's stuff like Free! - people would associate it more with Fujoshi than Otome, since it's a sports anime with BL undertones, but it's really targeting the Otome demographic just as much if not more than Fujoshi... Alternatively, you can even think about the merchandising - if there are can badges and cheap stationary items with the male characters' faces plastered all over them, the show is probably targeting that Otome demographic. I don't think it's worth stressing about where the line falls on this stuff, personally.
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MavenRaven
Posts: 30 Location: USA |
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Alright, thank you. I wasn't stressing too much, but I've seem some anime terms fall out of use (like shoujo-ai/shounen-ai) so I had wondered if the same thing happened to reverse-harem. Also I've been both an anime and otome visual novel fan for years, so seeing them discussed (with slightly different meanings) in both circles is interesting. Switching back to the show itself, while I do think there are some missteps in the writing and plot (poor Shinyao was missing for half the season! and they only tried to rescue her twice!) Phantom in the Twilight is a fun show. And Ton definitely kicks ass. She is one of my favorite protagonists of the past few years. |
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Aokani
 Posts: 8 |
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Thank you for writing about this anime
 I would have missed watching it. I'm super tired of bad harems and otomes, so I won't watch them unless I read something good about them.
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Cab329
Posts: 132 |
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I do adore this show. It definitely doesn't quite have the budget it needs (I think most of the action sequences get resolved offscreen) but the characters are just so fun. The post-credits sketches are some of the best I've ever seen.
Also, when the game is inevitably released (the company sponsoring this is known for otome games and while this one isn't an already released game, the narrative easily would work in the visual novel format) I hope it gets an English translation. |
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NeverConvex
 Subscriber Posts: 2535 |
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I kind've forgot about this show midway (?) through the first (?) Shinyao kidnapping. From the replies, I take it it's worth following up on at a later date?
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DigitalScratch
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I’m really glad I wasn’t the only one who thought “whoa, Seven got ripped” when I saw the red head. Anyway, I skipped out on this one because I’m in the camp who’s really tired of the “standard otome fare” and unappealing main characters. Though I’m liking what I saw in this article so consider me intrigue. |
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Neko-sensei
Posts: 286 |
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Couldn't agree more on this show (and on Dances with Devils)!
I think the biggest issue with Phantom, beyond its inane title, was the first half of episode one. The purely expository conversation on the train in which Ton and Shinyao explain to each other how great they are, followed by the boys at their most but-you-got-coffee-in-my-tea cliche, was nearly a deal breaker for me. Luckily I finished the episode, and it's been smooth sailing ever since. Even the banter in the cafe often feels surprisingly natural. My favorite line from the SD segments is definitely from the very first one: "I'm going to be kidnapped for a while." |
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