Short Synopsis: Ein and Zwei disguise themselves as a teenaged couple in order to get close to their next target.
Episode Rating: 8,5/10 (Awesome)
Whoa! I must say, that while Phantom may be a blatant Noir rip-off, it’s promising to surpass Noir very quickly if this keeps up. From the outside this episode looks like your average random episode, but the cast got so much depth through it. It’s in episodes like this in which Bee-Train’s real strength lies: not the awesome music (though that does help), but the excellent characterization.
It was very strange to see Ein acting so convincingly like your average teenaged girl on a holiday with her first boyfriend. Especially considering how goofy Zwei looked right next to her with his bad acting as her boyfriend. I like how she even commented to Zwei how he still needs to work on his acting a lot. There was quite a bit of subtle fanservice in this episode, but even that had its purpose: to show the sexual tension between Ein and Zwei.
And that’s another point at which this series rocks: Ein and Zwei are really characters who don’t speak what’s on their mind: they leave their feelings and thoughts exactly out of their jobs, but the thing is that we hardly ever get to hear their thoughts. During those above-mentioned fanservice moments, for example: we can only guess what goes on their head at those points, and this gets especially confusing when the two start acting like their complete opposites and at times it gets really hard to point out which a subtle action of the belongs to: their acted personas, or their own intuitions.
And I’m personally a huge fan of series that manage to leave certain things up to the viewer’s imagination. Phantom knows exactly the difference between simply leaving out an important plot point, and just subtly refraining to say things that most people can figure out on their own. And when we finally get a confirmation (or denial in this case) of Ein’s feelings at the end of this episode, it does make impact. Especially considering how this series has only gone on for four episodes, I’m surprised at how far it has already come.
Well, actually, it’s the other way around. Noir is a Phantom rip-off… or more accurately, it takes most of its influence from Phantom, as the visual novel predates Noir by a year.
Eraserhead: I think a couple of us have mentioned that already (Phantom came out before Noir) but it’s up to psgels whether he wants to make note of it or not. Doesn’t change the truth either way.
Anyways, the episode was rather great and while Bee-Train has a preexisting story/script to work from, they are certainly doing it justice in terms of characterization and that pleases me.
Didn’t you find it interesting that the chap who got assassinated this ep looked hardly surprised at all before he got shot? It was almost as though he was welcoming it…
This predates noir by a number of years actually..its more like others ripped off this.
But even so, i agree with your score because i am enjoying this…
Sir, I remark you don’t mention Phantom the Animation made in 2004, cf http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=2651
French editor Dybex had it in 2007. Compared with the series, I found it inferior, I finally see it after the first 2 episodes of the TV series. ZWei accept less is fate in the OAV.
I completely agree with the whole, “wait she’s looking at me, MUST LOOK AWAY”. The facial expressions and the body language really set this episode apart. Great chemistry between characters.
Where do you guys watch this? None of the fansubs are releasing the 4th.