Phantom in the Twilight

Although I wish to give Phantom in the Twilight credit for giving the main character a remarkably different personality and agency compared to any other reverse-harem type anime that's come out in the few recent years, it really is lacking essentially in the story and character building departments, which is why it can't be anything but a 7 at most.

The main characters Ton and Sinyao are Chinese and going to university, which from a veteran reverse-harem watcher's viewpoint is already a big difference and affects the narrative. The men are pretty archetypal; a tsundere vampire, a rowdy werewolf, a MC-adoring shota... Even though they ... could've been intriguing regardless of their initial thin characterizations, only some of them had actual narrative arcs in the anime, while the rest were given some "surprising" elements at one point or another to make up for the lack of character building. Despite these flaws, the impressive main character manages to carry the anime forward, navigating through the wobbly story line.

The story can't really manage standing on its own, and instead grasps at any sort of straws to create a 12-episode long season. Much is left out in terms of world-building, characters get scattered and the conclusion really isn't that satisfying. The concept of "umbra" doesn't seem fully-fledged, considering the confusing range of creatures - from the Dracula-but-not-really-Dracula(?) to a simple floating pumpkin - and how it's all supposedly based on the "human belief and imagination that they exist".

This isn't tagged as a romance anime because it definitely isn't despite the hints given in later episodes, even in the typical otoge-anime-open-ending kind of way, which to me was kind of a disappointment.

All in all it was easy, albeit sometimes confusing to watch but it didn't really make me feel much. While initially I was confused over the low score (which to be honest is quite typical in shoujo and especially otoge anime) due to the MC's refreshing personality and progressive attitude, about halfway it became apparent that this anime wasn't really sure what it wanted to offer to the viewers. The magic was cool though, and Ton actually had actual weapons that she used in actual battles.

This is a review of the anime only. I have not read the manga.

For an otome adaptation, this one wasn't half bad. At least I didn't loathe the female lead. A little more romance would have been nice but I prefer the lack thereof to the forced romance in many otome.

What I liked about it:

1. The female lead was strong in her own right and not whiny and annoying.
2. The male characters were believable and funny.
3. The story was intriguing if shallow.

... What I didn't like about it:

1. It moved awfully fast. There were times it was confusing because crucial information was left out.
2. There was a lot of kidnapping.
3. The characters weren't as developed as they could have been.
4. The vampire didn't drink blood. Kind of a penultimate aspect of being a vampire, and it wasn't there.

This is much different than the typical otome anime in that it's not about "which guy will she choose?" It really is just a group of guys helping her and her friend. That was refreshing but I would have liked a little romance at least. There was a hint that there might possibly be romance in the future, but that was it.

There could have been a lot more character development and it would have made the guys exponentially more interesting. I really would have liked to have seen some extended flashbacks of their lives. The hints we were given weren't enough to make me really get attached.

One thing that was really difficult for me was that once the main character found out "who she was," she suddenly knew how to do all this very powerful magic with zero training. They also never explained how or why the other female character had magic, what the heck it was, or how she knew how to use it.

The story itself wasn't well explained either. Some of the villain motivations were explained but they were so trite. It had the potential to be much more than it was. Overall, this wasn't a bad anime and for an otome, it wasn't bad at all. But it wasn't great.

I have never written a review before so bear with me if this won't be good, but this was such a pain to watch. You can watch this If you want, but I don't recommend.
I watched a lot of reverse harem but this one is one of the worst

First of all the anime seemed promising at first, but turned into a huge disappointment for me:

-lack of character development

-too much unnecessary dramatizing

- Not much and awful romance
...
-Bad action scenes

-Ton's best friend's attachment to the 'stranger' was ununderstandable from the beginning till the end

-Although some of the boys were actually well-drawn, the girls' hair looked so bad, that sometimes It was painful to look at.

-no story development either, It seemed like the episodes were just repeating themselves. The episodes were only about:


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~SPOILERS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~





-trying to save Ton's best friend

-failing because she is jealous of Ton (??)It seemed like to me that she wanted the attention. (she has the chance to escape but instead chose to stay with the stranger)

- unreasonable power development on both girls' side when fighting new monsters (That's why the action was really bad)

- a little bit of boring drama (so like almost no romance, just a little sudden unnecessary drama between the 'couples', that is supposed to make you feel bad for them)

All in all, a waste of time