Phantom in the Twilight

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.

Limited spoilers review!

This review was written after seeing all episodes.

At first glance, “Phantom in the Twilight” appears to be a reverse harem in the style of many otome-based anime from the past so many years, but it doesn’t quite fit the bill. The series itself doesn’t seem to know what it’s supposed to be and throughout its short twelve-episode life suffers multiple times from an identity crisis. One episode it seems to be following in the footsteps of otome-based series, the next it’s turned to head down the path of one-episode arcs with an overarching theme to tie the episodes together, and yet another ... episode it begins to crawl towards a focus in action. If you’re looking for a series requiring deep thought, or even active thinking, this series will bore you. If you’re looking for a series to pass the time and chill, something not requiring much thought or attention to understand, then this series might serve you well. With that out of the way, let’s get into why it received an overall rating of 6.

Story: 6
The story itself is nothing special. Two college-aged girls, Ton and Shinyao, traveled to England to attend school. Ton has always wanted to go to London due to her great-grandmother having left her family to go there. Due to a mysterious incident that happens early in the first episode the two girls become separated, and due to a searching spell which Ton inexplicably knows (you’re supposed to assume she learned it from whatever sources she used to learn of her great-grandmother apparently), she finds herself in a café with individuals whom of course are not human and are male; however, she need not worry, for they have a connection with Ton’s great-grandmother and are plenty eager to assist her. At this point it’s normal to assume that this is a set-up for a bunch of shipping scenes between Ton and all the males, but I’ll give the show credit, it didn’t take the easy route for the relationships (though it would be the logical choice for a show such as this). From the second episode onward the show travels in different directions and doesn’t do an amazing job in any area of the story. The surprises aren’t big, and even when not entirely predictable, simply leave you thinking “okay, no biggie”. After each episode (minus the final) there are little chibi shorts which provide a little insight into the “world” of the show which are a cute addition and are actually be my favorite part of each episode, which isn't exactly a good thing.

Art: Not going to bother going into any details or rating, nothing special, onward to the next thing.

Sound: 8
The voices suited the characters very well, none felt out of place, which is always nice. The opening theme I personally didn’t care for and tried to add to the action vibe of the show I felt. The ending theme more often than not broke character with the final moments of each episode but was pleasant to listen to. Battle music was nothing extraordinary but served its purpose.

Characters: 5
Characters are flat, two dimensional, and aside from one of the side characters have no development; even with the side character, the development was foreseeable and nothing special. All the characters, even the villains, fall into neat stereotypes. While decent character growth would be hard to achieve in a short series such as this to begin with, there’s no effort whatsoever to be creative in the character department.

Enjoyment: 6
I began watching the show just to watch it if that makes sense. I didn’t have high expectations, so by the end, I wasn’t disappointed… Okay, I was slightly disappointed; the action scenes truly are lame considering how many of them are thrown in. As I mentioned in the beginning, this show works well if you want to watch something casually, but if you’re looking to become engrossed in a series this isn’t the series you’re looking for.

As previously mentioned, this series lacks a true identity. It doesn’t have enough romance or shipping material to make fans of otome-based series satisfied. The action scenes are not worthy of considering this a true action series. The drama is not dramatic, the surprises are not that surprising, but at least the ending is somewhat of an ending. That’s right, the ending does at least provide enough closure where things are settled enough, you’re not left expecting anything beyond this final episode; a mediocre predictable ending granted, but for a mediocre predictable series, this ending works just fine.

Hope this helps!