90%

Even with a shrinking industry there’s still to less time to check out the mass of new anime as well as work/study/makeout/sleep/etc., so some series have to show more quality than others in order to get you watching right? To me the only series that truly did it for me this year is this one, the bold statement being I prefer this to Deathnote and Code Geass.

Now I hope I can get you to find sense in that statement with this, and I hope you’ll forgive me if I can’t, cause it still has certain cliches.

Phantom Requiem of the phantom is a series that focuses on the American Mafia, and kids becoming assassins, something you’ll expect to go horribly wrong, but it doesn’t. In fact the story is solid as hell and where you’ll expect a series to go for action this takes character build and pushes action to the far side of the room. The character build is in fact so good that they get a sense of realism with it. I myself being a fan of subtle things characters do in a well set up story am really drawn into excitement when watching this.

There isn’t much on the basic story you can’t find elsewhere, and I don’t want to spoil much either so I’ll explain the character that makes my thoughts the most obvious. I’m talking about the ONLY real evil guy in the plot, scythe master. Scythe Master is the guy that takes children, erases their memories and forces them to become the ultimate assassins (Phantoms), he is directly introduced as the big evil guy, but becomes special when you notice how he is evil. Scythe is a fairly old doctor with a calm and serene mood around him who enjoys life to the fullest in that mood… by brainwashing children as art! At some points this guy will tell you the sickest stuff and you’ll be drawn to other points in the story, unless you think about the way he’s saying it. When you realize what that guy does and how he talks about it you WILL want him to die.

And that’s sorta what most characters in this series do, they’ll draw you to think the way the series wants you to think along with the story itself. That is the excellence of this series. And to come back at the bold statement earlier, Neither Code Geass nor Deathnote did that to me. Also this story doesn’t contain anything supernatural or over the top like those two, it remains easier to follow than DN, you’ll just never be like WTF while watching and you’ll still love it.

Many fans might disagree with me but if you haven’t seen this yet than go watch it fast, and be amazed..

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