Anime Review: Phantom in the Twilight Episode 1

Phantom in the Twilight Episode 1

Studio: Liden Films

Genre: Action, Supernatural

Stream: Crunchyroll

Now, listen. I’m a simple man. I see a harem of monster-people, I add it to my queue. So, when I saw the poster for Phantom in the Twilight, it looked like the perfect guilty-pleasure anime to watch this season. Set in modern London, the premise follows exchange student Baileu Ton as she navigates through her new surroundings, explores sites with her friend, and discovers she’s the reincarnation of her great-grandmother and leader of a trio of handsome monster-men.

The anime opens feeling something like a supernatural mystery story but by the end feels like an all-out action anime complete with heavy artillery, flashy explosions, and transformations. The series is clearly going for more of an action-oriented experience rather than slice of life or romance. This isn’t necessarily a terrible thing in and of itself, but the way the episode approaches this is a bit…extreme.

The main characters of the show are our protagonist Baileu Ton, and the three café hosts/monster guardians Vlad Garfunkel, Luke Bowen, and Tauryu. Each of the monster-men has a standard humanoid form and then a more monstrous form when they go into combat; Vlad is a vampire, Luke a werewolf, and Tauryu is a jiangshi with a minigun. A freaking minigun.

We also get to see another character who goes unnamed but because of his poise/few lines of dialogue/the episode’s opening animation, I think we can assume he will take a more antagonistic role.

The show is a wild ride that I can say I absolutely didn’t expect, and while near the middle it The studio, Liden Films, has worked on a few projects I’m familiar with (Terra Formars, Sekkō Boys, and sadly the infamous 2016 Berserk) and while I enjoyed those series moderately, the animation work was never the strongest point and again it doesn’t really shine through in this episode either. It’s serviceable, but there are plenty of scenes that are plagued with lazy background faces and sloppy animation in action spots.

The show is a wild ride that I can say I absolutely didn’t expect, and while near the middle it starts to feel like a mess of themes trying to create a cohesive picture (seriously, why does the Chinese vampire have a minigun?) I found myself enjoying the silliness of it all. As of now, it’s hard to say if this is worth the watch. If you’re like me and just enjoy monster harems, you might want to take a look. The ridiculous spectacle of it all might be all you need to stay entertained.