The cliff hanger of Phantom: Requiem For The Phantom Part One left us with many questions, most of which I wont include in my review to avoid spoilers, but as part two of the two part series begins there is a real Leon: The Professional vibe going on. Little girl looking for revenge for a lost loved one, assassin taking pity on her and allowing her to hang around to cook and clean, eventually she wants to become an assassin as well. Even Piggy makes an appearance.

In contrast to the first half of the show this is fruition for our hero as he learns to live a little more after being brainwashed into becoming a thoughtless killer. Of course nothing good lasts forever when it comes to being the Phantom. New surprises await and the show goes from Leon: The Professional to La Femme Nikita with a twist (That’s Point of no Return for us Americans).

It takes a little getting used to, finding the balance in the second half. In Part One your running this completely fluid story where everything happens all in the same time line. In part two your coming to a break and then jumping ahead weeks, months, years. The continuity is there but it simply takes you by surprise. In any case my opinion that Phantom will stand the test of time for an anime series stands. What I think makes the show so fantastic is the amount of realism found in it. There are no demons, no small friendly creatures with high pitched voices, no magic. What you get is a representation of any action crime thriller with characters so consumed by their own existence that everyone is important, everyone is an individual with their own thought process that seems independent of whatever path the main characters are taking. Basically they don’t exist just to move the story forward which makes them real, which makes the story easier to consume. As before the voice over work here is also a huge plus further creating individuals of the characters and adding creditability to the personality of the characters. Lizzie is probably one of the most stand out characters that, really, doesn’t have a whole lot of sway on the direction of the story, but voice over actress Shay Moore simply gives the character depth. Zwei, voiced by Newton Pittman manages to make Zwei a character with a huge amount of depth and his thought narratives kept reminding me of Ray Liotta when he does his narratives in Goodfellas. Did that give the series a biased advantage? Maybe. In any case this is a must see, must own series that will have you glued to your seat for the entirety of its runtime. I would know. As always final judgment is yours. Enjoy.