And... we're off! The new season has officially begun here, with our first candidate Musaigen no Phantom World. Which was a lot better than I thought it would be. For one thing, it begins with an extended fourth-wall break.

It's a rather silly show in a lot of ways. It's also mildly ecchi, which is always a bonus. The basic conceit is that ten years ago there was a strange experiment going on at a certain company. A terrorist bomb blew the place up and released a genetically engineered virus, which changed the brains of everyone who got infected, which turned out to be pretty much everyone everywhere. As a result, the border between reality and fantasy has largely broken down, and Phantoms are now a fact of life.

Phantoms are things like fairies, monsters, and lots of other things. Reality is a bit plastic now, and Phantoms keep appearing all over the place. Some of them are rather benign and humans leave them alone. Some of them cause a lot of trouble, and have to be subdued and destroyed. But never fear, we have super-powered high school girls to come to our rescue! (And the occasional icky boy.)

Most people don't have such powers but a few do, all young. Clubs for them are formed at various high schools, and they divide into small teams and take jobs as they come in -- for which they are rewarded with barter but not money.

A lot of that came from an "As you know, Jim" in this episode, but it worked mainly because it wasn't very long and it was just a bit tongue-in-cheek. (He begins, "It's common knowledge, but I'll explain anyway.")

The eventual harem will be five girls, one of which is a loli with a teddy bear according to the OP. Another one is a tame phantom called Ruru, who seems to be a fairy and is hand-sized, though the OP suggests she can change forms and become big if she wants so. Nothing like that happened in this episode so it isn't really established yet.

This begins a bit like 35th Test Platoon did, with the team Our Hero is in being seen as losers in the school. (The difference is that 35th Test Platoon played it straight. This show knows it's dumb and isn't trying to pretend otherwise.) Initially it only consists of our hero, Haruhiko (first year), and the first girl, Mai (second year), who among other things is noteworthy for her amazing rack. Which fact is commented on several times by more than one person.

At the beginning Haruhiko wakens in his apartment, or is wakened by Ruru, who stays with him. He rushes to school fearing he'll be late and that Mai will roundhouse-kick him, and when he gets there she's fighting a phantom, a big one.

Haruhiko's power is that he can draw a phantom, and then suck it into his drawing, capturing it. In addition to being a really athletic fighter, Mai has the power to call on any of the five elements, and use them janken-style to destroy any phantom once it's captured, because each phantom is associated with one of the five elements. So their powers complement each other nicely and it's natural they became partners.

Which brings us to another ecchi humor moment: Mai summons up the various elements by using magic and rubbing her body in different areas. To get water she rubs the area over her kidneys. To summon the power of metal, on the other hand, she fondles her boobs. (Don't ask stupid questions.)

Haruhiko and Mai are aware of their weakness and have decided to try to recruit partners. The first victim is Reina, who is a phantom eater. Which, frankly, makes her a lot more powerful than either of the others, but she's also a bit shy and withdrawn and the other two are outgoing. So she joins them for a case in the second half of the episode. And she calls Mai onee-sama. (It's a harem, but whose harem?)

Some phantom power poles are dancing the limbo, and causing trouble. Haruhiko turns out to be a nerd who reads lots and lots of books, and notices an English language pun. Anyway, skipping over some silly exposition, he decides that they need to dance the limbo themselves in order to win.

So all three of them try it, and Reina and Haruhiko both fail immediately. Mai does surprisingly well, but... her boobs are a problem, sticking up like they do, especially during the last round. So she bounces up and down so that her boobs will gainax, and she is able to move under the power line during a "down" and finally win it.

I don't think I've ever seen a show where gainaxing is a deliberate victory strategy where it isn't about distracting or affecting a guy.

Other silliness: Haruhiko has a cliche'ed meet cute with Reina and realizes it. And whatever else Ruru is (a djinn, maybe?) she's also rather lusty. When Haruhiko is in the library reading, she nags him because his books are boring. She wants H. He says there isn't any.

She also abuses him a few times, including kicking him in the head. She is a major source of humor, consciously so by the director, and she is a source of fan service. She also comments rather explicity about Mai's assets -- twice in this episode and I'm sure there will be more.

ANN currently only categorizes the show as "supernatural", but of course it's eventually going to be "harem" and I won't be at all surprised if it is also "comedy".

Definitely a lot of fun, and well deserving at least a second episode. If it keeps going like it began, I will certainly watch the whole thing.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 07:13 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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