Phantom - Phantom of Inferno

Rating:
Summary: Loved it!!
Review: I am a formal Japanese language student, and this is exactly the kind of thing I like to find; a LOT of Japanese dialogue presented in a very entertaining way. It took me about 20 hours to play through the interactive anime to only one of the endings, and the story was very engrossing (like a good book that you just can't put down). I even cried through some of the sad parts ;__;
The audio is only in Japanese, and you have a choice between English, Japanese (to my delight), or no subtitles. The voice actors are very good and I liked the character CG, despite that they were still images. Some of the backgrounds aren't that great, but I was concentrating on reading too much for it to bother me ^__^
This DVD is definitely worth it, whether you are learning Japanese or just looking for a good story. Give it a try!!

Rating:
Summary: Interesting concept and DVD....
Review: I had read about this DVD and decided to give it a try. It says that it is a DVD game, and it plays out kind of like one. The story follows a young man simply called Zwei, being trained as an Assassin in the organization Inferno. The DVD has multiple turning points, and you can change the story depending on what you pick. The DVD also spouts out passwords for you to pick up where you left off. Which is nice because you won't finish this in one night trust me.
Now on to the actual review, like I said before, the DVD pans out like a game, mixing in still images of CG and anime with a few CG movies every now and then while the voices narrate what is happening. The voice acting isn't bad at all, but you might want to know that it isn't in English, just Japanese with an option for Subtitles in Japanese or English. This may bother some, but for me it hasn't been a issue. The quality of the subtitles is decent, but I have noticed quite a few grammar and spelling errors in them. But they are still understandable.
You should also make sure that your DVD player can actually handle and play this DVD. This shouldn't be too hard, since it works on just about everything, including the Playstation 2. Even if your player can play the DVD, be warned that there is sometimes a bit of load times while the DVD loads up the next scene. The story overall though isn't too hard to follow, and it is interesting enough to keep you watching the still images.
This might not be for everyone, since its setup is different from most DVD's. But if you don't mind doing a little reading, then this will definately catch you attention. The story is more than enough to make up for any of the other minor problems that the DVD presents.

Rating:
Summary: Loved it!!
Review: I'm a formal Japanese language student, and this is exactly the kind of thing I like to find; a LOT of Japanese dialogue presented in a very entertaining way. This DVD is "interactive", which means that you get to make choices along the way that directly affect the outcome of the story. It took me about 20 hours to play through the anime to only one of the endings, and the story was very engrossing (like a good book that you just can't put down). I even cried through some of the sad parts ;_;
The audio is only in Japanese, and you have a choice between English, Japanese (to my delight), or no subtitles. The voice actors are very good and I liked the character CG, despite that they were still images. Some of the backgrounds aren't that great, but I was concentrating on reading too much for it to bother me ^_^
Whether you are learning Japanese or just looking for a good story, Phantom of the Inferno is worth buying. Give it a try!!

Rating:
Summary: Interactive anime provides hours of excitment.
Review: Rember the Choose Your Own Adventure books that were so popular in the 1980s? If CRYING FREEMAN had been done as such a book, the result might be something simular to this.

The protagonist is a young japanese student who comes to L.A., sees something he wasn't supposed to see, and is kidnapped, taken to an abandoned building in the desert, and is brainwashed and his memory is erased by top members of the fictional organized crime group Inferno. Instead of killing him outright, they decide he might be useful as an assassin. His captors are a middle aged man known only as Sythe master, and his boss Claudia McCunnen. They rename the young man Zwei, and he is to be instructed in the ways of killing by Ein, a girl his age who bears the title of Phantom, as she is Inferno's best assassin. She shows no outward emotion, much like the heroine from KITE.

Over the next serveral weeks, Ein trains Zwei in gunplay, hand-to-hand combat, and tactics to use when pursueing or being pursued.

During this time, Claudia stops by to see him, and it seems she has taken a deep, personal interest in Zwei.

Then finally comes the night when Zwei must pass his final test. A former navy SEAL, Captain Wallace, has been supplying Inferno with weapons for the past few years, but has recently been found out by the F.B.I. after selling weapons to terrorists on the side. Inferno promises to take him to thier own private airport, but instead they take him to the warehouse where Zwei has been held prisoner. Now if he wants to live, Zwei must kill Wallace. This he does, though he is tormented by it.

After this, Ein and Zwei are moved into an apartment loft in the city, where they stay for the next six months. They often return to the desert warehouse to sharpen Zwei's skills, and occasionally are sent out to do a job. Then one day Sythe gives them a new assignment-to intercept a shipment of cocaine being delivered to the chinese mafia arriving in the Los Angelas harbor that Inferno supposedly wants snatched. A few hours before they are to do this, however, Lizzie, Claudia's tough female body guard stops by Ein and Zwei's place and says Claudia wants to have a private meeting with Zwei. Ein must then go by herself.

Zwei drives to Claudia's mansion, where, after some small talk, she shows him his passport which she's been holding onto the entire time, and she has him write the name on the passport, Reiji Azuma. This triggers his memory to return, and Claudia tells him she showed him this because she wants to have an assistant who will work for her of his own free will, not an unfeeling robot like Ein. Reiji must now decide if he wants to continue life as an assassin, or go back to Japan and return to peaceful civilian life.

Reiji, pondering what to do, drives back to the desert warehouse to think, and then finds Ein, shot and badly injured. It seems that Sythe, who is now on the run, betrayed the group and used Ein to attack an Inferno drug shipment. Now both Sythe and Ein are marked for death. Reiji, knowing he can't take Ein to a hospidal, calls Claudia, but she can't help him. Now Reiji must decide, should he try to save Ein, even though if he were found helping here by a member of Inferno he too would be killed, or should he leave her to die and return to Japan alone?

There are several choices you can make as Reiji up to this point, some of which could greatly affect the story later on, but this is how the story goes, whatever you do. However, the tale can continue. You could form a closer relasionship with Claudia, become Inferno's next Phantom, you could take over as the head of Inferno or wipe it out single-handedly, you could kill Ein or she could kill you. Or eles Ein and you could form an allience and try to escape Inferno together.

Overall, this is a great buy, however it is not without a few complaints. First of all, this DVD is not bilingual-it is japanese language only, with the option of english or japanese subtitles. I greatly prefer english language myself, however I found that once I got wraped up in the story, I didn't mind so much. There are a few moving CGI images, however most of it is still characters on still backrounds. This too, however, comes to mean less when you get really absorbed in the story, especially since the voice acting is superb and the characters are intreging. There are a few misspellings in the english subtitles, although that's nitpicking. There is a scene on the disk itself that shows Ein lying down with another character from the film, Drei, lying on top of her, guns pointed at each other. This scene never actually appears in any of the stories. Finally, this might not play well on a Go Video DVD player. It works fine on Sony, though.

Another special feature on this DVD is that ever so often you come to a password screen. This way when you start up the DVD again later you can go to the password menu and start at any given point in the story, rather than always having to begin again at the start.

Even though it's not perfect, this is a sound investment. If you like action-packed anime, I strongly advise this.

Rating:
Summary: Scythe Master's Naming Might No Be Unique But Phantom Is
Review: This DVD is a true gem, for some back history Phantom Of Inferno was originally a Hentai game for the PC by Princess they removed the h-scenes and ported it to DVD and here we are. I won't ruin the story, which is played out from the point of view of the classic bishojo game hero, Reiji Azuma (Zwei), who finds himself abduced, brainwashed and forced into the dark and twisted world of the criminal organization Inferno where he joins the current Phantom Ein (Elen), Inferno's top sniper, as an assasin. In whole this movie will take upwards of 3 days of hardcore viewing to finish, but the storyline will keep you glued to the screen until you've got all three of the good endings and both of the bad ones. You will... I repeat you will cry when Elen(Ein) prepares herself to die, and you'll be moved as Mio exaults Reiji's merits to a torn Drei(Cal). Pick this one up you will not be disappointed.
Ein (1) Zwei (2) Drei (3)