Phantom of Inferno
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Phantom of Inferno is a visual novel game created by Nitroplus, and distributed by Hirameki International (a subsidiary of the Japanese visual novel publisher Hirameki). It came out in Japan in 2001, and then was distributed in America by AnimePlay in 2003. The game is highly praised by all who play it due to its great soundtrack and extremely intense romance and drama elements. The story can take either a dark action/drama path or can turn into a very emotional romantic drama depending on the choice of the player. The DVD game suffers from some technical problems but players have said they don't overshadow the game's high points.
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[edit] Plot
Phantom currently resides as both an interactive (chose your own adventure) video game and small 3 part OVA anime series
[edit] Video game
Phantom of Inferno is a story detailing the life of a 15-year-old Japanese boy who is kidnapped after witnessing the killing of a reporter. After being kidnapped his memories of his past life are erased and is given the choice to join Inferno or die. He makes the only choice he can to join and is given the name Zwei and will study under Ein. She is also known as Phantom since this is the title given to the organization's top assassin.
Inferno is said to be the United Nations that exists only for crime syndicates. As Zwei makes his way through training and various missions, deceit and betrayal occur even within Inferno that slowly puts Zwei in increasing danger. Along the way, he meets a girl by the name of Cal Devens and though he tries to protect her, she too is drawn into Inferno to become the assassin, Drei.
[edit] Anime - Phantom: The Animation
The animation of Phantom is usually seen as inferior to its video game counterpart, due in part to the shortness of the anime. The OVA series still manages to follow Zwei as he makes a trip to America, only to witness an assassination which leads to his memoryloss and indoctrination into Inferno. Though not as heavily as in the game, we see Zwei's training before he goes with Ein to help with an assassination. Though a different path is taken, deceit and betrayal rip apart Inferno and place Ein and Zwei on opposite sides which eventually leads to their climatic battle at the end of the anime.
[edit] Characters
- Zwei (Reiji)
- The title character of the story, Zwei was a perfectly ordinary tourist before witnessing an Inferno assassination, and being kidnapped. He was able to allude his pursuers long enough that they realised he had a natural survival instinct that was perfect for an assassin. He had his memory erased through a combination of drug and hypnotherapy. The name Zwei is simply a code name to show he is the second experimental assassin created by Master Scythe. Through Claudia, one of the three top executives of Inferno, Zwei is able to learn his true identity as Reiji Azuma. When he returns to Japan, he goes back to using his name.
- Ein (Elen)
- An assassin with such skill she was given the codename, "Phantom", a designation given to only the best killer in Inferno. She was found by Master Scythe and was his first test subject to be given his assassin processing treatment. She has no memories of her past, and is incredibly apathetic. When she escapes to Japan, she changes her name to Elen and claims to be Reiji's sister. A long and rigorous investigation by Elen and Reiji traces her history back to Holland and though the trail manages to stop there, Elen is able to find some peace in the area.
- Claudia McCunnen
- A beautiful executive of Inferno who is quick to befriend and manipulate Zwei. Though she seems to have good intentions, she is quietly manipulating Inferno and its actions. This cunning and doubleside nature is never shown in the anime.
- Lizzie Garland
- Claudia's loyale friend and bodyguard.
- Master Scythe
- A scientist with sadistic delusions of granduer. He is the creator of Ein, Zwei, Drei, and the members of Zwerrenshvestain.
- Isaac Wisemel
- A brutal executive of Inferno, and leader of the Los Angeles gang, the "Bloodies".
- Raymond McGuire
- A quiet and calculating Columbian drug lord who other executives of Inferno are quick to obey.
- Drei (Cal Devens)
- A young girl that tried to hire Zwei, thinking he was a killer for justice, by using money she had unknowningly stole from Inferno. Zwei tries to hide her from Inferno but is unsuccessful and in a move to save her life asks that she becomes his assistant as he had been to Ein. After an attempt on his life, Zwei took her for dead and was forced to leave America to go into hiding. Cal believe that she had been left behind by Zwei and is manipulated by a now exonerated Scythe, who turns her beliefs into full hatred for Zwei and trains her as his third assassin, Drei.
- Zwerrenshvestain
- Six girls who all went through Master Scythe's finalized assassin creation process. They are nearly the same quality of killers as the first three, and took nowhere near as much time to train since the process to make them was based on all the originals data. They all wear white carnival masks and are named: Vier, Fünf, Sechs, Seiben, Acht and Neun.
[edit] Trivia
- All the assassins names are German numbers. Ein, Zwei, Drei,...Neun (1,2,3,...9)
- Though credited as Zwei/Reiji Agatsuma in the anime, Zwei's real name, Reiji, is never mentioned. His last name changes from Azuma to Agatsuma, from the game to anime.
- Since the anime only roughly covers the first chapter of the game, Cal/Drei is never introduced though at the end of the first episode Ein puts on a blond wig matching Cal's hair color (this killing was not in the game). And in the 2nd episode, while stopped at a light when getting groceries, Zwei is standing next to a girl that looks exactly like Cal except with brown hair and purple eyes. This is an obvious reference to Cal as she is dressed exactly like Cal and even has the band-aid on her cheek.
