The best way to hunt for Phantom Books is to have them delivered to you.
What They Say:
Huey and Dalian have been barraged by visits from suitors of the lovely Viola Duplessis, who has requested that her suitors present her with Phantom Books. The pair decided to visit the woman and learn what she is trying to accomplish.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the way there seems to be so many Phantom Books out in the world, and in a relatively small space when you get down to it with the structure of this series, having them becoming more well known isn’t a surprise. That is, in fact, one of the main aspects of this story as we’re introduced to a woman named Viola who is being pursued by many men because of who she is and what she represents. What she’s getting them to do though in order to become a proper suitor is to request that they bring her a Phantom Book. This adds more people aware of the books, though likely not of what they really are, and they’re heading out to find them and ending up at Huey’s doorstep.
This gets Huey and Dalian to head out to her residence to figure out what’s going on. Viola’s an amusing personality as she plays things both ones, one where she’s very feminine when it comes to the suitor that’s there and his plans to find a Phantom Book to help her in an almost over the top theater feeling. When she deals with Huey and Dalian, with Dalian being very curt and to the point, she’s a bit clearer about things. What’s evident with both of the methods she uses, she’s easily able to gain the attentions of men for her purposes and she definitely wants Phantom Books in order to deal with a count who wants her out of the city for a reason that she doesn’t make immediately clear. It’s enough to put the pair to work in figuring it out of course, as they have to unravel the mystery.
The second half of the episode delves into the back and forth of this a bit when it comes to the count and the revelations start to hit. While the pacing of the show continues to be a problem, stuffing too much into an episode without a smooth sense of structure, it manages to make it hugely visually interesting. This trick to things when it comes to the Count and Viola works well and it’s not a surprise that Huey will go against him as best as he can. Both sides get to show off with the power of the Phantom Books and that is definitely an allure, though it’s largely done without a strong enough personal connection to the stories since they are over so quickly. But this episode does have a lot of fun when it comes to the Phantom Books battle that happens and they really let the animators shine here.
In Summary:
The Mystic Archives of Dantalian has an awkward episode in some ways here, but it’s a light and fluffy episode overall that actually manages to elicit some chuckles and smiles as it unfolds, largely due to the personality of Viola. What becomes problematic here is that over the first five episodes, we’ve largely seen the same things happening each time when it comes to Huey and Dalian. It wouldn’t even surprise me if it comes down to the same marks in time in each episode that they get to dealing with the problems at hand with the Phantom Books. It’s like Detective Conan so far in that you know there will be a resolution within the episode, it won’t have a real long term impact and that the leads are little more than observers and questioners for much of it until they have to act and save the day. When it becomes this predictable so quickly, it lessens the energy in the room.
Grade: B-
Simulcast By: Nico Nico
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
