Phantom in the Twilight – 01 (First Impressions) – Supernatural Study Abroad

Just minutes after arriving in London for their study abroad, Bayrou Ton and her BFF (and secretary?) Shinyao are robbed of their luggage, passports, credit cards, and Ton’s heirloom ring. Ton is a girl of action, and so runs through London chasing the semi-transparent beast-like thief.

Despite arriving during late afternoon at the latest, this chase goes on until after midnight, when she finally realizes she’s lost and separated from Shinyao. She throws a paper airplane with a spell written on it, which flies right into a night cafe that just happens to have been founded by her great-grandmother, Sha Rijan.

At Cafe Forbidden, Ton meets three strapping young lads who knew Rijan, suggesting they’re actually very long-lived lads. here’s the aloof, prickly one (Vlad), the tall, dark, and quiet one (Tauryu) and the kiddy, friendly one (Luke). They believe the thief is a goblin, and race to Hyde Park to deal with it.

Ton follows them in a taxi (I guess she had some pocket money), and watches a very bizarre spectacle unfold. The three lads, decked out in their fancy black coats, do battle with a whole band of goblins, while Vlad confronts a Spriggan. Ton reveals herself to warn him, but he’s distracted and is briefly stunned.

Ton uses the heirloom ring a monocled stranger returned to her and told her to wear to pull some kind of magical chains out of the ground she uses to protect herself. Vlad pounces on the Spriggan from behind and kills it with a coup-de-grace. Rather than explain to Ton all of the straight-up weird shit that just went down, Vlad glamours her instead; replacing her memories with false ones involving a police chase. Luke later wonders if it was the right thing to do.

Ton wakes up in the park like nothing weird at all happened, gets in touch with Shinyao, and after credits that underscore just how much these two friends care about each other, Ton meets her at their new apartment…only for Shinyao to be immediately kidnapped. Well played, show.

So, not the bestest first couple of days for Bayrou Ton! She has a cool name, though, and she’s voiced by Hanazawa Kana, making it two characters in short red jackets she’s voicing this Summer! Other than that, and despite some competent animation and a decent soundtrack, I came away a bit less enthusiastic for this than the quieter, more thoughtful Holmes of Kyoto. Twilight has a likable heroine but is a bit all over the place so far.

Holmes of Kyoto – 01 (First Impressions) – The Game’s Afoot

After Mashiro Aoi broke up with her boyfriend in Saitama, he immediately started dating someone I presume to be her best friend. Betrayed, angry, and generally very down in the dumps, Aoi wants to book a train there to give them a piece of her mind. In other words, while she may be justified in seeking vengeance, there are better ways she could be directing her energy.

Aoi also doesn’t have the money for the train, so she snatches some valuable drawings from her late grandfather’s house and visits an antique shop in Kyoto’s Teramachi Sanjou district to have them appraised. There, she meets the young Yagashira Kiyotaka, AKA Holmes, who is as exceedingly apt at appraising people and intent as he is appraising antiquities.

The story of her fateful first day at the shop is framed as a reminiscence between Aoi and Holmes two weeks after he hires her as a part-time assistant, in order to pay for her ticket—if she still feels the need to go to Saitama once she’s made enough.

Holmes can’t buy antiques from those under 20, but even if she was old enough, he uses the particular pieces she chose to try to sell to basically teach her a lesson about turning the other cheek. Even the famous artist Hakuin couldn’t escape scandal, even if he was the victim of a false accusation.

At the end of the day the infant he was left with made a strong impression on the artist, and the love he had for said infant is captured in the drawing. Because Aoi has a good head on her shoulders, she realizes the error of her ways and is ashamed—unlike one of the counterfeit sellers who visits the shop.

Aoi doesn’t turn down his offer of a part-time job, especially if it means working with such a bright, charming, attractive fellow. She may have entered the shop with her head hanging low, but she leaves feeling lighter than air, twirling past the same riverbank of couples she cursed earlier.

Holmes of Kyoto, as Aoi’s voiceover puts it, is a “quiet and beautiful story of the cases we solved in Kyoto,” which is an apt description. I’m liking the simplicity and focus of just two people in the small, simple yet potential-filled setting of a shop, and Aoi’s seiyu Tomita Miyu (Riko from Abyss) is always a welcome inclusion to any cast. In all, a strong start. I want to see more cases!

Planet With – 01 (First Impressions) – Unidentified Rooting Interest

What Planet With lacks in originality (weird mecha fighting an even weirder enemy is a tale as old as time) it makes up for in polish, panache, and, well, specificity. Kuroi Souya isn’t just one such mecha pilot; he’s an orphaned amnesiac transfer student who lives with a green-haired maid and giant purple cat-man that only eats lettuce/cabbage.

Despite the best efforts of his charming class rep (and occult research club member) Takamagahara, Souya ends up splitting off from his class when massive UFOs start appearing close to coastal cities, including his. A band of seven superheroes transform into mecha to meet the extremely bizarre object.

Souya isn’t among them. In fact, the maid (Ginko) and cat-man (“Sensei”) meet up with him and instruct him not to take out the UFO, but the seven superheroes, one of whom (Torai) manages to enter the core of the UFO. Just like a JSDF fighter pilot earlier, Torai is transported to an elaborate illusion, given the chance to save his mom who he couldn’t save in real life. He manages to break through the illusion and destroy the UFO, and the others explode with it around the world.

Before his mecha can be repaired, he’s confronted by Souya, who ends up piloting “Sensei”, who transforms into a vaguely feline mecha. Souya manages to defeat Torai’s far larger mecha and steal the source of his power; a vial filled with silver star-shaped particles. Souya laments that he may have been taken in by Ginko and Sensei in order to fight as their soldier…though at least this time, he’s won over by the promise of a meat (though not beef)-filled dinner.

And that’s where we leave things. The question is, who is the good guy here? Souya all but admits he’s the two weirdos’ weapon, while after the credits, whoever is in charge of the seven superheroes (who Torai claim are protecting the planet) hardly looks like the benevolent type.

Everything looks and sounds great in Planet With, but take away the spectacle and there’s not much to invest in here…at least not yet. As with Souya and the promise of meat, I’ll settle for spectacle for now. But meat alone isn’t a meal; hopefully some potatoes are forthcoming.