(L) Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~ (Nitroplus & Bee Train)

[orion]

The streaming's definitely not high quality. It also buffers too many times which can be distracting.

I truly hope that apostilleus was not being serious.

Actually, I think that link should be removed. It's prob trying to spam the forum. It has only posted twice so far.

[Fellini 8.5]

Originally Posted by orion

The streaming's definitely not high quality. It also buffers too many times which can be distracting.

I dislike the eternal buffering and the stream quality myself. But I overcome the buffering by pre-buffering 80% of the show before I start watching. It takes forever, but I suffer with it.

I overcome the crummy flash video quality (made crummier when made full-screen on my 60" 1080p set) by sucking it up and getting over it. Mainly because I really, really want this sort of thing -- same-day subtitled releases over the internet -- to be successful! I'm also paying Crunchyroll for essentially 1 show (the only one there I was interested in) because I want to put my money where my mouth is.

Since Funi's stream is free, I'd encourage anyone and everyone who has access and likes the show to at least go ahead and let the stream buffer and play, and rate the show, even if you do your "quality watching" by other means. The more popular it gets, the better investment it gets. And more money gets to the creators. The cost is just a tiny bit of suffering.

For Phantom, I'm missing the full effect that the HD fansubs were giving me at first, but I'm really enjoying it anyhow. Go figure. This one returns to the ingredients that I thought made Noir and MADLAX my favorites, and then goes and kicks it up a couple of notches. I hope production funding can sustain this level of quality through the entire run.

[orion]

We're consumers. We aren't suppose to "suck up" anything. If there is a problem, complain. If it's not fixed, take your business elsewhere.

[DeadlySoldier37]

This whole time I though it was my computer messing up. It's good to know that is not my computer. Damn Funimation you better give a second though to your video quality and speed like Felllini 8.5 said I give it a 5 minute head start so the video loads properly and I don't have to worry about buffering. Really looking forward to tomorrows episode. Hope we get to see more Claudia and Zwei.

[DragoZERO]

The buffering is dependent upon your internet connection. If its fast the whole episode will load before you finish the OP (like me) or well, not. My only problem is the low quality of the stream, otherwise I have no problems with it.

[orion]

Originally Posted by DragoZERO

The buffering is dependent upon your internet connection. If its fast the whole episode will load before you finish the OP (like me) or well, not. My only problem is the low quality of the stream, otherwise I have no problems with it.

I have high speed internet access with no caps and no problems on other streaming sites. It's them not me (another viewpoint and another one...).

[4Tran]

Originally Posted by Fellini 8.5

This one returns to the ingredients that I thought made Noir and MADLAX my favorites, and then goes and kicks it up a couple of notches. I hope production funding can sustain this level of quality through the entire run.

Can I simply repost your points ? While I thought the opening episode of Phantom was a bit on the weak side, the rest of the show is quick to show off just how much Beetrain has learned from making Noir and Madlax. I felt that the third entry, El Cazador was a bit of a step backwards in the way of style and direction, and Phantom does a good job of going in a more positive direction.

[justinstrife]

Originally Posted by slayer545-sama

This is what I think:

Spoiler:

FUCK YOU ZWEI! FUCK YOU FOR KILLING DUKE AND EVA! I HOPE YOU DIE IN HELL! I HOPE TO CUT YOUR HEAD OFF! Scarface is rolling in his tomb! You sick ass Claudia McCunnen! SCREW YOU! Duke did nothing wrong! They were innocent! I HOPE ZWEI DIES WITH EIN! DIE ALREADY ASSHOLES!

BTW I am really and also this is not right! Screw all this! Where the hell are the special OPS! Green Berrets? Navy Seals? SIS? Come on Zwei ain't that good compared to them? Sure he killed a one person ex navy seal so who cares! Get all forces together! You think you can get them? I DON'T CARE ANYMORE AFTER THIS ABOUT ZWEI! HE IS A BASTARD!

Grow up... Did you not expect something like this with a series about assassins?

Wow. Just wow. Zwei really did it. I held my breath waiting for that barrier to come crashing down and boy did it.

And let me just say that Claudio is MEGA HAWT. Zwei you lucky dog you! I feel bad for Ein. Just as she's starting to regain her humanity, he's losing his. Makes for juicy drama.

Been playing through the game, I can definitely connect with Ein more so here than in the game. Amazed I had never heard of the game or series until I found the first episode on a site. Hooked, just don't want any more e-mails from baytsp(sp?) about copyright episodes like another series. Not like I have any other real way of seeing these shows, and I don't want to get stuck with the crappy dubs that do get released here...

[cyberbeing]

Originally Posted by orion

I have high speed internet access with no caps and no problems on other streaming sites. It's them not me (another viewpoint and another one...).

It seems that Funimation's server could be making a quick assessment of your download speed and then possibly capping the speed to whatever your max or average speed is during the first second. If this is the case and your connection doesn't ramp up speed fast enough, this could mean it caps the connection lower then it should. It would be interesting to see if this really is the case. By downloading something like NetMeter, you should be able to tell if you're being hard limited to a certain speed. If it really is being hard limited for some people at sub-optimal speed, this is obviously something Funimation is going to have to work on.

Now if it's not being hard limited (speed fluctuating all over the place with no apparent limit), your ISP must have really crap routing/peering to the XO Communications backbone in Texas. In that case you should complain to your ISP and see if they can make any improvments. The only other possible solution would be Funimation spending more money to get higher quality bandwidth from someone like Level 3.


Funimation's server can be fast even at great distances if you have good routing/peering with XO Commuications and a fast connection. Even though my data has to travel around 1900 miles to and from the streaming server, I'm able to get a solid 1MB/s (hard limited by Funimation) which isn't bad at all with a whole ~200-220MB episode downloading in less then 4 minutes.

After watching episodes 1-5 on Funimation's site my only real issues are the poor chroma upsampling and resizing as well as somewhat jerky playback (poor framerate decimation and/or duplicate frames) at times. It is still very watchable, but I hope they eventually get around to fixing these somewhat annoying quality issues.
__________
In any case, I'm enjoying this series so far. Now that they are fully beyond the training, I just hope they are able to continue showing some quality character development between Ein and Zwei as the series goes on. If it keeps going as it is, it seems likely that Ein will have a mental breakdown in the near future.

[Fellini 8.5]

Originally Posted by 4Tran

Can I simply repost your points ? While I thought the opening episode of Phantom was a bit on the weak side, the rest of the show is quick to show off just how much Beetrain has learned from making Noir and Madlax. I felt that the third entry, El Cazador was a bit of a step backwards in the way of style and direction, and Phantom does a good job of going in a more positive direction.

I think I'd add that "kicking it up a couple of notches" involves liberal doses of skin and blood. Especially after ep 6. I love that this show is revelling in it's TV-MA* rating.

El Cazador had the misfortune of being written by the guy who brought us such campy fanservice "gems" as Agent Aika. Word from a friend was that there were all kinds of production problems because of the writing. Phantom's got Kuroda, who I think did an outstanding job with MADLAX.



(* or whatever the TV Tokyo equiv. is)

[Mentar]

Okay. This, my friends, is awesome.

Spoiler for episode 6:

It was an anime-original episode, but it seamlessly integrated into the overall story, theme-wise and atmosphere-wise. The characters are entirely spot-on, and they already begin to gradually reflect the thinking of their respective masters they have affinity to: Ein towards Scythe Master, and Zwei towards Claudia. Scythe Master's gradual usurping of Claudia's position, who in return pursues her Godoh project. The violent, but smart revolution of the underworld by killing the figureheads and activating the second line...

Whoever is responsible for the script is doing some awesome work, and he's really doing the original work justice. No beetraining going on here, everything was reasonably realistic, and the impact of the show stems from the continuous storyline, and not some mythical bullet dodging.

I'm amazed. After episode 1 I never would have thought that Phantom would turn out so wonderfully.

Definitely a competitor for "best show of the season".

[Avisch]

Whilst I have not played the original game. I do know what you mean by "beetraining", and I do agree that this is going wonderfully.

[slayer545-sama]

I got sick of doing good reviews (like I do for other series) for this series just because of #5 killings of Duke and Eva. I am totally obsessed by HAVING ZWEI AND EIN...DEAD! DEAD! DEAD! Each episode I hope that someone will come to kill them or wound them. To my sad disappointment they kill 12 guys in this episode!
WTF? Where the f**** are people that can stop them? Where the f*** are oppositions. I WANT ZWEI AND EIN DEAD! This episode PISSED ME OFF! Again! Who the hell Scythe thinks he is? GOD? F*** THAT! I WANT PUNK SHIT DEAD ALSO!

The only parts I liked was seeing Ein' body since it has a nice form and composure:

Spoiler:

Please buy the DVD if you want to see this more.

Spoiler:

Can someone please tell me What the fuck is the problem of the doctor doing this Ein?????

Spoiler:

Mr. Scythe as long as I AM IN THIS WORLD.....YOU WILL NEVER REALIZE WHAT YOU SAY! Mark my words if I were in there I WOULD KILL THEM ALL! RIP THEM APART!

Spoiler:

BTW if Ein can be beautiful like this why the f*** does she not get the hell out with Zwei. HELL I DON'T CARE AND WOULD BE BETTER IF THEY (Inferno) ALL DIED!

Originally Posted by Mentar

Okay. This, my friends, is awesome.

Spoiler for episode 6:

It was an anime-original episode, but it seamlessly integrated into the overall story, theme-wise and atmosphere-wise. The characters are entirely spot-on, and they already begin to gradually reflect the thinking of their respective masters they have affinity to: Ein towards Scythe Master, and Zwei towards Claudia. Scythe Master's gradual usurping of Claudia's position, who in return pursues her Godoh project. The violent, but smart revolution of the underworld by killing the figureheads and activating the second line...

Whoever is responsible for the script is doing some awesome work, and he's really doing the original work justice. No beetraining going on here, everything was reasonably realistic, and the impact of the show stems from the continuous storyline, and not some mythical bullet dodging.

I'm amazed. After episode 1 I never would have thought that Phantom would turn out so wonderfully.

Definitely a competitor for "best show of the season".

Sorry Mentar but to me a anime about murder (especially about kids and women) is not competition but if you are talking about art and psychology then it has my seal of approval for being a mind fuck/frustrating experience.

[Deathkillz]

Mind fuck and frustrating? *Laughs*
Seems like this isn't the series for you if you dislike watching fluffy cute bunnies being blown to bits with a shotgun causing you to hate the hunter so much that you completely miss the point of the series. sheesh

[ASR1FanSubs]

Originally Posted by SuperKnuckles

Thank god I'm totally out of touch with manga/game scene directly since these shows can just surprise me out of nowhere.

Honestly, I have no problems with BeeTrain shows. Even the last big one in El Cazador, it had is fun/great moments, even if its core story was sorta 'stop the end of the world!' thing and it was strangely cheery as a show.


What I love about episode 4 and this show in general is that characters don't jabber about love or hate or reveal their innermost thoughts ALL THE TIME, like most anime do nowadays. Characters actually seems to try to hide their emotions to a point, and I think that's better than most anime characters wearing emotions on their sleeves and doing in-their-minds monologue about their innermost thought all the time.

El Cazador was so good! I loved it

[Mentar]

Originally Posted by slayer545-sama

Sorry Mentar but to me a anime about murder (especially about kids and women) is not competition but if you are talking about art and psychology then it has my seal of approval for being a mind fuck/frustrating experience.

Erhm... not sure if this will help you in any way, but the second half of the show will be dedicated to BREAKING AWAY from this world. But I'm afraid that this simply isn't the show for you ... so instead of throwing a tantrum the next 20 episodes, I honestly suggest you drop it.

[slayer545-sama]

Originally Posted by justinstrife

Grow up... Did you not expect something like this with a series about assassins?

Wow. Just wow. Zwei really did it. I held my breath waiting for that barrier to come crashing down and boy did it.

And let me just say that Claudio is MEGA HAWT. Zwei you lucky dog you! I feel bad for Ein. Just as she's starting to regain her humanity, he's losing his. Makes for juicy drama.

Been playing through the game, I can definitely connect with Ein more so here than in the game. Amazed I had never heard of the game or series until I found the first episode on a site. Hooked, just don't want any more e-mails from baytsp(sp?) about copyright episodes like another series. Not like I have any other real way of seeing these shows, and I don't want to get stuck with the crappy dubs that do get released here...

GROW UP? Now listen you what I think is what I think and am mature enough to tell you that anger is to be expressed.

Originally Posted by Mentar

Erhm... not sure if this will help you in any way, but the second half of the show will be dedicated to BREAKING AWAY from this world. But I'm afraid that this simply isn't the show for you ... so instead of throwing a tantrum the next 20 episodes, I honestly suggest you drop it.

I can't do that Mentar because of personal reasons. I will continue to express myself as such. On another note, past #13 you are saying less killings more escape. BTW will there be any other things like killings of Duke and Eva??? Send me a PM is you cannot write that down here.

Originally Posted by Deathkillz

Mind fuck and frustrating? *Laughs*
Seems like this isn't the series for you if you dislike watching fluffy cute bunnies being blown to bits with a shotgun causing you to hate the hunter so much that you completely miss the point of the series. sheesh

If you get a kick seeing kids and women killed you need serious help friend and I have some psychologists for that. Yeah I know all have their kick but I don't like people having kicks on murder of kids and women. If only that did not happen and they kept it at males adults only.

[orion]

Originally Posted by Mentar

Erhm... not sure if this will help you in any way, but the second half of the show will be dedicated to BREAKING AWAY from this world. But I'm afraid that this simply isn't the show for you ... so instead of throwing a tantrum the next 20 episodes, I honestly suggest you drop it.

Noooooo. It'll help with at least 2 other threads that slayer545-sama is in to endure this.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

I'm rooting for Ein's true ending also for the body count that she inflicts.

[slayer545-sama]

Originally Posted by orion

Noooooo. It'll help with at least 2 other threads that slayer545-sama is in to endure this.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

I'm rooting for Ein's true ending also for the body count that she inflicts.

What u mean 2 other threads?

[orion]

Originally Posted by slayer545-sama

What u mean 2 other threads?

Well if you can endure this, then any potential plot twists in the other 2 threads that you are in will be a piece of cake.

That's why I suggest you hang in there.

No offense.

At first, I couldn't make it thru Gantz . But then I bought the series and marathoned it. I love it now. With repeated viewings, you can be desensitized to the level of violence in this title also. This is a violent title that has no problems with mindfucks. There is no getting around it.