Review for Kurau: Phantom Memory - Volume 2: Double Jeopardy

Introduction

The first volume of Kurau Phantom Memory turned out to be quite a promising hit of sci-fi, a future tale of an experiment gone wrong, and a girl gifted with super-powers, courtesy of a symbiotic alien. It's a pure popcorn story, but told with no little heart, and with some very appealing characterisations. Fortunately, I wound up importing all six volumes in one go, meaning no lengthy waits. Kurau Phantom Memory is one of the final shows released by ADV, and in the UK, they only got as far as volume 4 before the company folded, hence my importation of the US collection. It's since been re-released by Funimation, but sans the extras. The six ADV volumes are still available from some quarters, and this second volume also comes with an optional artbox, if you pay a smidge more.

In the year 2100, Kurau Amami is a young girl living alone with her father on the moon, where he is an energy researcher. The day of her 12th birthday elicits plenty of sulks and airs as her father has a test scheduled when he should be spending time with her. That's a problem solved when he invites her along on the test, but it's a terrible mistake. For the test goes strangely awry, a bolt of energy is emitted from the apparatus, and it hits Kurau, who is promptly disintegrated… And then she reintegrates in a flash of golden light, only she doesn't come back exactly the same. She's fused with a binary alien life form known as a Rynax, and the joining has gifted her with amazing abilities. But the Rynax is a binary life form, and while half of it lies dormant, Kurau is left to wait. Ten years later, Kurau has put her powers to work as an Agent, working as a mercenary to accomplish the most difficult, challenging and dangerous jobs her clients can offer. But her secret has become known to those in power, and soon the ultimate agent becomes the ultimate target, especially when her pair, Christmas finally arrives.


The next four episodes of Kurau Phantom Memory are presented on this ADV disc.

5. Lost Child
Previously, a battle with a mecha left Kurau dangerously drained of energy, and she only just made it back to the apartment before collapsing. Once again she is visited by the same dream that she always had, before Christmas arrived in her life, but this time the dream turns into a nightmare, as Christmas is taken from her. She wakes to find herself alone in the apartment, Christmas is nowhere to be found, and Kurau starts to panic. Christmas has only gone shopping though, to make Kurau some restorative food. But the mecha from before wasn't defeated, it's still on the loose in the city, and it's searching for Christmas now.

6. Glowing Rain
An invitation from the broker Carradine to lunch is a surprise, and Kurau and Christmas get a little respite from their troubles, made more difficult as the Agent Doug has followed them to this city, and is trying to track them down. Carradine has a job for Kurau, a simple matter of delivering some documents to an isolated location in the mountains. While Kurau leaves on the assignment, Christmas runs into Doug, and recognises him as the man who broke into their old apartment before they fled. But Doug isn't there to hunt them. He's there to help. Which is timely, as Kurau has just fallen into a GPO trap.


7. A New Life
The GPO is dealing with something outside their experience, as Kurau manages to defeat top of the line, Class-A tech designed to hold Ryna-sapiens. This time it is Christmas who swears to keep Kurau safe, but she has Doug's help. He claims that he's been given the assignment to protect Kurau by her father, and soon they are on a cruise ship to an isolated island. Hopefully they'll be able to lie low as waitresses working in a seaside restaurant. It's good timing for the owner, as his wife is in the hospital having a baby. Kurau isn't very domestic, although she impresses the dockworkers with how she operates a hoverlift. They comment that she would be perfect for the Battle Pod arena. But she has her hands full with a big brother feeling neglected by his family, and jealous of his new baby sister.

8. Another Christmas
So Christmas gets her orders mixed up, and serves vodka to a pod pilot on the day of a big pod battle. Which is how Kurau winds up piloting a Battle Pod in the arena. Meanwhile the GPO is still trying to track Kurau down, and they have learned more about the young girl living with her, with odd name of Christmas. For Ayaka Steiger, that trigger memories of another Christmas, one that changed her life forever. Just as Kurau and Christmas are settling down into a quiet life on the island, the GPO show up…

Picture

Kurau Phantom Memory gets a 4:3 transfer, which given that it's a region 1 disc, is an NTSC transfer at that. While the limited aspect ratio is disappointing given that grand scale of the story, you can't fault Studio Bones' animation, which is stupendous. The world design is gorgeous, a futuristic vision of humanity that is well-considered and effectively realised, with just the right amount of flying cars, holographic displays, and moving newspapers to make it feel like a lived in future reality. The character designs are very appealing, with a more realistic design ethic than anything too stylised. The animation too is vibrant, fluid and very lively.

Sound

You have a choice between DD 5.1 English and DD 2.0 Japanese. I was perfectly happy as always with the original language track, and the action and excitement was conveyed adequately enough with the stereo. The dialogue is clear throughout, and the subtitles are free of errors and timed accurately. The theme tunes have grown on me more, but still aren't that remarkable. However, the incidental music is a cut above the average, driving the action and emotion well, while having a rather distinctive signature of its own. The surround track is preferable when it comes to audio placement and the action sequences, and what I sampled of the English dub was pleasant enough. As usual you get the translated English subtitles, and a signs only track.

Extras

The DVD autoplays with skippable trailers for the Anime Network and Newtype Magazine, and loads up some menus with understated but effective animation.

On the disc you'll find the clean credits, there is a 5-minute Production Artwork slideshow, a preview for volume 3, and 2 minutes of Japanese TV Spots.

There is a Key Words glossary that provides a little insight into the world of 2110, and the jargon used in the show.

There are trailers on the disc for Diamond Daydream, Misaki Chronicles, Guyver, Ghost Train, 009-1, and Best Student Council.

Once again, the most rewarding extra is actually the six-page folded insert that comes in the Amaray case. The Investigation Report - Brief 2 contains interviews with Christmas' voice actress Misa Kobayashi, Ayaka's voice actress Yuko Kaida, Doug's voice actor Tomoyuki Shimura, an interview with Set Designer Shingo Takeba, and more of the regular column from Aya Yoshinaga, and little doodles and thoughts from the director Yasuhiro Irie.

Conclusion

If the first volume was where Kurau Phantom Memory hit the ground running, then it's volume 2 where it puts the brakes on. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, as stated in the interviews in the previous volume extras, Kurau Phantom Memory is more about the characters and the story than it is about the action and the plot twists. With that in mind, it makes sense to slow things down and spend some time on the characters. But it doesn't exactly do it in the most natural of ways. It also becomes clear that Kurau Phantom Memory is intent on telling its story in the way that it wants to. It's a story that is very much of a piece, and it means that even though it's delivered in episodic, bite-sized chunks, that isn't the most satisfying way to watch it. It also means that reviewing it volume by volume is probably going to result in some variable, and probably unhelpful opinions, and that the most appropriate judgement of the series will only really crystallise after the end credits on the final episode have rolled. But it's not my fault that ADV released it volume by volume (although it is my fault for buying it thus, and not the Funimation complete collection).


It isn't until the halfway mark in this disc that the pace slows down, as we begin in much the same vein as the previous disc left off, with Kurau recovering from the battle with the mecha, and Christmas having to take care of her. It is a slower episode that concentrates more on the relationship between the two, and the panic that Kurau feels when she doesn't know where Christmas is. It shows a more vulnerable, childlike side to Kurau that has been hidden up to this point. Of course, it turns out that the battle with the mecha had consequences, and they come back to haunt them at this point, revealing another aspect of the Rynax and their 'pairs', and adding to the intimation that Kurau is different in someway. That's pretty much confirmed in the next episode when she walks into a GPO trap, one designed to capture the highest level Ryna-sapiens, but one that she is able to escape from.


But from that point on, we're in the slow lane, as Kurau and Christmas flee from the GPO once more, and enter a period of domesticity. It is a nice, character episode as is the one that follows, that see Kurau and Christmas working as waitresses at a restaurant, with Kurau hopelessly out of her depth for once, and it seems Christmas the stronger pair in their partnership as a result. It's a soap opera episode really, with the main narrative focus on helping a young boy come to terms with the arrival of a new sister, and the perceived abandonment issues that make him feel alienated. But these two episodes do result in the funniest moment of the series so far, one that had me laughing out louder than for most comedy series. We also get to see some of the other characters developed, and with the revelation that Doug is there to help them and not hunt them; he becomes less of an enigma, and more of a positive character. He's separated from his wife, unable to be with his son, and it quickly becomes clear that the protectiveness he has towards Kurau and especially Christmas has paternal overtones.


A major moment in the final episode plays like a narrative non-sequitor, as we suddenly get taken into GPO hunter Ayaka Steiger's past. She's the harsh and forbidding leader of the force sent to subdue Ryna-sapiens, and Kurau in particular, but it's seeing data on Christmas that triggers a tragic memory for her. We see the happy go lucky child have to face the worst possible outcome to a Christmas Day, and how that event shaped her life thereafter. We also see her first encounter with Doug, who was a member of the GPO at the time. The thing is that the flashback takes place 14 years earlier, prior to the accident on the moon that precipitates this story, and it's hard to see where it fits in, except for just clumsily inserting some back-story for a character. No doubt it will come to play a part later on in the series, and there are some parallels to the tragedy that befell Kurau and her father, which effectively tore apart their family. But even still, it does stick out like a sore thumb here, and the end of the disc left me feeling unsatisfied and scratching my head.


Kurau Phantom Memory takes the momentum of the first volume and uses it up here, and the story feels stalled at the end of the volume, back where we started, with Kurau and Christmas fleeing from GPO pursuit once more. It gets a pass because the production values of the anime are so high, and it gets a pass because while the story may be disjointed, unsatisfying, and uneven of tone, it's still interesting, and it is still told in a way that entertains and adds to what you know of the story. And it does make you want to see more. Roll on volume 3.