Kurau Phantom Memory Volume 1: Between Two Worlds - Anime Kakumei
- Anime Kakumei
- Sean Connolly
- 05/22/07
- click here
"It's a very nice looking show."
"Excellent as it combined drama, slick animation, and great storytelling."
Originally airing in 2004, as well as licensed by ADV that year as well, Kurau - Phantom Memory is the brainchild of studio BONES (Wolf's Rain, Full Metal Alchemist) and Media Factory (Burst Angel, Project A-Ko). It's taken awhile to make it out and a good number of fans have awaited it's release. With a good lineage behind the show's creation, was it worth the wait? I would have to say that the jury is still out to lunch on that.
Kurau begins in the year 2100 on the Moon. There's a lot of the usual futuristic things floating around. Flying cars, floating computer screens, and the obvious colonization of the Moon. Dr. Amami is a hard working scientist working to find another source of alternative energy. Currently, he's on his way to a breakthrough with "Rynax" energy. On one fateful day he brings along his daughter, Kurau Amami, to work as part of her birthday present. The experiment he's working on goes awry, and Kurau is struck with two flying bolts of lightning, shattering her body into a burst of atoms in front of everyone. Even more surprising, her molecules reform back and she drops to the floor unconscious.
The Rynax, once thought to be energy, are actual living organisms and have taken over Kurau's body. The Rynax tells Dr. Amami that it must inhabit his daughter's body until it can find it's "Pair." Rynax always travel in pairs, however one of them is too weak to awaken just yet. Ten years pass and Kurau now works as an "Agent" on Earth. A mercenary who takes on all sorts of jobs from her "Broker," Kurau uses her gifts (super strength, agility, and the ability not only to fly, but pass through solid objects) gained from her Rynax to work on the most dangerous jobs. All the while she waits for her Pair to awaken.
One night, Kurau wakes up to find herself face to face with her Pair. A shorter, early teen-ish version of herself who has finally waken up from her slumber. Named Christmas after Kurau's happiest thought, she exhibits no abilities like Kurau but is definitely cute to watch. With her Pair having finally awakened, Kurau pulls a complete 180 turn, and only wants to work the safest jobs, so she can take care of Christmas. Unfortunately, things don't always work out how you'd like them to as Kurau and Christmas find themselves the target of the GPO. A government agency who is looking into researching the Rynax energy. They want her, and she wants no part of them.
Kurau suffers from a series of peaks and valleys in quality. The show starts off wonderfully. It introduces 12 year old Kurau and her father in a family type setting. Kurau is just a good little girl who wants to spend time with her father on her birthday. Her mother passed away when she was young (I'm starting to get tired of that old hat) and with the exception of a motherly maid, he's all she's got. After the accident with the Rynax, Kurau isn't really Kurau anymore. In fact, you're not sure what she is.
She regains all of her memories and emotions after the accident, but then she will break out of character, talking as the Rynax. So, you're never quite sure who is in control here. It just breaks her father's heart. The spectrum of emotions her father goes through in just this one episode is really heart wrenching. You truly feel for the guy who does not know if the little girl in front of him is really his daughter or not. Or even if he will ever get to see his true daughter again. I enjoyed seeing that right from the start.
Then the series jumps ahead ten years and it gets boring. At times very boring. While I'm excited to see an older main character for once (Kurau is 22), I'm not excited to see the series turn into something that's kind of paint by numbers. Kurau uses her abilities to become a pretty kick ass Agent, but the action in the show isn't particularly exciting. It's well animated, just not exciting or all that interesting.
After her Pair, a 12 year old version of Kurau named Christmas, shows up, the show takes on another dimension and it really gets kind of muddy. Their relationship takes on this weird property to it that feels very ill-defined. In some moments it feels very mother/daughter, in others it's very sisterly, and on occasion it takes on a romantic overtone to it. Does this give new meaning to loving yourself? At any rate, despite how hazy their relationship is, Christmas does serve two purposes well. She lightens up Kurau's character, who is generally very cynical and brooding, and gives Kurau a purpose. While Christmas may not have much of a character on her own, hopefully that will change as the series moves forward.
Lastly, the big, bad government agency angle is brought out and it gets a big groan out of me. It's not handled very well or interesting in any sort of way. Just some agency who wants to bring her in to test her Rynax powers as they seem to be much more powerful than what they have encountered before. Wait, what? Before? Ugh. It also introduces some more characters to the story that aren't worth going into detail on (yet), but it has involved her father once more. So, maybe that's something to look forward to as his character is head and shoulders above all others in the show.
There is one very unique moment that I was impressed by. In the third episode, Kurau takes an assignment to save a cargo pilot who is stuck in an endless spin inside of his cargo ship in orbit on a course to crash into a space station. This episode was excellent as it combined drama, slick animation, and great storytelling. This was easily the shining moment of Vol. 1.
Kurau - Phantom Memory is somewhat of a phantom itself. At times it looks like it has some substance to it, then at other times it's just an illusion and there's none there at all. It's not good and it's not bad. It's just kind of there. It's a very nice looking show, there's no question about that. The only question is will Kurau be able to come up with a good quality story with substance and character, so that slick animation will be able to carry it to the next level. More stuff like episode three, and less...everything else.
Posted on Tuesday, May 22, 2007 (Archive on Friday, June 22, 2007)