Phantom Quest Corp.

Original Title: 幽幻怪社
Romanized: Yuu-Gen-Kai-Sha
Literal: Mysterious Phantom and Spirit Company

Plot Synopsis

There are many types of businesses in the world. However Japan has one business that is unlike any other. It deals with the extermination of monsters, demons, ghosts and the like. This company is called You-Gen-Kai-Sya or Phantom Quest Corp. The head of the company is Ayaka Kisaragi. As strange as the concept of Phantom Quest Corp sounds to other people, the concept of how someone like Ayaka can actually be the head of this company is even more baffling. With her late nights of drinking, karaoke and difficulty getting up in the morning, not to mention her irresponsibility with money, it's surprising that she gets any work done. Somehow, however, she manages to get things done. Somehow...

Quick Review

Rating: 3 / 5
Reviewer: Legion
Review Date: 2002-04-15

Phantom Quest Corp. is a decent, fun little show, but nothing more. It looks like yet another OAV that was created created with fans of the original manga in mind, except it isn't based on one, so it's short on character introductions or background story. However, it's fun, humorous, and well-produced, and the characters are colorful, not to mention significantly older than your average anime teens.

It is straightforward but bound to amuse many and effectively kill a couple satisfying hours. If you like this kind of anime, I'd recommend Phantom Quest Corp.

US DVD Review

While nothing special, this is a pretty decent disc. The best thing about it is that it has all four episodes on it and retails at US$15. While the content isn't anything to wow over, I'd recommend picking up Phantom Quest Corp since it's not a bad show and very reasonably priced on DVD. Getting back on track, the video is clean, with nice looking colors, but it was a little noisy during the first two episodes. As for the audio, in Japanese it was fine but the English track had an annoying high-pitch noise in the first episode. It's hard to hear and easy to ignore though. As for extras, there's creditless opening and ending sequences and an image gallery which shows overlaid translations of signs and whatnot that appeared throughout the DVD in their original Japanese writing. Finally, there's a very sweet Easter Egg (or Digital Omake if you prefer).

Content Guide

Appropriately rated 13+ by Pioneer.

Violence: 2 - Nothing major, maybe a bit in the last episode.

Nudity: 2 - A brief flash in the first and last episode.

Sex/Mature Themes: 2 - Just a few jokes, one of which was brought about from the brief flash of nudity in episode 4.

Language: 1 - Nothing major.

Notes and Trivia

The original title is a play on words. "Yuugen Kaisha" (written 有限会社) is a common term meaning "Limited Company." However, while the title of this series is pronounced the same, the characters used to write it (幽幻怪社) have a completely different meaning, coming across as something along the general lines of "Mysterious Phantom and Spirit Company."

Although Phantom Quest Corp. is not based on anything, and there is no Japanese comic adaptation, Pioneer did create a comic for the American market in 1997 as part of their ill-fated attempt to capitalize on the popularity of some of their series in the US. The story was by Jose Calderon and the art by Dave Cooper, but only a single issue was ever completed. It isn't expensive, if you can track down a copy.

There was, however, a novel written by Mami Watanabe (who did the screenplay of the series), published in 1995 (after the anime was completed) as part of the long-running Fujimi Fantasia Library series, which consists of light fantasy novels targeted at young adults.

Geneon also has a US-release soundtrack (in addition to the Japan-only soundtrack CD), Best of Phantom Quest Corp., that includes English and Japanese versions of the opening and end themes, and a cross-section of background music.

Availability

Available in the US from Geneon (formerly Pioneer) on one bilingual DVD. Was previously available on two subtitled or dubbed VHS volumes.

Looking to buy? Try these stores: RightStuf (search) | AnimeNation | Akemi's a(nime)Store