10 Second Anime - Musaigen no Phantom World - Episode 3

After meeting strong phantoms targeting Mai, Haruhiko's team tries to use Mai's memories to defeat them.

Episode 3 - "Operation Copy-Paste Memories"

Heh.

This episode didn't advance the overall plot, if there is one, but it was a nice character building story focusing on Mai, Reina and even the little girl carrying the teddy bear Albrecht around.

The theme of memories being malleable and open to (re)interpretation definitely fits in with the question whether Phantoms are products of the minds of the kids affected by the brain virus. Perhaps the adults can see them but it was the kids and their pliable imaginations and memories who "created" them.

With the little girl just about to join Haruhiko's harem, er, Phantom Hunting club, we should remind ourselves of each of their "charm points."

Harem almost complete!

Mai! Mai! Mai!

Since this whole episode was about how Mai totally forgot about her two phantom friends who needed to challenge her for defeating them as a preschooler, obviously the focus was going to be on her character development. I learned she really likes old kung fu movies.

The Phantom Challengers

Considering these two girls were looking for "revenge" against Mai and had been attacking people on this bridge to get her attention, it made a lot of sense that their focus on martial arts and their outfits matched Mai's attributes. Sexy and violent! But also weak against little puppies...

Reina Queen of Pouts

Reina in a China Dress? Chou kawaii! Of course she had to be disappointed to be left out on the "date" with Mai Onee-sama. I went back and forth a couple of times in my head whether she was upset that she wasn't having fun with Haruhiko or Mai, or both of them and just didn't like having to observe from a distance. But I came around and decided she really wanted all that special time with her Mai Onee-sama.

I'm not sure why Mai insisted the other two wear Chinese traditional outfits to train to defeat the Phantom Challengers, but I'm not complaining. Well, I'll complain that I wanted to see Mai in her Chinese outfit more than we saw.

Are the Phantoms' outfits supposed to be Chinese too? Like Three Kingdoms outfits? I'm not that curious about it, because I was just happy to look at them...

Oh, that Ruru!

She's still starring in Haruhiko's little lectures and she's still his biggest fan. But, she also knows his deepest secrets. Like, he's a breast man! Mai X Haruhiko OTP? She seems to have been with him a long time, long enough that they both remembered Mai as a loud outgoing child instead of the shy, quiet one she insisted on. I wonder if she was one of Haruhiko's first drawings that he summoned. 

Dat Action Fanservice, Again

With three pretty girls kicking and punching, we surely didn't need Mai running around in gym shorts this episode. Well, let's say instead of "needing" it I "preferred" it, but Phantom girls hitting all the right sexy notes was fun too.

These kinds of shows like to fight on bridges a lot. At least the idea that these were water based phantoms who manifested near rivers justified the setting. And it made Mai rub her spleen for Earth Power. Interesting that wherever she rubs her body for the 5 elements, something prominent is also being rubbed...

I thought it quite evocative that these phantoms fought with flower power and the memories showed that they showed up very soon after Mai touched some riverbank flowers.

Mai sure didn't like it that Haruhiko ended up with all her memories, at least temporarily. Mai is a good Onee-sama, though. She made sure that Reina got some head pats to show that she's becoming part of their little family too.

Next time, is Kurumi the little girl going to join the Haruhiko group? And is Koito going to join them in the same episode? We need to get going on an overall story pretty soon, or we won't have that bikini episode to break up the action elements in episode 7 or 8. We know Mai has at least one little yellow bikini, so that's all the inspiration we need. Let's get the real story started!