Danny Phantom S2E1: Memory Blank and the Trinity of Doom

For this halloween season we can take a look at a very interesting Danny Phantom episode. This second season opener deals with Sam, the shows token goth sidekick girl, having issues with her friend, Danny (the show's main character) and Tucker (the nerdy helper of the hero), who are invited to a party by the popular chick in school instead of accompanying Sam to see a movie she's been eagerly waiting for: Trinity of Doom. 

The movie within the show is actually the most interesting part. The poster shows three female versions of horror and science fiction icons: Femalien (Nothing to do with the softcore movie of the same name, this is a Predator parody), Terminatra (a woman terminator) and Nightmerica (a female counterpart of Freddy Krueger). Now, this is a movie I would watch, and by the way Sam describes it, it's sure to be a riot. Imagine a big budget movie with three ass-kicking female action ladies and monsters in an adrenaline fueled rollercoaster. It would have been beautiful to see that.

 Femalien

Terminatra

Nightmerica

With a setting like that, one would think by the title card and scenario that it would deal with the characters fighting against these monster women, but instead the plot takes a more character driven focus. It's about Sam accidentally wishing that Danny and Tucker never knew her in the first place (because she's so angry at them for being selfish) and having to gain their trust once their memory has been wiped by the ghost genie named Desiree, who serves as the episode's real antagonist. 

The monster ladies are only there for a couple of action scenes and they aren't properly implemented, they are mostly irrelevant, used as stock enemies.

Sam in an improvised ghosthunting outfit.

It's a fun half-hour overall, and it's nice to see an episode that features Sam saving the day with both her wit and skills. There's also some seeds of the eventual shipping that would take place. I just kind of wish they did more with the creature ladies, because a premise like that is too good to be wasted.

Watch all of their scenes here: 

Phantom Quest Corp (1994) Ghosthunting redhead? Mikami Rip off? Not quite.

In a similar vein to Ghost Sweeper Mikami, this 1994 four episode OVA series is about a redheaded exorcist and spirit/ghost hunter, named Ayaka, who runs an independent business dedicated to defeating evil entities, both series follow their supernatural misadventures. 

The whole cast.

It's interesting to note how different and how similar Mikami and Ayaka are as characters, both are redheaded bombshells, they are exorcists, they run their own ghost hunting agency, they have a "mature urban woman" mentality and they have a younger male sidekick who does a lot of the work. The shows also have a light tone and are action-driven. 

However, Mikami had more episodes and was far cheaper since it was a TV production. Phantom Quest Corp had more complex and smoother animation as well as more action-packed adventures. Which is to be expected as an OVA has more care put into it since there are less episodes to be made with a bigger budget, while tv shows are toned down and corners are cut in order to meet a demand.

Either way, both are great shows but if there was something Mikami didn't have was more agency as an action girl and female-lead plots. This time, the stories are driven by Ayaka herself instead of relegating those responsibilities to the young boy who works with her. Ayaka is a competent exorcist, good detective and skilled fighter but her vices get the best of her, she also has her goofy moments. She's both comedic and badass, instead of the male sidekick being the silly one like in other shows (Mikami, Kim Possible, etc...).  Ayaka's male companion is actually the smarter and more mature out of the two, always having to deal with Ayaka's laziness and drunken state but he’s secondary after all. 

Boy genius partner.

The plots are always imaginative, a combination of good plotting and several brief character moments keep things interesting all the way through. Sometimes you will have a cute comedic twist, for example, in the first episode a vampire is biting young virgins and Ayaka follows a vampire to a bar, she then finds out the vampire is anemic and hasn't gotten blood in years, in fact, he's slowly treating his vampirism, in the end he helps her find the real more menacing vampire (resulting a very cool action-set piece in a tower).  

Shes quite something. Messy attitude.

There's a few running gags that are very funny too, like how Ayaka always wakes up to turn off her alarm, but her younger partner often makes sure she awakens by activating a comically large amount of alarm clocks next to her. There's also the fact that Ayaka gets drunk almost daily, making her annoy everyone with her awful singing.

Yeah she sleeps a lot and half-naked too.

These small moments give the show a lot of charm and set it apart from the typical fare. The show was short-lived but managed to gain a cult following, it's a shame we didn't get to see more of these characters in animated form, but there's also a light novel and a single issue manga, so it wasn't completely forgotten. 

Watch it this spooky Halloween season for a good time!