When the first volume of Fantasma came out, I wasn't too impressed.  The Japanese horror TV show was pretty simple in its construction and the two stories on that disc, though they were complete, felt like something was missing.  We never received a review copy for volume two, and I wasn't too disappointed.  When the third and final volume showed up for review, I figured I'd watch it, pan the disc, and then move on to something better.  Much to my surprise however, this last set of shows was pretty good.  It turns out that all six stories that comprise this series are related and this show is telling one overarching story.  (Which explains the 'unfinished' feeling that the first stories had.)

Some strange things are happening in a particular apartment building in Tokyo.  People die under mysterious circumstances or disappear with alarming regularity.  A single police officer suspects something, but there really isn't much to go on.

Another strange event occurs when a young woman gets distressed because the man she's having an affair with spends too much time with her husband.  A friend gives her two wine glasses and tells her that if she puts a marble in one, fills it with wine, and then drinks the whole thing without stopping her wish will come true.  She does this one evening and wishes that she and her lover could be together forever.  Falling into a trance the woman gets up and walks out on to her balcony.  At the same time, across town, her lover's wife does the same thing, but ends up leaping to her death.

When the woman finds out how upset the object of her affection is over his wife's apparent suicide, she realizes that there is only one way that they can really be together:  if they are both dead.

Afterwards the police officer who is looking into this series of odd deaths discovers that several objects associated with the tragedies were sold from the same shop.  The proprietor seems to know something that he's not telling.  Does he know what's going on, or is he just trying to cover up his own involvement?

These two stories, spread over four episodes, were better than the first volume's shows.  The main reason is that it is clear that there's something going on, and that the events in the show are all related.  The stories are still pretty simple and predictable to a large extent, the journey of discovering what is causing wine glasses to kill is worthwhile and fun.

Audio:

This disc comes with the original Japanese soundtrack in stereo along with optional English subtitles.  There isn't a bud track.  The audio was about average for a low budget production.  There wasn't a huge amount of dynamic range, and the dialog comes across as a bit thin.  In addition, the background music is pretty anemic sounding.  Besides that the show sounds fine.

Video:

The full frame image doesn't look that great, but this is due to the poor production qualities rather than the fault of the publisher.  The series has a real low budget feel to it and looks like a low grade soap opera.  Some scenes are too bright and filled with blooming whites and others are too dark.  The image has fine detail, but it looks like it was recorded on low-grade digital video tape.  Aliasing was a major problem with many scenes being marred by jagged lines.   Overall I wasn't impressed with this DVD.

Extras:

There's nothing extra on this disc.

Final Thoughts:

While these stories won't win any awards, the way the series wrapped up was very satisfactory.  These stories didn't have the "huh? That's it?" feeling that the first set did, and that was quite an improvement.  This disc is worth a spin.  Recommended.