Just to complement the Anime Suggestion Sunday this week, I have to write about the ending of Phantom, because it had enough in there to get me thinking about it. There will be spoilers and if anything, this is a stream of consciousness, as I attempt to make it coherent.
It's quite apparent that Reiji gets shot and is most likely killed. After having all that other shit being thrown at him -- multiple assassins after him, Cal on a revenge quest because Reiji abandoned her, ect -- he gets shot by some guy in a wagon. I'm pretty sure Inferno sent him, but why was it so easy? From what I can gather, Reiji didn't put up a fight, because he was content with finding Elen's homeland -- in Mongolia -- and having to continue running from Inferno wasn't worth the energy, so he just let it happen; it let him finally be at peace, knowing he didn't break this one promise to Elen, and finally "escaped" from his pursuer.
Other things I've kicked around in my head:
- Shows that Reiji isn't invincible
- Display that Elen is able to live without relying on others, to feel
like she is truly living
As for Elen, I had some strange feelings about how she faded away at the end. Looking into it bit, I found this post and took some of OriginANIME's thoughts and came to my own conclusion. Going back and re-watching that ending scene, I do notice Elen is speaking in past tense, when talking about Reiji. So I do believe that she came back -- to the place where Reiji died -- in order to reminisce on all the good memories she had with him and finally show Reiji her true smile. And that is the last thing Reiji wanted from Elen right before he died. Then she finally poisons herself -- with that missing petal of the purple flower -- and that was her fading away.
In the constant cycle of killing, and both Elen and Reiji coming into the anime with no place to go and no memories to look back on, they finally get to rest in peace -- with all the things they where missing. Even if the anime end on a sad note, the characters died happily and restored whatever humanity that was taken from them -- by Scythe. Rather than just dieing -- as heartless killing machines -- they died on their own terms, with no one controlling, and as humans.
Pure speculation: The bullet shell at the end, didn't really feel like it had much significance, but in my mode of over thinking things, I thought of it more as symbolism. Like a bullet, both Elen and Reiji had a purpose. It may have mainly been for killing, but once the goal was met, they didn't just disappear -- they affected someone. The effect may heal up later on, but the shell still remains somewhere to be acknowledged. The shell is the memories that were left from coming in contact with Elen and Reiji. The memories might be painful, joyous, or unimportant -- depending on the person -- but it is still proof that they existed and are no longer just Phantoms.