Phantom Quest Corp.

Phantom Quest Corp. is a comedy/horror anime produced by Madhouse. It was originally released as a four-episode original video animation in Japan between August 25, 1994 and February 25, 1995. An English-dubbed version was released in North America by Pioneer shortly thereafter. The plot of Phantom Quest Corp. revolves around Ayaka Kisaragi, the proprietor of a Shinjuku, Tokyo company dedicated to helping those in need of paranormal aid. The title is a play on words: Yūgen Kaisha means "limited liability company" in Japanese; but when written with different characters, the word yūgen can also mean "the occult." The kanji 怪 means mysterious, but can also be read as Kai. Kaisha is typically written "会社". This further adds to the pun. In addition to the Phantom Quest Corp. OVA series, two soundtrack albums, a Japanese light novel, and a single-issue English manga also exist. Phantom Quest Corp. has been compared to the concurrent manga and anime Ghost Sweeper Mikami. The animation, comedy, and action sequences in Phantom Quest Corp. has been praised by critics. However, these same reviewers felt it lacked plot depth and character development due to its short length.