I had no plans of ever watching this anime but I'm a sucker for buying things on sale and this name was only $28 at my local FYE video and music store. I flipped through the manga for a brief second when volume one came out here stateside but I wasn't completely hooked on what I saw so back on the bookshelf from whence it came. The manga also comes in big size form making them a little more pricy than the average manga volume.
Now, Lets dive into the mysterious magical world of Karneval where circus acts are actually secret organizations trying the rid the world of evil and a strange boy who is lost only to be found by a bandit thief with no home of his own either. Both are soon recruited by Circus.
The series was originally created by Minkanagi Toya and has a totally of sixteen volumes in Japan. I believe that only four or five volumes have been released here in America. The anime adaption is only thirteen episodes. I always wonder how anime creators take a series with a lot of material and cut it down to a mere twelve episodes. There was nothing about Karneval that interested me in the beginning so I started watching with no expectations. The plot is sort of wacky and all over the place. You get introduced to the two mani lead characters of Gareki and Nai who both have a lot more in common than they think they do. Nai is a naive with no concept of the world around him. He is looking for one of his friends who seems to have created him. Gareki is a foul mouth bandit who is really kind at heart but see this trait as a weakness. The anime centers its plot around these two characters and hints at their back stories but you never get enough information to have a solid understanding of the two main characters. Maybe the creators were hoping that most of the audience who would watch this anime adaption had read the manga so the need to really go into great detail was lost. I feel like I understand Gareki a little more than Nai and the other characters in Circus are just strangers who just fell out the sky one day and said "HEY! WHAT IT DO??"I couldn't tell you anything about these characters if I tried because the info was never presented in the anime. You basically feel like your watching a cast of faceless people with colorful personalities then you see Nai and Gareki. This is where more episodes would have come in handy. I feel no connection to the cast because I know nothing about them. Apart from that the plot has high and low points. Emotional aspects of Karneval are on point with actually human emotion that will make you want to cry. I'm talking more about Gareki's origins and less about the fake ass Yaoi relationship that this anime tried to make Nai and Gareki have. Their connection was one of the only factors that kept me watching Karneval intently. "JUST KISS ALREADY OR DO SOMETHING PLEASE??" was what my mind constantly said on repeat as the anime went through it's episodes. I was teased so much with the possibility of what might be that everything started to feel mediocre. Something amazing could have happened there but this anime could not take a few notes from No. 6 and make the damn relationship happen. I'm about to watch the very last episode now with episode twelve being by far the most interesting in terms of action. Lets hope everything ends well but I sincerely doubt it.
The anime looks good visually as the world of Karneval isn't your ordinary place. The feel is kinda of geared toward females to me. The bunny robots are cute, the spell some of the characters cast look cute, the costumes they have to wear for their performances are cute, the food looks cute, Thats cuteness overload if I could say so myself. Character designs look like any other Anime however, the way the faces are drawn give the male characters a more mature look. The chin that is drawn long and pointed makes even Nai's face have a hint of maturity. Some clothes the characters wore make them look like the out them through the shredder before putting them on. who knows what was going on with Yogi's outfit. Those pants have to go!!!!!!
This isn't a new anime but I wanted to share my thoughts anyway since I had never watched Karneval before. The anime isn't down right awful but there won't be a time coming up soon that you would catch me watching this anime again or recommending it to my friends. This experience did make my interest in the manga grow thought.
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