Karneval - 3

"Phantom Picnic"

That is one adorable little stuffed animal.

It’s rather amusing to me how the more I watch this, the more ridiculous it seems to get. Yet despite the preposterous nature of it all, the whimsical atmosphere is somewhat infectious, and the mystery is no less compelling for it. The characters are still my least favorite part of Karneval, but there’s a few steps gained in the right direction this week, which is always a plus. Plot-wise, however, things are as busy as always, and not at all ready to make sense yet.

Gareki and Nai’s relationship seems to have upped the ante on several levels, and Nai’s already gotten attached enough that when Karoku speaks to him in a dream and warns him to let Gareki go before it’s too late, Nai pulls a classic shoujo heroine stunt and literally pushes his friend away for the sake of keeping him safe. To be honest, this whole little drama feels rather forced, but it does make more sense once Nai’s true nature is revealed. As I’d thought previously, those tufts of hair do look an awful lot like animal ears, and for good reason; Nai is a human/animal hybrid, thought to be created by this mysterious Karoku from a rabbit-like species known as Niji. His bizarre behavior up til now suddenly makes all that much more sense, though why he was created or made to leave the Niji Forest is still as great a mystery as his identity has been all this time.

This does, however, change the dynamic between Gareki and Nai somewhat. While Gareki previously looked on Nai as some sort naive child that needed help, he now looks exactly like a pet to him (though there may just be more to this than a simple attachment to a fluffy little animal, in my humble opinion), and he’s somewhat pleased to think that Karoku has picked a fight with him. It all points to the fact that despite his tough guy facade, Gareki considers Nai as more than just some random obstacle, and he’s willing to stick around with him and Circus to find out more.

As to Circus itself, we’re introduced to several more of it’s members this week. The somewhat intimidating doctor Akari (Hirakawa Daisuke) is first on the lineup, though we also get a quick look at Kiichi (Kitamura Eri) and Jiki (Nakamura Yuuichi), both of whom remain as much a stylish mystery as everyone else. It’s still not completely clear what it is that Circus is really after, but they’re certainly interested in Nai’s origins and in Karoku’s role in all of this, which seems to be linked to this mysterious antagonist organization we were told about last week.

It seems that for every mystery we delve into, we’re handed yet another handful of questions. Though we now have an explanation for Nai’s character, we still know next to nothing about almost everyone else except Gareki (who seems to have quite the traumatic past) and the intrigue of this strange and boisterous world remains shrouded in shadows. Just why do Circus and the anti-organization exist in the first place? Why would Karoku create Nai, and what is his purpose in doing so? How exactly did Gareki find himself in the right place at the right time and end up wrapped up in everything? Just what the holy Triforce is going on?

I don’t have any answers, but I do know one thing: this is definitely a weirdly interesting little anime we’ve got our hands on here.