This probably would've been a more enjoyable show if I had any idea what was going on.
I don't mind being left in the dark by a show's plot or motivations if it seems like it will clarify itself later. After watching the first episode, I pegged Karneval as that type of show, and was excited to see what it had in store. Unfortunately, my assumption was wrong. Karneval is mostly made of fluff, with decisions made mostly for aesthetic purposes, with plot and character consistency a distant thought. It's like cotton candy; nice to look at and sweet to the taste, but there's nothing of substance underneath.
The plot (when the show decides to address it) follows the conflict between government agency Circus and underground organization Kafka and the people who get drawn into it. The dramatic arc is mostly concerned with Nai, a strange boy looking for his sole friend Karoku, and Gareki, the tsundere thief with a heart of gold, but this aspect does not get much attention as the show is ADD about what it wants to focus on. There are a lot of one-episode character arcs or storylines that have no clear bearing on the main plot and felt like sideshow distractions more than anything else. Even worse, the show treats these plotlines as if they have the dramatic weight and development of an entire season behind them. There's an episode where they meet a random kid who's looking for his mother and by the end of the episode they are declaring their eternal friendship to each other over the not-so-shocking plot twist that was telegraphed from the very beginning. It is incredibly hard to care when I know nothing about a character except their "tragic" backstory.
Karneval also doesn't seem to have a good sense of pacing or what deserves screentime versus what doesn't. For example, and entire episode is dedicated to the time a play went wrong and Circus member Tsukumo is trapped in a water tank. It has no bearing on the main storyline, and could've been cut down to fill time in another episode if not removed completely. There was no reason to spend that much of the runtime on it. Maybe this was how things progressed in the manga (I wouldn't know), but it was frustrating watching the show spend its time on what amounted to a side story when there were many questions left unaddressed.
Karneval leaves huge holes in its worldbuilding and character motivations, and even when we are lucky enough to get something resembling an explanation, it's more like a handwave. To begin with, we're never really told why Circus and Kafka have such a vicious relationship in the first place. It probably would've been simpler to just have Kafka trying to keep their secret under wraps, but several characters reference an "incident" that is never explained. On that same note, we don't even know what kind of government Circus is working for. They appear to be self-sufficient, so why make them a government agency for a government that doesn't seem to exist? On the other side of the coin, we are never told what Kafka stands to gain from their experiments either, or even why they need Karoku. The reasoning seems to be "because they're evil" more than anything else.
The same approach applies to Circus' technology, which is handwaved as "because magic" for the majority of the show before deciding near the end to tell us that the magic is generated by the bracelets they wear. How do the bracelets work? "Because technology," I suppose. The lack of anything resembling a base for the conflict to draw from makes it hard to get invested when things do get intense, because aside from a few characters, I didn't know what anyone was doing this for. A story can go through the motions, but if there aren't clear-cut stakes, then what's the point? It can even be as simple as "I don't want to die," just do something.
It feels like the anime is an advertisement for the manga more than anything else, since it tosses a ton of characters, powers, monsters, and interesting ideas out there only to make a confusing mess with them. It's undeniable that the show is pretty to look at, but it doesn't have much else. As for the bishounen aspect, I wouldn't call this fujoshi fodder so much as I was call it fandom fodder. There are a ton of character types, age ranges, and genders represented alongside a vague magic system that can apparently do anything. Add this to a world that seems to only exist to provide the perfect backdrop to whatever emotional scene you can think of, Karneval feels like it was made with the fanart and fanfic community in mind, as well as people who enjoy their shipping first and plot far later. That's perfectly fine, and I believe that I watched this show with the wrong mindset, since I was always expecting something more. Ultimately, Karneval feels like a failed magic act, with the slight of hand failing to distract me from the faulty mechanics. Also, [K] has already delivered the same package with far better results on the plot and worldbuilding side. If you want a bit of mindless entertainment, Karneval may do the job. Just don't expect anything more than that.
Images from Hulu.com and Funimation.com.
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