Ranked #291

Carnival Phantasm

As a gigantic Type-Moon fan, I recognize that this review may be a bit biased. Indeed, if you aren't familiar with any of the characters in Fate stay/night or Tsukihime, or the universe both stories take place in (aptly named the "Nasuverse" by fans after the author, Kinoko Nasu), then don't expect to enjoy it nearly as much as I did. On the other hand, if you are familiar with anything Type-Moon, then prepare for the best parody series in recent memory. In short, your knowledge of Type-Moon lore is directly proportional to the amount of enjoyment you will get out of this series. And for me, it's a perfect 10.

As I understand, this anime is based off the Take-Moon manga created by Eri Takanashi, whom you may know best as the creator of the relatively popular series Kannagi. If you've been introduced to Kannagi and its offbeat brand of humor, then you might know what to expect...or do you? The fact is, Carnival Phantasm's humor is way more polished and wacky than Kannagi, and that's coming from someone who considers himself a fan of both. It's clear just by viewing one episode that Takanashi is passionate about the Nasuverse, bringing in even the most obscure relics and fan favorites such as Neco-Arc Chaos, Sion, and Caren. Even the denizens of Melty Blood are present!

Going into all the individual segments, easter eggs, and recurring gags would make this a very, very long review, so I'll just leave all those for you to watch for yourself. But some of my personal favorite segments are the Grail-kun, Afterschool Alleyway Alliance, The 5th Seihai Grand Prix, Berserker's First Errand, and of course the omnipresent Seihai-kun. The Badump! Date Plan segment gets an honorable mention simply for being exactly what it sounds like: the protagonists of Fate and Tsukihime trying to create their own respective harems. If you know why that might pose many, many problems and you can realize how absolutely, ridiculously absurd that would be, then this series is definitely for you. Things even get serious in typical Nasu fashion with the episode "Final Dead Lancer". At its core, it is nothing more than a love letter to the Type-Moon universe, and I wouldn't ask for anything more.

Carnival Phantasm is beautifully animated and has one of the catchiest OPs in recent memory. The ED pales in comparison, but still serves as a nice dramatis personae to the Nasuverse. The Tiger Dojo segments are the stuff of legend--you won't believe how good they are till you see them.

You won't find any mollusks or postmodern, unconventional, often maddening writing styles in this series, but this is without a doubt the best and most hilarious take on the Nasuverse since "Platonic Magician H" or "Kaleido Prism Illya". I highly recommend it to anyone.

SEA-SON FOUR! SEA-SON FOUR! read more

Once upon a time, there was a certain, quite funny manga featuring the characters from both sides of the Nasuverse, and telling us the story of their meetup. Its title was Take Moon, and it was liked by those who understood it, and unrecognized by those who didn’t. With the former being in a definite minority, Take Moon didn’t become overly popular, or in fact – its existence was unnoticed by a wider audience. But then, to celebrate their tenth birthday, Type-Moon announced the upcoming OVA, which was to be loosely based on the, already dust-covered, Take Moon. I must admit – I wasn’t entirely sure whether adapting that manga (which was aimed at a very narrow range of receivers to begin with) wouldn’t fall short of its premise… and to top it all off, the studio responsible for production was a newcomer to the industry, so—yes, it seemed that the grim future would await that OVA series. Time passed by, my skepticism towards the series grew, the first OVA was released, and… I can’t help but mutter to myself “o ye of little faith”. What I had expected to be a failure similar to Higurashi Kira, proved to be the funniest thing I’ve seen in a very long while. Are you excited yet? Sorry, but before you start drooling, you must remember that there are certain conditions which need to be met beforehand in order to find the series funny.

Now, don’t kill me, don’t swear at me, don’t throw knives at me, just try to stomach the fact that to fully understand all the jokes in Carnival Phantasm, having watched the adaptations of F/sn and Tskukihime is, well, far from being enough. This series was made to celebrate the Type-Moon’s birthday, thus all jokes, all characters… basically everything is related to what they created during those 10 years. So, sorry, but to fully appreciate the series you need to play through Tsukihime, Kagetsu Tohya, Tsukihime Plus-Disc, Melty Blood, Fate/stay night, and Fate/hollow ataraxia. Not watched – played. Their adaptations are either very, very loose (F/sn), or are… not adaptations at all (Tsukihime). With that being said, let us move onward and discuss the anime itself.

The story is about the aforementioned meetup between two sides of Nasuverse. So - to put it in different words - Shirou and Shiki with their gangs finally get to see each other. The form and concept of this anime is very simple - we have tons of jokes (inside ones for most of the time), some fan service, and all those characters we know all-too-well making fools of themselves. Sounds trivial and cliched, but... no, it's actually true - this series is nothing new, but it's not about originality here, but rather about enjoyment and delivering fun to all the fans. I mean, we have characters' personalities being laughed at, Sacchin being cast aside as always (isn't it sad, Sacchin?), and a few overlapping dates... We have everything here, everything! The amount of funny scenes and pacing faster than Ciel's Black Keys make Carnival Phantasm the best gift a T-M fan could get. If you're not one, well - this series is not really for you. If you watch it - you'll most likely enjoy it, giggle a few times, some sudden bursts of laughter are sure to ensue too, but it's still far from the amusement of those who would give away one of their kidneys if that made Nasu finally finish the script for Mahoutsukai no Yoru.

The art and design aspects of this series are, I'm missing a word here, err... fluffy, I guess. But apart from that - characters are drawn better than in both: F/sn and Tsukihime anime. Also, the way they are drawn shows their personalities very well. As much as I hate that word, I just have to name things right, the art style emanates with moeness. But apart from all that - there are original elements of graphics from Melty Blood (gauge meters), locations known from the visual novels and other things that remind you of the games (for example: in the fourth episode Neko-Arc plays both F/sn and Tsukihime). When it comes down to art, I just don't have anything against it - it's really good as it is.

Music and voice acting... are both great! Voice actors/actresses known from Melty Blood and the vns, a few older themes from the vns combined with some new ones - it's really good. And the voice of Jouji Nakata as Kotomine is something I could listen to for hours. I don't really like the opening song - but it undeniably suits the series well, so let's be fair in judgments. To sum it up, audio-visual side of the series is not great or awesome - it's just bloody perfect. It's exactly as it should be, so no complaints here.

I think we can skip the talk about characters - I mean, they are what makes the whole OVA, and if you don't know them - you should go and say hello to them before even trying to watch Carnival Phantasm. I'll repeat myself here, but it's worth pointing out - the characters' personalities are being laughed at in the most perfect way imaginable.

Did I enjoy it? An inane question, really - of course I did! Thanks to Carnival Phantasm I spent about 3 hours of quality time, having fun and laughing until my stomach hurt. I shall say it again - for your own sake, do not watch this OVA if you haven't played the original games. It's a hassle, I know - but you really should at least check those games out for your own sake. They're a few of best titles available in English, so it's really worth it. Furthermore, Carnival Phantasm is a textbook example of what fan service should be - it's not about boobs, low camera angles and panties everywhere. It's about showing the appeal of characters whom the viewers got accustomed to - and if there's nothing else beside boobs about them, then... they are not much of interesting protagonists and heroines, really. I can't help but give it a 10 - even though I'm rather stingy when it comes down to scores. As a huge T-M fan I just can't rate it any lower, it's... damn, it's just too good. read more