Karakuri Circus

Narumi Katou is a middle-aged man who suffers from the bizarre ZONAPHA Syndrome: a rare and inexplicable disease that causes its victims to endure severe seizures at random, with the only cure being to watch someone laugh. One day, during Narumi's part time job, a young boy with a giant suitcase fleeing from three adults runs into him. The boy introduces himself as Masaru Saiga, the new owner of the famous Saiga Enterprises following his father's recent death. However, other members of his family are trying to assassinate him and claim the fortune for themselves.

Determined to save the child, Narumi helps Masaru escape and ends up fighting the pursuers, only to discover that they are sentient humanoid puppets with superhuman strength. As Narumi is about to lose, a white-haired girl suddenly joins the fray and swiftly summons yet another puppet from the boy's suitcase, claiming herself to be Shirogane, Masaru's guardian.

Karakuri Circus follows three people from different backgrounds whose fates intertwine and diverge as they unravel the mysteries of an ancient tale of love and betrayal, and the long, ancient battle between humans and puppets.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Adaptation:	Karakuri Circus
Summary:	Karakuri Circus: Makuai - Soshite Mata Kaimaku Bell
Other:	Shounen Sunday CM: Karakuri Circus

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Characters & Voice Actors

Katou, Narumi

Main

Koyama, Rikiya
Japanese

Saiga, Shirogane

Main

Hayashibara, Megumi
Japanese

Saiga, Masaru

Main

Ueda, Chihiro
Japanese

Rech, Guy Christophe

Supporting

Sasaki, Nozomu
Japanese

Columbine

Supporting

Yuuki, Aoi
Japanese

Pantalon

Supporting

Nakata, Jouji
Japanese

Arlequino

Supporting

Fukuyama, Jun
Japanese

Francine

Supporting

Hayashibara, Megumi
Japanese

Ashihana, Eiryou

Supporting

Sakurai, Takahiro
Japanese

Bai, Jin

Supporting

Furukawa, Toshio
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Maruyama, Masao

Producer

Nishimura, Satoshi

Director

Mima, Masafumi

Sound Director

Ushijima, Shinichirou

Episode Director, Storyboard

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Opening Theme

	1: "Gekkou (月虹)" by BUMP OF CHICKEN (eps 1-12)
	2: "Haguruma (ハグルマ)" by KANA-BOON (eps 13-24)
	3: "Over me" by Lozareena

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Ending Theme

	1: "Marionette (マリオネット)" by Lozareena
	2: "Yuudachi (夕立ち)" by Memai SIREN (眩暈SIREN)
	3: "Gekkou (月虹)" by BUMP OF CHICKEN

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Reviews

Jun 27, 2019

Kaidu-

Not Recommended

This is one of the worst adaptation to ever come out in recent memory. Not only it's a bad anime, but it's also an insult to the original manga by Fujita-sensei which is considered a classic in Japan.

Let's go over the biggest problem: it's rushed like hell.
How rushed? Well...
Imagine if you had to adapt JoJo part 5 into 13 episodes...
Or HxH into 24 episodes...
Or FMA into 16 episodes...
Or... Well, you get the idea.
The original manga is 43 volume long. This anime is 36 episode.
This means that even if they adapted a volume per episode, it wouldn't do ...

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Jun 27, 2019

Stark700

Mixed Feelings

Over the past decade since I’ve been reading manga, there’s one author that I always felt underappreciated. Kazuhiro Fujita is the manga artist responsible for works such as Ushio and Tora and Moonlight Act. It’s not his first rodeo of having an anime adaptation. Ushio and Tora got the treatment of a 3-cour show (with a split break) based on his manga. Both series ran a large chunk of chapters before their conclusion. Karakuri Circus takes place in modern Japan focusing on a young boy named Masaru Saiga.

The story itself contains elements of action and dark fantasy while the plot revolves with three protagonists. ... Masaru, Narumi, and Shirogane may all have different personalities but their roles are all pivotal for the integrity of the plot. Masaru’s inheritance from his family paints a target on his back as people are after his money. Narumi and Shirogane saves Masaru from death but also begins a complicated story as their lives changes forever. Make no mistake, Karakuri Circus is actually more complex as it seems on the surface. My original impression of Karakuri Circus felt like the anime managed to do what it could do to get the story flowing. However, several episodes in the early stages begin showing red flags.

To put it bluntly, this anime adaptation went way over the speed limit in the beginning. It’s incredibly rushed and skipping many chapters to get to certain plot elements. Just for statistical references, the first four or so episodes adapted at least 25+ chapters. With 43 volumes, this didn’t come to me as a complete surprise. The staff probably wanted to cover the entire manga but by doing so, it also damages the original product as a whole. This glaring red flag told me that Karakuri Circus is a victim of modern day adaptations. What got me curious is why the show didn’t receive more episodes in the first place. Perhaps a split double cour could even remedy this a little but instead, we get a continuous triple cour of 36 episodes. If you think about it, that’s almost 11 chapters per episode if we go with the flow. Luckily, the anime doesn’t exactly go with such numbers but it still suffers from omission. As a fan of the manga, I’m rather dumbfounded.

Onto the actual plot, Karakuri Circus seems to have a vision to dive deep into its background story. Events in the past heavily influences the present timeline with characters such as Shirogane based on past incarnations. What began 200 years ago has made powerful impact in the present story. However, the first few episodes didn’t follow such format. Instead, it focused more on our three protagonists attempting to live a normal life. Despite that, fate has linked them together with the past that’s practically inescapable. As more episodes progressed, there’s a so much revealed that it’s hard to take in all at once. This the second red flag of the anime. How can viewers be invested in so much content going on at once? Now, I do get that Karakuri Circus relies on character decisions. Some of these are so important that they change the outcome of the story. But really, it feels that the story goes into many directions rather than being focused in one direction. Unfortunately, that’s not all the problems it suffers.

When it comes to characters, the cast itself begins to show weakness. Now on the surface, I do like our main characters. Masaru, Narumi, and Shirogane shares a unique bond together that’s hard to overlook in the beginning. There’s hints of deeper feelings between Narumi and Shirogane while Masaru and Shirogane also develops a close bond. The main problem though lies with its commitment to the characters. We are shown many flashbacks throughout the show that sometimes makes me forget our main characters. The first few episodes made me invest a lot into them but by the time half this show aired, that interest has greatly degenerated. That is, I don’t want to say the characters in the past are not important. On the contrary, they play huge roles such as the case with Francine, the Bai brothers, and members of the Saiga family. Two characters of the past also greatly resemble our main characters – Francine/Shirogane and Narumi/Bai Yin. There’s also emotional value poured into the relationships between certain characters. But as the more I watched the show, the more I felt detached with them. I wanted the anime to just be more focused in one direction and not jump back and forth between every episode. That seems a bit too much to ask because the anime adaptation had other ideas.

But still, I do applaud Karakuri Circus for its expansive characters when it comes to diversity. While the anime adaptation suffers from rushed content, certain characters do make an impression. The Saiga family such as Shogi and Angelina are names that shouldn’t be forgotten easily during their arc. Members of the Midnight Circus has unique members with a variety of personalities. Furthermore, some of the antagonists in the show have impactful influences such as the Faceless Commander in later episodes. Hell, the Bai brother are responsible for causing a major story plot in the show – the Zonapha Syndrome. Known for its deadly stages, this syndrome is one of the most important elements in the entire series. So despite the story being rushed, it’s hard to deny that certain characters had great influence in the overall tone of the plot. If only the anime adaptation devoted more time on the plot to be more fluid and tolerable. Too bad.

Founded in the August of 2014, studio VOLN had previously worked on Ushio and Tora. For its visual context, Karakuri Circus blends between old school art and new school. What I mean is that the show retains a style of the manga while also able to adapting it to modern standards. Character designs are crafted with precision and uniqueness. Every character seems to stand out on their own without feeling out of place. The most unique designs are the automatas, clowns, and circus acrobats. Many of the modern circus characters have a flamboyant look while the automata gives the impression of unique old school machines. Furthermore, I think praise should be given to the character expressions for being able to sell emotional content when it’s given the chance. The main characters such as Masaru and Narumi are prominent examples of this especially in early episodes. Later on, Shirogane’s emotions becomes much more apparent too. The bottom line is, VOLN managed to make a show that managed to live up to its visual expectations.

Karakuri Circus is honestly a mixed bag of sometimes being great at what it does and other times falling short. Anyone who have read the manga will recognize how much the adaptation decided to skip content to get the main story going. That itself is a mistake and is hard to fix. If you came in as an anime original viewer, this might not be such a sour experience. As for me, this was more or less an average anime that could have been much, much more.

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Jun 27, 2019

bmoore07

Mixed Feelings

People evolve. We venture beyond our comfort zones, adapting and adjusting to new environments. In the end, we become better versions of ourselves. However, for the shirogane (masters of magical puppets), this is not the case. Defined by their silver hair, slim figures, and seemingly ageless bodies, they’ve been fighting monsters for hundreds of years. Their reasoning for this lies within a traumatizing event from long ago; this event permanently affected them. While the seasons change, the shirogane stay the same. It's apparent in their fighting style (the manipulation of puppets). With the issues they confront, the shirogane insist on an approach that’s not only ...

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Poll: Karakuri Circus Episode 18 Discussion Stark700 - Feb 21, 2019	25 replies	by Moson »» May 2, 5:37 AM
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Karakuri Circus

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