I'm not sure what I watched, but I liked it.
I assumed that Karneval would be a bishe-fest that was light on the story but heavy on the fanservice, so this episode surprised me a bit. Not that those elements were completely missing--the ED promises far more bishounen than the ones we've already seen, and it's undeniable that this show is nice to look at--but it does hint at more depth in the story than I gave the promotional materials credit for. Not that any of it makes a lot of sense right now.
From what I could gather, the show takes place in some kind of steampunk-styled fantasy universe where an organization known as Circus is investigating a multi-jointed vampire lady and any other strange events. Dropped into the middle of this is Gareki, a thief, and Nai, who's a bundle of mysteries all on his own (it's unclear if "Nai" is seriously his name, or if he meant that he doesn't have one). Gareki is played pretty straight for his stereotype (the thief that only cares about profit and himself having to drop the cold act for a while to save someone), but Nai immediately has more plot relevance (from what I can tell), since he's carrying around a bracelet that has connections with Circus and is looking for the person who gave it to him. Secrets are everywhere. This show definitely wants the viewers to figure out the mysteries as they go along, since even the parts that I did understand brought up a whole host of questions about the characters and the world they live in, and the show doesn't bother to slow down to explain it.
But there's a difference between being so confused by a show that it puts you off entirely and being confused enough to want to watch more to hear the reasoning it. Karneval definitely falls into the latter for me, since it feels like they're witholding information for plot reasons, rather than just throwing a bunch of stuff at a wall to see what sticks. Watching this episode, you get a clear sense that this world and its rules are figured out, but the viewer hasn't been let in on them just yet. Because of this, Karneval has a lot of potential. Whether it does anything with that or just ends up being a bishe-fest after all remains to be seen.
Images from Hulu.com. This post is also available at OASG.
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