Masaru Saiga is a fifth-grade boy who aims to become a puppeteer. After Sadayoshi Saiga — the CEO of the giant home telephone maker Saiga and Masaru’s father — passes away, Masaru inherits 18 billion yen. Masaru is targeted for his wealth, and is saved by two people. Narumi Katō is a man who has studied Kung-Fu and has a weird illness called “Zonapha Syndrome,” and Shirogane is a silver-haired woman who controls the puppet “Arurukan” (Harlequin). Together, Masaru, Narumi, and Shirogane get thrown into various conspiracies by those who would try to steal Masaru’s fortune. – ANN
Streaming: Amazon Prime
Episodes: 36
Source: Manga
Episode Summary: Narumi is a martial-arts expert, but you wouldn’t know it from his day job as a costumed advertisement for a circus. As he’s handing out flyers to passers-by, a boy runs into him with his luggage. This young man, Masaru, is on the run from several very threatening men-in-black who seem immune to physical attacks. Narumi and Masaru escape from them onto a train, but their safety is only temporary; these dark figures, who are soon revealed to be puppet-like automatons, attack their car and derail the train, crashing it into Narumi’s circus tent.
Inside, Masaru and Narumi find themselves cornered, until a silver-haired woman wearing a sparkling unitard descends from a tightrope above and takes control of the huge marionette in Masaru’s luggage. This woman, Shirogane, has a long-standing commitment to Masaru’s family, and uses her skills to rescue him. Still, she doesn’t know much about the lay of the land, so as Masaru receives medical treatment, Narumi and Shirogane reach an uneasy truce.
Impressions: Karakuri Circus is an example of nostalgia for something I’m not familiar with. My understanding that the manga, from the author of Ushio and Tora is well-regarded and the anime adaptation was a bit of a welcome surprise to the fandom. I’m not acquainted with either property, but as someone who’s witnessed a few eras of anime pass before my eyes, the first episode of Karakuri Circus actually feels a little bit familiar.
I had the opportunity some years ago to watch a good chunk of the anime Hajime no Ippo, which follows a young boxing prodigy on his way up the world rankings. I viewed the majority of the original series, and watched the subsequent seasons on my own as they were released years later. While I always like a good triumphant sports story, one aspect of Ippo that never sat well with me was its tone, which waffled between focused seriousness and downright juvenile humor. The series, in which all the characters were young adult males, seemed to operate under the illusion that “boys will be boys,” meaning “boys will be immature doofuses obsessed with girls and their own penises.” It was kind of a bummer, because I loved the emotional highs of the series, but the “antics” always resulted in an unsatisfying amount of emotional disconnect for me.
This episode gave me a lot of flashbacks to Ippo, because similarly I found it to be a very confounding blend of compelling grit, strange and intriguing action, and ultimately undermining shounen-style humor. I think there is a lot to set it apart in a field of very popular shounen action series, but I fear that its uncontrolled comical violence and issues with characterization might eventually tear it down from within.
I think this episode does a good job of establishing what might turn out to be kind of a spookier story. Ever since watching Dumbo as a small child (over and over and over again, I might add), I’ve always had an impression of circuses as somewhat dark, terrifying spaces. Ignoring the problematic nature of forcibly-trained animals, traditional style 3-ring circuses have always had an air of old, otherworldly decrepitude to me. In a sense they seem stuck in time, forever existing in some mythical 1930’s world filled with grit and melancholy. I think that the designs of the puppets in this story capitalize on that feeling very well, though the setting is thoroughly modern. Though clowns are the typical culprit when it comes to “scary stuff at the circus,” the puppets in this episode, with their stilted movements and dead eyes, convey that same sort of inhuman creepiness that transcends the feeling of a typical shounen action anime. As someone who’s a fan of Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls, I have to admit that the thousand-yard-stare and uncanny valley aesthetic does appeal to me on some weird visceral level, and the various puppets scratch that itch for me.
Where the episode falters is, as I mentioned, in its characterization. Narumi is the embodiment of the juvenile adulthood issue I talked about earlier. It’s not really that he has a boyish outlook, but that his reactions as an adult are overwrought, clownish, and slapstick-y to the point that they begin to undermine the seriousness of the action. Narumi has a condition that isn’t well-defined during this episode, but which seems to cause him dire health-related issues if he isn’t able to make others laugh for a period of time. Ignoring the inherent lack of realism (because if you’re watching a show about battling puppets you’re probably not worried too much about realism), what this condition does is cause Narumi to act like a goofball in situations where it’s not warranted. It’s a joke that’s funny about once, then loses its luster pretty quickly as it tries to create levity when it’s not needed. It almost feels as if the series is wary of suddenly becoming too serious, so it finds cheap ways to prevent that from happening, to its ultimate detriment.
There’s also the matter of Shirogane, who as the show’s sole woman thus far has already started to embody some of my least favorite “strong female character” tropes. Shirogane is clearly strong and agile; her fighting prowess is absolutely not in question. But to offset her physical strength she’s portrayed as slavishly devoted to Masaru – her power is for his benefit and his sake, rather than some aspect that helps her to define her own identity. If there were multiple girls and/or women represented in this episode it might not matter so much, but thus far Shirogane is it. Her faults as a character stand out more because of her token status as The Girl™. It’s a problem that crops up in a lot of male-focused anime just due to the gender make-up of the cast, and unfortunately this opening episode doesn’t manage to avoid it.
In an anime fandom atmosphere when softer visions of male-ness are starting to become more common even in anime series aimed at boys, the hot-blooded nature of Narumi as a masculine protector, as well as the general interpretation of masculinity as a combination of physical strength and buffoonery, definitely give this episode a more classic feel. It’s certainly a stand-out this season, and it does have a certain measure of appeal because of it. I definitely enjoy the overall spookiness of the puppets, and the way that Shirogane uses one to battle is intriguing to say the least. I think there’s definitely potential for this to be an entertaining series. I just don’t know if it’s meant to be an entertaining series for me.
Pros: The first episode cultivates an air of creepiness with its setting and various puppet characters.
Cons: Shirogane’s characterization leaves something to be desired. The attempts at levity feel out-of-place.
Grade: C