Karakuri Circus is one of the real sasuga anime of the season for me.  I had high hopes for this series as well as what I thought was a pretty good idea of what to expect from it (sometimes that works out, sometimes it doesn’t) based on Fujita Kazuhiro’s earlier work Ushio and Tora.  And it’s delivered on both counts – it’s excellent on the whole, and very much in the Fujita tradition (though there are certainly differences with UshiTora).  So far, so good.

A couple of things I would stipulate for the record, the first of which is that there’s a certain suspension of disbelief required with Karakuri – perhaps even more than UshiTora, which is ironic given that show’s themes.  The train crash (into the circus) from the premiere was pretty preposterous, and I can’t say I feel that differently about Narumi-neesan’s medical condition – ZONAPHA Syndrome, supposedly an abnormality of the parasympathetic nervous system.  I give Fujita credit for having the balls to actually try and explain Narumi’s eccentricity in scientific terms, though.  But I’m not watching a Fujita adaptation for photo-realism – his works are grounded in fantasy an full of larger than life characters and events, so this isn’t really a problem for me.

The thing I’ve noted is that Karakuri Circus seems to be starting more quickly than Ushio and Tora.  We’ve jumped full-bore into the maelstrom here, without a whole lot of build-up.  Whether this is a matter of pacing (fitting the manga into 36 episodes) and just the way Fujita wrote it I don’t know.  One of my observations about UshiTora was that there never seemed to be a wasted moment of airtime, but it took a few episodes to really launch into its story.  Not so much the case here.

Ultimately, for all the fantasy trappings and interesting world-building, I think Karakuri Circus is fundamentally a story about the three people at its center.  They’re all clicking for me, both as individuals and as part of the whole.  Masaru could have been in danger of being a fairly standard damsel-in-distress type, but there’s already some depth to him.  His backstory engenders sympathy for him in a more profound manner than simple decency might entail – he’s no spoiled bochan, having grown up in the lap of luxury.  He’s the son of a mistress, brought into the family only three years ago and thrust into the middle of a fight over money he doesn’t really care much about.

It’s easy to see why Masaru and Narumi would bond, and they have a natural rapport already.  Indeed, I think what we’re seeing is how these three complement each other – Narumi needs to make someone laugh, and Masaru needs laughter more than just about anybody.  Narumi and Shirogane seem to have little in common bar their desire to protect Masaru, but that’s not a bad basis on which to build a relationship by any means.  Shirogane is a puppet master of the highest order, but naive – Narumi is a blunt instrument with street smarts.

The problem, of course, is that the Saiga family isn’t going to be content to let these three play family in peace.  The “murder team” – led by puppeteer Ashihana Eiryou (Sakurai Takahiro) – is out to do what their name suggests, and only the combined efforts of Shirogane and Narumi can foil their first attempt.  The “kidnap team” wants to do just that, kidnap Masaru and presumably gain access to the Saiga fortune through him.  I’m still not sure why Ashhana chose to fill in Shirogane and Narumi about the details of the kidnap group – even factoring in the whole “enemy of my enemy” thing it seemed a bit odd.

Only two episodes in, and the pieces seem very much in place – both in terms of the plot and the dynamic between Masaru, Narumi and Shirogane.  But of course trimmed down for TV or not we still have 34 episodes to go, so it’s obvious that we’re going to see a considerable amount of complexity to the story and evolution in the character dynamic.  Having been down this road with Fujita once already – and knowing that he’s heavily involved in the planning for the TV series – I’m pretty confident it’s going to be an entertaining and emotionally powerful ride.