It would probably be fair to say that the first two episodes of Karakuri Circus were a bit of a qualified success for me.  I liked them, and they displayed pretty much what I expected from a Fujita series adapted by the same team that brought us Ushio to Tora.  But they didn’t blow me away – to be fair neither did the first few eps of UshiTora, though I think they were a bit more immediately engaging.  In terms of pacing everything Fujita (at least on the anime side) seems to start out in sixth gear, and Karakuri has been no exception.  But I was still waiting for the story to really spark in a big enough way to break through the din and clamor of the first two eps.

That pretty much happened for me this time, as the third episode was a substantial level up from the first two.  I liked what we saw both on the character and plot side, and within the context that realism is never a prominent component of a Fujita series, everything that happened more or less made sense.  He always goes for sweep and scope, and that was never going to be an issue, but things have to connect on the personal level too.  And that’s where this episode made a lot of headway with me.

The arrival on the scene of Masaru’s uncle Saiga Zenji certainly didn’t hurt the cause.  He’s played by the always superb Ohtsuka Akio, and he brought home the reality of the bleak situation Masaru is in better than anything so far.  It’s clear pretty much immediately that Uncle Zenji (the father’s younger brother) is not to be trusted – and Masaru certainly doesn’t.  But he’s a helpless child in the clutches of a greedy billionaire, and the ones he’s come to trust are nowhere to be seen.  Zenji shows his true stripes quickly enough – his heart was never really in the act of trying to fool the boy, I don’t think – and Karakuri spares us no detail of the violent way Zenji asserts his power over his nephew.

It’s in the act of hiding from his uncle that Masaru learns the terrible truth – he is, in his father’s own words, “bait”.  The details of this are still to be fleshed out but it seems Dad wanted to see the powerful puppeteering Kuroga Clan, longtime business partners of the Saiga, destroy themselves in fighting over Masaru and the fortune left to him.  The strong implication here is that Masaru’s father is still alive, waiting for this game to play itself out before he steps back in and reasserts control.  Learning that he was a very bad man indeed doesn’t come as a surprise, but it reflects just how badly Masaru has been treated by fate.  Perhaps his grandfather’s regard for him was genuine but that’s still to be determined, especially given what he now know about his sons’ character.

Meanwhile Narumi and Shirogane – along with Asahina – have arrived at Zenji’s mansion only to find it heavily fortified and booby-trapped by the kidnap faction.  This uneasy alliance still stretches credulity but it does sort of make sense – Asahina sees Shirogane and Narumi as shock troops to reveal some of the traps, and for the moment there’s a shared interest in getting Masaru out of the mansion.  A fierce karakuri battle ensues between Shirogane and one of the kidnap faction’s puppet masters, Takami, but she proves no match for Shirogane – who says she was “born” a puppeteer.

There are two main themes playing out here – one being the emerging level of trust between Narumi and Shirogane.  Narumi is the epitome of directness and transparency – he sees what he thinks is right and acts on it.  Shirogane begins to understand this about him, especially when he scolds her that as long as she values her own life lightly, she can’t be trusted to value someone else’s (like Masaru’s) highly enough.  She may describe herself as a puppet but Narumi doesn’t believe it for a moment, and her keepers certainly failed to drive all emotion out of her.  It’s also quite notable that one of Narumi’s attacks was allayed by her reaction after he tried to make her laugh by saying “You’re going to be my girl” – indication there was more to this comment that an attempt at humor.  Stay tuned.

The big moments here, though, are with Masaru.  Thus far he’s played the damsel-in-distress mode, but for Karakuri Circus to take off he has to assert his own strength and courage – whatever he can muster from that tiny body.  Rather than submit to his uncle he attacks him with a fire extinguisher, breaks a window and – after mustering his courage – leaps from a high window, not knowing his fate.  He might have derived inspiration from Narumi and Shirogane, but that courage was something Masaru still had to display himself – and he makes it clear he’s ready to fight for his own life in whatever manner he can.  That includes a rather shrewd gambit once he survives his fall, bloodied and battered – he offers to pay more for Asahina’s services than the family members who hired him if he’ll switch to Masaru’s side.  Asahina becoming an ally always seemed a possibility, and now it seems almost a certainty – but the main takeaway is Masaru taking charge of his own situation rather than waiting to be rescued.  That makes Karakuri Circus a stronger story in every way, and heightens my expectations for things to come.