I must confess it’s been something of a rolly-coaster ride with Karakuri Circus for me so far.  I’m definitely not in this for the photo-realism, but certain elements of the first four episodes have stretched my suspension of disbelief to an uncomfortable level.  It’s mostly been positive for me so far – especially the third episode – but last week didn’t represent the show at its best, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit anxious that it hasn’t closed the deal yet.  Losing one top tier show this season was a blow – two would be a disaster.

That said, this week was a welcome return to form.  I say “return”, although this was a very different sort of episode than any of the first four, good or indifferent.  Things slowed down considerably and we got a larger dose of humor than we have, all of which worked to the series’ benefit.  I was beginning to worry we weren’t going to have any slow passages at all given how much ground the anime has to adapt in 36 episodes (albeit with major cuts a certainty).

After a timeskip of a couple of months, Masaru is in his own words, “genki” – though he’s certainly missing Narumi (of whom there’s no sign).  Shirogane has slipped neatly into the role of his maid, smothering him with overprotectiveness which Masau mostly takes with good-natured fatalism.  He’s about to have his first day back at school after a long hospital stay, and Shirogane is going to attend high school – though one suspects the main reason is due to its proximity to the elementary school.  I wasn’t expecting a school life turn, but Karakuri Circus handles it quite well – which shouldn’t be a surprise I suppose given how well UshiTora fared in its brief ventures into that arena.

That Masaru was a bullied child is hardly a surprise – everything about the old Masaru said it loudly and clearly.  He’s changed of course, he now carries a body covered in physical scars to go with all the emotional ones.  While I was frustrated (and so was love interest class rep) to see Masaru react so benignly to being bullied, I was also glad to see he hadn’t come to associate strength merely with kicking asses.  To this Masaru the bullies are so insignificant as to not be worth his attention, and that’s a greater sort of strength than he’d be showing by beating them up.

Meanwhile Shirogane is going through the motions of her first day at Japanese high school, though the first chance she gets she bugs out to check on bo-chama.  All of this talk about “standing out” is interesting, because that’s a very fundamental part of Japanese society.  The Japanese love their pithy folk wisdom, but if I was to choose one expression which sums up Japan I think it would have to be “The nail that sticks up gets hammered down”.  I don’t think not standing out is going to be an option for either Shirogane or Masaru – for their own reasons (swish!), they’re proverbial sore thumbs.

In a sign things may stay in domestic mode for a bit, Masaru all but orders Shirogane (to make her smile, he says) to join the run-down Nakamichi Circus, run by a father (Egawa Hisao) and his two goofball sons (Ishikawa Kaitou and Iwasaki Ryouta).  Most importantly, though, we also get confirmation that Narumi is indeed alive.  I knew his was (it didn’t take a genius) but I’m awfully glad that didn’t get dragged out.