Karneval ep10: I’d appreciate full disclosure

I have to say, I’ve completely underplayed a certain aspect of the story of Karneval.  But to be fair, this show has a habit of underplaying things.  And when I’m not sure if a character is dead or not, and it’s not because I don’t see the character die, then I think something is being done wrong.  There’s a break in communication.  With that cleared up, let’s move on.  Though you’ll have to forgive me this time.  As usual, I have a terrible member and this time I’ve lost my notes.  That’s right, I have and have always used notes.

Things start off rather somberly as we see Tsukumo floating down a river on a small boat lined with roses.  It hits the shore where villagers come to see what is going on, but Hirato pops in from the sky and gets to her first.  He picks up the body very somberly and… wakes her up?  What?!  Didn’t he just say she was clinically dead?  The hell is going on here?!  You know what?  F*ck it!  This isn’t even addressed during the rest of the episode, so let’s move on!

After the disastrous events of the previous two episodes, Yogi is in the hospital, Tsukumo is – the hell with her situation, and Nai and Gareki are sent to the First Ship in the Circus armada.  Where mistress Kiichi (who seems to have the same bossy attitude my daughter has) is quick to get them introduced to the ship and put through their paces.  Meanwhile, her partner Jiki is busy looking up the backgrounds of their new guests, when he finds something interesting about Gareki’s past.  During a welcome meal aboard the First Ship with Tsukitachi, Nai and Gareki get invited to come visit the source of power for Circus agents.  This all seems rather sudden, but I’ve learned not to get too wrapped up in the little things when dealing with this cast of eccentrics.  Also while aboard the ship, Jiki decides to give Gareki a very stern message.  It’s something to the effect of knowing his place.  I always suspected Jiki had a vicious streak, but this is actually more than I was expecting.  The confrontation makes Nai nervous, as Jiki’s warning to Gareki about being only a pawn to keep Nai stable, and that he puts himself in great danger by being around and so incompetent, strikes a nerve.  It reminds him of Karoku’s warning from several episodes ago.  Tsukitachi tells him that he need only worry about finding his dreams, just as Gareki is probably doing now.  Or something to that effect.

Once at the wonderful land of misfit mystical animals, we learn that poachers had been a problem up until recently, when several of them were found dead.  In the meantime, we get to see what makes Circus members so magical.  Some magical cell in some magical pond called, Incura.  It’s used to make the bracelets the Circus agents use to materialize their special powers.  And that’s all the explanation I need, because this is all pretty ridiculous anyway.  I certainly would’ve accepted science or magic for any sort of explanation.

Back to the issue of the poachers, it turns out that they’d been killed by one of the mystical animals.  Turns out that that creature had been sick, and in order to save it one of the caretakers on the island had slipped it some mysterious drug that someone from within Circus had given him.  Pretty vague crap really, but at least now everyone knows there’s a spy or double agent in the organization.  And apparently they must be pretty close to Akari.  Yogi returns soon after the mystical creature goes berserk and tries to kill the Circus agents, he’s been trying to escape the hospital the entire episode.

Kiichi puts down the beast finally (Circus always kills things in the prettiest ways.  And with Yogi back, Nai and Gareki are sent back to the Second Ship, though not without Jiki following them.  Uh huh.  We also see that Tsukumo has returned.  Uh huh.

The episode pretty much ends with us hearing some hearsay about Karoku, as some of his caretakes/guards talk about his fleeting life line.  Apparently the guy doesn’t have much longer to live.

Oh and Gareki is still useless and has some issues.

End of episode.

Geez, I have some problems with this episode.  Mainly the problems handling death and information.  But overall it was still serviceable.  I do feel like I’m missing something though.  What is Gareki hiding?  Does he really not want to be there, and he’s just feeling sympathy for Nai?  And what exactly are his goals now, especially now that he no longer has to steal to support his adoptive family?  And as for Tsukumo, I’m going to assume what I originally assumed when Karoku took her out last episode.  He gave her a paralyzing agent, and that’s why she appeared dead for all purposes.  I suppose that that’s simple enough to assume, though I wish they’d spelled it out more clearly.  Oh Karneval, I could just slap you right now.

Further Reading:

• Episode 9
• Karneval Chapter 58 (lovescanlations.wordpress.com)