Carnival Phantasm First Season
It’s time to start the show!
 |
Konichiwa~ Well whatever part of the world you are from, I’m up rather early for an off day and brimming in excitement for the live simulcast of Fate/Zero. Being a Type-Moon fangirl, I don’t get much to be excited over because the releases are usually pretty far apart but this year has been quite phenomenal because all the big names are coming back together to make some epic stories a reality. Yes, ufotable finally animating something else from the nasuverse even if it’s not originally written by him after Kara no Kyoukai. But BEFORE I gush over more crazy, I have to finish this tag of Carnival Phantasm (a celebration of TM’s 10th anniversary) with Foshy that should been posted last month… Sorry, minnah, RL happens and then I get beaten up by health too. >.> |
 |
What can I say about Carnival Phantasm?! Well imagine if Nichijou and Type-Moon had a baby, this short OVA series would be the child! Because all the fun Typemoon characters have been thrown into insane and over the top events. So, you just have to press the play and watch the magic begin. Each episode is about fourteen minutes long so you can easily breeze through these really fast. Although I’m more familiar with the Fate/stay night universe and characters rather than the Tsukihime ones but after the first set of these specials I picked up on a few of the special characters like Arcueid and Ciel. Anyway I am joining boss lady Kyokai as we knock out these short reviews for some Carnival fun! Enjoy. |
|
Before starting the short summaries, let me enlighten you all about the Ahnenerbe cafe, because this is where everything starts (Nakata Jouji’s Hajimari! was my dream). This has a special place in Nasuverse, serving as a limbo between parallel worlds. This is why characters from different worlds (Fate/stay, Tsukihime and even Melty Blood) can easily meet here making it a perfect setting for the gag-filled Carnival Phantasm. Mysteriously, this cafe is found at different location in different worlds and was supposedly owned by the Neco Arcs (the four in question; this is how you use a mascot for promotion, people!). The way it appears in Tsukihime, Fate/stay or even Kara no Kyoukai is different with different purposes of meeting deceased acquaintances or even people from parallel worlds (like how Ryougi Shiki and Tohno Shiki can’t exist in one world). I can tell you more but let’s leave the serious things behind and delve into this comedic epic journey of our favourite Type-Moon characters: |
Saber and Rin look prepared to win at any cost.
|
Episode one throws us right into the fun with a Holy Grail themed game show. Putting up all the masters and servants from Fate/stay night against each other as they take part in random games with the holy grail as the prize. We have Illyasviel von Einzbern and Kirei Kotomine as the hosts of this amazing yet dangerous game. As the game show starts we watch Saber, Archer, Berserker, Lancer, Caster, and Rider take part in the different events. They are told in the beginning not to use any phantasm powers, but that rule gets slowly broken after Gilgamesh enters the fray with his countless swords. After all the insane games and much destruction, we finally get a true winner in Emiya prepares, who prepares to take his prize. Sadly he gets trolled pretty hard after he cuts the Grail in half as a Neco Arc appears to kidnap Emiya and throwing him into a freaking huge rocket ship… |
Unlimited squeaky hammer works! Those things are so dangerous…
|
That flies him off to an unknown location. It’s very sad, Emiya, that you were PWN’d by Neco Arcs so easily. Let me chime in for the fangirls here that the blue-haired scrawny youth you see on the above screencap is actually voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya. This Shinji character is absolutely kimochi warui~ in the Fate/stay world with Rider as a servant. Don’t you think his scream should’ve been more pronounced?! :3 This episode overall remained faithful to the Fate/stay character, even showing Taiga, the sensei who’s just that surrogate sister figure for Emiya, who eats too much and complains a lot. If you miss a certain character, you can always go and play the VNs or even read Take Moon. |
Face it, Emiya, you have epic failed in life!
|
Episode two is more about the Tsukihime characters at the beach enjoying some sun. Things start out with Arcueid running down the beach to find Shiki surrounded by all the other girls who begin to fight over him. Not a bad harem you got there, Shiki. That is until they get a bit too aggressive and the twin maids propose they settle everything with a quick game of volleyball. After a few normal serves, things turn dangerous really fast, as each of the girls begin to use their supernatural powers. And of course no one really wins this match besides Arcureid who remained as hyper as ever after wearing everyone else out. |
Lucky Shiki, huh guys? Check out all the rubber faces too.
Anime volleyball! Nothing quite like out there, it always turns out wild and over the top.
Arcueid- “Now the real fun starts, giant volley ball attack!”
|
Before anyone forgets, the connection from the previous episode is actually the rocket landing by Emiya on the same island they are frolicking about. Due to the crash, Emiya along with a helping Neco Arc tries to fix the rocket but even that hope is lost when the rocket is further broken by the explosive volleyball play. In the end, Emiya returns to Ahnenerbe dejectedly and shares a table with the lucky bastard, Shiki, whose harem is bigger than his. Also, I’ll bluntly ignore the alleyway jokes. |
Shiki: “Why the long face?” Emiya: “My failure in acquiring a larger harem has left me squishy inside…”
|
Episode three covers two scenarios of our popular Tsukihime and Fate/stay night characters. It’s interesting how Acrueid and Ciel fight to get some sweet time with Shiki. Not to mention, same happens with Emiya, who is even sedated so that the girls can ‘sleep’ with him. I simply laugh thinking, if only the same events happened in the main series, things would’ve been SO different! |
Arcueid makes one of the cutest chibi characters and those ears!? CUTEEOOOOOOO!
|
This episode starts with Arureid getting into an argument with Ciel about sharing school life with Shiki. But we all know she’s secretly jealous that Ceil gets to spend so much time with him. So one bored afternoon while spying on him from outside the window, Arcueid gets a very bright idea to joins his class as a transfer student. Her new high school life starts out fun and exciting; however she eventually gets bored and drops out the same day. You think she let go? Hell no. She actually signs up as a janitor for the school, just so she can be near Shiki all the time…. |
Shiki- “Quick! Play dead and she just might walk away…”
|
The next part follows Emiya, Rin, Saber, Illyasviel and Taiga! All of them eventually end up laying together on the aired futon. The whole thing was started by Illyasviel, who casts a spell on Emiya to sleep. This makes Rin a bit jealous because she wants to lie with Emiya too. Damn you, Emiya, so many girls! This might be more of a rival of harems than anything at this point. And we watch as Illyasviel and Rin get into a fight over who gets to lie next to Emiya! In all of this, Illyasviel even tries to kiss Emiya to break the spell. while he was sleeping quietly. Sneaky little girl! You better keep a close eye on that girl, Rin; she might steal him away. |
Rin- “Shhh, Saber! We all know what you and Emiya do every night…”
Rin- “OH HELL NO!! YOU WILL DIE, LITTLE GIRL… RIGHT NAO!”
|
Episode four is again a two-part short. The first follows Rin after she agrees to record Emiya’s show, however Rin is really bad at dealing with technology and ends up screwing things up trying to record on the blu ray player. While Rin is trying her best, Archer just watches and laughs seeing his master panic and fail horribly. But she has a real issue with looking through some of the older recordings after searching for a disk from the fear of discovering something dirty that Emiya might be into. After all the panic and aggravation she ends up recording the wrong show. Way to go, Rin! I guess now she will have to conquer that fear of tech. |
Emiya- “Whatever you do, you better record my little pony!” Rin- “I knew you liked that crap…”
Rin- “OH MY GOD WHAT THE FUUUUUUU–? Nine hours of My little pony episodes! THE HORROR!!”
Archer- “I see your brain finally melted into nothing…” Rin- “I can’t go on living anymore….”
|
Second half brings Shiki and Emiya together! As they have a chat about the things they have to deal with everyday life with Saber and Arcueid mostly because they are dangerous when angry. Shiki decides to help Emiya and himself with a time table. This table idea sounds great! But fails after they figure that it might be near impossible to plan special date with everyone! Now we see the truth behind having your own harem guys! That’s a lot of trouble just to go through for all those girls. |
Emiya- “Dude… I can’t read that!” Shiki- “You need my special eyes…”
Let’s run off to No.6 now because we have no hope of saving our manhood here! ><
|
Bwahahaaaaaaa! I think this was one of the most hilarious short out of the four because it had the best setting. From the MMMMM |
~ Extra Phantasmic Fun ~
WINCEST IN MAH CARNIVAL?! HECK YEAH!
Berserker tries out for the next season of Softenni! Sadly he killed the camera crew for making fun of him.
Poor Shiki! No one wins when you have a supernatural harem.
Rin’s hair must taste really good; maybe it’s made of chocolate?
WHY did you record Madoka Magica? I WANT MAH LITTLE PONY NAO!
Archer-“Damn you, long skirt! Spoiling my fun…” Rin- “Go die somewhere…”
End Thoughts:
Well, these certainly made me laugh! Comedy wise the little side gags are always funny like the cats, especially that smoking cat voiced by the amazing Nakata, Jouji! Really great to hear him again, of course he does a lot for Type-Moon anyway. But it took me a while to get used to those cats; I guess they are fun to watch even that one cat that just nods randomly was funny. And that opening video?! So good just to watch the entire cast dancing! That song will get stuck in your head so easily… I always laugh when I see the guys getting into the dancing because all of that dancing is sooooo out of character for everyone.
Now like I mentioned before I was not so familiar with the non Fate/Stay Night characters, but I was instantly drawn to Acrueid! She has that cute personality and is very hyper! Those are the best characters to watch for me. And that power of hers? Nice! I liked that whole Volleyball scene with her and the other girls. And I died laughing when she dropped out of school the same day she joined! Ahahaha that was so good and returning as the janitor/Maid! Talk about being a stalker.
But I think I had more fun watching the massive cast from Fate/Stay Night doing random comedy scenes, usually I am used to the more serious and action side of Fate/Stay Night. So seeing my favorites like Rin and Saber go all super deformed face was very interesting; I wonder if other companies would make their own type of series like this one? Anyway Rin messing up the recording for Emiya while Archer sat back and watched was great! I always liked that pairing. Also, that whole game show episode was AMAZING! I laughed mostly watching Berserker trying to play tennis.
Woooooooo~ This is a dream come trueeeeeee! I was pretty pumped for this one and the only reason I kept my hands away from Take Moon manga because it’s a pure adaptation and I didn’t want to ruin it. BUT I never thought, it would be this epic or funny. From the opening sequence to even the little promos in the middle of OVAs were brilliantly placed with almost all popular character usage. I think the Alleyway jokes were a waste of time but a two to three is nothing compared to the complete one hour entertainment.
The thing that I oh so loved is how even in the light of comedy, the characters remained true to their traits, like even if Shirou was emo most of the times or Rin being a total tsundere. These were true even in the original series. As the nasuverse is connected to each other even if remotely, it’s always interesting to make the character connection of who came first and how this new character would end up. I mean look at Miyako or even Sakura for taking different paths. Out of all things, the harem similarity was pretty wittily treated with rightly placed jokes and a mix of modern and old themes.
Overall, this was everything plus a lot more than I expected. These are very rewatchable and the jokes don’t become stale even if you are watching it again (I watched it raw and then twice after it was subbed). Knowing the characters help in enjoying the jokes but like always I would recommend you to play the Visual Novels rather than wasting your time with anime; both Fate/stay and Tsukihime adaptations were just MEH. Though, Fate/Zero should be awesome and you can start your own introduction to the franchise with it. Which reminds me, my Fate/Zero stream is almost complete and I gotta watch the fourty-eight minute long goodness. I hope you enjoyed our review and I leave you with the awesome ED sequence, that is very Durarara!! like:
Preview
Season two written in blood! That means it’s super serious.
Catch more Carnival Phantasm in the fall! We should get eight more episodes later on. Thanks for reading!
About Tag Team
We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Wooooooooo! This is great Kyo I love the gif file hahaa nicely done!
Can’t wait for the rest of these <3 more moe Saber and Rin!
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Bwahahaaa! I had to make that gif as if my life depended upon it. :3
This was so awesome, definitely can’t wait for season two. Had lots of fun tagging with you. ^^
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
I always love a good tag team! -High five-
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I only know the Fate/Stay Night characters, and I still found this enjoyable. Some jokes were real misses, but there were some surprisingly funny jokes in there. My favourite part has to be that insane volleyball match. I…really want to try doing some of that in a real volleyball game >w<
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
I am with you there OC I only know the Fate/Stay Night characters..Well Shiki is familiar thanks to KoK series! Unless that isn’t the same? I mean they have the same magic eyes xD
That volleyball match?! Awesome! I love when characters with powers get a chance to go all out and win. Beelzebub currently just finished a volleyball episode it wasn’t as over the top but hey it was fun.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
It’s more fun when you know all the characters but definitely they did something right. And I can so imagine you playing a version of that volleyball game with your karate kicks. xD
POWUH: 1100-1199 and Meta's Evil rice-flour Product with 1137 comments
I found this hard to get, as i only knew the characters from kara no kyoukai and fate/stay night, some of the jokes are very funny, but there’ll always be some reference that you know you’re missing and it just nags away at you
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
I was lost on some of the jokes, but ah well I still got a few laughs on the Fate/Stay night side of things.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Yōko Fanboy with 1246 comments
Hai Hai Hai Hai Hai~ Houkago hajudagomen(?) xD
I FRICKEN LOOOOOOOVE THE OP AND ED TO CARNIVAL!!! The first time I listened to the OP was during the trailers and I loved it a lot. The ED was a great hit and I am in the process of hunting down a high quality full version of it ;D
As a show based around comedy, it has done it’s job with flying colours! I’ve seen Fate Stay Night and played the VN. I’mve only read the manga of Tsukihime and I didn’t know anything about Melty Blood (too bad they didn’t have Kara no Kyoukai in it…. that was a shame… :\) The jokes I mainly understood were the Fate Stay Night jokes (as that’s the show I know most about amongst Type Moon shows)
I’m definitely looking forward to the second season of Carnival Phantasm (as if you wouldn’t!!!!) xD
Oh yeah, Kyokai, please pass my condolences to Lancer XD He was a good man… Rest In Peace…
……. AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Ahahah <3 <3 <3 <3 that Opening such a addictive song, I remembered listening to the trailer over and over.
Yeah some of the jokes are hit and miss but ah well I had fun watching, can't wait till the next half finally comes out well eventually.
LOL @ Lancer.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
LOL, Tofu! I did pass your condolences. Btw, you can check out All Around Type-Moon for Kara no Kyoukai addition to this mix. xD
POWUH: 600-699 and Romance Expert with 652 comments
I only enjoyed the first ep, when it was about F/S night. the others, not so much.
what I really expected was a more intertwined connection between them. basically I expected a crossover. so I got disappointed.
theres a better manga version that is diff. it only has like 5 chapters but is more fun IMO.
heres the link: http://www.mangafox.com/manga/all_around_type_moon_ahnenerbe_no_nichijou/
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Crossovers are always fun! Gintama and Sket Dance have pulled it off quite well.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
I can bet the next ones will pleas you more. Also, the last episode was a crossover between Fate/stay night and Tsukihime characters. :3
And I’ve checked out the manga too. ^^
POWUH: 600-699 and Romance Expert with 652 comments
my comment got eaten again…
well I forgot to mention this: I liked how archer was dominating in that card game. even if its not the one he expected, he’s still japanese so obviously he knows. oh and saber losing at that round too.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
I saved it. :3
And it was fun, watching them play at something you would never imagine rather than always trying to kill each other.
POWUH: 600-699 and Romance Expert with 652 comments
hey theres a really hilarious fanfic on another kind of “war” that is not only both good and hilarious, it includes a bit of crossover with tsukihime.
http://forums.nrvnqsr.com/showthread.php/312-Fate-Something-Something-(with-Tsukihime-too
enjoy 🙂
POWUH: 600-699 and Romance Expert with 652 comments
hey kyo, you better blog fate/zero! I would love to see your thoughts since your an expert in the nasuverse and the nostalgia of the show.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Oh I am! This is going to be the only Fall series that I will blog for now. My draft is increasing with words as I speak but I will make it good for the readers. Hope you guys like my new style. xD
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
I have to watch the first episode!! GRRRRR T__T
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
DUDE! What are you doing?! It was EPICCCCCCCCCHHHH!
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Shiro: TWILIGHTO SPARKLE!!!