Saturday, April 20, 2013

[RECAP] Karneval Episode 2


YAY FOR EPISODE 2! 

The anime starts off with Gareki asking Nai if he had eaten and Nai answered no. Gareki decided to get food for him and told Nai not to go anywhere. After Gareki left, Nai looked a bit drowsy and then we see a flashback of Nai's memory during the day of Karoku's disappearance. Nai woke up and called for Karoku. 

On the other side, Hirato and Tsukitachi, the captain of the First Ship in Circus were reporting on their activities to people I assume as the head or the elders. They commented that the incident last night (Mine's maybe) didn't go smoothly. Hirato apologized and promised not to repeat his mistakes again and both of them was dismissed. Once outside, Hirato asked Tsukitachi why he tagged along to meet the elders, he answered that he wanted to see Hirato being scolded. Ha. Of course Hirato wasn't please with his answer. He replied that he would shoot Tsukitachi the next time he sees him in the sky. Tsukitachi then continued by saying that the train hijack incident was actually his job. 

Left to right: Tsukitachi, Hirato


Although Gareki told Nai not to go anywhere, Nai wanders off to the town.  A girl gave him food and explained why Circus held the circus show. She said that every time they finished a job and caught the 'scary people' in the area, they would put up a show to apologize for scaring the citizens. Upon hearing the word Circus, it reminds Nai of Karoku. 


Nai then asked the girl if there is someone named Karoku in Circus. The girl answered that she didn't know. Her mom called and she went off, leaving Nai alone. A main in black suit saw Nai and called the doctor we see in the previous episode. He reported that he had spotted Nai. The 'doctor' told him to capture Nai and bring Nai to him without hurting Nai. 
the 'doctor' 

Gareki returned but Nai was no where to be found. Gareki was pissed but still went back to town to look for Nai. In town, Circus was holding a parade. Nai tried to talk to one of the members of Circus but was suddenly dragged away by the man in black suit we saw earlier. Nai escaped and Gareki saw Nai running away. While running away, Nai bumped into a yellow cat which was called as 'Nyanperowna' by the little kids. Nai successfully escaped but Gareki was not please with what Nai had done. Gareki wondered who that man was and why he was chasing Nai. Realizing that being in town any longer would be bad for them, he told Nai to move along. 







Nyanperowna



The circus show held by Circus started. It was Tsukumo's performance. During all of this, we hear Hirato's voice. He called somene, asking who was the closest to area N11. Someone called Yogi answered his call. Yogi seemed to be in a bad mood and Hirato asked him why. Yogi said that first he was ran into by a boy and was stepped on by the people chasing after him. Hirato cut him off by saying that he got information that the boy they met in the train incident was being chased. Tsukumo heard this and joined the conversation. She told Hirato to let her protect Nai. Hirato refused her request, saying that she was still in the middle of the performance.






Nai told Gareki that if he went to circus, most likely they will be able to find Karoku. Gareki said that it was not the time for that for he had to find out who was the man chasing after Nai. In the middle of that, Gareki was attacked by the man in black suit who was chasing Nai ealier, leaving him unable to move. Nai was caught while Gareki was about to be killed. Fortunately, Nyanperowna came to rescue them. Actually, Yogi was the one inside Nyanperowna. Yogi introduced himself as the fighter of the Second Ship in Circus. When he was about to attack, the men in black suits ran away. Yogi asked Nai and Gareki if they were okay, which Nai answered yes. Yogi told them that he was told to bring both of the along with him. Gareki wondered why Circus was concerned about him and Nai. Nai and Gareki was then brought to the Circus Ship.







Inside the ship, in order to enter, each person had to say 'I'm Home!". That word acted as an entry password. Hirato welcomed both Nai and Gareki and introduced himself to them. He introduced himself as the captain of the Second Shop in Circus and that he was one of the members who were in charge of eliminating special case crimes in the world. While he was explaining, Nai cut him off asked if Karoku was there. Nai also told him about the bracelet he found. Hirato answered that there was no one named Karoku among the members of Circus. About the bracelet, Hirato said that it was certainly a Circus ID, but that specific one was actually an old one which was supposed to be destroyed. Hirato told Nai that depending on Nai's cooperation, they might be able to find some clue about Karoku. Upon hearing this, Nai was delighted and agreed to cooperate.





Hirato then moved on to Gareki. He asked Gareki if he knew a woman named Mine. Gareki answered no. Hirato told him not to be afraid and answer his question honestly. When Gareki tried to deny everything that Hirato said, Hirato mentioned that he found traces of explosion at Mine's house and that Gareki's skill of disposing bombs on on the train the last time they met was superb. Hirato kept asking Gareki questions, making Gareki uncomfortable. Realizing that it seemed like he was prosecuting Gareki, Hirato stopped questioning him. He then asked them if Mine's blood had splashed on them during their contact with her. Gareki didn't answer but instead he asked Hirato about Mine. Hirato said that it was 'varuga'. He said that he was actually after the organization that created Varuga and explained that if the blood of varuga got into their body, they will become like Mine. Hirato declared that both him and Nai will undergo some examinations and they did not have any right to refuse. Hirato was about to leave but before that, he told Gareki that he wasn't the one who killed Mine. 






The scene changed and we see the old man from the previous episode. He received a call saying that their plans were interfered by Circus. He then said "It's close to the city of Gavan" and also "Sure. You can ask for 'their' help" (I'm not sure what he was talking about, i'm sorry.)


the evil old man who was trying to capture Nai



In the dark, a man who seemed to be drunk was talking nonsense. He said that blue flowers bloomed from blue seeds, but the one he was looking for was the red seeds.


Back in the Circus Ship, Hirato told his comrades that they were heading to the city of Gavan and left Gareki and Nai to Yogi and Tsukumo. Yogi agreed but Tsukumo wasn't pleased. She asked him why it had to be her and Yogi looking after the two boys. Hirato answered that it was because he trusted them. He added that since Nai and Gareki had escaped from the varuga, most likely they would be the enemy's target and he needs them to protect Nai and Gareki. 





The fighters of the second ship departed for their mission. Gareki noticed that the ship has landed. When he was about to left the room, Yogi came and blocked him from going out. Garteki said that he needed to go shopping and he was bored. Hearing this, Yogi suggested that they play hide and seek. Gareki said that hide and seek was a childish game and asked Yogi how old he was. Yogi answered he was 21 but there was time when even adults wanted to play hide and seek. (lol Yogi). Tsukumo agreed to be 'it' and they ended up playing hide and seek.



While playing, Gareki tried to leave but was blocked by the 'little sheeps' inside the ship. 
the 'little sheep' inside the Circus ship, lol idk what to call it, it looks just like a sheep though :P



Yogi was easily found by Tsukumo. Nai headed off by himself to find a place to hide. Out of no where, Nau feel down from the ship. When he looked up, he saw a big black figure staring at him. The big black figure turned out to be the drunk man who was talking about the blue and red seeds. Upon seeing Nai, he said that he had found the red seeds. The big black figure was actually a varuga.


the varuga chasing after Nai


Nai tried to escape but the varuga was too fast for him. Yogi and the others came for rescue. At the same time, Hirato contacted Yogi saying that all the victims he found had been deliberately killed and told him to protect Nai and Gareki. Yogi and the rest were framed and couldn't do anything. They told nai to run away but he didn't do so. The varuga approached Nai and said that he was told to bring the red seeds.




The varuga was about to take Nai. Suddenly, the 'little sheep' from the Circus Ship appeared, saying that the time was up and the hide and seek game was over. The 'little ship' brought Nai back to the ship. Realizing that his target had escaped, the varuga 
retreated. 


Tsukumo reported to Hirato that the varuga was trying to capture Nai without hurting him. While they were talking, Nai heard the sound wave again and seemed to be in pain. He then heard someone calling him. That someone was Karoku. At the same time, we see Karoku kissing a ring. Out of no where, the old man's granddaughter from the previous episode appeared, asking Karoku what he was doing. Karoku called her Erisyuka.Erisyuka seemed to be bewitched by Karoku. (I think she liked him lol). She then ran off and hugged Karoku.







Karoku <3

Erisyuka. The granddaughter of the old man who tries to capture Nai. 







END OF EPISODE 2! See you in the next episode! Thanks for reading!










Monday, April 8, 2013

[RECAP] Karneval Episode 1

The first anime I'm going to review is Karneval. Karneval is an anime based on manga with the same title. This anime is about Nai. A boy who is searching for someone named Karoku with only a bracelet he found as a clue. While searching for Karoku, Nai meets a teenage boy named Gareki who is actually a pro thief. Nai and Gareki worked together to search for Karoku and they find out that the bracelet Nai has is actually an I.D for the most powerful defence organisation called Circus. Without further adieu let's start talking about the first episode.

DISCLAIMER: I do a recap on this anime just for fun and for anime lovers out there who wanted to know about Karneval episode 1. I tried to explain things as accurate as possible. Before writing this i even read about Karneval from different sources, mainly wikipedia. If there is something wrong or misleading in my recap. I am very sorry. Please correct me by pointing my mistakes in the comment below so that I can fix it. Thank you for your kindness. 

The first episode starts off with a voiceover of Nai calling Karoku. Then we see a light blue-haired boy or i should say young man, which I assume as Karoku, calling back for Nai. When Nai reaches for Karoku, Karoku suddenly disappeared. After that, we see a young boy with black hair, Gareki outside a big mansion. At the same time, Nai was held captive by a Varuga woman (Varuga are post-human with special abilities. They were once human, but a cell-modifying medicine given to them slowly took over their bodies until they were fully transformed, at which point they became monsters. from wikipedia.org) who tries to seduce Nai. The scenes alternated from a train hijack, Gareki setting up bombs, a man with black hair and glasses drinking tea in a cafe, an old man and his granddaughter and then back to Nai. Being the innocent boy, Nai said that she was pushing him and he felt sick because of this. The Varuga woman was pissed and raised her hand to hit him. In an attempt to protect himself, Nai used his arms to shield his face, when he did this, the Varuga woman saw Nai wearing a bracelet, which she recognized as a circus I.D. The bomb Gareki set up before explodes. Before Gareki could get inside, the varuga woman left the room. Upon seeing Gareki, Nai asked for help. At first Gareki was hesitant but in the end he agreed to help him but in turn, Nai had to give the bracelet Karoku left. 

Just when everything is settled, the varuga woman came back to the room and was boiling with anger. She then transformed into something like a monster with long hands and big palms. Gareki and Nai tried to escape. Then the scene changed. We see a young girl wearing a cape to cover her face confronted by the man we saw drinking tea earlier. They were discussing about a woman named Mine, that the situation turned out as the expected and they must move that instant. Back to Nai and Gareki, the two were hiding behind a cargo box, with the varuga woman chasing after them. She said that she wasn't eating that much and that she couldn't move fast, so she started to eat her own bodyguard. Just when she was about to catch Nai and Gareki, Gareki released a bomb straight to her face and they managed to escape. 

It turned out that the varuga woman was still alive, but then a dark and tall figure confronted her and killed her, saying that she messed up. The black haired man and the young girl we saw earlier came to the varuga woman's mansion. Upon seeing her death body, the black haired man who seemed to be the boss became depressed. He said that they was late and that now they had no clue or whatsoever because their last clue, Mine, the varuga woman was killed. 

Meanwhile, in town, state officers were everywhere. Nai and Gareki couldn't leave the town because the exit was closed and Gareki couldn't show up freely since he was a thief. But then he saw a train and told Nai to jump. They jumped and boarded the train and started talking. Nai thanked Gareki for helping him. Gareki then asked why he was in the varuga woman's mansion. Nai replied that he was searching for Karoku and then he was suddenly held captive. Nai also told Gareki a bit about the day Karoku disappeared. In the middle of their conversation, Nai heard something like a wave of sound and suddenly the black haired man and the young girl barged into the train. Without thinking, they labelled Nai and Gareki as the train hijackers and attacked them. The black haired man punched Gareki and made him unable to move for a while. Around this time, a group of men holding guns barged in. The black haired man finally realized that Gareki and Nai weren't part of the train hijack. Nai heard the sound wave again and led Gareki to the front part of the train. 

In the front part of the train, the citizens threatened the black haired man and the young girl he called as Tsukumo that if they moved an inch, the old man and her granddaughter would be killed. They gave up and the two of them were tied with rope. Turns out that the citizens were angry at the old man because he fired them. He explained that he had no choice but to do so since the company would be bankrupt if they kept more employees than necessary. Nai and Gareki arrived at the scene. Surprised, the citizens began shooting them. The black haired man finally stepped up to clean up the mess. An angry citizen tried to shoot him, with his cane, the black haired man blocked it and swung his cane, throwing all the citizens in all direction because of the impact. Realizing that they were at a disadvantage, one of the citizen (the one I assume as the leader) activated a bomb in one of the trailer. He said that he had set up a bomb in each and every trailer of the train and in no time, the bombs would explode, killing everyone aboard including him and his group. Meanwhile, Tsukumo untied the old man and his granddaughter and was told to bring them to a safer place. The old man asked who they were and they finally revealed their identity. They revealed that they're members of Circus. The black haired man introduced himself as Hirato, the captain of 'The Second Ship' (I assume this is the name of one of the group in Circus Hirato led) of the National Defense Organization, Circus. The young girl was Tsukumo, a fighter from the Second Ship. 

Nai heard the sound wave again and told Gareki to bow down, afraid that the bomb will reach them in no time. Hirato said that there is electrical interference, which was the main cause of the bombs. Being the bomb expert, Gareki tried to defuse the bomb. He used Nai's help to find out the location of the source of electrical interference. It was actually located under the wooden floor of the train. After seeing the device, Gareki stated that it was not a bomb but actually an electric jammer and started talking and explaining about it. He realized that this particular device is not connected with radio wave induction and that in order to survive, they had to separate back of the train before the radio waves reached it. Hearing this, Hirato used his power called "Vacuum" to separate the back of the train and brought everyone to safety. 

Later on, we see Nai asking Gareki where he was going. He replied that he had to hide so that he would not be caught by the officers. While waking, Nai thanked Gareki again for saving him. At the same time, Tsukumo asked Hirato about Nai. She told Hirato that she saw the Circus ID bracelet in Nai's arm. Hirato replied that he would discuss about that matter later since he had something else to worry about. Hirato went to greet the old man, asking if they could talk. The old man replied that he would like to, but had to go since he had an appointment with his doctor and excused himself. Hirato saw something suspicious in the old man's action. Back in the old man's car, we can see someone examining him, I assume he was his doctor. The doctor said that he already took care of the Karasuna incident (he meant the Varuga woman, Mine's incident). While examined, the old man confessed that he purposely let himself be captured in order to test how effective Circus was and turns out they were as he expected. He also mentioned that he saw something interesting, which was actually Nai, and also Gareki? I'm not sure about Gareki but I'm pretty sure that something interesting he meant was Nai. He said that Nai had interesting hearing abilities and looks a bit like "him". I don't know who it was but maybe it's Karoku? The old man told the doctor to capture Nai as soon as possible since he knew that Hirato was also interested in Nai.

The scene changed and we see someone, or a young man, sewing something like a stuffed animal and the anime ends. 


OVERALL THOUGHTS
I think that this anime is great and worth watching. The plot is very confusing but actually this makes it interesting to watch. I totally recommend everyone to check out this anime. For the recap of episode 2, I'm thinking of adding some screencaps of the scenes from the episode so that it wouldn't be boring for you readers. I took me 2 days to write this review, I hope it is detailed enough and can be a help to you. Thank you for reading! 



Sunday, April 7, 2013

Introduction

Hey guys! Nice to meet you! My name is Koshiro Runa. It's actually not my real name. I am the one running this blog. This blog is all about anime and manga. Here, I'll post an overall review and also a detailed recap of each chapter/episodes of manga and anime. I love reading manga and watching anime so much, but sometimes I just could't find time to do it, moreover, my internet connection speed was too slow and watching online every episode will be such a hassle. Although i'm really interested in what happened next, i still can't watch it and i often end up searching for recaps. But as you guys know, there's no result. I haven't come across a blog or site that provides anime recaps. So i thought, why don't i create one? These days I have quite a bit of free time and also I've upgraded my internet, making it super easy for my to watch things online. I hope my posts in this blog will be helpful to all of you anime and manga lovers. 

The first anime I'm going to cover is Karneval. Karneval is a new fantasy + action anime. The artwork is nice and the storyline seemed interesting. I've been eyeing this anime since the first announcement and finally it aired last week. It is released every Thursday online with english subs. Last night, I watched the first episode I decided to do a recap on every episode. Hope you find my recaps useful. If you guys have any manga or anime you want me to cover, just contact me via email at koshiro.runa@hotmail.com . I'll be more than willing to do it if i have time! 

Thanks! :)