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MANGA AdventureTake Moon
OVA ComedyCarnival Phantasm EX Season
SPECIAL ComedyCarnival Phantasm: HibiChika Special
ANIME ActionLunar Legend Tsukihime
ANIME ActionFate/stay night
ANIME ActionFate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works
MOVIE Actionthe Garden of sinners Chapter 1: Thanatos. (Overlooking View)
MANGA ActionMelty Blood
MOVIE ActionFate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works (Movie)
ANIME ActionFate/Zero
OVA ComedyFate/Grand Carnival
OVA ActionFate/Prototype

REVIEWS

• 

  SoulBlade17

  75/100
  A comedic take on Type-Moon's work, including Fate, Tsukihime, and more.

  Please note

  This review is all subjective and my own personal opinion. You do not have to agree with it, nor am I asking you to. I hope that this just helps you get an idea of what the anime I am talking about is like and form a basic and general consensus on it. The ratings I give anime and manga are mostly my personal overall enjoyment. I have not read the manga, and it has been around a month or two since I have watched the anime. This review will be spoiler free. A big thank you to [Nikz](https://anilist.co/user/Nikz/) for proofreading this review and giving me feedback. TL;DR will be at the bottom.

  Introduction

  So what is Carnival Phantasm? Looking at the cover is interesting, after all. We see characters from across different Type-Moon works, Tsukihime and Fate. What could possibly bring these two universes together? Why, a comedic parody of course. Yes, that is what Carnival Phantasm is. It is a crossover of various Type-Moon works, whilst mainly being Tsukihime and Fate, their other works such as Melty Blood and Kara no Kyoukai make an appearance. Carnival Phantasm places the characters of these any universes into various comedic situations. Sound interesting? The nature of this anime does go differently to the other types of reviews I have done in the past but let us delve a little deeper.

  Plot

  As with many comedies, the plot is not the main focus of the anime. Carnival Phantasm's plot mostly consists comedic situations that take place in each episode, and various Type-Moon characters are placed in them for comedic results. The plot is fairly simple and does not need much brain power to follow it. It is easy just to tune out and enjoy yourself to the kind of events that the characters find themselves in. I will say though, some of the situations end up being quite hilarious. For example, the premise of the first episode is The Holy Grail War gets turned into a game show. That is only a taste of things to come, with many more bizarre and outlandish situations in the later episodes. Overall, the plot gets the job done, delivering a comedic state of affairs to the viewer, and letting them see how the characters they have become so familiar with deal with what is thrown at them.

  Characters

  All of the characters that appear on Carnival Phantasm are the many characters that appear in the various works of Type-Moon. This includes the universes of Fate, Tsukihime, Kara no Kyoukai and more. We see characters like Saber and Aruceid meet and talk to each other, something only possible in Carnival Phantasm. Having characters from all of these universes is wonderful fanservice done well, for one such as I who is familiar with most of the universes presented in Carnival Phantasm. It was a treat to see them all come together, to make a joyful and light hearted viewing experience. The characters that appear on Carnival Phantasm are just as you know them, some of them having comedic qualities emphasised. An example of this is Rin's tech illiteracy, which is focused upon on one episode. Of course, Saber's gluttony and lion-like nature is in this too. If you are someone who is familiar with the characters that appear in Carnival Phantasm, this will be a treat to see. I only had one personal irk with Carnival Phantasm, which is the lack of representation of Kara no Kyoukai characters, Ryougi Shiki is one of the only Kara no Kyoukai characters to appear in Carnival Phantasm, only making a brief cameo in the final episode. I personally would have liked to see more representation of Kara no Kyouaki in Carnival Phantasm, but it is only a minor issue.

  Animation and the art

  The art does well to convey the comedic emotion the anime aims to send across to the audience. Character expressions are done well, and they look good too in this art style. Studio Lerche does well to bring to life the many situations the characters come across, making it feel more alive. For an anime created in 2011, the quality was acceptable, and I appreciated what it did for the anime.

  Music

  The music is pretty catchy and fits well with the overall mood of the anime. The opening is quite memorable, even now, two months later I can still recall it. The opening did well to set the mood of the anime, and to get their viewers ready to experience Carnival Phantasm. The credits too, from what I recall, was pretty good. It fit the theme and did well to end the episodes. Essentially, Uezu Makoto did a good job on the music and overall sound design as the music is pretty catchy, and fits well with the overall mood of the anime.

  Comedy

  I have already talked about the comedy in some of the previous segments, but I will go into a little more detail. For what this anime was trying to achieve, it hit the mark. It catered to Type-Moon audiences, making jokes that most fans would understand and enjoy. The situations that the characters find themselves in are stuff that I would have never thought of. Normally, these kinds of situations would feel so odd, so out of place for these kinds of characters, and yet it just works. I would have never imagined it working out, and yet it did. I will not go into too much detail about what these situations are like, that is something you should see for yourself. You are in for a treat. The characters also go really well with the kind of events they find themselves in. Their personalities, albeit slightly changed for comedic purposes, remains largely the same and effectively go well with what takes place. Seeing normally very serious characters pitted in very comedic situations only added to the comedic factor of the anime. The comedy can be a bit cringe inducing at times, but it is not often it is, and can be easily looked over.

  Conclusion and TL;DR

  Carnival Phantasm is not for everyone, but for those who it is targeted to, it is a treat to see. This is an easy recommendation for a fan of works such as Fate and Tsukihime, and just want to sit down and watch something fun. If you are only a fan of Fate and want to watch this, it may confuse you as Tsukihime makes a lot of appearances in Carnival Phantasm, so you may want to do some reading up on the general idea of what Tsukihime is. To summarise this review:

  • The plot does well to be comedic, creating various bizarre situations for the Type-Moon characters to be in.
  • The characters go well with situations they are found in, only making it more hilarious. Their established personalities only build on the comedic nature of Carnival Phantasm.
  • The animation and art gets the job done in delivering a comedic experience.
  • Catchy music that matches the overall theme of Carnival Phantasm.

  Overall, I enjoyed Carnival Phantasm. This kind of anime is really not the kind of thing I normally watch, so I had no idea on what to expect. For what this anime tried to achieve, it did well. Still, this is not my typical type of thing, and I enjoy other things more. That is not to discredit Carnival Phantasm, I think many people will enjoy it. I sincerely hope you will. There are also some extra episodes of Carnival Phantasm, so you may want to check those out after finishing it. If you enjoyed Carnival Phantasm, then you may also enjoy reading another comedic parody on Type-Moon, the manga All Around Type-Moon (Kara no Kyoukai makes more of an appearance in this manga). I certainly enjoyed it. Thank you to those who took the time to read this review. I hope you were able to get something out of this review. If you did not like this review, then I apologise for wasting your time.

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• 

  TheRealKyuubey

  70/100
  I'm not even familiar with most of Type Moon's catalogue, yet I still enjoy this parody of it

  My knowledge of the Type Moon fandom is somewhat limited, but I have experienced the majority of the anime incarnations of the Fate series, from the highs of the first season of Fate/Zero to the lows of the second season of Unlimited Blade Works. I’ve also seen the Tsukihime anime, but it was dog shit and I don’t rmemeber it to any sort of vivid degree. I’ve never played any of the games... Sue me... And i’m vaguely aware that there’s a thing called Melty blood that exists, I might watch that at some point. I still think I know just enough to enjoy Carnival Phantasm to the fullest, as the humor is well-written enough to not be lost on newbies, at least for the most part.

  In any case, this OVA is a non-canon comedy collection featuring the stars of Type/Moon’s various intellectual properties, with the excuse being that a certain Carnival has caused a rift in time and space, allowing people from different worlds to meet, or something. I never could catch all of it, because I was too distracted by the sight of tiny little cat people trying to make serious expressions and nodding their heads enthusiastically, making me laugh so hard that I’m literally shaking while typing this sentence.

  Thankfully, most of the material is based around the original Fate/Stay night and Unlimited Blade Works, and the Tsukihime material is easy enough to grasp. The skits and scenarios are diverse, but for the most part, it works around one core joke... The Fate universe is super-serious, and this universe is super silly. You might think that would be too narrow a concept to base a two-and-a-half hour series on, but it works, mainly due to the fact that it heavily emphasizes both extremes. It knows how 100% serious Fate was, so everything about it is lampooned and played for laughs in the most ruthless ways possible.

  Honestly though, as enjoyable as the comedy is, the opening theme is probably the best part... It's insanely catchy with a ton of fun visuals that represent some of the more notabe and ongoing jokes in the series.

  Whether the contestants in the Holy Grail War are drag racing, playing on a game show, trying to survive mundane every-day tasks, dressing up and eating each other, or just watching Lancer die over and over again, this was an idea that couldn’t possibly fail, and you can just tell that Type/Moon was having the time of their lives with it. And hey, if that’s not enough, this OVA comes with it’s own OVAs! Seriously, you can watch the Holy Grail battlers face each other in a Mario Party style game to face the boss Ilya in her Berser-Car! It’s a laugh a minute OVA comedy series, and it couldn’t be parodying a more perfect series.

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COMMENTS

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