Carnival Phantasm

Carnival Phantasm (カーニバル・ファンタズム, Kānibaru Fantazumu) is a comedy OVA series based on the Type-Moon gag manga, Take-Moon (テイク・ムーン, Teiku Mūn) by Eri Takenashi, the author of Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens. The OVA series was created by Type-Moon to celebrate the company's 10th anniversary. The series focuses on funny and absurd situations happening to the various characters of the Type-Moon franchises, mostly from Fate/stay night and Tsukihime.

Characters

Fate/stay night and Fate/hollow ataraxia characters

Shirō Emiya (ng="ja">衛宮 士郎, Emiya Shirō)

Voiced by: Noriaki Sugiyama

The main hero of Fate/stay night. Appears in most Fate/stay night segments of Carnival Phantasm. He is shown to enjoy spending time with the girls in his life and will often bend over backwards to keep them all happy, including agreeing to go on three simultaneous dates so that none of them would feel sad or neglected. Shirou is very naive and believes that his girls all get along fine and seems generally unaware of some of their more underhanded attempts to keep him to themselves, such as Illya hexing him with sleep paralysis so that she could sleep next to him, which only led to her and Rin fighting for a position next to him.

Saber (セイバー, Seibā)

Voiced by: Ayako Kawasumi

One of the main heroines of Fate/stay night and considered to be the "main heroine" of the Fate segments. In Carnival Phantasm, Saber is shown to be very shy and awkward in her attempts at living in the modern world. Due to her life as King Arthur she has a hard time openly expressing her love for Shirō and usually ends up blushing heavily and stuttering when confronted with a situation where she must openly express her affection. She turns into Saber Alter when her ahoge is plucked, and can only be restored to her original self by Shirou. Certain aspects of her character, such as an appreciation of good food, supernatural charisma, and love of lions, are greatly exaggerated.

Rin Tōsaka (遠坂 凛, Tōsaka Rin)

Voiced by: Kana Ueda

One of the main heroines of Fate/stay night. In Carnival Phantasm, she also appears in a Magical Girl alter ego form known as Kaleido Ruby. Her tsundere attitude, greed and lack of skill with modern technology are exaggerated.

Sakura Matō (é–"桐 æ¡œ, Matō Sakura, Sakura Matou in anime)

Voiced by: Noriko Shitaya

One of the main heroines of Fate/stay night. In comparison to Fate/stay night, has a greatly reduced role, receiving only one dedicated episode, and minor appearances in two other episodes, one of which almost entirely consists of her stalking Shirou while he is on dates with Saber and Rin after she figured out his and Shiki's multiple date plan. She seems to be obsessed with her role as her story's "tragic heroine" and enjoys playing the part to the point of absurdity, such as goading others into mistreating her for the sake of her role, to the point where she can't refrain from referring to her own "beauty" while Shinji attempts to rape her as if to rile him up further so as to make the scene that much more horrific.

Illyasviel von Einzbern (イリヤスフィール・フォン・アインツベルン, Iriyasufīru fon Aintsuberun)

Voiced by: Mai Kadowaki

Shirō's adoptive younger sister. Illya is portrayed within the series as a spoiled brat, throwing tantrums when she doesn't get her way. She is in love with Shirō (who only loves her as a sibling) and is very possessive of him. She sees the other girls as threats and constantly battles with Rin for Shirō's attention. She is not above using her magecraft to get her way, including the use of a sleep spell on Shirō, followed by a paralyzing curse so that she would either have the opportunity to sleep next to him or "awaken" him with a kiss. She is one of the announcers of the Holy Grail War in the first episode, though her servant Berserker still competes by himself. She appears in the Phantas-Moon movie as an Angra Mainyu-like monster, complaining about her lack of a route before being calmed by a combined attack from Arcueid and Rin and realizing that she is still beloved by the Type-Moon community regardless.

Lancer (ランサー, Ransā)

Voiced by: Nobutoshi Canna

A hotheaded, prideful Servant of Kirei Kotomine and Bazett Fraga McRemitz. One of the recurring gags with Lancer in Carnival Phantasm is that due to bad luck, he will always be killed off in every episode. The other characters will exclaim, "Lancer died!" and "You bastards!". This appears to be a reference to Kenny from South Park. He is in love with his would-be master, Bazett, who loves him in kind and any conversation they have eventually devolves into flirting and loving words, much to Caren's annoyance.

Gilgamesh (ギルガメッシュ, Girugamesshu)

Voiced by: Tomokazu Seki, Aya Endo (child)

An arrogant Servant who is constantly showing off his wealth and interrupting others much to everyone's chagrin. Gilgamesh also makes an appearance as a younger version of himself, Caren Hortensia's Servant. Unlike his older self, the younger Gilgamesh is more kind and respectful. His lust for Saber is shown to extend to her Saber Alter side, unlike in Fate/stay night where he loses all interest in her, but his feelings becomes more masochistic and he is reduced to a meek and subservient minion in her presence.

Tsukihime and Melty Blood characters

Shiki Tohno (遠野 志貴, Tōno Shiki)

Voiced by: Kenji Nojima

The main character of Tsukihime. He is portrayed as a playboy of sorts who enjoys the company of the females who are in love with him and the challenge of balancing all five of them at once, unlike his counterpart Shirō (who sees him as unfaithful), but often finds himself used as a prize as his girls compete for his affections unlike Shirō, who's harem gets along with only some passive-aggressive behavior.

Arcueid Brunestud (アルクェイド・ブリュンスタッド, Arukweido Buryunsutaddo)

Voiced by: Ryōka Yuzuki

One of the main heroines of Tsukihime and main heroine of the show's Tsukihime segments. Unlike most of the cast, she is unfazed with various absurd things happening in the show. She is also the star of her own segment where she plays her magical girl alter-ego "Phantasmoon" where she fights mushroom-like monsters.

Ciel (シエル, Shieru)

Voiced by: Kumi Sakuma

One of the main heroines of Tsukihime. In the series, her love of curry is exaggerated and is constantly at the odds with Arcueid and Akiha due to all of them being in love with Shiki.

Akiha Tohno (遠野 秋è'‰, Tōno Akiha)

Voiced by: Hitomi

One of the main heroines of Tsukihime. In this series, her tsundere personality is exaggerated, with her "angry" stage represented by her hair turning red, a reference to her demonic heritage.

Hisui (ç¿¡ç¿ , Hisui)

Voiced by: Miyu Matsuki

One of the main heroines of Tsukihime. Along with exaggeration of her emotionless persona, she also is the subject of frequent references to inside jokes within the fans, such as "Brainwashing Detective Hisui," and hypnotism.

Kohaku (琥珀, Kohaku)

Voiced by: Naoko Takano

One of the main heroines of Tsukihime. In Carnival Phantasm, she is portrayed as a mad scientist/witch, a reference to her role in Tsukihime.

Ahnenerbe Cafe

Neco Arc (ネコアルク)

Voiced by: Ryōka Yuzuki

An anthropomorphic cat spirit and employee of Ahnenerbe resembling Arcueid. She along with the other cats serve as the hosts of the show and often comment on the episode's story, as well as introduce upcoming segments in interludes. In some episodes she plays other roles aside from host.

Neco Arc Chaos (ネコアルク・カオス)

Voiced by: Jōji Nakata

An anthropomorphic cat spirit resembling Nrvnqsr Chaos. He is often seen smoking a cigarette. He is obsessed with the idea of "manliness" and often uses strange phrases to describe things, such as claiming that "beams" are "unisex".

Neco Arc Destiny (ネコアルク・ディスティニー)

Voiced by: Atsuko Tanaka

A pink haired anthropomorphic cat spirit. She is sensible and converses regularly with the others with a more reserved attitude and is often seen drinking with Neco Arc Chaos. She is also prone to occasional bouts of drama and fantasizes about having children of her own some day.

Neco Arc Bubbles (ネコアルク・バブルス)

Voiced by: Kumi Sakuma

A blond haired anthropomorphic cat spirit. She babbles and nods her head in agreement to any situations while keeping a spaced-out grin on her face.

Neco Arc Evolution (ネコアルク・エボリューション)

Voiced by: Kenji Nojima

An otaku anthropomorphic cat spirit. He is a big fan of magical girls, Type-Moon heroines, and cosplay. While not actually an employee of Ahnenerbe, he often hangs out with its staff and drags them to events outside the restaurant. He is also a huge fan of Saber and will prostrate himself before her when the two are in the same room.

Other characters

Grail-kun (聖杯くã‚", Seihai-kun)

Voiced by: Noriko Shitaya

A giant slime-like creature which is the embodiment of all the evil in the Holy Grail. Grail-kun is the host of his own segment, reminiscent of Doraemon where various guests ask him for help over certain matters. Due to his nature, Grail-kun's solution to every problem is a small kitchen knife, along with a flashy name for it and a suggestion to commit violence.

Red Saber (赤セイバー, Aka Seibā)

Voiced by: Sakura Tange

The female protagonist from the videogame Fate/Extra. While similar in appearance to Saber from Fate/stay Night, Red Saber is arrogant, proud and shamelessly flaunts her sexuality, noting that her transparent skirt does not bare her flesh, but rather 'deliberately allows others to see it'. She makes an appearance at the end of episode 8, during the Tiger Dojo segment where she mentions that she had heard that there was a 'carnival' taking place, but was disappointed to find that she had missed it.

OVA

The anime is produced by Lerche studio and directed by Seiji Kishi, produced by YÅ«ji Higa, written by Makoto Uezu and music by Yasuharu Takanashi. The anime were released in seasons which each season contain 4 episodes. The first season was released on August 12, 2011, the second season on October 28, 2011 and the third season on December 31, 2011. An extra episode titled "Carnival Phantasm EX Season" was released together with the omnibus version of the Take-Moon manga on November 26, 2011.

The anime's opening theme song is "Super Affection" (すーぱー☆あふぇくしょã‚") by Minami Kuribayashi, Miyuki Hashimoto, Faylan, Aki Misato, Yozuca* and Rino and the ending theme song is "Fellows" by Masaaki Endoh.

List of episodes

Notes

References

• Coverage in Newtype 2011-01 [1], 2011-02 [2], 2011-03 [3], 2011-07 [4], 2011-08 [5]
• Announcement of Carnival Phantasm Season 1 and Season 2 on Dengeki Online (ASCII Media Works) (Japanese)
• Announcement of the Take Moon special edition on natalie.mu with coverage of the special DVD of Carnival Phantasm (Japanese)

External links

• Type-Moon's Official Homepage for Carnival Phantasm (Japanese)
• Carnival Phantasm (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia