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Karneval Omnibus #1

Karneval Omnibus, Vol. 1

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Nai--a young man who travels in search of another by the name of Karoku, a lone bracelet his only lead. Gareki--a willful young man who earns his daily bread by thieving and picking pockets. Thrown together at an eerie mansion, where they are entrapped and framed, Nai and Gareki are soon hunted down as criminals by national security forces. As they are driven into a corner, before them appears the most powerful defense agency in the country, "Circus"--!!

405 pages, Paperback

First published March 24, 2015

About the author

Touya Mikanagi

87 books72 followers
Native name: 御巫桃也 (Mikanagi Touya)

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5 stars
159 (39%)
4 stars
156 (38%)
3 stars
71 (17%)
2 stars
12 (2%)
1 star
6 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
August 15, 2020
This starts with a child-like teen (young man?) named Nai being handed over to Lady Mine, possibly for sex but more likely for food (or, you know, both). They're interrupted by the arrival of a small band of thieves. The leader of the group, Gareki, sees Nai's bracelet and recognizes it as something valuable - it's the ID used by Circus, a special group devoted to hunting Varuga. He helps Nai escape in the hope of getting his bracelet and selling it. Nai, meanwhile, would happily give it to him but wants to ask permission from its owner first, someone named Karoku. Karoku is an important person to Nai, and he badly wants to find him again.

Gareki figures that Karoku must be a member of Circus, so he focuses on getting Nai to them. Unfortunately, Nai is a bit stupid and requires constant supervision. When they do eventually get in touch with Circus, there's no Karoku, but a little investigation results in some shocking revelations about Nai's identity.

I've wanted to try this series for a while, but I vaguely remembered hearing less than positive things about it. Now that I've read this omnibus (which collects the first couple volumes of the series), I can agree that this series isn't really worth my time and money.

The world-building is weird and nonsensical. There are Peacekeepers, who look into minor crimes, and Circus, which supposedly investigates both more major crimes, like murder, and hunts down Varuga, humans or animals that have been genetically altered to have special powers. Varuga generally feed on humans. After Circus completes an operation, they put on a show (like a real circus) for the local townspeople as an apology for scaring everyone, and somehow this makes everything better. It was the dumbest thing, and also illustrated the issues this series had with tone. Karneval aimed at being both light and fluffy, with agents who dress up as adorable mascots to make children smile and who play hide-and-seek to keep their charges occupied, and dark, with eyeball-removing serial killers and ordinary people having to be hunted down because they unknowingly have become Varuga.

Nai was astonishingly naive and uninformed, to the point that he didn't even know what blood was. This was eventually explained, and his ability to hear sounds that others couldn't meant that he wasn't completely useless, but generally he couldn't be left alone for even a second without almost getting himself captured or killed. It was frustrating, and it's tough to imagine him having any role in the series other than "mascot."

Gareki was supposed to be the rogue with a heart of gold, telling himself that he was only helping Nai because of the eventual benefit to him when in reality he could have just taken the bracelet from Nai and left him. It was good that at least one half of this pair had street smarts, and Gareki had some dark and tragic history that the end of the omnibus volume started to explore, but overall the characters in this didn't grab me much. The Circus members introduced in this volume were mostly attractive but slightly odd guys, plus one cute and overly serious girl and one woman who preferred cute girls over guys. There are a billion other series with these kinds of character dynamics.

The volume's color illustrations were nice, but in general the volume artwork seemed a bit sloppy, particularly any instances of chibi-fied characters. For some reason their weird tiny spiky hands kept drawing my attention.

I could maybe see continuing this via library checkouts, if I lived near a library that actually had this in its holdings. Since I don't, it would require interlibrary loan requests, and I don't know that it's worth even that much effort on my part.

Extras:

Six pages of full-color illustrations, a couple brief afterwords by the author, under jacket bonus comics from both of the volumes contained in this omnibus, three one-page bonus comics, the four-page pre-serialization one-shot that spawned Karneval, and the first few pages of the next volume.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
January 16, 2020
This omnibus (containing volumes 1 and 2) equates to the first 4 episodes of the anime, and the anime is pretty faithful to what occurs in these two volumes. The art is great, in my opinion (I don't generally pay manga prices if the art doesn't appeal to me, so you'll see me commenting how much I love the art of any given volume A LOT!), but the story does move a little slow. I've already ordered omnibus #2 (volumes 3 and 4) from Amazon, and can't wait to start it!

Reread: The artwork is still nice to my eyes, but I'm less enamoured by the story the second time around. I was hoping to reread and catch up on the series but I doubt that'll happen anytime soon. More like 3*.
Profile Image for Jason.
3,918 reviews26 followers
May 18, 2016
I was confused for awhile at the beginning--the story rode the edge of comfortable in terms of dropping me into a fully developed world with little explanation about what was going on. I think this is shonen, but it's pretty toned down and I appreciated it. Though I could definitely see this appealing to fans of shojo because of the pretty costumes and the high cute factor of a couple of the regular characters. I think I was into it by the end--I enjoyed when they went into the rainbow forest, and I liked the artwork--but I don't feel myself chomping at the bit to read the next volume.
Profile Image for Lorelei Miller.
70 reviews2 followers
March 29, 2015
Nai is an incredibly innocent, naive, childlike teen. He has very little understanding of the world around him. Basic things that we are know are lost on him, like what blood is, how money works, that not everyone he meets is going to be nice.

Gareki is a very angry teenager. The world has treated him badly and in response he has grown bitter, sarcastic and rude. He has a talent for shooting guns and making bombs.

Gareki meets Nai when he breaks into a mansion where Nai is being held captive. Garkei agrees to take Nai with him in exchange for the bracelet he has. Nai's naivety gets the duo into a few scrapes on their way out of town and Gareki can barely keep them a step ahead of the Peacekeepers. They board a train out of town and land in a hostage situation where they catch the interest of the hostages and the government agents, Circus, that step on and save them.

I knew that I would love this manga before I bought it. I watched the anime as it came out each week last year. I bought the anime as soon as it was released in the US. I had to visit 3 stores before I was able to track down the manga but it was worth it! This volume contains the first two Japanese volumes.

This manga has a wide cast of characters. Nai and Gareki are just the tip of the iceburg. From the bright, beautiful whimsical Circus people to the dark and deadly Varuga there is a lot of variety and definitely something for everyone to love! The world is rich in detail, the plot is intriguing and you never know exactly what to expect.

Now that I have the manga and the anime all I need is a sheep plushie to cuddle while I read. I would also love a sheep robot, or a dozen of them, if anyone wants to make one for me!
Profile Image for Lissa.
97 reviews24 followers
October 15, 2023
I am a huge fan of Karneval and I was so excited to see it come to the USA! They did a great job with the translation, which I am very happy about. For those new the series if you're looking for something adventurous, humorous, action packed, beautiful, and speckled with a few dark moments and themes here and there, then this is perfect for you. The characters are all gorgeous too which is a plus. Not only that, but they have an excellent dynamic especially the two mains, Nai and Gareki. Already in volume 2 you can see how great of an impact they've had on one another. It's truly one of my favorite series and I can't wait for the next volumes to have in my collection~

***

Second reread in October of 2023

Ahh I still love this series. After all this time though, I almost feel like the plot of the story is less compelling than the characters. I was drawn to this story by Gareki and Nai, and they kept me reading along with the other characters. Honestly, they grow to care for one another so fast and Gareki's care for Nai is so, so sweet. It's so darling to see them together and in this volume in particular we even get to see them fight and Gareki feel betrayed by Nai, but Nai having NO CLUE AT ALL that he hurt Gareki. I really just love these guy so much. It was awesome to see the characters as well though. Hirato, Yogi, Eva, Tsukumo... They all make me smile and I'm looking forward to seeing more of them. Not super looking forward to reading the twins story again. It's my least favorite part of the story but alas. Everything else is super fun and exciting.
Profile Image for Sarah .
842 reviews16 followers
May 20, 2015
I just couldn't do it. The Nai character is too stupid to live, and I just don't care if he ever finds what he's looking for. His naivete is beyond belief--he doesn't know what blood is?--and while I'm sure the story is supposed to reveal why that is as you go along... I just don't care to follow.
69 reviews
July 30, 2017
One of my favourite mangas, Karneval follows a young boy called Nai and his journey to discover who he is along with new friends he meets along the way. The idea of 'circus', a flying ship of specialised agents, is unique and exciting and the characters are likable with their own goals. Two major reasons i love this manga is 1. the art is extremely pretty, very colourful (in the art pages) and every character design is so unique and eye-catching. Reason 2. the lack of fanservice that is so common in every manga/anime these days. There is a female character, Tsukumo, who would appear to be a future love interest at first glance, but is not at all, and rather acts as a big sister or even mum towards the main characters. Another female character has large breasts and wears revealing clothes but she's an adult, and only cares about Tsukumo. Its just so refreshing and an easy read, the magical elements keep it interesting and fresh. The anime is also good but i found the manga better.
Profile Image for haven ⋄ f (hiatus).
801 reviews14 followers
May 29, 2020
Slow paced but interesting. The art style is very sharp and reminds me of various other mangaka’s.

I was trying to place what genre this would be and came up with this list.
• sci-fi
• high fantasy
• adventure
• comedy
• mystery
• space
• action

That being said, this is a complex beginning to something that I suspect will be super interesting.

My biggest complaint is that it gets so busy sometimes that I had to take a break. Normally, I just read through the manga in one sitting no problem. This one was harder to read.
Profile Image for Shae.
2,921 reviews345 followers
April 1, 2020
I really enjoyed this first omnibus! Can't lie, I still feel a little lost right now, but I am hoping volume 2 clears that up right away!

For more of my thoughts, check out this Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsYy9...
Profile Image for Reixma.
64 reviews
September 18, 2024
The start of this was a bit jarring given that the book appeared to open on what looked like child sexual exploitation.

The story seemed to jump around without much context for me, so I didn't really engage with it much.
Profile Image for Jay.
67 reviews
April 7, 2024
4.5
Nai so so cute I love him and Gareki
Profile Image for Jack Reynolds.
942 reviews
August 24, 2016
The anime adaptation for this series was the one that got me into watching more anime regularly. So when I found out that the original manga was announced for distribution here in the US, I was super excited. I was really interested in experiencing this story again, but in manga format. Plus, I wanted to see if the art style was just as gorgeous as the anime was in general.

It did take me a while to finally read it, but thanks to an interlibrary loan, I was able to get the first omnibus in my hands. And I have to say that it was worth the wait, because I loved every minute of this. I really like the characters, the story, and just everything about this series really. The art for the manga is also AMAZING, and it's incredible for a first work (which I was shocked to find out about).

What I did notice was subtle differences in between this and the show itself, which was bound to happen. I expected scenes to be different, but there was some exposition and little bits that the writers for the anime didn't put in, or didn't draw as much detail to. As such, I'm interested to see what else could be possibly different, so that definitely makes me curious to keep reading.

But then again, I'm also here for just about everything else, so nothing to lose, right? XD

Overall, an amazing start to a manga series that I've seen animated before, and I'm really interested to see what goes down next.
Profile Image for Elyse.
1,255 reviews26 followers
September 21, 2018
4.5 stars

I have watched the first (and only) season of the anime, I am so happy that this is a manga series! This volume is huge and contain the first 2 issues of the series.

Just like in the anime, Nai is an adorable cutie-pie. The young innocent boy is looking for his friend Karoku, who left him with only a weird bracelet. Nai keep putting himself in troublesome situations. He meets the thief Gareki and start to follow him around. The older boy is interest in the bracelet since this belong to Circus, a Government Agency.

The two boys escape town in a train, only to get more troubles when a gang have taken a CEO hostage and have put bombs in the wagons. Hirato & Tsukumo from Circus saves the day. Once in town, the organization prepare a show for the people. Nai & Gaerik think this is the perfect moment to meets members and hopefully ask questions about Karoku whereabouts.

During the carnival, Nai get spot by Peacekeeper since he is a fugitive, Yogi from Circus come to the rescue, dress as a mascot (and it is hilarious). He brings the two boys back to the Ship where they officially meet the Captain Hirato, who decide to keep an eye on them. Nai seems to have some strange hearing abilities and the Agency is curious about him.

In volume 2, after being attack by a varuga, Nai hear a strange sound that cause him pain and then make him louse consciousness. During that time, the boy gets a strange message from Karoku, ordering him to tell Gareki he doesn’t need him. (It the first time we see him interact with Nai and I already do not like him.)

The old doctor of Circus examines Nai and found out that the boy is not human, but a small creature call Niji (that look like a Pokemon.) Nai, Gareki, Yogi & Dr.Akari go to the Rainbow forest in search for more clues about the boy’s origins. The team get attack once again by a Varuga, but are save but new character Eva, another member of Circus. They find a strange journal in a cave where Karoku use to live.

In the last chapter, the trio spend some time in Karasuna, the town where Gareki grown up. They meet two childhood friends, the twins Tsubama & Yotaka. We learn a little bit about the teenager past.

For those curious, this is the stories of episodes 1 till 4 of the anime. The manga have more depth and story wise, it is pretty much the same.
I got attach quite fast to the characters of this series and I am quite intrigue about Karoku’s goal and Nai background. Some moment are silly, other more serious but there is not a time where I was bored.
Profile Image for Forthright ..
Author 39 books530 followers
March 7, 2021
Nai is searching for his brother when he runs into Gareki, who saves him from a terrifying creature that murders everyone else in the vicinity. Though grumpy about it, Gareki wants to protect Nai, who is too naive to survive in the real world. Together, they search for Circus, which is a kind of national defense organization. Lucky for the boys, Circus finds them.

Easy to get attached to this cast. Lots of action. The violence is often graphic (people die messily). Political machinations afoot. Rescues required. And as things progress beyond this volume, a lovely plot twist or three to keep readers guessing.
Profile Image for Aly.
694 reviews22 followers
Want to read
September 2, 2020
Manga Status: Ongoing
My Reading Status: Plan to Read
Published English Volumes/Chapters Read: N/A
Chapters Read Overall: N/A
Genre: Josei
Current Overall Series Rating: N/A

Thoughts: I saw the anime back in 2014 I think and I remember absolutely nothing except the fact that I thought it was fun and cute! Picked up this manga for the exact same reasons when I saw it in store... I probably won't get to it for a while since my manga backlog is quite long haha
Profile Image for Amanda Setasha.
1,582 reviews54 followers
July 16, 2017
One of the absolutely most visually attractive graphic novels that I've ever picked up. The art style is absolutely to die for. The characters are deep and keep you wanting to know more about them. And the story grips you in the moment you open the cover.

I haven't liked a manga like this in such a long time.
Profile Image for urushihara-san.
64 reviews
January 2, 2019
I really wish there was something more that happened in this volume. Everything I speculated from my First Impressions post was dealt with so I commend the author on good plotting, even if the delivery was a little off. The volume did end on a cliffhanger so I would like to see how the current story arc ends, but I'm really in no rush [2016].
Profile Image for Abby.
523 reviews
May 13, 2021
I actually liked this much more than I thought I would. It's much lighter in tone than I had assumed it would be. The darker elements, the comedy, and the world building bits all work really well together. The artwork is good, and the panels aren't too cluttered so it's easy to see what's going on in each moment. I'm glad to have found such a fun new series!
Profile Image for Stas.
1,158 reviews5 followers
November 19, 2021
I remember reading this a while back. I think I even made it through several volumes.
So when I got a change to get my hand on it again, I thought "well, why not?"

It starts as weird and bizarre as I remember. But it does get a little less confusing as the story goes on.
Will stick with it for a bit to see how I feel about it.
Profile Image for Sara Hollingsworth.
759 reviews25 followers
May 27, 2023
This was super weird, but I also really enjoyed it. I hope getting the rest won't be too much of a pain. Amazon stock is a bit limited, and I'm a bit broke right now. May be one of the few I might have to consider buying digitally. Oh well, I'll keep my eye out for more of this series in the future.
August 7, 2020
I really like the idea and the mystery of this book, but it’s also quite confusing to just throw the reader into a fully developed world without any context. So I think I’d like this more if I had a better grasp of how the world works and stuff.
Profile Image for Rads.
281 reviews1 follower
April 17, 2021
Honestly, this whole series will be getting 4-5⭐ all the time because I love this manga so damn much.

I can see how someone who has never read the series and knows nothing would be v confused after reading this but Nai is the cutest and like should be protected always.
Profile Image for Nadina.
2,928 reviews4 followers
November 11, 2021
This was a good start to the series, it included the first two volumes of the series. I liked the plot, pace, and characters. It definitely has promise and I am curious what the next volume will bring.
Profile Image for Loveleen.
223 reviews
July 4, 2022
I was confused in the beginning as we got launched right into a whole new world with little explanation of that’s going on, but as I continued reading, things really shaped up! The characters are all so unique and the artwork is just beautiful!
Profile Image for Danielle Mills-bowser.
5 reviews2 followers
May 21, 2024
I watched the anime for this and I was either delirious or it was a fever dream because this seemed so different than what I remembered watching. The story seems all
over the place, maybe it’s just not for me.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews

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