【Karakuri Circus】 Dark-Fantasy x Action! Over 15 million copies in circulation!! Nominated for the 37th Kodansha Manga Award and the Seiun Award!!

Karakuri Circus is a Japanese action franchise written and illustrated by Kazuhiro Fujita.

The manga was serialized in Shogakukan’s Weekly Shounen Sunday from 1997 to 2006. Its chapters are compiled and published into 43 separate volumes. The manga series has over 15 million copies in circulation, worldwide. This series has been nominated for both the 37th Kodansha Manga Award and the Seiun Award.

An anime adaptation of the manga was also released in 2018, with the thirty-six-episode anime adapted by Studio VOLN.

The story follows a rich young boy named Masaru Saiga, who wants to be a puppeteer; Narumi Kato, a kung-fu expert with a strange illness called Zonapha syndrome; and Shirogane, who is Masaru’s caretaker. Together they must fight against the auto-mannequins and save the world from the Zonapha syndrome.

We see Narumi Kato in a bear costume, as a kid with a huge suitcase comes and asks him to take him to the circus. He ignores the kid and explains why he made the choice, so that we would understand the circumstance he’s in.

Kato's father worked in the import and export industry, and as a result, he spent time in China learning Kung-Fu. He developed an unusual condition one day, the Zonapha Syndrome, an extraordinarily rare disease that may kill him. To put it another way, he needs to make other people laugh in order to stay alive.

This is the reason he is dressed up as a bear, trying to make people laugh. It has been several days since anyone laughed and he is having trouble breathing. In a desperate attempt, he starts hitting himself and a child in the distance laughs, allowing him to breathe again.

He notices some masked men attempting to take the boy who had just saved his life. He intercepts them and asks the youngster if he was being kidnapped, which he confirms. As they battle, the men in black show remarkable strength and movement. When the boy says they need to run to stay safe, Kato grabs the kid and his briefcase and sprints away.

Kato picks up the child and boards a train. He inquires about the strange individuals, and the youngster responds that Kato is stranger than he expected when he removed his mask. Kato is having difficulties breathing again, so he tells the boy to laugh, which he does halfheartedly, allowing Kato to breathe.

The kid introduces himself as Masaru Saiga, the son of the president of Saiga Electronics. His father died in an accident on the freeway recently and now weird people want to kidnap him. He says that apparently his father had run over some kind of puppet, which caused the accident.

He tells Kato how every man in his family was weirdly interested in mechanical puppets, which they called Automat. He recalls his grandfather telling him that if his father died before he was old enough, he should escape with the suitcase and Shirogane would look after him.

Masaru says that he came looking for Shirogane as his grandfather told him that he would always be in a circus near him. As they are talking, one of the men in black catches up with them and enters the train. Kato tries to attack him but his outmatched by his inhumane strength.

One of them stands on the track to stop the train, and Kato understands that they are mechanical puppets as the locomotive crushes him to bits. Kato grabs Masaru to protect him as the train crashes near the circus.

Kato stands up to the puppet, but is no match for it. Masaru loses all hope and starts crying, apologizing to Kato. Kato grabs him and tells him to never give up and always keep a smiling face. He grabs the puppet and jumps out of the train along with him.

The train crashes into a tent. Masaru comes out, only to find a puppet waiting for him. He remembers Kato’s words to not give up and screams out for Shirogane.

Suddenly, a spotlight shines on a girl standing on a rope above the ground. She jumps down and opens the suitcase and tells Masaru to stand back, all while addressing him as master. She takes out another puppet from the suitcase, cutting the evil puppet to pieces.

Kato emerges bloody from behind the debris and witnesses Shirogane commanding the puppet. He realizes that he has made some choices that he may not be able to turn away from.

Where will these events lead Kato and Masaru?