Shows Like Karakuri Circus
After experiencing Karakuri Circus, will find these recommendations questions the purpose and weight of our choices all while offering targets the intellect with complex, multi-layered ideas. Carefully balances character depth with narrative flow makes this definitely worth a watch.
Standard feature-length experiences.
Best for fans of who appreciate concise storytelling.
★ Top Picks
Tokyo Ghoul
Ken Kaneki, a bookworm college student, meets Rize, a girl his own age with whom he shares many interests.
Gangsta.
In the crime-ridden, mafia-governed city of Ergastulum, Worick and Nicolas are two “handymen” known as “Benriya” who would take any dirty job from either police or mafia, for a good price. After an assignment from police the two met and later joined by Alex, a former prostitute who got interested in the mysterious background of the team, in particular of Nicolas’ abilities.
Tougen Anki
After a Momotaro assassin suddenly kills his adoptive father, Shiki vows to avenge him. But first, he must learn to control his newly awakened Oni blood.
The Severing Crime Edge
Killing Goods are murder weapons handed down from generation to generation within the families of their owners. They are cursed to compel their current owners to repeat the original murders. The curse also makes them indestructible. Kiri Haimura is the current owner of a pair of shears that can cut seemingly anything, although the only thing he wants to cut is hair. One day he meets Iwai Mushanokoji, a girl of whom he has only heard rumors that her hair cannot be cut, a girl who can grant one wish, any wish, but only to the person who murders her. Every morning he cuts her hair, which grows back every night; and every day he helps protect her from people who know about her curse and who want a wish granted.
Ranma1/2
Akane Tendo meets her new fiancé, Ranma Saotome, a martial arts prodigy with a twist: he magically transforms into a girl upon touching cold water.
City Hunter
Ryo Saeba works the streets of Tokyo as the City Hunter. He's a "sweeper" and with his sidekick Kaori Makimura, he keeps the city clean. People hire the City Hunter to solve their dangerous problems, which he does with a Colt Python. When Ryo's not working on a case, he's working on getting the ladies, and Kaori must keep him in check with her trusty 10 kg hammer.
Akame ga Kill!
Young Tatsumi travels to the capital of the Empire in order to earn money for his starving people and encounters a world of unimaginable depravity, dominated by the ruthless Prime Minister who controls the child Emperor. Tatsumi is recruited by Night Raid, a group of assassins dedicated to eliminating corruption by mercilessly killing officials and privileged nobles.
Battle Game in 5 Seconds
A new kind of battle of abilities for a new generation is about to begin! It all started on a regular morning like any other. Akira Shiroyanagi is a high school kid who loves nothing more than konpeito candy and games. One day, he ends up in a fight due to a mysterious girl named Mion. Mion then tells the people she had gathered that they no longer officially exist in any records. They were given powers and were about to be test subjects. Akira makes up his mind to use his powers to climb up the ranks and then crush this organization.
More Shows Like Karakuri Circus
Tengoku Daimakyo
In the year 2024, the world has collapsed. Grotesque monsters lurk amongst the ruins of Japan, while remaining people scrape together what they can to survive. Kiruko, an odd-job girl in Nakano, accepts a mysterious woman's dying wish to take a boy named Maru to a place called Heaven. Maru is convinced that there will be a boy there who looks exactly like him.
Ranma ½
Ranma Saotome, a teenage martial artist, and his father Genma travel to the 'cursed training ground' of Jusenkyo in China. There, despite the warnings of the Chinese guard, they fall into the cursed springs. From now on, whenever Ranma is doused in cold water, he turns into a girl and a cute, well-built redhead at that. Hot water changes him back into a man again, but only until the next time. To make matters worse, his father engages him to Akane Tendo, a girl who hates boys.
BAKI
While martial arts champion Baki Hanma trains hard to surpass his legendary father, five violent death row inmates descend upon Tokyo to take him on.
Psycho-Pass
In the year 2113, people are given brain scans to determine how likely they are to commit a crime. Those who fail are apprehended, or even killed.
Gungrave
For Brandon Heat, death doesn't matter. Driven by his need for revenge, he returns from beyond the grave to cripple Milleneon, the huge mafia organization which uses undead monsters as its enforcers. His ultimate goal is to destroy Harry MacDowel, the leader of Milleneon and, at one time, Brandon's best friend...
Blood+
Unable to remember the past, high school senior Saya Otonashi must rediscover her destiny in order to defeat the chiropteran vampires that threaten her loved ones' existence.
Black Lagoon
The story follows a team of pirate mercenaries known as the Lagoon Company, that smuggles goods in and around the seas of Southeast Asia in the early to mid 1990s. Their base of operations is located in the fictional harbor city of Roanapur in southeast Thailand near the border of Cambodia.
Dororo
A samurai lord has bartered away his newborn son's organs to forty-eight demons in exchange for dominance on the battlefield. Yet, the abandoned infant survives thanks to a medicine man who equips him with primitive prosthetics—lethal ones with which the wronged son will use to hunt down the multitude of demons to reclaim his body one piece at a time, before confronting his father. On his journeys the young hero encounters an orphan who claims to be the greatest thief in Japan.
Akudama Drive
Many years ago, a Great Civil War ravaged Japan, leaving the country fragmented between two regions: Kansai and Kanto. In Kansai, a group of six Akudama carry out missions given to them by a mysterious black cat, while evading the police. But a dangerous journey is about to unfold when a civilian girl becomes twisted into the Akudama's way of life and witnesses their criminal drives.
Ushio and Tora
When he stumbles upon Tora, a demon who's been impaled by a spear, young Ushio frees the beast and demands his help in fighting other agents of evil.
Kanon
Yuichi hasn’t seen his cousin Nayuki in years. Now that he’s back, all knowledge of ever visiting has vanished. He tries to adjust to the vaguely familiar surroundings, but the gaps in his memory haunt him as time grows short. The pieces of the puzzle have appeared – an eerily silent beauty with blazing tresses, the mysterious girl with the winged backpack, and the sword-wielding demon slayer – but it’s up to Yuichi to discover how they fit together.
Why These Shows Are Similar
These recommendations share core qualities with Karakuri Circus (2018): Action & Adventure and Mystery themes, similar pacing, and comparable production quality. NoBadPicks uses TMDB collaborative filtering, genre matching, and AI analysis to surface series most likely to resonate with fans of Karakuri Circus.
See full details for Karakuri Circus (2018)
