Karakuridouji Ultimo

"You shouldn't rely on others to help you determine what's good or what's bad. In no time at all, you'll simply be under someone else's control."

A boy and his adorably psychotic Robot Buddy.

In 12th Century Japan, a man named Roger Dunstan unleashed his curse on the world with his creations. He created two Karakuridoji, 'mechanical boys', one representing pure good and the other representing pure evil. The two were to make contracts with human masters, learn about the world, and grow stronger... until one day, they would battle to the death, all for no other reason than to find out which of the two were stronger. In time, he also created others that represented the gaps of good and evil. Yamato, a bandit who fights an oppressive government, opened the boxes in which these two robots were contained and made a pact with Ultimo, the 'Ultimate Good'. The two fought together for some time, until Yamato's eventual death.

Cut to the present day, where Yamato's reincarnation stumbles into an old antique shop trying to find a birthday present for his crush. And of course, chaos erupts once again like centuries ago with Vice, the evil karakuridoji, already chasing Yamato's tail. The highly confused Yamato begins his struggle to survive and re-connect with his former partner, even as other Douji, both good and evil, begin to set their own plans into motion. And throughout it all, Dunstan continues to watch from the shadows, observing the ensuing chaos for his own enigmatic purposes...

Karakuridoji Ultimo is a manga written by Hiroyuki Takei (creator of Shaman King) and Stan Lee of Marvel Comics fame.

Takei's other series Jumbor Barutronica is arguably it's Spiritual Successor.

Has a wiki.

If you want tropes relating to the characters, there's a character page. There's also a High Octane Nightmare Fuel page, Ho Yay page.

Not related to Karakuri Circus, although the main character do look and act very similar. It's not related to Karakuri Odette either.

Tropes used in Karakuridouji Ultimo include:
  • After the End: What the future would have been if the events in chapter 12 were come to pass.
  • All Love Is Unrequited: Akitsu loves Rune, who loves Yamato, who loves Sayama, who loves the Evil Pro Golfer. Much of this is the result of Incompatible Orientation.
  • Already Met Everyone: Only Yamato and Murayama returned to the day before the Hundred Machine Funeral with memories of everyone.
  • Alternate Timeline
  • Anyone Can Die: As proved in Chapter 12.
  • Art Evolution: Every character starting around chapter 25, possibly because the inker was changed from "DAIGO" to "HIRO". Examples would be that the characters look skinnier and have more exaggerated face expressions (Especially K's).
  • Artistic Age:Yoichi is supposed to be in his 40's. He looks much older and Service even calls him "old man."
  • Ascended Extra: In chapter 21, Regula gives Sayama, Akitsu, Kiyose,and Oume their memories of their past and possibly future lives. Looks like Yamato might possibly need them later chapters...
  • Author Avatar: Particularly blatant as Dunstan looks almost exactly like Stan Lee, which is strange, considering he also seems to be the Big Bad.
  • Badass Automaton: All of the doji, good and evil.
  • Badass Long Hair: Some of the doji have this. A notable example would be Rage.
  • Balance Between Good and Evil: Pretty important in this series, since you know, the world blows up without it.
  • Barbie Doll Anatomy: Played straight with the humans.
  • Beauty Equals Goodness: No kidding.
  • Berserk Button: Almost everyone seems to have a berserk button.
    • Don't touch Yamato. Unless you want to deal with Ultimo.
    • Even mention destroying anywhere remotely close to where Sayama is, and Yamato will lose it.
    • If anything should happen to Rune, Akitsu will kick your ass.
      • Anything Yamato or Oume do ticks off Akitsu.
    • Rune didn't seem to like Yamato rejecting him.
    • Don't make Jealousy.... well, jealous.
    • Ultimo Ulate shows us that calling Akitsu "brawny" and Oume "puny" aren't good ideas.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Because even "nice" incarnate is pretty off his rocker.
  • Big Fancy House: All of Yamato's featured classmates live in one.
  • Bishonen: Most of the doji. Also Murayama and Rune.
    • Murayama is so bishonen that school girls literally run and push desks over to see him.
  • Black Dude Dies First: Out of 12th century Yamato's group, the first person Vice kills is the black samuri.
  • Borrowed Catchphrase: In the beginning of Chapter 8, Ultimo says to Yamato, "Your wish is my command!". At the end of the chapter, Jealousy says the exact same phrase to Rune.
  • Bowdlerise: Although the English Translation is rated 13+ , it is still VERY censored. Even "crap" was changed to "oh no".
    • The original versions shown in Shonen Jump Magazine often censored out some of the violence as well. (The cut Yamato got from Jealous was made to look a lot less serious for example.) The volumes thankfully leave the scenes intact.
      • It's now been pulled out of Shonen Jump, and the volumes are apparently going to be less censored.
  • Cain and Abel: Vice and Ultimo.
  • Cast Full of Pretty Boys
  • Catch Phrase: K: "God Dammit"
  • Cerebus Rollercoaster
  • Censor Steam: The English translation uses this for Yamato's shower scene.
  • Chaste Hero: Ultimo is implied to be this. He never picked up on the awkward atmosphere after the chapter 3 incident, nor does he seem to realize what kind of implications he is causing with how friendly he is with Yamato. Makes a lot of sense though, since he is the embodiment of pure good.
  • Clothing Damage: Everybody in their mecha forms.

"I have to find out if I can do anything about my clothes shredding when I combine with Ultimo."

  • Cool Old Guy: The owner of the Antique Shop, who provided the page quote.
  • Covert Pervert: Kiyose.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: Chapter 12, The Six Perfections vs. the Seven Deadly Sins. It doesn't go well for the good guys. At all.
  • Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Subverted by K, who only agrees to become Vice's master so he can quit his job. Played straight by the other evil douji masters, who all keep their day jobs even after becoming villains.
    • It's implied that Dunstan has been cut several checks in the past, and that he was actually a very well-respected genius before he went batshit insane and started destabilizing all of space-time with super robots.
  • Cute Machines: Some of the good doji. Ultimo, Sopia, and Service especially.
    • Some of the Evil doji are cute too, such as Desir.
  • Digital Bikini: The english version has this for everyone's mecha forms.
    • Except K's speedo actually made it worse.
    • Lately, however, (probably due to protests of fans) the English translation has stopped doing this, starting with Murayama in chapter 18.
    • But two chapters later, Machi has a digital bra. Understandable that very thin Godiva Hair was the only thing covering her breasts in the Japanese versions. But still, considering that Naruto is in the same maginzine...
  • Dissonant Serenity: Some of the doji, both good and evil, such as Pardonne and Desir.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: The vow. You'd have to see it too believe it.
  • Dream Team: Hiroyuki Takei and Stan Lee.
  • Dynamic Entry: Villanous Example in Chapter 11 courtesy of Vice. Averted by K. It's still awesome though.
    • Chapter 12 gives us the other five Deadly Sins one-by-one in a series of these.
  • Earthshattering Kaboom: What will happen if the Hundred Machine Funeral comes to pass, though it's not specified how.
  • The End of the World as We Know It: The Hundred Machine Funeral
  • Expy: MANY of the characters look like characters from Shaman King. The most well known would be Manta and Rune.
  • Extremely Short Timespan: Although the Reset Button was hit, the whole manga has only covered a day so far.
  • Everything's Better with Sparkles: Sushi sparkled. Yes. Sushi. Don't even get us started on Ultimo Ulate.
  • Fake Memories: It is implied that Ultimo gave Yamato these to cover up for something that he did wrong in the past.
    • Regula's Noh power is this.
  • Female Gaze: The series is basically on permanent Female Gaze.
  • Five-Man Band: The Masters of the Good Doji Club.
  • Flash Forward
  • Foe Yay: See Ho Yay below.
  • Four-Philosophy Ensemble
    • Yamato and Dunstan as The Conflicted.
    • Yoichi as The Optimist.
    • Eco as The Realist.
    • Musashi as The Cynic.
  • Forced to Watch: Vice was going to make 12th century Yamato watch his comrades be killed.
  • Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: The Good doji, such as Sophia, have wide, child-like eyes in contrast to some of the evil doji's narrowed eyes.
    • Jealousy has black marks under his eyes, giving him a shadowy look.
    • Seems to be the oppisite for the masters though. Most if not all of The Good Doji Club members have narrow eyes, while quite a few of the evil ones(Rune, Mizho, Akira, Hana), have large eyes.
  • Good Hair, Evil Hair: Most Good Doji have finer and fluffier looking hair, compared to the more rugged and spiked hairstyles of the Evil Doji.
  • Good Is Not Nice: The "good" Karakuridouji are just as cold and menacing as the evil ones.
  • Good Needs Evil: If good doesn't have evil, then the world blows up.
  • Good Powers, Bad People: Some of the evil doji's powers, you'd think, can be used more for good than for evil.
  • Hartman Hips: Getting to be a theme in the girls' designs.
  • High-Pressure Blood: On a couple of occasions.
    • After Jealous slices Yamato's arm, it causes an eruption of blood massive enough to cover all the walls.
    • When Sophia's head is crushed. (Technically oil not blood, but it looked the same.)
    • Implied in Rune's past life's death, considering how much blood was splattered on the floor, walls, and Ultimo.
    • The recent chapter with Vice beating up Jun. Good lord how does that kid hold all that blood?
  • Hot Mom: Yamato's mother.
  • Humongous Mecha: The doji in Icon form.
  • Hypocrite: Ultimo represents "Good"... but destroys a lot of neighborhood property and threatens to roast Jealousy alive with his rocket boosters while holding very disturbing expressions...
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Iruma by Jealousy, and later Eco by Rage and again by Vice.
  • "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Yamato and Rune have this fight in chapter 11.
  • Instant Awesome, Just Add Mecha
  • It Sucks to Be the Chosen One
  • Just Before the End: Karakuridoji Ultimo starts on the day before The Hundred Machine Funeral.
  • Last-Name Basis: Yamato Agari calls Makoto Sayama by her last name, but she uses his first name. He lampshades it once when he starts thinking about what his future life with her would be like, but notes that if that happened, her name wouldn't be Sayama.
    • Almost every character calls Musashi Murayama by his last name, much to his protest.
  • Light Is Not Good: The Perfects can be quite extreme that they start to subvert from 'good'. And don't forget all the cruel faces Ultimo has.
  • Locked Out of the Loop: Someone needs to tell Yamato (and the audience) what the fuck Ultimo actually did in the past that made him so dangerous.
  • Loads and Loads of Characters: Could be inferred, seeing as it's been said that there are 100 Karakuri Doji. So far, there are 16 Dojis, each of whom has at least one master, as well as various other characters in the past and present.
  • Mistaken for Gay: Yamato and Ultimo, by Sayama in Chapter 3.
  • Morality Kitchen Sink: Naturally, as the series is about the different kinds of good and evil.
  • Multiple Demographic Appeal: The little boys like it for the action, the older boys for the action and the storyline, and the girls like it for many more reasons than that.
  • Nakama: Past Yamato's bandit gang has members who are willing to lay down their lives for each other. This inspires Ultimo to come to their defense, as while he objects to their being bandits, regardless of their motives he considers their companionship essentially good.
    • To a lesser extent, the Club of Good Doji. They often bicker among themselves, and their doji are very rude and aloof, but they are all working together to capture Dunstan.
  • Neighborhood Friendly Gangsters / Yakuza: In chapter 24 we found out that the reincarnations of Yamato's bandit gang, are part of a mafia. Yamato becomes their new leader.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Subverted, as everything was already screwed up, but after Yamato hits the Reset Button, he attempts to prevent everything from happening again. But, Iruma still dies, and Murayama is hurt as well. Ultimo is also suffering injuries, right before he's needed for The Hundred Machine Funeral. Since Yamato waited to find Ultimo, Vice never got hurt in a battle, and went and attacked the Good Doji Club, killing Eco and Koun. Hiroshi also seems to be (possibly temporarily) disabled from his fight with Vice. Plus, Jealous partners up with Rune again, and Rune's gone from murder, to rape attempts to get Yamato. Sayama also seems to be in an argument with Yamato, and crushing on Akira. It's arguable if it's almost as bad, as bad, or worse.
  • No Biological Sex: Given that Karakuri Douji are actually advance robots from the future/past/it's complicated.
  • Non-Human Sidekick: Subverted, as many believe Ultimo, not Yamato, is the main character.
    • Averted hard with Vice and K. If anything, K is Vice's pet.
    • Played straight with the rest of the doji and their masters.
  • No Sympathy: Pardonne and Regula seem to have this problem, deconstructing the idea of Good Is Not Nice.
  • Not So Harmless: He might be built like a stick and look like a geek, and he's unemployed, but K wasn't chosen by Vice for nothing.
    • K's shortcomings actually make him the ideal master for the douji of ultimate evil, because he's emblematic of everything that is wrong with humanity.
      • Also since he is so easy to push over, Vice can literally do whatever he wants. That includes slicing his own teammates in half.
    • All of the Evil Douji Masters. You'd never know just by looking at them.
      • For example, Desir the Lustful's Master, she's an Elementary School teacher.
  • Not What It Looks Like: Happens with Yamato and Ultimo in Chapter 3.
  • Oblivious to Love: Yamato on Rune's crush on him, up to Chapter 10.
    • "ALL THAT MATTERS IS THAT I'VE BEEN IN LOVE WITH YOU FOR 900 YEARS!!!"
  • Ordinary High School Student: Yamato used to be this... until he found out that he was the master of the most powerful doji of Good for 900 years and that he now has to fight with him against Evil in the Hundred Machine Funeral.
  • One-Letter Name: K.
  • The Psycho Rangers: The masters of the Seven Deadly Sins. They may also qualify as a Five-Bad Band, once we get to know them better.
  • Power Perversion Potential: Jealous' webbing abilities. Just see for yourself.
  • Pulling Themselves Together: The doji can do this pretty quickly, as long as they have a master.
  • Double Standard Rape (Male on Male): Averted in chapter 12 with Service and Avaro. Averted again in Chapter 21 with Rune and Yamato.
  • Refusal of the Call: Yamato doesn't want anything to do with Ultimo and the doji's battle until Vice shows up to get rid of him.
  • Reincarnation: This manga is full of it. Apparently, it seems that all the masters of the doji in present time are a reincarnation of a past self. They also seem to be coming from the same time period and roughly around the same location...now and then.
    • Justified in that Dunstan's Karakuridouji, Milieu, has the power to manipulate reincarnation.
  • Religious and Mythological Theme Naming:
  • Reset Button: Yamato manages to hit it just as the villains are gaining the upper hand and winds up back in the day he suppose to find Ultimo. Only now he has knowledge of what going to happen.
  • Ridiculously Human Robot: Why does Vice have to eat and drink? Why does Ultimo sleep?
  • Robo-Family: Some of the doji have refered to Dunstan as their father. Jealous has also called Ultimo his brother.
    • Which causes some amount of Squick when you remember Chapter 12. Avaro molesting/raping Service would be considered Villainous Incest.
  • Robotic Psychopath: Vice. And then there's Ultimo.
  • Running Gag: Anytime Ultimo rushes to see Yamato, he breaks glass. Pieces of the glass always fly into Yamato. Usually his face.
    • Oume puching Yamato in the crotch. She's been doing it since the day they met.
  • Save the Villain: In Chapter 14, Yamato saves Iruma from a repeat of what happened in Chapter 8.
  • Selective Obliviousness: Yamato, about Rune's crush on him.
  • Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: Averted with Machi and Miyoshi. Machi wears a tight, gothic dress which shows off a lot of cleavage, where Miyoshi (who's even the lust doji master) is quite modest.
  • Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Ultimo and Yamato play this straight with their apperances, and their personalities in general. But, they also subvert it with the fact that Ultimo is a fighting robot, and obviously a lot stronger.
    • Rune and Yamato could count as well.
  • Scenery Censor: When the masters are in Icon mode. Averted in the English translation, where they fully cover the area below the waistline with underwear.
    • Makes you wonder how the English translation will censor the ladies' areas when they go into Icon mode.
  • Seven Deadly Sins: There is a set of mechanical boys based on the Sins. They are the strongest under Vice.
  • Seven Heavenly Virtues: The strongest under Ultimo are the Six Perfects of Buddhism. They oppose those based on the Sins.
  • Shapeshifter Weapon: The Karakkuridouji are capable of transforming their gauntlets into various oversize weapons. They can even transform their entire bodies.
  • Six-Student Clique: Subverted by Yamato and his classmates, as this manga isn't exactly a sitcom.
    • The Head: Yamato
    • The Muscle: Akitsu
    • The Quirk: Rune
    • The Pretty One: Sayama
    • The Smart One: Kiyose and Rune
    • The Wild One: Oume
  • Slasher Smile: Ultimo does this as much as his brother.
    • Hell, about 80% of the cast has sported at least one. Most of which, have been good guys.
  • Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: It's really hard to tell where the series sits. On one hand, The Power of Friendship / The Power of Love have been played up quite a bit. The good guys have had some inspiring and rather idealistic speeches, but, let's face it, they can be assholes. They range from being rude, to threatning each other. The embodiment of good is a prime example of Heroic Sociopath, who may suffer from Black and White Insanity. They've even talked about how childlike innocence is scary and troubling for adults. As for the bad guys, some have shown some soft spots, (or at least, aren't all that evil), but others are complete monsters. The series has some serious mood swings to say the least.
    • Dunstan must be pretty cynical to believe that the only way to determine if Good or Evil is stronger is to have them fight each other.
  • Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Subverted with Vice, the strongest Evil robot, who tries to kill both Ultimo and Yamato near the beginning of the manga...and gets cut in half for his troubles.
  • Speed Stripes: Yamato has these whenever he's running.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": While Rune is the official name of the character according to the English translation, many fans and manga translators either spell his name as "Lune" or "Rene".
    • Hell, this pretty much goes for every douji (except Ultimo and Vice). Look at the various permutations used in this article alone. It doesn't help that Viz changed some of their names.
  • Spider Tank: One of Jealousy's Karakuri Henge is this.
  • Spinoff Babies: Ultimo Ulate features Yamato and his friends as fifth graders.
  • Spoiled Sweet: Rune can be considered this. Played straight with his past self. "From now on, I will stay with you and live for the people.".
  • Stalker with a Crush: Rune has a huge framed picture of Yamato in his room.
  • The Stoic: Some of the doji, especially Pardonne/Pardonner and Jealous.
  • Stripperific: Ultimo and Vice are pretty bad. Jealous is even worse.
  • Super-Powered Evil Side: Ultimo has one, complete with the Slasher Smile and Glowing Eyes of Doom.
  • Super Robot: This manga is made of it.
  • Super Speed: Implied to be an ability that Rage, the Douji of Wrath, has.
  • Supervillain Lair: Subverted by K and Vice: K bought a crappy apartment for them.
  • Take a Third Option: Musashi tells Yamato he has to choose between showing him where Ultimo is or being killed by him right there, and explicitly says "There's a third option, but I don't think it's realistic." Eco says the third option is befriending or fighting all the Douji masters before the Hundred Machine Funeral.
  • Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: Shina Machi. Arguably Otake Akitsu.
  • Teens Are Short: Compared to Yamato and Murayama.
    • Rune, even more so Oume, are defiantly this trope.
  • Tender Tears: Ultimo has these a lot.
  • Telescoping Robot: Vice has this ability in the Prologue. It is not yet known if other doji can do it too.
  • There Is Another: Turns out that Ultimo and Vice weren't the only Mechanical Boys Dunstan made. By the dozens.
  • Time Paradox: Paraphrased quote from Yamato, "So let me see...I met you in the past but you were created in the future..."
  • Time Travel: As mentioned above, the doji were created by Dustan, and he then transported them to different times in history. The only reason Murayama escaped from the destruction of his future was by following him into the past.
    • Yamato also does quite a bit of this, as Ultimo's Noh Power is time traveling.
  • Tin Man: Subverted with the doji, as they have no human emotions but embody the characteristics of their particular virtue/sin.
  • Token Mini-Moe: Oume for Yamato's group of friends. Hana or Mizho for the Evil Doji Branch, although you may have a different opnion on that...
  • Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe: Even several characters have commented that even though Dunstan created 100 karakuridoji, he seems to have sent them around the area now known as Tokyo.
  • Too Dumb to Fool: Yamato immediately thinks there something fishy about Iruma's offer, though knowing him from his past life does help.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Iruma. Not a good idea thinking about how Ultimo is way more powerful than your own doji, when he himself knows how to read minds.
    • What's sad is that he makes the same mistake twice.
  • Transformation Sequence: The doji masters have this when they go into Icon mode.
  • Trickster Mentor: Eco was a Buddhist monk in a past life. These days he teaches lessons using things like sushi or manga.
  • Twenty Minutes Into the Future: The story takes place in 2012, though nothing has changed.However, according to the memories Ultimo gives Yamato, there will later be some time traveling into the 30th Century.
  • Viewers are Morons: Even given the large cast and slow updates, it's a bit much to clarify everyone's name, age, occupation, and allegiance every new chapter.
  • Villain with Good Publicity: Subverted by Iruma Tomomitsu who, while he is running for City Council, isn't very known, as he points out.
  • Villainous Glutton: Edile.
  • Visual Innuendo: Vice's mecha form has a large spike that curves upward, between his legs.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Oh, Akitsu and Yamato. They clearly hate each other, and Akitsu goes out of her way to make Yamato's life miserable, but they have been friends for seven years. Surely something is keeping them together. They have shown at least one sign of concern for each other as well. (Akitsu panicing when Yamato jumped out of the school window, and Yamato did think about her alongside his other friends when he was worried about not seeing everyone again.)
  • Walking Shirtless Scene: Most of the Doji.
  • We Will Meet Again: Subverted by K: Look Forward to the day we meet again! Though I really don't want to see you again!
  • Wham! Episode: Chapter 12. You can practically hear the fandom scream in agony as you turn the pages.
    • Chapter 21. Do NOT read this chapter if you already have a problem with Rune's crush on Yamato....
  • What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Eco's legendary sushi, which he uses as a metaphor.
  • What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Ultimo can manipulate time and space, Jealous can read human emotions; Guess who gets the upper hand in Chapter 11?
    • Yamato could have stopped time and won easily, but didn't because he wanted to save Rune.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?
  • X Meets Y: Zatch Bell meets Astro Boy.
  • White-Haired Pretty Boy: Dunstan's doji, Milieu, who has insanely long white hair.
  • World of Ham: This is lampshaded a lot.
  • You Can't Fight Fate: Murayama comes from the future, and his goal is to stop the Hundred Machine Funeral from happening. He fails the first time, and considering how Dunstan is always meddling with events, he probably can't stop it from happening.
    • Rune becoming Jealousy's master.
    • Eco getting stabbed in the stomach by one of the evil doji.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Jealous pretty much says this to Iruma. Twice.
  • Zettai Ryouiki: Mizho's leg bandages are wrapped up to look like a Grade B.
    • The girl's uniforms seem to have Grade C.
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