Karakuri Kiden: Hiwou Senki

In the closing years of the Edo period, Hiwou lives in a village devoted to the craft of mechanical puppets. When the Kazajin ninja attack, burn the settlement, and capture its adults, Hiwou, his siblings, and their friends survive and manage to activate Homura, the giant mechanism kept in the village shrine.

The children set out aboard it to find their families, traveling through a country being transformed by foreign technology and political conflict. Pursued by their enemies and encountering figures such as Sakamoto Ryoma, they struggle to preserve their craft without letting it become merely a weapon.