Joker

Overview

Image Gallery

“	Father rescued us up from the rubbish heap... and gave us limbs that could protect the ones dear to us. That's why we decided to go on living... even if another hell was waiting for us with open arms.	”
—Joker

Joker
Kanji	ジョーカー
Rōmaji	Jōkā
Characteristics
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Birthday	April 2, 1863
Age	25
Professional status
Affiliation	Noah's Ark Circus
Previous affiliation	The East End (as a child) Renbourn Workhouse (as a child)
Occupation	First-String Member and Surrogate Leader of the Noah's Ark Circus Pierrot
Previous occupation	East Ender
Base of operations	Noah's Ark Circus Camp The East End (former) Renbourn Workhouse (former)
Personal status
Status	Deceased
Died	February 9, 1889
Relatives	Karen Taylor † (mother)
First appearance
Manga debut	Volume 6, Chapter 24
Anime debut	Season 3, Episode 37
Musical debut	Noah's Ark Circus
Portrayal
Japanese voice	Mamoru Miyano
English voice	Matthew Mercer

Joker (ジョーカー, Jōkā) is a first-string member and the surrogate leader of the Noah's Ark Circus, tasked with managing the shows and performing as the pierrot. At Baron Kelvin's manor, Joker acts as Kelvin's butler.

Appearance

Joker's anime character sketch

Joker is a twenty-five-year-old man with purple eyes and long orange hair with extensions which are bleached at the tips and have some strands braided. He frequently wears light-blue make-up, which he uses to paint a teardrop under his left eye, and has multiple piercings in each ear—four on the left and three on the right—wearing thick silver hoop earrings.

Joker's outfit is comprised of a yellow bow, a purple coat trimmed with gold draped over his shoulders and used like a cape, a black and lavender checkered vest with a white ruffled button-up shirt worn underneath, puffy short pants with diamonds on the seam, and black and white boots that reach to the knees and curl at the toes. He also dons a white glove on his left hand. Additionally, his right arm is missing, and replaced by a skeleton arm prosthetic.

Personality

Joker is a kind, easy-going, and cheerful individual, who strives for the mirth of others, as shown when he intentionally drops balls he was juggling on his head for the amusement of the audience. Despite this outer appearance, though, he is very serious about his duties and does not easily give in to emotions.

Joker displays great care for the other members of the circus, but puts pleasing Baron Kelvin, no matter how abhorrent he finds his requests to be, above them. His motive for complying with Kelvin is that he believes he is protecting his brothers and sisters back at the Renbourn Workhouse by doing so.

History

Joker, Beast, Doll, and Dagger in the alley.

Joker was born on April 2, 1863, without a right arm. He had a mother, a prostitute named Karen Taylor, but she abandoned him for an unknown reason. Joker met the other first-string circus members in an East End alley, which he calls "a gutter where every dirty being emptied its bowels" and where "everyone in this gutter was thrown away." They had no hope of getting work, and were not even skilled thieves.

In 1879, Doll rushed up to Joker one day with a tooth in her hand. She gleefully exclaimed that it fell out, believing that she would later get a coin from the Tooth Fairy and promised them that she would buy them all bread afterwards. Peter began to retort that the Tooth Fairy did not actually exist but was prevented from doing so by Jumbo. When he angrily questioned why he did not allow him to speak, Joker agreed with Jumbo that it was hard to break the truth to her whilst seeing her smile, additionally musing that gap teeth are too cute to be legal. Beast commented that if Doll did not get her coin the next morning, she would be extremely upset, to which Joker decided that he should attempt to earn something. Joker opposed Peter's idea of stealing, stating that he had a feeling it would be wrong to use stolen money "this time". Joker, Beast, Dagger, Peter, Wendy, and Jumbo then proceeded to work on manual chores earnestly all night long in order to earn a single coin for Doll. They were relieved to see they made it on time as they placed it beside her whilst she was sleeping. The next morning, an oblivious Doll showed off her coin to them, stating how happy she was that they could eat bread with it and an exhausted but happy Joker laughed along with her. However, in the belief that the Tooth Fairy would give her more coins, Doll later attempted to take out more teeth that were not wobbly, to the dismay of the others.

One day, while sitting under a tarp in the rain, Baron Kelvin found them and took them in. Joker called living at Renbourn Workhouse "heaven." After some time, they decided to start a circus, and Joker assigned them stage names; it is understood that Joker is a stage name—however, not even the Grim Reapers have a record of his birth name.

Sometime later, Joker tried to help Kelvin with his obsession over Ciel Phantomhive, such as when he relayed information of Ciel's assumed death and when he prevented Kelvin from attending Ciel's sacrifice.

Plot

Circus Arc

Joker entertains the audience by performing tricks.

Joker, along with the other members of the Noah's Ark Circus, parades the streets of London, in order to uplift the spirits of people and garner attention for their circus troupe.

At a circus show that Ciel Phantomhive and Sebastian Michaelis attend, Joker represents himself as the ringleader. He runs the show, introducing the acts, and during Beast's act, he invites Sebastian down to participate. Sebastian soon gets bitten by the tiger, to the horror of both Joker and Beast. After the show, Joker hunts Sebastian down, and insists on taking him to the first-aid tent to have his wound checked out.

Joker gives Beast flowers.

When Beast entered the tent to have her prosthetic leg examined by Doctor, Sebastian takes an interest in her limb and grabs it to look at it more closely; this upsets Beast and Dagger, who attack him with whips and knives respectively. However, when Sebastian is able to evade all of the attacks, Joker intervenes and states that he would like to scout him, to Beast's chagrin. Sebastian accepts the offer, and the next day, he returns with Ciel to take the entrance exam. When Ciel eventually passes, Joker gives them stage names, takes them both on a tour of the tents and leaves them in the practice tent. At the end of the day, he assigns tent mates, pairing Ciel with Freckles and Sebastian with Suit.

The following evening, they have another performance, and Ciel and Sebastian seize the opportunity to look through the first-string members' tents. However, Joker stops them, because Wendy hurt her ankle, and he needs Sebastian to stand in for her. Ciel develops an alternate plan and is able to look through all of the first-string members' tents during the performance, including Joker's, where he finds a piece of paper with his name and a brief history. Joker, along with Jumbo and Peter, learns from Snake of their invasion into their tents, and Joker decides to go see "Father" about what to do. While leaving, he runs into Beast, who asks him to run away with her, but he says it is impossible. Joker then gives her his scarf and tells her to go to bed.

Joker arrives at Kelvin's manor and gets ready to see him. Kelvin is disappointed to learn that Joker does not have Ciel with him, and Joker announces they seem to have been marked by the Scotland Yard. When he elaborated, Kelvin is excited, because he is certain that Smile and Black are actually Ciel and his butler. Kelvin orders him to prepare a feast for their expected visit, but Joker is worried about the other first-string members. Angry with his disobedience, Baron passively threatens him with his brothers and sisters still at the workhouse, and Joker is forced to comply to his desires.

Joker begs Ciel to spare Kelvin's life.

That evening, Joker welcomes Ciel and Sebastian into Kelvin Manor and introduces them to Kelvin. While eating dinner, Kelvin commands him to put on a circus performance for Ciel, which involves using the untrained, kidnapped children as the performers. Because they are inexperienced, their acts result in their gruesome deaths, which noticeably disturbs Joker. When Ciel expressed his disgust, Kelvin constrains Joker to clean it up. Ciel approaches Kelvin with a gun, and Joker is stopped by Sebastian from coming to the latter's aid. Kelvin orders Joker to put away his sword, and Joker remains in the custody of Sebastian.

They are then led to the basement by Kelvin, who reveals that he has turned the basement into a recreation of the day Ciel was sacrificed. Upset by his story, Ciel shoots him, and Joker tries to escape Sebastian by pulling a hidden knife out of his prosthetic arm. However, Sebastian cuts off part of his left arm and forbids him from disturbing his master. Joker pleads with Ciel for Kelvin's life and discloses that the reason he acts at his bidding is that he needs Kelvin's help in order for them to survive. Ciel says he understands, but that is not going to stop him from "stealing his future." Joker proclaims that the other first-string circus members are visiting his manor that night, to silence all the witnesses, and hence stealing something precious from Ciel. Ciel is unconcerned, because his servants are his private army, and Joker quietly wishes for at least the first-string members to survive. He laments his past, which has led to this tragedy, and Ciel tells him not to cry so shamefully as the world is not kind to anyone.

Doctor then enters the basement and demonstrates that he can walk, much to Joker's surprise. He also reveals that the prosthetic limbs Joker, Dagger, and Beast wear were made from the bones of children. Joker was unaware of this, and is disgusted, questioning what Doctor saw them as. Later, after Ciel and Sebastian killed Doctor and Kelvin and set the mansion on fire, William T. Spears states that Joker died of blood loss on February 9, 1889.

Quotes

• (To Ciel Phantomhive) "Looks like there's a touch o' truth to the saying that folks aren't always as they seem. Ye've got such a little body . . . yet your stage names are 'The Queen's Watchdog' and 'The Aristocrat of Evil.' Must've 'ad a rough go of it, eh, Smile?"

• (To Ciel Phantomhive, regarding Kelvin) "Please don't kill 'im! Be he as he may, we still owe him our lives. We, who were abandoned by our parents, by this nation— He saved us from the terror of starving to death which plagued us day in and day out. We've many little brothers and sisters still in the workhouse. They can't make it if he's not 'round."

• (To Ciel Phantomhive) "Why d'ye think we've been able to kidnap children without anyone catching on to us? It's 'cos all the witnesses cease to exist. Those of us in the troupe, we're professionals. We dispose of everyone we come into contact with during our missions, no matter what the reason. I wonder how many people'll get killed off as they go sniffing 'round for a target that's not there in that great big house?"

• "What else could we 'ave done? Like Tom, the Piper's Son in the nursery rhyme... we could do but one thing... 'only play one tune'... But if we'd been born in another country instead of this one... if I... if my body... 'adn't been this way... it wouldn't 'ave come to this—!"

Trivia

• General
• Musicals

• Joker, who originates from the East End, speaks in Cockney English. In the Japanese original, he speaks in Kyoto dialect (京都弁, Kyōto-ben).

Out of Universe

• According to the official Kuroshitsuji character popularity poll, Joker is the eleventh most popular character in the series, with 168 votes.

• Mr. K, Yana Toboso's editor, wanted Joker to verbally stand out from the other characters.

Joker is portrayed by Ryōsuke Miura in Noah's Ark Circus.