The story revolves around Taichi Hiraga-Keaton, the son of Japanese zoologist Taihei Hiraga and well-born Englishwoman Patricia Keaton.

In addition to his work for Lloyd's, Keaton and his friend Daniel O'Connell operate their own insurance investigation agency headquartered in London.

Even though Keaton is extremely successful as an insurance investigator, his dream is to continue his archaeological research into the possible origins of an ancient European civilization in the Danube river basin.

[2] Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki began the sequel Master Keaton Remaster (MASTERキートン Reマスター, Masutā Kīton Rimasutā) in 2012.

From 1989 to 1993, Katsushika and Urasawa serialized Keaton Animal Files (キートン動物記, Kīton Dōbutsuki) in special issues of Big Comic Original.

[10][11] The chapters were collected into a single volume on November 28, 2014, with a deluxe edition including the full color pages from the magazine run released the same day.

The anime and OVAs were licensed in North America by Pioneer Entertainment (later named Geneon), with an English dub produced by The Ocean Group.

[46] Mark Sammut of Comic Book Resources praised Master Keaton as an "exhilarating adventure series" that "tackles weighty themes while generally maintaining an accessible tone through its endearing cast of characters and episodic nature.

[2] Otaku USA's Joseph Luster claimed that with the series, Urasawa, Katsushika and Nagasaki "[weave] a gripping tale of intrigue that bubbles and boils along with the best thrillers out there."

He strongly praised Urasawa's art; "Story beats and transitions are confidently executed, and there's just the right amount of exposition peppered in to make it all seem natural."

[48] In a review of the first English volume for Anime News Network, Rebecca Silverman called the premise of the book fascinating and its stories well-told, but felt the episodic nature of the chapters took away from its overall strength.

She described the title character as "a bit like a dorkier Indiana Jones, hiding his badassery under a bad haircut and wrinkled suit" and cited him as a reason to read the series.

Silverman speculated that Master Keaton is for mature readers looking for something more serious, as the "motivations of the characters is just as, if not more, important to the plot as the actual events themselves, and even though Urasawa's art is clear and clean, this is not a book you read quickly.

"[49] Hiromi Hasegawa of Ex.org called the anime adaptation's faithfulness to the manga very good; "it has succeeded in capturing the atmosphere of the original and conveying that in a different media.

Hasegawa finished their review by recommending Master Keaton to mature audiences with more sophisticated tastes, and said they learned "quite a bit about political, historical, and ethnic situations in Europe as well as interesting theories in Archaeology or military techniques and weaponry" from the series.