Black Butler is an anime television series adapted from Yana Toboso's manga series of the same. Directed by Toshiya Shinohara and produced by A-1 Pictures, Black Butler follows the adventures of Sebastian Michaelis, a demon butler who is obligated to serve Ciel Phantomhive, the young head of the Phantomhive noble family, due to a contract he made.
The anime adaptation was confirmed on July 11, 2008, by Gakken's Animedia magazine,[1] and the official website of the anime began to stream a trailer of the anime on July 26, 2008.[2] The series premiered on October 3, 2008, on MBS TV and Chubu-Nippon Broadcasting. Two DVD compilations were released by Aniplex; the first compilation on January 21, 2009, and the second on February 25, 2009.[3]
After the sixth episode, the anime begins to diverge from the storyline of the manga. The second season, which premiered on July 2, 2010, and concluded on September 17, 2010, continues this original storyline. The third season, Book of Circus (黒執事・サーカスの書, Kuroshitsuji: Sākasu no Sho), premiered on July 10, 2014, and concluded on September 12, 2014. Serving as a soft reboot of the anime, the series adapts the "Noah Ark Circus" arc from the manga while ignoring the anime-exclusive events of the previous two seasons. The series was followed by a two-episode OVA, Black Butler: Book of Murder, which adapts the "Phantomhive Manor Murders" arc.[4] The first OVA was released in Japanese cinemas on October 25, and the second on November 15, 2014.[5]
At Anime Expo 2023, Crunchyroll announced that a fourth season was in production. Titled Black Butler: Public School Arc and adapting the arc of the same name, it was directed by Kenjirou Okada and produced by CloverWorks, with Hiroyuki Yoshino handling series composition, Yumi Shimizu designing the characters, and Ryo Kawasaki composing the music.[6] The series premiered on April 13, 2024, and concluded on June 22, 2024, with an 11th episode, on Tokyo MX and other networks.[7] [8] [9] [10]
Three pieces of theme music are used for the first season. The opening theme song is "Monochrome no Kiss" performed by the Japanese rock band Sid, while the first ending theme song is "I'm Alive!" performed by American singer Becca. The second ending theme song, which began airing with episode 14, is "Lacrimosa" performed by Kalafina. Two singles containing the theme music and other tracks have been released; the single containing tracks from Sid was released on October 29, 2008, and the single from Becca was released on October 22, 2008.[3] The third single containing tracks from Kalafina has a release date of March 4, 2009. For the second season, the opening theme song is "Shiver" performed by The Gazette, while the ending theme song is "Bird" performed by Yuya Matsushita, which released as a single in August 2010. The ending for episode 8 is "Kagayaku Sora no Shijima ni wa" performed by Kalafina. The opening theme song for Book of Circus is "Enamel" performed by Sid, while the ending theme song is "Aoki Tsuki Michite" performed by Akira. For the Public School Arc, the opening theme song is "Kyoshinsha no Parade -The Parade of Battlers-" performed by Otoha, while the ending theme song is "Shokuzai" performed by Sid.
Aniplex later released the complete Blu-ray and DVD on May 7, 2014.[11]