The following contains spoilers for the Black Butler manga, as well as seasons 1 and 2 of the anime.
Summary
Black Butler has had a tumultuous history, partly due to the anime’s first two seasons deviating from the source material, leading to questionable writing decisions and a divided fan community. Despite its complicated history, the franchise has made a major comeback in the past 10 years thanks to animation projects from A-1 pictures that have faithfully adapted some of the manga’s best arcs. Studio CloverWorks will adapt the manga’s Public School arc, another popular story arc from the manga, which will begin airing in April 2024.
In the late 2000s, there were many cartoon broadcast in the West has been marked as a classic series for anime fans. Among these are extremely popular anime and manga, such as Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Soul Eater, Fairy Tail, etc. – however, few of these series have a unique impact and carry the same level of infamy as Yana Toboso’s gothic historical fantasy series, Black Butler.
Although the manga originally began being serialized in the monthly G Fantasy magazine in 2006, an anime adaptation produced by A-1 Pictures aired in 2008. The original anime adaptation faced many problems. similar problems to other anime of the same period. , including anime that deviated from the manga’s classic story into purely original content that divided fans. Although this was later corrected, It’s interesting to look back at the series’ history and how, against all odds, Black Butler still has a bright future ahead of the announcement of the Black Butler: Public School Arc which will begin airing in April 2024.
Black Butler’s mysterious, taboo-filled story made it an instant hit
The original series was created by Yana Toboso; anime adaptation produced by A-1 Pictures
Black Butler follows the mysterious relationship between a young earl named Ciel Phantomhive and his supernatural butler, Sebastian Michaelis, as the two solve a number of mysteries surrounding Victorian London. Of course, this is just how his life appears on the surface. Truth – Sebastian is a demon to whom Ciel sold his soul to escape a demon-worshiping cult that purchased him after his family’s home was destroyed. The deal is quite simple: Ciel promises to give Sebastian’s soul as long as the evil butler assists him in avenging his family. by finding those responsible for taking their lives. Working directly for the Queen of England, the cases that Ciel and Sebastian pursue often have some sort of supernatural outcome, causing them to encounter everything from Grim Reapers, Fallen Angles, and mechanically reanimated corpses. version works as this world confronts zombies.
While the first two seasons of the anime adaptation were extremely enjoyable and did a great job of bringing Yana Toboso’s beautiful Victorian-era story to life, Black Butler suffers from many of the same problems as the series. other anime adaptations from this time period. specifically, the series differs greatly from its source materialand not all original content choices add any value to the story. In fact, so many changes were made, that out of the 24 episodes, only episodes 2-6 and 13-15 of season 1 actually fit the manga’s plot, while everything else, includes the entire season 2, which is the original content of the anime.
The correct viewing order of the Black Butler anime to get the official, canon story is as follows: episodes 2-6 and 13-15 of Black Butler season 1, Book of Circus (2014), Book of Murder (2014), Book of the Atlantic (2017) and the upcoming Public School Arc will begin airing in April 2024.
With Black Butler season 2 featuring completely original content, it’s no surprise that it was met with quite a bit of controversy and disdain from die-hard fans of the series. Instead of continuing the manga’s story, Part 2 introduces two brand new characters who act as foils to Ciel and Sebastian – Alois Trancy and his own demon butler, Claude Faustus. The dynamic between Claude and Alois is intended to mirror Ciel and Sebastian’s interactions, with Alois’s backstory having many dark parallels to Ciel’s life before meeting Sebastian, as well as his appearance and personality. Claude contrasts with Sebastian’s cold and calculating attitude.
Taking place a full year after the end of season 1, the series ends with Sebastian presumably completing his pact with Ciel and consuming his soul. However, as part 2 revealed, Sebastian was unsuccessful in eating Ciel’s soul, however, the young count had his memory erased, erasing many important memories of the events in part 1. . In addition to the controversy surrounding the complete deviation from the manga, Black Butler season 2 was also considered to have extremely offensive content. which, while not beyond the reach of the franchise, comes off as unpleasant and unnecessarily cruel – especially in the way Alois is portrayed and depicted, who should have been much more sympathetic as a character despite his sadistic, cruel nature. due to his background and his very graphic, unpleasant relationship with the original head of the Trancy family.
The ending of the second part brings a definitive conclusion to the relationship between Ciel and Sebastian, then turns the young man into a demon so that he can serve him forever. Though in conclusion this feels very strange given the dynamic of this couple throughout the series so far – canon or otherwise. Because of this, despite introducing some interesting ideas and building upon the relationships between the other demons, Black Butler season 2 still feels clumsy and bizarre, especially in retrospect. Many strides have been made since then by the anime adaptation to stay closer to the source material, and to revise this particular ending.
Black Butler’s unexpected redemption arc and the future
Although it faced a lot of criticism and controversy, the series made a big comeback
Despite its initial failures, Black Butler’s popularity barely waned throughout the rest of the 2000s and 2010s. In addition to the first two seasons of the anime, the series received several television series. audio featuring a voice cast, a musical stage adaptation, a video game developed by Square Enix and released on the Nintendo DS titled Kuroshitsuji Phantom & Ghost, a live-action television series, and as of 2023, the original manga has a staggering 34 million copies in circulation.
Besides its popularity in the anime community, A-1 Pictures did right by fans of the series by proactively adapting classic plots from the manga into segmented anime clips. Starting with Black Butler: Book of Circus, which aired in 2014 and was directed by the legendary Noriyuki Abe (Yu Yu Hakusho, Bleach), these anime projects follow Yana Toboso’s original story much more closely, and the iconic stories beautifully adapted from the manga, making the series once again the center of attention. Both Book of Circus and ONA’s Book of Murder project are near-perfect adaptations, with beautiful animation that adapts Toboso’s unique style and exciting action sequences that many fans have loved. began to abandon the series of surprises.
Looking ahead, animation studio CloverWorks will handle the latest installment of the series, an adaptation of the manga’s Public School arc., introduces some eccentric bishounen characters and an intriguing academy-style mystery. This arc covers chapters 66 – 77 of the manga, following Ciel and Sebastian as they enroll in a mysterious academy to discover why so many students – including Queen Victoria’s cousin, Derrick Arden – refused to return home and stopped contacting them. families.
While Sebastian started working as principal, Ciel tries to approach the “Four Primates” – a group of captains assigned to manage students – to learn more about what is going on.. Despite being a different studio from previous Black Butler anime projects, the two trailers currently available for the Public School Arc look promising. The anime will be directed by Kenjirou Okada, who is best known for his involvement with several Shaft anime such as March Comes in Like a Lion and the Bakemonogatari series.