Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler)

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Alternative Titles

English: Black Butler

Synonyms: Kuro Shitsuji, Kuroshitsuzi

Japanese: 黒執事

Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 24

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Oct 3, 2008 to Mar 27, 2009

Premiered: Fall 2008

Broadcast: Unknown

Producers: Aniplex, Square Enix, Yomiko Advertising, Mainichi Broadcasting System, Movic, Trinity Sound

Licensors: Funimation, Aniplex of America

Studios: A-1 Pictures

Source: Manga

Genres: Action, Mystery, Comedy, Historical, Demons, Supernatural, Shounen

Duration: 24 min. per ep.

Rating: R - 17+ (violence & profanity)

Statistics

Score: 7.77¹ (scored by 431,107 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #902²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #91

Members: 856,396

Favorites: 23,285

7.77

Ranked #902Popularity #91Members 856,396

Fall 2008TVA-1 Pictures

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Episodes: /24

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Trailer Madman version

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Synopsis

Young Ciel Phantomhive is known as "the Queen's Guard Dog," taking care of the many unsettling events that occur in Victorian England for Her Majesty. Aided by Sebastian Michaelis, his loyal butler with seemingly inhuman abilities, Ciel uses whatever means necessary to get the job done. But is there more to this black-clad butler than meets the eye?

In Ciel's past lies a secret tragedy that enveloped him in perennial darkness—during one of his bleakest moments, he formed a contract with Sebastian, a demon, bargaining his soul in exchange for vengeance upon those who wronged him. Today, not only is Sebastian one hell of a butler, but he is also the perfect servant to carry out his master's orders—all the while anticipating the delicious meal he will eventually make of Ciel's soul. As the two work to unravel the mystery behind Ciel's chain of misfortunes, a bond forms between them that neither heaven nor hell can tear apart.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Three musicals based on Kuroshitsuji entitled That Butler, Friendship, Musical Black Butler: The Most Beautiful Death in The World – A Thousand Souls and The Fallen Grim Reaper, and Lycoris that Blazes the Earth were performed in Japan.

A Nintendo DS game called Kuroshitsuji Phantom & Ghost was developed in 2009 and released by Square Enix.

Starring Ayame Goriki as Genpou Shiori (a descendant of Ciel Phantomhive) and Hiro Mizushima as Sebastian Michaelis, a live action film of Kuroshitsuji was released in January of 2014.

Preview Manga

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Kuroshitsuji
Summary:	Kuroshitsuji Recap
Sequel:	Kuroshitsuji II, Kuroshitsuji: Book of Circus
Side story:	Kuroshitsuji: Sono Shitsuji, Kougyou
Other:	Kuroshitsuji Picture Drama

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Michaelis, Sebastian

Main

Ono, Daisuke
Japanese

Phantomhive, Ciel

Main

Sakamoto, Maaya
Japanese

Sutcliff, Grell

Supporting

Fukuyama, Jun
Japanese

Undertaker

Supporting

Suwabe, Junichi
Japanese

Finnian

Supporting

Kaji, Yuki
Japanese

Mey-Rin

Supporting

Katou, Emiri
Japanese

Midford, Elizabeth

Supporting

Tamura, Yukari
Japanese

Spears, William T.

Supporting

Sugiyama, Noriaki
Japanese

Durless, Angelina

Supporting

Park, Romi
Japanese

Cainz, Drocell

Supporting

Katsu, Anri
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Shinohara, Toshiya

Director

Tsuda, Naokatsu

Episode Director

Yoshimura, Ai

Episode Director, Storyboard

Ogura, Hirofumi

Episode Director, Storyboard

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Opening Theme

"Monochrome no Kiss (モノクロのキス)" by SID

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Ending Theme

#01: "I'm ALIVE!" by BECCA (eps 1-13)
#02: "Lacrimosa" by Kalafina (eps 14-24)

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Reviews

Sep 30, 2009

24 of 24 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 5

-Naami- (All reviews)

811 people found this review helpful

---The review contains spoilers---

So, Kuroshitsuji is an anime that is labelled “shounen” but I don’t really know why - it’s filled with bishounens, pretty clothes and the fancy Victorian age backdrop with massive shounen ai and shota undertones. Oh, and the obvious gay shinigami who keeps trying to kiss the butler.

The story starts off with an eerie atmosphere, showing a 10 year old child who exchanges his soul for a demon butler to help exact his revenge against the people who killed his parents and humiliated him. Two-three years later they are still together; Ciel Phantomhive the 12 (later 13) year old Earl also the head of his house and company and Sebastian Michaelis, the demon butler who could do anything and together working for the Queen to solve mysteries and at the same time learning about Ciel’s past.

It would have been a great story. If not for the amount of filler episodes that had been injected in due to the lack of material that had come out from the manga and the confusion in later episodes that still left me with many, many questions.

The first and second episodes were indeed spectacular. Instantly there is a dark and mysterious aura and it is well maintained throughout the entire series (except for the idiotic moments with the less than lovable extra staff at the Phantomhive household). Even up to episode 6 it was still good. However, after that it just started to get a little tiring with all the missions they have to carry out. Boring in fact. The second half of the series was entirely all filler; filler that wasn’t even interesting and to put it plainly – all over the place.

As mentioned before, the anime does not follow the manga series exactly but the first half of the series does to an extent. The second half was written exclusively for the anime. Now this is where it goes horribly wrong. Most of the second half’s story made absolutely NO SENSE WHATSOEVER. Take Sebastian’s sudden disappearance for example. For someone who has made an unbreakable contract and who has already done about two years work for Ciel it was a unrealistic that he would leave Ciel. Moreover it was uncharacteristic of him. His personality wouldn’t allow him to do such an act, even if it were to benefit Ciel in the end. Plot twists came from nowhere, justifications and character motivations did not add up and I would end up sitting there by the end of the episode wondering what on earth has just happened. Poor writing plagued the last three-quarters of the series, which is a real shame, considering how much I enjoyed the first six episodes.

When I first heard Sebastian’s and Ciel’s names I laughed. ‘Sebastian’ as the butler’s name, that was so cliché and Ciel ‘Phantomhive’ - now that didn’t sound conspicuous at all did it? Well it certainly did humour me with these obvious names, but the characters themselves aren’t ones that you can laugh at. Sebastian is seriously one badass butler, the anti hero of our story; he can do anything and I mean ANYTHING. After he SEDUCES A NUN to get information he certainly got my respect - the thought of him using such tactics was almost unthinkable (considering all the "sexual tension" between him and his master). And Ciel… well he is bratty. And he certainly does talk a lot of bull when it comes to why he is doing all this and such. What I liked about him though was how the producers practically used him as a doll to model fashion wear of the 19th century.

But these factors do not save them from being two dimensional characters. Sebastian can be thought as the anime parallel of Edward Cullen. Essentially a ‘perfect’ being with zero flaws, devilishly good looks (no pun intended) and abilities to do the impossible he contains no realism in him, more like a fantasy or ideal of ‘the perfect man’. But unlike the Twilight character mentioned there is an almost witty aspect to the butler, as each episode displays his tendency to be mischievous. In all honesty, though he is not much of a character for BEING the main character, he was still quite the fun person to watch as a viewer. Sadly, I cannot say the same for Ciel. As far as I’m concern, he was there for the fanservice – from cross-dressing to wearing scantily clad clothes for a teenage English boy – mass producing shota fans as we speak. His reason for working for the Queen is neither explained nor in line with his prideful personality and his burning desire for revenge towards the people who ‘humiliated’ him is not emphasized or profound enough to take him seriously that he is truly a bitter, angry boy.

The OP and ED were very well done, both musically and animated-wise. Most anime usually does this thing where in the middle of the series they change the opening song and have a whole new animation to it. With Kuroshitsuji they keep the same song but switch around the verses used but have a whole new animation to it. The first ED uses an American song "I'm Alive" by Becca which would catch some off guard. The rock/pop song contrasts greatly with all the other themes uses but is a song that can be easily sung along to. It also is one of the most amusing endings ever with the animation that employs a chibi-styled art showing the day to day activities of Sebastian as a butler. The second ED song is a lot more melancholic to fit the serious second half of the story. The background music is smoothly done and go fittingly well with the scene at hand. As an anime set in the high class 1800s, the production company rightfully uses dark gospel choruses to jazzy themes.

Art and animation was very beautiful and fluid. Grand manors and clothing were all intricately designed and even in the few action scenes A-1 Pictures still had animation kept up – never letting choppy animation to ruin the flow. Everything is very gothic usually with night-settings, religion being brought in and of course, the clothes. Although Ciel did look very adorable in his attire, I felt like the clothes he was wearing were almost asking for him to be molested, which just made the paedophilia and gay overtones a lot more strong.

The most enjoyable part of this anime was the London/Victorian age setting. I was actually quite impressed with how well they displayed and used London and its history, like how they made Bethnal Green the base where all the drug dealers were from or the fact that there used to be fairs on the Thames during the winter when the water turned to ice. The producers did use the London card to the max - playing with different versions of “London Bridge”, using the Jack the Ripper character and displaying the fashion of the time. And of course since it’s set in England there is some engrish, but the best one is Sebastian’s “Yes, My Lord” - makes me smile every time. The setting practically made this anime; I mean if you replaced the setting to a modern time, different place this anime would have immediately failed.

Although I wouldn’t necessarily say it put the ‘shit’ in ‘Kuroshitsuji’ neither would I say this is a spectacular watch. This series was just ‘okay’ to me, it wasn’t particularly special and it’s quite tedious. I have had many unanswered questions formed in my mind and quite a few qualms about it. For those of you who actually read manga I suggest doing so first or instead of watching this since it just contains the main story and does not sell itself short with fan-pandering nonsense.

Will I be watching the second series? Well, yes for numerous reasons. I liked the manga enough to want to see it animated. I want to see if my questions will finally be answered. And most of all I want to find out WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED after the end of the last episode.

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Mar 28, 2009

24 of 24 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 10

duonoaikouka (All reviews)

654 people found this review helpful

Holy flippin' A!!! Where to even begin with this anime?! There is so much here that I look for in an anime; I even added it to my favorites list before I was even done watching. It's got beautiful and THICK plot, hidden meanings, a GORGEOUS musical score, wonderful and zany characters, and enough emotional hitting power to make me keep a tissue box handy for those sad and happy tears. This would be my first review to be an absolute 10 in score if there weren't just a few unanswered questions and assumed understanding after everything was said and done. Even with read more

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Aug 11, 2010

24 of 24 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 4

Lindle (All reviews)

234 people found this review helpful

As of late, Kuroshitsuji is essentially the poster-boy for thinly-veiled fangirl bait. Kuroshitsuji (or Black Butler, whatever floats your boat) has tons of yaoi tropes, and has the word bishie plastered all over it, so you may think that being somebody who does not like these things, that I hate it because of that. So let's make this clear now: No. That has nothing to do with it. There are plenty of legitimate reasons not to like Kuroshitsuji besides that, so before you reach for the Not Helpful button, please think for a second: are you doing that because my review is badly written, or read more

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Oct 10, 2014

24 of 24 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 5

defunctmaluser (All reviews)

128 people found this review helpful

Obscured by a veil of feathers, a boy floating above a sacrificial altar is warned by a crow that if he rejects the faith even once, the gates of Heaven will forever stay closed to him. The boy responds by saying that if he was truly among the faithful in the first place, he never would’ve summoned the crow. The two parties then make a contract and the screen fades to black so that the intro can start playing. Immediately after the intro however, we’re treated to the same child waking up for the morning and a tall, handsome man in a jet black suit read more

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Recent Forum Discussion

	Poll: What do you think of the Black Butler English dub? IceAndCream - Nov 19, 2010	10 replies	by TeeRaySays »» Jan 25, 3:45 PM
	black butler anime story kinda sucks, huh? HalliSveinsson - Mar 31, 2014	13 replies	by imbadatgames »» Dec 14, 2020 11:42 AM

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