Black Butler

Vorlage:Infobox animanga/Header Vorlage:Infobox animanga/Manga Vorlage:Infobox animanga/Anime Vorlage:Infobox animanga/Footer Vorlage:Nihongo is a manga written and illustrated by Yana Toboso. Since its debut on September 16, 2006, it has been serialized in Square Enix's shōnen manga magazine Monthly GFantasy. The series follows Sebastian Michaelis, a demonic butler who is obligated to serve Ciel Phantomhive, the twelve-year-old head of the Phantomhive noble family, due to a contract he made with Ciel. It was announced in July 2008 that an anime adaption, directed by Shinohara Toshiya and produced by A-1 Pictures, was expected. It premiered in October 2008.

Plot

In a manor house on the outskirts of Victorian era London, butler Sebastian Michaelis serves Ciel Phantomhive, the twelve-year-old head of an English noble family. He carries out any task required by his master and solves the problems plaguing England with ease and perfection because of his demonic lineage and Faustian contract with his master.

Characters

Phantomhive Estate

Vorlage:Nihongo is the butler of the Phantomhive household and Ciel's bodyguard, two jobs he is completely devoted to. He often describes himself with a phrase that is alternately translated as "one hell of a butler" or "a butler and a demon". He is highly skilled in any area and handles every task, no matter how impossible it is, as well as any problem that arises from the errors of the other staff with ease, stating it is only natural as the butler to the Phantomhive family. This is due to the fact he is a demon bound by a "contract" to abide by Ciel's will. A sign similar to the one marking Ciel's right eye can be found on his left hand, which has been used on one occasion to twist the arm of a kidnapper without touching him. The name Sebastian is in fact a temporary name given to him by Ciel. He also stated that he loves cats (to the point he will get distracted from his duty to admire a tiger), and despises dogs. Vorlage:Anime voices2 His name is similar to that of Father Sebastien Michaelis, who compiled a hierarchy of demons in Hell.

Vorlage:Nihongo is the business-savvy, twelve-year-old head of the English Phantomhive noble family, taking over after the deaths of his parents. He also runs a company that manufactures toys and sweets. His right eye, which is usually covered with a black eyepatch, bears a pentacle sign of contract which binds the demon Sebastian Michaelis to his will. He is portrayed as emotionless. Though he does react when Sebastian becomes injured, he ultimately looks at Sebastian as a pawn, even seeing it as amusing to see Sebastian lose rather than win the Royal Warrent. He is close to his cousin and fiancée Elizabeth, seeing her as an important friend and someone he needs to protect. Ciel does not want to lose anything important again. Vorlage:Anime voices2

Vorlage:Nihongo is the household cook. However, he rarely produces anything edible as he uses weaponry such as flamethrowers to cook and believes cooking is an art requiring explosions. Sebastian believes anything he creates is made up of charcoal and carcinogens. It is later revealed that he became the cook to learn how to slow down where as cooking takes patience to be good at it. Vorlage:Anime voices2

Vorlage:Nihongo is the Phantomhive gardener, but it seems every time he tends to the garden it is killed through an accident caused by his clumsiness. He is portrayed as a more innocent, child-like character. It was also shown that he has some kind of super-human strength, enough to knock down a tree or a post, which he takes great care to supress due to the fear that he may hurt something. He has memories of being experimented upon before the events of the story. He later explains he became the gardener as after Ciel saved him he had never been outside much and uses this job to be outside as much as possible. Vorlage:Anime voices2

Vorlage:Nihongo is a clumsy, bespectacled maid. The fact that her glasses are always cracked certainly does nothing to improve this. She seems to have a crush on Sebastian as she is even clumsier when Sebastian is watching. However, Sebastian believes her main problem is her intelligence and not her poor eyesight. She also said that she takes the most interest in horror. She later explains where she came from she never got to dress nicely, which is why she loves the maid outfit she has. Also the reason she has not gotten a new pair of glasses is because it was the first thing Ciel bought for her. Vorlage:Anime voices2

Vorlage:Nihongo is the house steward, but he rarely does any work, though Sebastian appears to respect him the most out of the staff. However, he is just as competent as Sebastian is. He served under the former Master Phantomhive and was present when Ciel's parents were killed. He is usually seen drinking from a Japanese tea cup. Vorlage:Anime voices2

Nobles

Vorlage:Nihongo is the daughter of Marquis Francis Middleford, and is both Ciel's cousin and fiancée. Ciel sees her as an important friend and someone he needs to protect, though he does not show it easily because of her love of cute things to the point of redecorating his mansion, dressing up his staff and forming a dance party for them. Vorlage:Anime voices2

Vorlage:Nihongo, born Vorlage:Nihongo, is Ciel's aunt. As her title suggests, she is known for her red appearance and clothing. She hated her red hair, which she inherited from her father, until Lord Vincent Phantomhive stated he liked it. She fell in love with him and became distraught when she found her sister was marrying him. Madam Red later married a nobleman and, despite the fact he was not who she fell in love with, was content; she then became pregnant with his child. After a tragic accident, her husband was killed and her womb and child had to be removed in order to save her life. This caused her great strife as a doctor because she would regularly preform abortions on prostitutes because they believed having a child was troublesome. She would later kill her patients with Grell and the two became known as Jack the Ripper. However, even when she was in danger of being exposed by Ciel, she found she could not kill him, as she saw him as a son. She was killed by Grell for her inability and her memories are exposed by his scythe. Vorlage:Anime voices2

Vorlage:Nihongo is a Chinese noble that is friends with the Phantomhive family and owns a Trading Company, though he is always smiling he always appears to have a dark motive behind everything he does. He has a attraction to cute things like Ciel and is usually seen with a doll-like girl named Ranmao in his arms or on his lap who never speaks or shows emotions, calling her his sister though stating they have no blood relations.

Prince Soma is an Indian prince who is a few years older than Ciel. Unlike Ciel, he is spoiled as he uses his vast wealth from his parents for his own needs. After finding out that Meena hated him for his arrogance, he decided to stay with Ciel to learn to become a better gentleman (much to Ciel's annoyance). He also has a great love of curry, where an entire section of his staff is there just to grind spices.

Viscount Druitt is a Noble that was one of the main suspects for the Jack the Ripper murders. He graduated from Medical School but does not practice medicine. He is later revealed to be kidnapping women and using their body parts for the Black Market and was arrested by Scotland Yard. He returns as a curry judge, with Ciel believing that he must have bribed his way out of jail. He has a habit of relating anything to that of women.

Queen Victoria ,as her name states, is the Queen of England. She has been described as that of beauty and grace. The Queen is actually a bit eccentric as she rode in on horseback into a curry contest. She does not appear to make public appearances after the death of her husband and goes into crying fits when his name is spoken. Ciel shows the utmost respect for her even though she calls him boy, much to his embarrassment.

Grim Reapers (Shinigami)

Vorlage:Nihongo is a flamboyant, cross-dressing shinigami who works as Angelina Durless's butler. He is initially portrayed as worthless and is often seen trying to commit suicide after mishandling tasks (doing it so often that Ciel's staff was just annoyed and was willing to let him jump out of the third story window). Eventually, Angelina put him under Sebastian's care, so he could learn to be a better butler. After this, he becomes infatuated with Sebastian. As a shinigami, he is characterized with red hair and shark-like teeth. Greil often refers to himself as a woman and verbalizes his infatuation with Sebastian, much to the latter's disgust. He met Angelina while she was murdering a former patient. Although he was to remain neutral and not kill for fun, Greil and Angelina made a partnership and continued the murders. They were known as "Jack the Ripper" thereafter. Greil's shinigami scythe is illegally modified to look and function like a chainsaw. When cutting someone with his Scythe, their past memories are played out like a video reel; Greil refers to this as "Phantasmagoria Theater". Once he and Angelina are revealed as Jack the Ripper, and Angelina fails to find it in herself to kill Ciel, Greil kills her and engages Sebastian in a fight. In the end, Sebastian almost kills Greil with the Grim Reaper's own scythe, but Sebastian is stopped by the representative of the reapers William Spears. William takes Greil back to headquarters, harming him at every chance available. Greil has not appeared afterwards in the manga, where he has a much shorter role up to being discovered being Jack the Ripper to the point he is barely even seen, however he does reappear in the eleventh episode of the anime. Vorlage:Anime voices2

Vorlage:Nihongo is a high ranking Grim Reaper that comes to take Grell back for punishment, harming Grell at every chance given (he takes this farther in the manga than in the anime). He has a strong and open hatred for demons, even being disgusted with himself when he apologizes to Sebastian for Grell. His scythe is a double-sided clipper that is able to extend to unknown lengths. He is currently undercover at a circus going by the alias Suit; unlike Grell, though, William isn't nearly as proficient at mingling with humans, as he still wears his suit while in the circus, shows little to no emotion, and speaks of Grim Reapers and demons while normal humans are about. Fortunately, nobody seems to take these statements seriously, passing them off as jokes. Vorlage:Anime voices2

Others

Vorlage:Nihongo is, as his name suggests, a funeral director. He also acts as Ciel's informant for underworld funerals that has come to him or his connections. He is a rather eccentric man as he wishes to hear a funny joke for his services instead of receiving money. Vorlage:Anime voices2

Agni is the servant to Prince Soma and even views him as a God. He was once a Noble that used his powers and wealth for his own selfish desires to the point that he was to be hanged for his crimes. Just before he was set to die, Prince Soma appeared and offered him a new life with the death of his old. He is very strong as he is able to sword fight on par with Sebastian, leading Ciel to believe he was also a demon till Sebastian confirmed he was a human. He has been given the title of "Right Hand of God"- not for his strength, but for his godlike skill at making curry. He is later shown to betray Prince Soma and be the chef for the curry contest for Lord West, but he did this to prevent the prince from discovering that Meena actually ran away and hated the prince. After, Agni made up with the prince and is staying at Ciel's manor to learn from Sebastian how to be a better servant (much to Ciel and Sebastian's annoyance). Interesting enough, unlike Sebastian who sees the staff as idiots, Agni sees the best in them, and because of this, he is able to assign them jobs where their skills will actually be of help.

Media

Manga

Written and drawn by Yana Toboso, the chapters of Kuroshitsuji have been serialized in the shōnen manga magazine Monthly GFantasy since its debut on September 16, 2006. The chapters are also published in collected volumes by Square Enix. The first volume was released on February 27, 2007 and as of September 18, 2008, five volumes have been released.

Anime

In July 2008, it was announced that an anime adaption, directed by Shinohara Toshiya, was expected. It premiered in October 2008 and broadcasts on the Tokyo Broadcasting System as well as the Mainichi Broadcasting System.

On January 1, 2009, a limited edition DVD containing the first episode will be released by Aniplex. The next three episodes will be released on another DVD on February 25, 2009.

Currently there are 10 videos released.

Drama CD

On August 10, 2007 a drama CD was released by Frontier Works. It featured many of the characters appearing in volumes one and two. A second drama CD is set to be released on November 26, 2008 under the Aniplex label.

Video Game

A video game, called Kuroshitsuji: Phantom & Ghost is currently under development by Square Enix, and expected to be released in 2009.

Reception

During the week of December 18, 2007, the third volume placed third on a ranking of the manga sales in Japan that week. Later, during the week of June 3, 2008, the fourth volume ranked ninth.

External links

• Manga official website Vorlage:Ja icon
• Anime official website Vorlage:Ja icon
• Vorlage:Ann manga
• Vorlage:Ann anime