A “butler” was always alongside a boy known as “the Aristocrat of Evil.”
With Aniplex USA having previously acquired the rights to the Black Butler first season, the anime has moved about a bit in the last few years with streaming and the like. It’s been a while since we’ve had any TV material for the property but at Anime Expo last summer it was revealed that a new season is coming in 2024 with Crunchyroll picking it up. They have the rights to it in North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Middle East, and CIS.
With an April 13th, 2024, premiere date, Australian distributor Madman Entertainment is handling the home video releases there. The distributor has set a February 4th, 2026, plan for the show, where it’ll be a Blu-ray release priced at $64.95. The two-disc bilingual set will have its details formalized later in the solicitation, but extras are set to include:
* Promo Video Collection
* Behind the Scenes Videos
* All 18 The Making Of Videos
* Textless Opening & Ending Songs
Kenjiro Okada is directing with Hiroyuki Yoshino as the head writer. Yumi Shimizu is handling the character designs with CloverWorks on the animation production.
The Japanese cast for the season includes:
* Daisuke Ono as Sebastian
* Maaya Sakamoto as Ciel
* Toshiki Watanabe as Edgar Redmond
* Junya Enoki as Lawrence Bluewer
* Shunsuke Takeuchi as Herman Greenhill
* Tatsumaru Tachibana as Gregory Violet
The English dub Caitlin Glass as the ADR director working from the scripts by James Cheek. The English cast includes Brina Palencia as Ciel Phantomhive, J. Michael Tatum as Sebastian Michaelis, Brandon McInnis as Lawrence Bluewer, Jonah Scott as Herman Greenhill, Kieran Flitton as Gregory Violet, Reagan Murdock as Edgar Redmond, Andrew Webb as Johann Agares, Branden Loera as Cheslock, Christian Taylor as Clayton, and Ciarán Strange as McMillan.
The property comes from the manga Kuroshitsuji which began back in 2006 by Yana Toboso. The series is still ongoing with thirty-two volumes out so far. Yen Press releases the series domestically while Funimation originally handled the anime localizations.
Check out the official site and Twitter.
Plot Concept: Just a stone’s throw from London lies the manor house of the illustrious Phantomhive earldom, its master one Ciel Phantomhive. Earl Phantomhive is a giant in the world of commerce, Queen Victoria’s faithful servant . . . and a slip of a twelve-year-old boy. Fortunately, his loyal butler, Sebastian, is ever at his side, ready to carry out the young master’s wishes. And whether Sebastian is called to save a dinner party gone awry or probe the dark secrets of London’s underbelly, there is practically nothing Sebastian cannot do. In fact, one might even say Sebastian is too good to be true . . . or at least, he is too good to be human…
