100 Fun Facts About Black Butler

Who writes and illustrates the Black Butler manga?

She later created the concept and character designs for Disney's Twisted-Wonderland mobile game.

What is Black Butler's Japanese title?

The manga has run in Square Enix's Monthly GFantasy since September 2006.

In which magazine has Black Butler been serialized since 2006?

It is a Square Enix shōnen magazine; the first collected volume came out in February 2007.

How old is Ciel Phantomhive when the series begins?

He acquired his title after the Phantomhive manor was attacked on his tenth birthday.

What nickname describes Ciel's role solving crimes for the Crown?

The Phantomhives are also called the 'Aristocrats of Evil' for managing London's underworld on the Queen's behalf.

What does Sebastian receive in exchange for his service?

The Faustian contract ends with the demon consuming his master once Ciel's revenge is complete.

In which era is Black Butler set?

Queen Victoria herself hands the Phantomhives their cases.

Which studio produced the first Black Butler anime in 2008?

Toshiya Shinohara directed the 24-episode first season, which aired on MBS and TBS.

How many episodes did the first anime season run?

The second season, Black Butler II, was only 12 episodes and told an anime-original story.

Which 2014 anime series adapted the Noah's Ark arc?

Unlike the first two seasons it closely followed the manga; Book of Murder was a two-part OVA that same year.

Which 2017 animated film adapts the arc set aboard the Campania?

It premiered in Japan on January 21, 2017, and Funimation gave it a limited North American run that June.

Which studio produced the fourth season, Public School Arc, in 2024?

Kenjirou Okada directed the eleven-episode run, which aired on Tokyo MX from April to June 2024.

What is the subtitle of the fifth anime season, aired in 2025?

It ran from April 5 to June 28, 2025, again from CloverWorks and director Kenjirou Okada.

Which publisher licensed the Black Butler manga in North America?

It debuted in the Yen Plus magazine's August 2009 first-anniversary issue.

By August 2025, roughly how many Black Butler manga copies were in circulation?

Individual volumes regularly reached Oricon's weekly best-seller chart.

On what date was the Phantomhive manor attacked, killing Ciel's parents?

It was Ciel's tenth birthday; he was then taken and sold into slavery.

Ciel named his demon butler after what?

The original Sebastian was a black Borzoi who died in the attack on the manor.

On which part of Ciel's body is the Faustian contract symbol placed?

He covers the pentagram with a black eye patch; Sebastian's matching mark sits on his left hand.

Who is the household sniper posing as a maid?

Her extreme long-range eyesight makes her clumsy up close, which her round glasses do not fix.

What is the Phantomhive estate's teenage gardener famous for?

Finnian, or Finny, keeps destroying the garden by accident despite being warned to be careful.

What secret organization experiments with reanimated corpses?

It is led by Undertaker, the seceded Grim Reaper who was once a Phantomhive informant.

Whose body does Undertaker ultimately aim to revive?

The real Ciel Phantomhive was sacrificed in the ritual that summoned Sebastian; the boy we follow took his name.

Which two anime-original characters star in Black Butler II?

Both were designed by Toboso; Claude is a rival demon butler obsessed with Ciel's soul.

Which Japanese voice actor confirmed the second season on his blog in 2009?

Suwabe's announcement came the same day as the official event reveal on June 14, 2009.

Who played Sebastian in the 2014 live-action film?

Ayame Goriki co-starred as Genpou Shiori, an original character standing in for Ciel.

What was the first stage musical adaptation, staged in 2009, called?

Yuya Matsushita played Sebastian at Ikebukuro's Sunshine Theater.

The fifth musical, Tango on the Campania, adapts which manga arc?

It ran from December 2017 to February 2018 with Yuta Furukawa as Sebastian.

On which console was the 2009 game Phantom & Ghost released?

Square Enix sold it in a regular edition and a pricier limited first-press edition with extra goods.

What was the official comics anthology released in March 2009 called?

Nijishitsuji reached seventeenth on Oricon's weekly chart, selling 41,083 copies in one week.

In Recochoku's annual survey, Sebastian ranked ninth in which category?

The Japanese music distributor polls fans on which anime characters they would like to marry.

Who voices Sebastian in the Japanese anime?

Morikawa voiced him on the first drama CD; J. Michael Tatum is the English voice.

Which actress voices Ciel in the Japanese anime?

Sawashiro voiced him on the first drama CD; Brina Palencia plays him in English.

What animal does Sebastian have a helpless fondness for?

He admits he cannot control his reactions around felines.

What breed was the original Sebastian, the Phantomhive dog?

The demon's real name, and his age, remain a 'secret'.

What business does Ciel run?

It makes toys and sweets and later added a food branch after winning a Royal Warrant.

What does Ciel's first name mean in French?

His real name is unknown; he assumed his dead twin's identity and title.

What were the names of Ciel's parents?

The manor Ciel lives in is an exact replica of the original that burned.

What does the household cook Baldroy use to prepare food?

The American ex-soldier believes cooking is an art requiring explosions; Sebastian calls the results charcoal.

Which servant ends every sentence with the name of one of his pets?

He joined as footman after the Noah's Ark Circus arc and speaks through his snakes.

What is the house steward Tanaka usually seen drinking from?

He was stabbed protecting Ciel during the attack and is often drawn in super-deformed form.

Which infamous killer did Madam Red and Grell secretly operate as?

Grell posed as Angelina Dalles's butler while the pair committed the Whitechapel murders.

What is Grell Sutcliff's Death Scythe modeled after?

Ronald Knox wields a lawnmower and William T. Spears an extendable pruner.

Who was Madam Red before her marriage?

Ciel's aunt hated her red hair until Vincent Phantomhive said he liked it.

All Grim Reapers in Black Butler were once humans who did what?

They must work until they have fully repented, and they rival the demons who eat souls for nourishment.

What business does Lau, the Phantomhives' Chinese contact, run?

He heads the British branch of the Kong-Rong trading company and the Qing Bang mafia.

Prince Soma is the twenty-sixth child of which ruler?

His devoted servant Agni was once a Brahmin nobleman named Arshad.

What is Elizabeth Midford's nickname?

Ciel's fiancée hides her fencing skill because he once said he disliked girls who could fight.

Which Black Butler family head leads the British Knights?

Ciel's uncle-by-marriage is an expert swordsman like the rest of the Midfords.

Where is Alois Trancy's contract mark located?

Born Jim Macken, he contracted with Claude Faustus to avenge his younger brother Luka.

Which Disney mobile game did the manga's creator design characters for?

The 2020 Aniplex game centers on characters inspired by Disney villains.

Which real author turns up in Black Butler as a banquet guest during the Phantomhive manor murders?

Arthur Conan Doyle is drawn as an aspiring young writer whose stories Ciel admires, and the mystery is told through his eyes. Sebastian finally frightens him into keeping the household's secrets.

The doomed voyage of the ship Campania in Black Butler is modelled on which real maritime disaster?

The Titanic is the template: on her maiden voyage to New York the Campania scrapes an iceberg and floods, while reanimated corpses overrun the decks.

Which video game company also publishes the Black Butler manga in Japan?

Square Enix runs a manga arm beside its role-playing games, and it has collected the story into book volumes since February 2007.

At the top of which Paris landmark does the Queen confront Ciel in the first Black Butler anime?

The Eiffel Tower is where the Queen reveals that she has been granted her youth again, during Ciel's trip to the Exposition Universelle in Paris.

Which Shakespeare tragedy does the Phantomhive household stage for charity in a Black Butler OVA?

Hamlet goes ahead with the staff as its cast because a shipwreck strands the hired actors, leaving Sebastian under orders to make the play a success anyway.

Which dish does Sebastian hide inside a doughnut to win a Royal Warrant contest in Black Butler?

Curry sealed inside a bun looked like a mistake to the judges, who rejected it on sight. The Queen then gave it first prize because it was made with children in mind.

Which household items does Sebastian wield as weapons to rescue the kidnapped Ciel in Black Butler?

Silverware is all he needs: armed with nothing else, he cuts down a drug dealer's whole gang and returns home with Ciel only slightly late for dinner.

Posing as which relative of Madam Red does Ciel attend Viscount Druitt's party in Black Butler?

Her niece is the cover story, so Ciel attends dressed as a girl and later wakes to find himself up for sale at the Viscount's secret auction.

In Black Butler, Commissioner Randall resents Ciel taking over the cases of which police force?

Scotland Yard keeps seeing its inquiries passed to a boy, and its commissioner despises the Phantomhive methods while staying loyal to the Queen who allows them.

What does the company run by Ciel Phantomhive in Black Butler chiefly manufacture?

Toys and sweets are the firm's trade, a cheerful front for a boy who polices the underworld, and a food branch was added after it won a Royal Warrant.

Which noble title does Ciel Phantomhive hold as the young head of his family in Black Butler?

Earl is the rank he inherited after his tenth birthday, when his parents died, and with it came his father's secret duty of tackling crimes that worry the Queen.

Besides being his cousin, what is Elizabeth to Ciel Phantomhive throughout the Black Butler story?

His fiancée Elizabeth is the daughter of his father's sister, and she dotes on Ciel while longing to see him happy again.

Which profession did Madam Red take up against her parents' wishes in Black Butler?

A doctor at the Royal London Hospital, she earned her medical licence despite the family's objections and kept working after a carriage accident killed her husband.

Which weapon does Elizabeth wield with hidden skill aboard the sinking Campania in Black Butler?

A sword in her grip clears a corridor of the walking dead, and she admits that she hid her talent so Ciel would still find her cute.

Which symbol forms the contract mark that binds Ciel and Sebastian together in Black Butler?

A pentagram marks them both, and whenever Ciel uncovers his copy Sebastian can trace him anywhere, which is how the kidnapped boy keeps being found.

What kind of being is Ash, the Queen's attendant and main villain of the first Black Butler anime?

An angel with two personas, Ash also appears as the maid Angela, and the pair turn out to be one being bent on purging anyone it calls unclean.

What was Baldroy, the Phantomhive cook in Black Butler, before Sebastian recruited him?

A soldier whose whole platoon was wiped out, he was found by Sebastian on the battlefield as the lone survivor and offered a job.

Which sport does Ciel play at Weston College to win tea with the principal in Black Butler?

Cricket decides it, since the tournament's most impressive player is invited to tea, and Ciel's side wins its opening match after Sebastian poisons the opposition.

In which country is the Werewolves' Forest that the Queen sends Ciel to investigate in Black Butler?

Germany hides the village of Wolfsschlucht, whose child ruler Sieglinde Sullivan was being tricked into building a chemical weapon for the state.

On which frozen river do Ciel and Sebastian join an ice-sculpting contest in the Black Butler anime?

The Thames hosts a festival on its ice, and Sebastian carves a model of Noah's Ark there in a bid to win a ring set with a slice of blue diamond.

Which demon hound does Sebastian reluctantly take in and train during the first Black Butler anime?

Pluto can take human form, and he takes a liking to Sebastian even though the fastidious servant openly dislikes dogs.

Which rock band performed Monochrome no Kiss, the opening theme of the first Black Butler anime?

Sid made the song its major-label debut single in 2008, and the band came back with new themes for later Black Butler seasons and the 2017 film.

Which actor, also Tenya Iida in My Hero Academia, voices Sebastian in the English Black Butler dub?

J. Michael Tatum counts the unflappable servant among his notable parts, alongside Kyoya Ootori in Ouran High School Host Club and Erwin Smith in Attack on Titan.

Which actress, also Tony Tony Chopper in One Piece, voices Ciel in the English Black Butler dub?

Brina Palencia was drawn to anime by Dragon Ball Z while studying music at the University of North Texas, where she graduated in 2006.

Finnian in the Black Butler anime shares his Japanese voice actor with which Attack on Titan hero?

Eren Yeager and the Phantomhive gardener are both voiced by Yuki Kaji, who joined Black Butler in 2008, five years before Attack on Titan began.

Ronald Knox, a Grim Reaper in Black Butler, wields a Death Scythe modelled on which garden tool?

A lawnmower is his weapon, and aboard the Campania he uses it to crush the skull of the first reanimated corpse after ordinary blows fail to stop her.

In Black Butler, what does Undertaker call the reanimated corpses that overrun the Campania?

Bizarre Dolls are his own creations, a secret he admits only once his green eyes are uncovered and mark him out as a Grim Reaper.

In Black Butler, what do Grim Reapers call the memories that play back when a Death Scythe cuts?

Cinematic Record is the term, shown as a strip of film, and Undertaker animates his walking corpses by splicing false footage onto the end of one.

Which servant of Prince Soma can match Sebastian in a duel despite being human in Black Butler?

Agni was a nobleman condemned to hang until the prince gave him a new name and life, and that devotion gives him a prowess that startles even Ciel.

Where on his own body does Sebastian carry the matching contract mark in Black Butler?

His left hand bears the seal, and it lets him find his young master wherever Ciel's own mark is exposed, while Ciel in turn can summon him and give orders.

Which chronic condition did Ciel Phantomhive inherit from his mother in Black Butler?

Asthma runs from mother to son, and one of Ciel's attacks is among the rare moments when Sebastian shows real worry for him.

Which gift from Ciel does Finnian wear over the code tattooed on his neck in Black Butler?

A straw hat hangs over the tattoo S-012, a relic of the years he spent locked away as a test subject before Ciel took him in.

Lau, who runs a trading firm's British branch in Black Butler, also heads which city's mafia?

Shanghai is home to the Qing Bang, or Green Gang, the syndicate he leads from behind the polite front of the Kong-Rong company.

At Weston College in Black Butler, which animal is paired with Sapphire in the name of a dormitory?

Owl completes Sapphire Owl, the house whose prefect was once Ciel's own father, long before the boy enrolled to look into missing students.

Which stage name is Ciel given when he joins the Noah's Ark troupe undercover in Black Butler?

Smile is an ironic name for a boy who rarely does, and one former troupe member still calls him by it after joining his household staff.

In a two-part Black Butler OVA based on a Lewis Carroll story, which character does Undertaker play?

The Mad Hatter presides over a tea party with two other reapers as his guests, in a story that has Ciel chasing a rabbit-eared Sebastian down a hole.

The 2014 live-action Black Butler film swaps the manga's England for which setting?

A future Eastern nation, never named and dated to 2020, replaces London, and its heir is a young woman who presents herself as male to keep the family fortune.

In the first Black Butler anime, Ciel plays chess against the ghost of which murdered boy king?

Edward V haunts Ludlow Castle with his younger sibling four centuries after their deaths, and he wins the game and claims Sebastian as his prize.

Which group formed by composer Yuki Kajiura sang Lacrimosa for the first Black Butler anime?

Kalafina took over the closing credits from episode 14, and the group later returned to the franchise with an ending song for one episode of the sequel.

Which Japanese rock star features on Maisie, the opening theme of the 2025 Black Butler season?

Hyde, lead vocalist of L'Arc-en-Ciel since 1991, appears as a guest on the song, which is credited to the group Cö shu Nie.

Which singer played Sebastian in early Black Butler musicals and sang the anime ending theme Bird?

Yuya Matsushita made his stage debut in the role in 2009, and Bird served as the ending theme of the second season the following year.

Which sinister nickname do the Phantomhives carry in Black Butler for policing the underworld?

Aristocrats of Evil is the name for a family that answers only to the Queen and removes whatever troubles her by any means necessary.

Which vampire-school manga did the creator of Black Butler publish in a single volume in 2006?

Rust Blaster ran for only six chapters, pairing a vampire with a human classmate who claims to know when the world will end.

In Black Butler, Sebastian fakes his death during the manor murders and returns disguised as what?

A clergyman called Father Jeremy Rathbone arrives to examine the three corpses and sets a trap, and only afterwards does a suspicious guest work out who he is.

Ciel named the gardener Finnian in Black Butler after a hero from which country's mythology?

Ireland supplied the name: Fionn mac Cumhaill, leader of the Fianna warrior bands in the Fenian Cycle, lent it to the boy when he entered Ciel's service.

What destroyed the original Phantomhive manor on the night Ciel's parents died in Black Butler?

A fire levelled the house three years before the story opens, and the manor Ciel lives in afterwards is an exact replica of the one that burned.

Nina Hopkins, known in Black Butler for radical views on fashion, serves Ciel's household as what?

A tailor to Ciel, Elizabeth and the staff, she is loud and dramatic but highly skilled, and she has little time for the male servants she dresses.

Which actress plays the heir who poses as a boy in the 2014 live-action Black Butler film?

Ayame Goriki plays a new lead written in place of Ciel, an orphaned woman who hides her sex because the family fortune passes only to men.

Which venue hides a blood-collecting cult that Ciel probes in the Blue Cult arc of Black Butler?

Sphere Music Hall wins such devoted crowds that the Queen suspects a cult, and Ciel fights back by opening a music hall of his own.

Grell Sutcliff in the Black Butler anime shares a Japanese voice actor with which Code Geass character?

Lelouch Lamperouge and the flamboyant reaper are both voiced by Jun Fukuyama, whose other parts include Koro-sensei in Assassination Classroom.