In an unexpected but welcome turn of affairs, the Black Butler anime will be returning for a new season after a 10-year absence from the fold. During the Crunchyroll panel at Anime Expo 2023, the streamer announced that Aniplex is producing the fourth season of the series, and has already licensed it for streaming worldwide except Japan.
The announcement trailer doesn’t give away much details, but confirmed a 2024 release for the show, which Crunchyroll emphasises is a new season and not a remake. Daisuke Ono and Maaya Sakamoto will reprise their respective roles as the demon and butler Sebastian Michaelis and British nobel Ciel Phantomhive.
Kenjiro Okada (RWBY: Ice Queendom) is directing the project at CloverWorks, with Hiroyuki Yoshino, who has previously written and supervised scripts for Black Butler, responsible for series composition. Yumi Shizumi, episode animation director and key animator in the 2008 anime, is the character designer.
Adapted from Yana Toboso’s manga, Black Butler first aired in Japan in 2008, followed by Black Butler II in 2010. The third season, titled Book of Circus, premiered in 2014, and served as a soft reboot of the anime. A two-episode OVA (original video animation) adapting the “Phantomhive Manor Murders” arc was later released in Japanese cinemas on October in the same year, with the second on 15 November.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
