Black Butler Celebrates Ciel’s Birthday with Key Visual and April Premiere

It’s one of Black Butler‘s Ciel’s least favourite days: his birthday.

The official social media account for Black Butler released a new special key visual of Ciel to celebrate his birthday. The young Earl of Phantomhive is set in a portrait, similarly mirroring the key visual of Sebastian. A shadow casts over his face, swallowing the eye with the contract in darkness. The “Public School Arc” premieres in April 2024.

Written and illustrated by Yana Toboso, Black Butler has ran in Monthly Fantasy for close to 20 years, beginning serialization in September 2006. The manga currently has 33 volumes and has over 34 million copies in circulation as of July 2023. The story follows Ciel Phantomhive, the 12-year-old Earl of Phantomhive who becomes the head of the Phantomhive House after his parents are brutally murdered. Vowing to find the person who killed his parents and tortured him, Ciel enacts a contract with a demon, promising his soul to the demon once he helps him get his revenge. The demon takes the form of Ciel’s butler who Ciel names Sebastian. As the two find the killer responsible for ruining Ciel’s life, they unravel conspiracy and secrets about Ciel’s family.

The manga received an anime adaptation with Season 1 airing in October 2008. Airing in July 2010, the second season features entirely new material and consequently not considered canon, introducing two new characters Alois Trancy and Claude Faustus. Season 3 adapted the “Book of Circus” and “Book of Murder” arcs which aired in July 2014. The “Book of the Atlantic” arc was adapted in an anime film which premiered in January 2017. The first three seasons of Black Butler were animated and produced by A-1 Pictures. Season 4 will switch studios to CloverWorks.

Daisuke Ono and Maaya Sakamoto will reprise their roles as Sebastian and Ciel. Kenjirō Okada (RWBY: Ice Queendom and March comes in like a lion) will direct the new season at CloverWorks with Hiroyuki Yoshino (Black Butler) overseeing the series composition. Yumi Shimizu (Black Butler and From the New World) will design the characters. Ryo Kawasaki (To Your Eternity and Romantic Killer) will compose the music. Season 4 follows Ciel and Sebastian as they enrol in Weston College at the behest of Queen Victoria to investigate the disappearance of some students.

All three seasons are available on Crunchyroll. Black Butler Season 4 airs in April 2024.

Source: X, formerly known as Twitter