When the car stops, the man inside writhes in pain as he seems he is melting from the inside. The movie opens with a rainy cityscape and a lone car crossing a bridge. If you want the English dubbed version, you will need to rent or buy it. You can watch it with subtitles below free on YouTube. The name change is explained in the movie as a way to cover the true identity of Ciel.Īnd now on to the live-action movie, released in 2014 and starring Hiro Mizushima as Sebastian and Ayane Goriki as Shiori. Otherwise, the characters follow the manga pretty closely. Instead of Ciel Phantomhive, they gave him a Japanese name, Shiori Genpou. The demon vows to be his servant and protector to help avenge his family’s death in exchange for being able to consume his soul as payment when he dies.Ĭhanges made to the characters in the live-action are mostly just the main character’s name. Through an elaborate plot, he becomes beholden to a demon he named Sebastian. Earl Phantomville is the head (and only surviving member) of his family but also acts as one of the queen’s watchdogs, tasked with investigating cases especially important to the crown. The plot involves a very popular gothic manga theme of taking place in Victorian-era London, with a young gentleman acting as a sort of mini-Holmes investigator. In 2009, the series was brought to North America by Yen Press and the anime was licensed by Funimation. Then, in 2008, a 24-episode anime adaption aired in Japan produced by A-1 Pictures. First, a manga series written and illustrated by Yana Toboso, Black Butler (or Kuroshitsuji) was serialized starting in 2006 in a shonen magazine called Square Enix’ (the company behind Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts). Before I get to talking about the live-action version of Black Butler, we should talk about where the story originated.

Black butler season 2 explained