2025 spring | Episodes: 13 | Score: 8.2 (22093)
Updated every Saturdays at 23:30 | Status: Finished Airing
Type: TV
Producers:Aniplex | Square Enix | Magic Capsule | Crunchyroll
Streaming: Crunchyroll | Bilibili Global | Muse Asia
Synopsis
Queen Victoria of England has ordered her loyal watchdog, 13-year-old Earl Ciel Phantomhive, to investigate a series of suspicious deaths in southern Germany. Across multiple villages, all the victims have one thing in common: they had entered the so-called Werewolves' Forest right before they developed strange deformities and subsequently died. The rumors put blame on a "witch's curse," the nearby villagers' firm belief based on old folklore. Unconvinced that anything truly supernatural is at play, Ciel and his contracted demonic butler, Sebastian Michaelis—along with the rest of the Phantomhive servants—come across an isolated village in the Werewolves' Forest. Its residents are only women, hostile toward the outsiders and serving a young girl with emerald eyes and bound feet, Sieglinde "Green Witch" Sullivan. Ciel and Sebastian investigate to uncover the truth, but as they soon fall victim to the curse themselves, it appears that there is more to the local myths than meets the eye. [Written by MAL Rewrite]
Voice Actors
Ono, Daisuke
Sakamoto, Maaya
Sawashiro, Miyuki
Kugimiya, Rie
News
![Spring 2025 Simulcast List [Update 4/7]](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.myanimelist.net%2Fs%2Fcommon%2Fuploaded_files%2F1742946481-fa64b72da34bb9fed6518b56c1ec0087.jpeg%3Fs%3D1ccfbe06029b0f43d4e6cb0784fb1747&w=640&q=75)
03/25/2025, 04:48 PM
In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of television anime acquired for simulcast release during the Spring 2025 season. Anime series licensed for hom...
03/19/2025, 09:44 AM
In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of Spring 2025 titles with an accompanying promotional video, commercial, teaser, or trailer. This post will be...
12/08/2024, 08:55 AM
The Kuroshitsuji: Kishuku Gakkou-hen (Black Butler: Boarding School Arc) Afer the Midnight Tea Party: A Return to Weston College event revealed the main cast and a ...
07/06/2024, 03:13 PM
The Kuroshitsuji: Kishuku Gakkou-hen (Black Butler: Public School Arc) panel at Anime Expo 2024 announced a new season titled Kuroshitsuji: Midori no Majo-hen (Black...
Reviews
JadeCeci
*Spoiler Free Review* A background info: I have been a huge fan of black butler since 2016. I was even obsessed with it back then, consumed every possible related stuff. However, after the movie in 2017 they stopped producing new anime and waiting for a new manga chapter each month bore me after a while so I decided to give a break. My break lasted longer than I had imagined. Last year when I learnt that a new anime was coming (the school arc) I got excited. But after watching, it didnt leave the same old effect on me which was kind of disappointing. However, this year thisseason did excite me and it didnt disappoint! ***End of background info*** It seems like the studio did a better job with the animation this season compared to the school arc. (Imo school arc style was bad) The ost was good, it reminded me of book of circus. The opening and ending songs and also the animations are very well thought and done. I really enjoyed both watching them and listening to them. The story is faithful to the manga so thats good too. It was one of my favorite arcs anyway so I liked the story of the anime as well. This season managed to make me remember my old hype about black butler. I am thankful for that. After all these years, I have will to go back and read the manga again. Waiting for the next seasons as well.
Automusica
just finished the emerald witch arc and by all accounts it was the best of the reboot series. Music: 10/10- the opening and ending songs for the series are the best, even better then the book of circus opening, Story: 9/10- the way the creators weave the tale of the emerald witch and give it so much life it makes you wonder what will happen next after each episode, the mystery of the werewolves and the curse leave you on the edge of your seat and just like the public school arc the give you a teaser for another season at the end. now yesthier are a few long recaps that you can skip but the episodes are still long enough to leave you satisfied Characters: 9/10- the whole setting of the arc is filled with characters who look like they belong in an earlier time period and follow the traditions of legend surrounding them, the main characters themselves such as the phantom hive staff are explored in greater detail adding to their origin stories especially fremi who gets a turn to play a bigger role we also get to see unique talents of the others be put to proper use. I have not read the manga but i hear that an even more amazing arc is up next for adaption but it will have to try hard to outshine it's predecessor. the last season and current season came out one year apart so the next adaption could be right around the corner in conclusion an excellent addition to the black butler story and I cannot wait to see where they take it next, just know that there's always a deeper level to story than what appears on the surface- highly recommend to anyone who loves black butler.
Darkzepheran
Simply one hell of a season! Ever since CloverWorks took over this project from A-1 pictures, each passing season has been better than the last! And this season is proof of it. Now bound for deep Germany, on a Queen's request to investigate the mysterious deaths in a remote village, comes a series of twists and turns that will leave you speechless. An emerald witch, a curse and werewolves? Damn, you’ve got me intrigued. And let's not forget, there are a couple of baddies in that remote village where the emerald witch lives. The animation this season literally screams Cloverworks! I'm not joking when I say they arebecoming a powerhouse when it comes to animations. They way the OP and ED where made was fantastic, together with the music was just *Chef's kiss*. If you've seen their other projects like "Wind breaker" and "Bochii the Rock", you can tell the passion they put into their work. One thing that stood out to me was the green color palette. It made the whole Emerald witch story all the more appealing, plus green is my favorite color, so I’m a little bit biased there :-) The batch of new characters has been refreshing and something that I really liked is that we’re now diving more and more into the side characters' backstories with each season. For example, we got to learn about Finn’s past and it honestly made me tear up a little. I never expected such a harsh and dark backstory from such a lively character. Overall, it has been a fantastic season and I cannot wait for another one! Hopefully we don't have to wait another 5 years for a sequel. Truly one hell of an adaptation!! How I rank (This is just my opinion): (Inspired by Huang-Teizan) 10 - Bendicion de Dios 9 - This is what PEAK looks like people!! 8 - Weekend killer! 7 - Good 6 - Enjoyable 5 - Either Echii or just enough to get by 4 - I'm just here to find out how it ends. 3 - Don´t bother 2 - "Are you related to Rent a Girlfriend?" 1 - "Even a Hentai has a better story than you!" 0 - Incinerate it!
colelouch
I can’t believe that, out of all the Spring 2025 seasonal anime, I’d end up placing Black Butler: Emerald Witch Arc on the podium, mostly because Witch Watch is a second cour series. Honestly, this just shows how weak this season was overall, because Emerald Witch itself is quite inconsistent. The premise was strong. As someone who is an anime watcher only, it felt like we jumped right into the action, supposedly picking up from the second half of the Public School Arc. The setting was intriguing, the mystery had potential, and Sullivan and Wolf were excellent additions to the cast, especially since by this point,the main Phantomhive group feels a bit stale, with their personalities already fully established. Both the opening and ending themes stood out too. They didn’t sound like typical anime songs, but they fit the show’s atmosphere perfectly and left a strong impression. However, despite the strong start, the middle portion of the series struggled badly. The heavy use of recaps dragged the pacing down, making it feel like nothing more than filler. It honestly seemed like they only padded the runtime to tie this arc with Public School Arc for a combined 24-episode run, possibly to fulfill voice actor contracts or to squeeze more money from Japanese viewers via Blu-ray releases. Realistically, the story could’ve been wrapped up in just 10 or 11 episodes. I vividly remember one episode that had about nine minutes of recap, plus three to four minutes of opening and ending credits, leaving less than 10 minutes of actual new content. Expecting fans to wait a full week for that feels insulting. Even worse, it wasn’t just a one-time recap episode as they kept repeating the same recap scenes for six or seven episodes in a row. If they were going to be this lazy, they could’ve at least gotten creative by having different characters narrate the recap to offer new perspectives. The mystery itself was well-crafted, and I liked how they put Ciel and Sebastian into a "handicapped" position, which was a refreshing change of pace, but the resolution felt too rushed. The explanation made sense, but what followed afterward felt underwhelming, leaving me thinking, “That’s it?” The whole arc landed in a very mediocre spot for me. What ultimately saved the show was its final stretch. The animation, dialogue, voice acting, and atmosphere were all outstanding, reminding me just how good Black Butler can be when it focuses on its strengths instead of wasting time with unnecessary recaps. In the end, Emerald Witch Arc was a mixed bag: a strong beginning, a painfully weak middle, and a fantastic ending.
orihihc
Sigh. I am basing this review off of my experience from reading the manga and watching it become "alive" through animation. This is one of my favorite arcs in the manga, but the anime adaptation really disappointed me. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed watching the show, but there were too many little things that really began to bug me as I continued watching the show. The most obvious downfall of this arc, which is even obvious in the manga, is that this arc is very short. You could argue that the number of chapters for this arc is similar to others, but trulythis arc is one of the shortest, and is followed by one of the longest. And this is what really irks me, but I'll explain later. The first red flag for this anime were the lengths of the opening and ending songs. Almost exclusively, these songs only account for three minutes of the twenty four minute run time. But for this season, they total to four minutes, on twenty three minute epsiodes. Now this may not seem like a big deal... but it becomes a problem later on when the show continuously makes these time shortcuts throughout the series. For example, in episode nine, the recap is almost five minutes of previous episodes content, and with the four minutes of op/ed and minute of ending content, the episode really only had fourteen minutes of actual content. It makes watching the show so much less enjoyable. Second, the animation. Don't get me wrong, it was beautiful. But the story boards were exact copies of the manga panels, like I kid you not, for example, episode nine, followed the same panels of chapters 100 and 101. To a T. At this point what is the point of the adaptation if nothing is being changed, if there are no new additions to it. An anime that does not use its won storyboards and shamelessly uses the manga as a base for each scene can never surpass the original work. Like why even animate it at that point? Ugh. it bothers me so much because I genuinely love the story and this arc, but the anime didn't bring anything to the table except my frustration. And now this is what really gets me. Because the content for this arc was so small, the anime team decided to use so many recaps that it easily bores the audience (who just watched the episode the previous week). Furthermore, this destroys the rewatch value because who would want to rewatch recaps? especially if you just watched the full episode previously (also I could just read the manga, it takes way less time and has the exact same effect as watching the anime). I wish the anime was either eight episodes (aka shorter with less recaps) or that they included some of the next arcs content and ended in a cliffhanger. And this is what actually angers me. Because I do not see it possible to animate the next arc into just 12 episodes due to the amount of content that needs to be covered (the arc itself is only around twenty chapters, with a massive cliffhanger that makes moving to the next arc almost seamless) Ugh anyways, I still liked this arc of the story, but the shameless recaps and longer op/ed as well as the poor storyboarding disappoints me.
Bluedinodothings
I've been a fan of Black Butler for as long as I can remember and this is one of the best narrative arcs so far. If I had to judge based solely on that, my rating would be an 8 or higher. However, I can't get behind how the studio is handling a project that deserves so much respect. The visuals are often stunning, but if you look past embellishments, does the animation actually have much quality? The scenes are often lazy, the movements are not fluid or sometimes not shown at all and replaced by still frames. It often almost seems like they barely animatedmanga panels. Even though some scenes are really well executed, they don't make up for the overall problem. I'm not usually the type to nitpick on these details, I can enjoy even below-standard animation, but Black Butler deserves (finally) a good adaptation, especially this arc. And I don't think this studio is handling it well enough.
5iv3_
I need to preface - I absolutely adore Black Butler, so basically this review is me gushing about how much I loved it >w< To start with, I feel Cloverworks did a wonderful job adapting the manga. It stayed very true and accurate story wise, and delivered the story in a very wonderful way. They did much justice to some of my favorite parts of the manga, so I was estastic with this season. (this arc specifically is one of my favorite arcs of the manga). On to the next, the animation for this season was crisp and clean as always. Truly, Cloverworks' animation is atreat to look at for me. They accentuated certain parts of the story with the animation and really enhanced the overall viewing experience. ~ this needs its own space: The OP & ED for this season were so well done I was going crazy. I watched them all the way through every episode it's so great ~ My only complaint was the recaps. I feel Cloverworks may have overestimated how many episodes they needed for this season and had to make do with the recaps, OR they did it on purpose so the episodes would end on certain points. Either way, at least recaps are skippable so I didn't really mind them too too much. Anyways, Black Butler is so awesome <3 I really hope we get Blue Cult (season 6) cause it's such a good arc, and leads into some crazy stuff too :)
Shin18
A year after the previous Black Butler season was released, we've received a new sequel, this time being the anime adaptation of the Emerald Witch arc. With this arc teased at the post-credit scene of the Public School arc's adaptation, it's something many fans have anticipated. And the end result? In my view, this season is one of the best ones yet. About the characters, at this point, we should already be familiar with the main cast, or are we? One of the biggest accomplishments this season is showcasing the fact that we don't know much about them, particularly Ciel Phantomhive, our protagonist. But within thisarc, with the help of a certain trigger and flashbacks, we get to learn more things about him, revealing more of his personality, feelings, and ambitions that we didn't know of before. With subtle foreshadowing and plot points along the way. To continue, we get to see more of the Phantomhive servants, who have been absent for quite a bit, participating in this arc. Seeing them in action and in spotlight is always enjoyable, with Finnian getting a bit more screentime as we learn more about his origins. But, we can't talk about the characters without mentioning the titular character of the arc, Sieglinde Sullivan. Known as the Emerald Witch, she's a person of curiosity and a talented individual. We get to know her and her ambitions, and I believe she's an overall well-written character. As for the adaptation itself, it follows the manga faithfully, with the animation elevating during the major moments of this arc. However, there are some complaints about the way it adapted, specifically regarding the abundance of recaps. Spanning from 3 to 7 minutes in most episodes, they take away a decent amount of content per episode. I do agree to some extent. Could they have removed the recaps altogether? Yes. Could they have reduced this arc from 13 to 11 episodes? Yes. But in my opinion, it doesn't change the fact that the Emerald Witch arc is an excellent season. While it may be annoying for some viewers watching it during its airing, it shouldn't pose a problem at all for those watching it in one go after it has finished airing. All in all, Black Butler's newest season proves to be another amazing entry to the series. With the constant twists, build-ups and foreshadowing, it's a matter of time before it comes to fruition. We can only hope that they'll announce a sequel sooner or later for the Blue Cult arc that was shown at the last scene of this season.
Animanga