Something monstrous lurks in the dark. Large, filled with claws, drawn straight from hell.
Welcome back for 13 Days of Otakutober 2025! I hope you’ve been enjoying your spooky content so far. Today, we’ll be diving full on into an anime review. And what better anime to review for the spooky season but the classic, one hell of an anime, Kuroshitsuji, or as the western world more widely knows it, Black Butler. An anime that seemed to have died after an unfaithful season two has been brought back to life and corrected over the past few years, with amazing OVAs and seasons like Book of Circus, Book of Murder, Book of the Atlantic, Season 4 public School arc, and now season 5 the Emerald Witch Arc. As someone who still keeps up with this story, especially in manga form, I thought we’d do a little review of the latest season.
So go get started; what Kuroshitsuji Emerald Witch Arc did right. First off, it stayed very true to the source material, something that Kuroshitsuji has been dialing in on since the blunder of going off book at the end of season 1 and season 2. And being a more plot heavy season, it did wonderful with the storytelling (and the reveal) of the secrets of the werewolves in this show. After all, as a show that didn’t start with more than demons and shinigami, no one ever knew what other creatures existed in this lore. We got zombies/reanimated corpses in Book of the Atlantic, but even those had a reason behind them and weren’t plentiful. So the introduction of the idea of werewolves this season certainly piqued an interest. Another thing this season did well, as is the nature of this manga arc, is highlight Ciel’s vulnerability — something we sometimes forget in other seasons. Here he basically regressed to a scared child at one poinf who was reliving his trauma, and we got hints at some possibly larger reveals regarding his past down the road. I also especially liked how for once, we got to see Ciel interacting and relying on Finny while he was regressed – having no trust for any adults. The change of pace highlighted Finny’s genuine caring and love for Ciel and we got to see a tenderness from him that is often missing in his more humorous “clumsy” gardener scenes as well as his more badass, I’m a servant of the Phantomhive Manor sequences.
Oh and the music this season was great! The opening song was really well done, but the ending. My goddess, the ending song and sequence was truly standout in my opinion. The song was titled “Waltz” and it was by a brand new boy group called Ryugujo. The song fit the theme of not just the season, but of Kuroshitsuji all together really well. And the animation that went along with seemed straightforward with a dancing/waltz theme. But what I thought was outstanding was the way Ciel moved through the waltz with the different people who had been in his life and who currently were. It felt very appropriate for where the overall story is, as I tend to feel that the Emerald Witch Arc is the precursor to the next turning point in the story for Ciel.
But onto the bad. Because there are still some things inherently wrong with the way Kuroshitsuji is portrayed. There. Is. Too. Much. Pedophilic. Undertones. Something in particular about the anime makes these scenes almost romanticized when it comes to Ciel and Sebastian’s relationship. And that is something that is just does not hit right. It can be very creepy, and somehow moreso in the anime than in the manga. What continues to bug me about it though, is that fans tend to romanticize and ‘ship’ Sebastian and Ciel. It’s strange when one of the major plot points, one that we got a handful of in this season, was that Ciel has been majorly abused by pedophilic figures in his past and this had led to his trauma, and to his whole revenge plot. So it always bothered me how in contrast to Ciel’s abuse, anything pedophilic Sebastian did was shown as either funny or supposedly ‘romantic’. I do suppose sometimes it feels that Kuroshitsuji draws parallel to the fact that Sebastian, as a demon, is simply using Ciel and therefore also abusing him–just in return for being beneficial to Ciel and treating him relatively well. But that might be for a different post one day. But anyway, this season had a lot of disturbing and gratuitous scenes that made Star and I cringe heavily and get a major ick.
Overall, this season was pretty good. Overall, we heavily enjoyed this season, and it’s a very important stepping stone for the evolution of this story. I think the next few seasons are going to get even better, though I will say it still wasn’t as good as Book of Circus. Still it’s a definite watch and is reassuring to know that Kuroshitsuji, despite certain flaws, is still just as popular as ever. Thanks so much for joining us today for Otakutober! We’ll see you tomorrow for more spooky content.
xoxo
Luna
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