Black Butler: Emerald Witch Reveals Opening and Ending
Black Butler: Emerald Witch Arc revealed the opening and ending sequences following today's premiere of the season. The opening theme song is "Maisie" by Cö Shu Nie ft. HYDE:
Japanese band RYUGUJO got its first anime credit with "WALTZ." The ending sequence was directed and storyboarded by Oka Okazaki, who also worked on the ending for the previous season:
CloverWorks, which also animated the previous installment of the series, the Black Butler: Public School Arc anime, is returning for the new season with the same staff. Kenjiro Okada is directing with Hiroyuki Yoshino on the series composition. Yumi Shimizu is in charge of the character designs and Ryo Kawasaki composing the music.
Yana Tobo’s manga was first adapted into anime by studio A-1 Pictures in 2008. The studio would go on to animate the first two seasons, and although the second season diverts from the manga, the sequel, Book of Circus, returns to the source material. The Book of Circus movie was followed by Book of Murder OVA and Book of the Atlantic movie.
Crunchyroll is streaming the anime and describes the plot as:
Ciel Phantomhive is the most powerful boy in all of England, but he bears the scars of unspeakable suffering. Forced to watch as his beloved parents were brutally murdered, Ciel was subsequently abducted and violently tortured. Desperate to end his suffering, the boy traded his own soul for a chance at vengeance, casting his lot with the one person on whom he could depend: Sebastian, a demon Butler summoned from the very pits of hell. Together, they’ll prowl the darkest alleys of London on a mission to snuff out those who would do evil.
The Black Butler manga is also nearing the finale. Author Yana Tobo spent a few months doing research for the final arc. The manga was on hiatus until this month's issue of Monthly GFantasy magazine.
The "Emerald Witch" arc began in Chapter 86 of Black Butler and ran until Chapter 107. The arc was then compiled into volumes 18-22 of the series. Yen Press publishes the manga in English and describes the arc as follows:
Gruesome and mysterious deaths are occurring on the continent. Along with the fear of contagion that permeates the air, there are also rumours of witches and wolfmen running amok. In accordance with the wishes of Queen Victoria, young Earl Ciel Phantomhive embarks on a jaunt to Germany with his elite butler, Sebastian, in tow. When Ciel's party heads right into the heart of a cursed forest where supernatural creatures are said to dwell, they run straight into a witch! In fact, several of them! And the village head is none other than a little girl who appears as though she's stepped out of a fairy tale?!
Source: Official Website
© Yana Toboso / SQUARE ENIX, Project Black Butler