Few anime are as aesthetically pleasing as Black Butler, and it's soon coming back on our screens. So, what is the best Black Butler watch order?
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The Complete Black Butler Watch Order
There are two ways to watch Black Butler. You can pick up everything by chronological release order, or you can watch in a way that better reflects the plot of the manga.
Black Butler Watch Order by Release Date
If you don't care about manga accuracy too much, you can watch Black Butler media based on their release date:
- Black Butler Season 1
- Black Butler Season 2
- Black Butler OVA “Ciel in Wonderland Part 1”
- Black Butler OVA “Welcome to Phantomhive’s”
- Black Butler OVA “The Making of Kuroshitsuji II”
- Black Butler OVA “His Butler, On Stage”
- Black Butler OVA “Ciel in Wonderland Part II”
- Black Butler OVA “Spider’s Intention”
- Black Butler OVA “The Tale of Will the Shinigami”
- Black Butler: Book of Circus
- Black Butler: Book of Murder
- Black Butler: Book of the Atlantic (Movie)
Black Butler's Canon Watch Order
If you are interested in following mangaka Yana Toboso's story, bear in mind that not all anime material is canon.
While the non-canon anime episodes can be enjoyable, they tend to be unrelated to the main story.
Moreover, most fans agree that their quality isn't as high as that of the episodes based on manga arcs.
Here's the canon Black Butler watch order:
- Black Butler Season 1 (Episodes 1-15)
- Black Butler: Book of Circus
- Black Butler: Book of Murder
- Black Butler: Book of the Atlantic
Bear in mind that Episodes 7-12 are still fillers, but they feel quite organic so they are fun to check out. But if you're serious about sticking to canon stuff, you can skip them.
You will have noticed that several materials are missing from our canon list. This is because the latter part of Season 1 and the entire Season 2 are original content that is not found in the manga.
Should You Skip Black Butler Season 2?
Whether or not you will watch Black Butler Season 1 Episodes 15-24 and Black Butler Season 2 is entirely up to you.
Just bear in mind that if you watch all of Season 1 and Season 2 and then move to Book of Circus, you're setting yourself up for some confusion.
Season 1's finale and Season 2 made some irreversible choices about the main characters, so Book of Circus will almost feel like an alternative universe by then. But it's quite the opposite.
The latter half of Season 1 and all of Season 2 are the alternative universe, while Book of Circus picks up the manga story from around Episode 15 of Season 1.
If you're curious, you can watch Season 2, but the new young master and butler pair can't compare to Ciel and Sebastian.
Where Does Black Butler (2024) Fit in the Watch Order?
Black Butler (2024) will adapt the Public School arc, a canon manga story. As such, it'll be part of the canon list above. You can watch it right after Book of the Atlantic.
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