Black Butler: Book of Murder

黒執事 Book of Murder (Kuroshitsuji: Book of Murder)

8.6(1)

OtakuDen

8.0(135,293)

MAL Score

Ranked #689

Popularity #1037

Action
Mystery
Supernatural
Historical
Mythology

Episodes: 2
Duration: 1 hr 1 min per ep
Aired: Jan 28, 2015 to Feb 25, 2015
Status: Finished Airing

Synopsis

At the Queen’s request, Earl Ciel Phantomhive opens his estate for an opulent dinner gathering, welcoming an array of distinguished guests alongside the struggling writer Arthur. The evening’s refinement shatters when a murder is discovered—and suspicion turns toward Ciel himself.

With a fierce storm sealing everyone inside, fear spreads as more deaths follow. Trapped together, the Phantomhive household and their high-profile visitors are forced into an uneasy alliance to uncover the culprit before the killer strikes again. Even Sebastian Michaelis, Ciel’s impeccably capable butler, may not be beyond the reach of the unfolding nightmare.

Otaku Consensus

Book of Murder is widely regarded as one of Black Butler’s stronger animated entries because Noriyuki Abe and A-1 Pictures treat its manor mystery as a disciplined two-part chamber piece rather than a routine supernatural action showcase. Its Victorian production design, brisk pacing, and fidelity to the franchise’s darker revenge-mystery appeal are the clear strengths; the main drawback is that its short OVA format and continuity dependence make it a rewarding side course for existing fans rather than an ideal first exposure.

Why You Should Watch

Watch Book of Murder if you want a compact Victorian whodunit with supernatural leverage, not another long shounen detour. Its two-episode shape forces the Black Butler formula into a pressure-cooker format: formal etiquette, aristocratic gamesmanship, detective logic, and the uneasy pleasure of seeing Sebastian’s impossible competence tested by rules closer to Agatha Christie than battle anime. It scratches the same itch as Gosick or Moriarty the Patriot for period mystery fans, while keeping the demon-contract menace and anti-hero edge that make Black Butler darker than a puzzle show. A-1 Pictures’ polished manor staging and Noriyuki Abe’s brisk direction make it especially appealing if you want gothic atmosphere, sharp reversals, and a complete case you can finish in one sitting.

Key Characters

C
Ciel Phantomhive
Ciel remains compelling because his aristocratic poise reads less like innocence than strategy, making every accusation against him feel like a test of control rather than a simple threat.
S
Sebastian Michaelis
Sebastian’s appeal lies in the tension between flawless service and inhuman menace, a combination that turns even polite butler etiquette into a display of power.
A
Arthur
Arthur functions as the audience’s literary eye inside the Phantomhive world, grounding the gothic excess in the perspective of a struggling writer observing a case too theatrical to ignore.

What Makes It Stand Out

1
The OVA’s two-episode structure, released from January 28 to February 25, 2015, gives it the shape of a self-contained mystery special rather than a standard TV arc.
2
A-1 Pictures handles the production, with Noriyuki Abe directing and both Minako Shiba and Chisato Kawaguchi credited in chief animation roles, giving the special continuity with the franchise’s polished gothic visual identity.
3
AniList’s tag distribution is unusually clear about the OVA’s identity: Demons at 96%, Crime at 95%, Butler at 80%, and Detective at 79%, reflecting how strongly it foregrounds deduction within Black Butler’s supernatural framework.
4
Reviews singled out the settings as immersive and beautiful, and Book of Murder benefits from confining much of its visual drama to formal interiors, period costuming, and storm-bound atmosphere rather than relying only on action spectacle.
5
With a MAL score of 8.04 from over 135,000 votes and an AniList score of 78/100, it sits in the franchise’s well-liked middle ground: not a cult obscurity, but a fan-approved installment with a sharper mystery focus than the broad series pitch suggests.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1: Original creator Yana Toboso is credited on the production, tying the OVA directly to the manga-side identity of Black Butler rather than presenting it as a detached anime-only curiosity.
Fun fact 2: Minako Shiba is credited both for character design and as chief animation director, while Chisato Kawaguchi is credited for sub-character design and chief animation direction, showing how much of the visual consistency was concentrated in senior design supervision.
Fun fact 3: Kenshirou Yamada served as animation producer for A-1 Pictures, the studio behind this two-part special’s finished production.
Fun fact 4: The special aired as a finished two-episode project rather than a weekly cour, with exactly one month separating its first and second releases.
Fun fact 5: AniList lists 855 favourites for Book of Murder, a useful signal that its appeal is concentrated among dedicated Black Butler viewers even though its MAL popularity rank is outside the site’s top 1000.