Black Butler II

黒執事II (Kuroshitsuji II)

8.4(2)

OtakuDen

7.1(339,878)

MAL Score

Ranked #4195

Popularity #417

Action
Comedy
Supernatural
Historical
Mythology

Episodes: 12
Duration: 24 min per ep
Aired: Jul 2, 2010 to Sep 17, 2010
Status: Finished Airing

Synopsis

Black Butler II shifts the spotlight to Alois Trancy, the volatile young earl of the Trancy estate. Although he now lives in luxury, his past is marked by abduction and years of forced servitude, followed by a return home that ends in further loss when his father dies soon after.

Doubts linger around Alois’ account and even his claim to the earldom—and with good reason. The Trancy manor is steeped in secrets, beginning with Claude Faustus, Alois’ impeccably dressed butler whose abilities defy the ordinary. As suspicion and deception tighten their grip on the household, the true nature of Claude’s connection to Alois comes into question, and their uneasy bond is pushed to its limits when something far darker draws near.

Otaku Consensus

Black Butler II remains the franchise’s great fault line: Hirofumi Ogura’s direction and Mari Okada’s series composition commit fully to an anime-original, alternate-universe gothic melodrama, giving the Trancy material a sharper psychological edge than its reputation suggests. Its strongest defenders point to the claustrophobic household dynamics, Taku Iwasaki’s theatrical scoring, and the season’s willingness to detach from manga-safe expectations; its most persistent criticism is that the late-game twists feel more provocative than structurally earned. Best judged as a 12-episode side chamber of Black Butler rather than a clean continuation, it is fascinating, messy, and unusually hard to ignore.

Why You Should Watch

Watch Black Butler II if you want the demon-butler fantasy filtered through poison-laced aristocratic melodrama instead of straightforward manga fidelity. It is for viewers who like the mind games and moral corrosion of Death Note, but want them dressed in Victorian-gothic costume design, supernatural contracts, and a more theatrical shounen register. The 12-episode length gives it little room to idle: A-1 Pictures, character designer and chief animation director Minako Shiba, and composer Taku Iwasaki push the season toward operatic confrontations, ornate interiors, and sharp tonal swings between comedy, cruelty, and action. If you can treat it as an alternate-universe experiment rather than the franchise’s definitive route, it offers a compact, controversial study in power, performance, and possession.

Key Characters

A
Alois Trancy
Alois is the season’s lightning rod, discussed by fans less as a conventional noble lead than as a volatile performance of trauma, entitlement, and attention-hunger.
C
Claude Faustus
Claude stands out through his cold, kuudere-coded butler persona, functioning as a deliberate contrast to the warmer theatrical charisma usually associated with Black Butler’s demonic servants.

What Makes It Stand Out

1
The season is explicitly tied to the franchise’s alternate-universe reputation, making it more useful as a gothic side experiment than as a straightforward bridge from the first TV anime to later manga-faithful entries.
2
Mari Okada handled series composition for a compressed 12-episode run, which helps explain both the season’s appeal as a twist-heavy psychological chamber piece and the backlash against its escalation-heavy plotting.
3
A-1 Pictures produced the series with Minako Shiba credited as both character designer and chief animation director, giving the Trancy household a controlled visual identity built around elegant silhouettes, formalwear, and severe expressions.
4
Taku Iwasaki’s music keeps the tone closer to stage melodrama than standard action fantasy, while Yuuya Matsushita performs the first ending theme and Kalafina performs the second, strengthening the season’s gothic-pop identity.
5
Its reception numbers show the divide clearly: despite a middling MAL rank of #4195 and a 7.12 score from 339,878 votes, it remains highly visible at MAL popularity #417 and holds 1,244 AniList favourites.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1: Black Butler II aired as a single cour from July 2, 2010 to September 17, 2010, totaling 12 episodes rather than the longer format of many shounen-adjacent supernatural series.
Fun fact 2: Yana Toboso is credited as the original creator, while the season’s alternate-universe status is a major reason fans often recommend watching it separately from the manga-faithful Black Butler material.
Fun fact 3: Minako Shiba had a dual production role as character designer and chief animation director, an important credit for a season whose appeal depends heavily on polished aristocratic costuming and controlled gothic atmosphere.
Fun fact 4: The music credits pair composer Taku Iwasaki with two notable ending theme performers: Yuuya Matsushita for ED1 and Kalafina for ED2.
Fun fact 5: English-side production data lists Gen Fukunaga as executive producer, reflecting the franchise’s strong international handling during an era when Black Butler was becoming a major overseas gothic anime title.