Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 6 “His Butler, Scheming”: Cricket Fouls Galore [Review]

Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 6 “His Butler, Scheming” gives us a…most unique game of cricket. Mostly because it’s a cricket game where one of the teams treats the rules as a suggestion…if even that. Of course, this is the team that Ciel is on, and he’s going to make sure that they win.

Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 6 “His Butler, Scheming”: Details

Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 6 “His Butler, Scheming” is the sixth episode (you can read reviews of Ep. 1, Ep. 2, Ep. 3, Ep. 4, and Ep. 5 here) of season 4 of the Black Butler anime series, immediately following the 2017 anime film Black Butler: Book of the Atlantic. Said anime is the anime adaptation of the dark fantasy and even darker comedy (sometimes the other way around) manga of the same name by Yana Toboso (Disney Twisted-Wonderland). Normally, it’s A-1 Pictures (Sword Art Online, Lycoris Recoil, Solo Leveling) that’s the studio behind this anime. This time, though, the studio behind season 4 is CloverWorks (HoriMiya, My Dress-Up Darling, Spy x Family). Crunchyroll is licensing this anime for its global debut.

Alas, whoever was responsible for Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 6 “His Butler, Scheming” in particular is currently unknown at the time of this writing. As for the new season of the anime as a whole, Kenjirou Okada is still the director behind this newest season of the anime as a whole. Hiroyuki Yoshino is the writer, with Yumi Shimizu responsible for character design. Ryo Kawasaki composes the music.

Speaking of music: the opening theme music for this anime as a whole is “Fanatic Parade – The Parade of Battlers” by otoha. Meanwhile, “Shokuzai” (Atonement) by SID is the ending theme music for the same.

Voice Cast

Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 6 “His Butler, Scheming” features the voices of Maaya Sakamoto (Brina Palencia in English dub) as Ciel Phantomhive and Daisuke Ono (J. Michael Tatum in English dub) as Sebastian Michaelis. The voice actors for the Prefects of Weston College consist of Toshiki Watanabe (Reagan Murdock in English dub) as Edgar Redmond, Junya Enoki (Brandon McInnis in English dub) as Lawrence Bluewer, Shunsuke Takeuchi (Jonah Scott in English dub) as Herman Greenhill, and Tatsumuru Tachibana (Kieran Flitton in English dub) as Gregory Violet.

Other notable voice roles for this episode include Shinnosuke Tachibana (Abi Kumar in English dub) as Soma Asman Kadar, Shōya Ishige (Christian Taylor in English dub) as Clayton, Haruka Shiraishi (Ciarán Strange in English dub) as McMillan, Seiichiro Yamashita (Justin Briner in English dub) as Edward Midford, Shinnosuke Tokudome (Marianne Bray in English dub) as Joanne Harcourt, Yukari Tamura (Cherami Leigh in English dub) as Elizabeth Midford, Atsuko Tanaka (Elizabeth Maxwell in English dub) as Francis Midford, and Jouji Nakata (Jeremy Schwartz in English dub) as Alexis Leon Midford.

That’s not all. We even have the voices of Hiroki Tōchi (Ian Sinclair in English dub) as Baldroy, Yūki Kaji (Jason Liebrecht in English dub) as Finnian, Emiri Katō (Monica Rial in English dub) as Mey-Rin, and Shunji Fujimura (R. Bruce Elliott in English dub) as Tanaka as cameos for this episode.

When and Where to Watch

Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 6 “His Butler, Scheming” made its airing and streaming (aka. simulcast) debut on May 18, 2024. You can watch this episode only on Crunchyroll. In fact, you can watch this entire latest season of the anime, along with all previous seasons and even the Book of the Atlantic anime film, only on Crunchyroll.

Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 6 “His Butler, Scheming”: Synopsis

Alas, Black Butler -Public School Arc- is an ongoing anime series. In fact, Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 6 “His Butler, Scheming” only made its debut just three days ago as of this writing. Thus, you will all get the official synopsis for this episode from Crunchyroll instead of a spoiler-filled plot summary. You can read that synopsis below:

Ciel is chosen to play cricket, but the boys of Sapphire Owl House are the perennial wooden spooners. They’ve had just one victory in the history of the tournament. Ciel resolves to wrest another victory for his House—without any miracles.

Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 6 “His Butler, Scheming”: The Good

I keep saying the best part about this latest season of the Black Butler anime is the story, and I am determined to continue doing so for Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 6 “His Butler, Scheming”. Simply put, because it is. Yana Toboso keeps coming up with the best story for her manga, and that is perfectly translated in the anime. Seriously, the anime is quite faithful to Toboso’s manga, preserving her bizarre sense of humor that has captured the attention of untold legions of fans. Make no mistake, the seriousness of the sports (specifically: cricket) drama in this episode only adds to the comedy.

Of course, what’s an anime without the animation? Fortunately, CloverWorks delivers that animation in spades…or rather, in cricket bats. The animation quality of this episode remains the usual feature-length anime films levels of quality, even when the most ridiculous scenes are playing. And of course, the food in this episode retains the usual excellent levels of quality. It’s the kind of quality you’d normally find in food-centric anime, which only adds to how delightful Black Butler is as a whole.

Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 6 “His Butler, Scheming”: The Bad

Do you not like sports action? Complete with all the cheating a team can get away with? What about the most ridiculous comedy that eclipses even dedicated comedy anime series? Well, if you like neither, then Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 6 “His Butler, Scheming” is probably not for you. You’re going to have to wait a bit for the dark fantasy drama this anime series is best known for. While you’re waiting, you might want to check out Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba for some dark fantasy action.

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