Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 9 “His Butler, Having A Laugh”: Unraveling Mystery [Review]

Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 9 “His Butler, Having a Laugh” starts to unravel the mystery around Derrick Arden. You know, the one at the heart of why Ciel is even in Weston College to begin with? Only, in order to tell that story, we must first go back and find out why there is even a mystery in the first place.

Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 9 “His Butler, Having a Laugh”: Details

Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 9 “His Butler, Having a Laugh” is the ninth episode (you can read reviews of Ep. 1, Ep. 2, Ep. 3, Ep. 4, Ep. 5, Ep. 6, Ep. 7, and Ep. 8 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, A-1 Pictures (Sword Art Online, Lycoris Recoil, Solo Leveling) is 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, we have no idea just who is behind Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 9 “His Butler, Having a Laugh” as of this writing, just as we have be in the dark about who has been behind the previous handful of episodes. 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, while Yumi Shimizu is 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. 9 “His Butler, Having a Laugh” 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.

The other notable voice roles in this episode include Seiichiro Yamashita (Justin Briner in English dub) as Edward Midford, Shōya Ishige (Christian Taylor in English dub) as Clayton, and Shinnosuke Tokudome (Marianne Bray in English dub) as Joanne Harcourt.

On the other side of the equation, we have the voices of Show Hayami (Andrew Webb in English dub) as vice-principal Johann Agares, Yūsuke Kobayashi (English dub voice actor unknown) as Derrick Arden, and Junichi Suwabe (John Swasey in English dub) as the Undertaker.

When and Where to Watch

Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 9 “His Butler, Having a Laugh” made its airing and streaming (aka. simulcast) debut on June 8, 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. 9 “His Butler, Having a Laugh”: Synopsis

Alas, Black Butler -Public School Arc- is an ongoing anime series. In fact, Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 9 “His Butler, Having a Laugh” only just made its premiere four 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:

His efforts in the cricket tournament having succeeded, Ciel now has an invitation to a tea party sponsored by Weston College’s absolute monarch: the Head Master.

Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 9 “His Butler, Having a Laugh”: The Good

To me, the story of Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 9 “His Butler, Having a Laugh” is the best part about it. You know, as is the case with all of the previous episodes? It’s all due to Yana Toboso and her magnificent work with her manga this anime is adapted from. She has crafted a mysterious and suspenseful thriller of a story arc for the Weston College arc, which this anime has faithfully recreated in anime form, especially in this episode. The reveals in this episode have too many spoilers for me to discuss right now. However, I can safely say that Black Butler fans will be anticipating all of these reveals in anime form, and you shall not be disappointed.

The animation only enhances that wonderful story. CloverWorks continues to prove that they are dedicated to maintaining a very, very, VERY high level of animation quality for this season. So much so that I would say that quality is at feature-length anime film levels of quality. Especially when it does into a recap of some appropriate parts of the previous parts of this anime. Amazingly, it made the recap that much more interesting.

Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 9 “His Butler, Having a Laugh”: The Bad

Honestly, if you’re an action junkie who likes action and nothing but, then even the action in Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 9 “His Butler, Having a Laugh” may not be enough for you. To be fair, the action is more on the horror side of things than something you’d find in an action film. If you want that kind of stylish action, then I recommend that you check out Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Solo Leveling, and/or Kaiju No. 8. Those anime series have more than enough action to satisfy any action cravings.