Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 11 “His Butler, Taking Off”: Final Act…For Now [Review]

Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 11 “His Butler, Taking Off” concludes this arc of the anime with some relaxing fun comedy. In many ways, it’s a rather fitting final act for Ciel and Sebastian…for now. For you see, there is another act on the way. In fact, the last two minutes of the episode are dedicated to being a teaser for that next arc.

Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 11 “His Butler, Taking Off”: Details

Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 11 “His Butler, Taking Off” is the 11th and final episode (you can read reviews of Ep. 1, Ep. 2, Ep. 3, Ep. 4, Ep. 5, Ep. 6, Ep. 7, Ep. 8, Ep. 9, and Ep. 10 here) of season 4 of the Black Butler anime series, immediately following the 2017 anime film Black Butler: Book of the Atlantic. Said dark fantasy and dark comedy 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.

Shōgo Ono, Kenjirou Okada, and Kakushi Ifuku all co-directed Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 11 “His Butler, Taking Off”, with Hiroyuki Yoshino as the writer, and with Kenjirou Okada doing the storyboard. As for the new season of the Black Butler 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. 11 “His Butler, Taking Off” 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. Other notable voice roles include 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, Shunji Fujimura (R. Bruce Elliott in English dub) as Tanaka, Takuma Terashima (Spike Spencer in English dub) as Snake, and Mana Miyamoto (Jamie Marchi in English dub) as Irene Diaz.

When and Where to Watch

Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 11 “His Butler, Taking Off” made its airing and streaming (aka. simulcast) debut on June 22, 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. 11 “His Butler, Taking Off”: Synopsis

Alas, even though Black Butler -Public School Arc- is now no longer an ongoing anime, it’s still pretty recent. In fact, Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 11 “His Butler, Taking Off” only just made its debut five 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 duty as the Queen’s guard dog complete, Ciel and his servants take a trip to London to inspect new Funtom Company goods. Later, Sebastian is reunited with someone unexpected.

Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 11 “His Butler, Taking Off”: The Good

Amazingly, it’s still the story of Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 11 “His Butler, Taking Off” that’s the best part about it. The best part? It’s almost entirely not the dark fantasy and even darker comedy the way we’ve seen in previous episodes. In fact, this episode contains some of the most ridiculous comedy in this entire arc. All basically to act as a breather finale for the intensity of the conclusion of the Public School Arc that happened just an episode ago. Honestly, it’s quite the breather. It made me break out into raucous laughter at multiple points during the episode.

However, what fans will be most interested in is what comes after the ending credits. For those of you who watch that long, you then get a sneak peek into the next arc. Fans of the manga by Yana Toboso will recall that this next arc will be the Emerald Witch arc. What is that, you might ask? Well, you all will just have to find out next season.

Complementing that hilarious story is the animation. Seriously, that gorgeous animation by CloverWorks. The animated tea pouring into a cup looks so realistic that it looks live-action. Not to mention the intricately detailed buildings in London, including an incomplete Tower Bridge. It’s all basically feature-length anime film levels of quality, enough to satisfy any animation buff.

Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 11 “His Butler, Taking Off”: The Bad

Alas though, if you’re an action junkie, then Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 11 “His Butler, Taking Off” isn’t for you. This entire episode is a ridiculous comedy. It has action in it, but it’s the most hilarious action possible. If that doesn’t interest you, then might I suggest Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Solo Leveling, and/or Kaiju No. 8? Those have more than enough action to satisfy any junkie.

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