Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 5 “His Butler, Gaining Admittance” begins a rather fun sub-arc within the Public School Arc. That sub-arc being Ciel having to do the one thing he’s not particularly good at: sports. But first, he has to actually prepare for it.

Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 5 “His Butler, Gaining Admittance”: Details

Black Butler -Public School Arc- NA key visual.
Complete with a Ciel acting entirely out of character in the most hilarious way possible.

Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 5 “His Butler, Gaining Admittance” is the fifth episode (you can read reviews of Ep. 1, Ep. 2, Ep. 3, and Ep. 4 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. 5 “His Butler, Gaining Admittance” 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. 5 “His Butler, Gaining Admittance” 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 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), and Jouji Nakata (Jeremy Schwartz in English dub) as Alexis Leon Midford.

When and Where to Watch

Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 5 “His Butler, Gaining Admittance” made its airing and streaming (aka. simulcast) debut on May 11, 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. 5 “His Butler, Gaining Admittance”: Synopsis

The out of character-ness is even funnier knowing Ciel’s true personality.

Alas, Black Butler -Public School Arc- is an ongoing anime series. In fact, Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 5 “His Butler, Gaining Admittance” only just made its debut just two 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 hears some promising information: the ever-busy Head Master will be attending Weston’s traditional cricket tournament, and evidently the student who exhibits the most sportsmanlike behaviour will be invited to the Head Master’s “midnight tea party.”

Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 5 “His Butler, Gaining Admittance”: The Good

Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 5 "His Butler, Gaining Admittance" screenshot showing Ciel's neutral face after Clayton calls him out for a private talk.
Ah, now that’s more like the Ciel we know.

There’s no question about it: it’s the story of Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 5 “His Butler, Gaining Admittance” that’s the best part about it. All entirely because it’s Yana Toboso’s own original story from her manga. This episode of the anime definitely has that mix of dark fantasy, thrilling suspense, mysterious mystery, and ridiculous comedy that characterizes Toboso-sensei’s work. Of particular note is Ciel acting so out of character for his usual personality. How out of character, you might ask? Well, just look up the definition of the word “keet” on TV Tropes, and you have your answer. Longtime Black Butler fans (like me) will find this bit to be the most hilarious.

Of course though, that story would not be complete without the animation. The utterly gorgeous feature-length anime film levels of animation quality that CloverWorks are clearly aspiring to for this season of the anime, and that they’re succeeding in creating. Seriously, that intro recap with the tea pouring so beautifully into that teacup instantly made me thirsty for that delectable tea. It’s that level of animation quality combined with the story that’s making me consistently give this season of the anime 100/100.

Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 5 “His Butler, Gaining Admittance”: The Bad

Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 5 "His Butler, Gaining Admittance" screenshot showing Soma complimenting his very tired elephant friend.
I know I praise this anime for the animation quality, but I also praise it for the blobs of comedy too.

Do you not like action, or drama, or suspense, or comedy? Or even just jaw-droppingly gorgeous animation? No? Well, I’m sorry then. Not only might Black Butler -Public School Arc- Ep. 5 “His Butler, Gaining Admittance” not be for you, but the entire anime might not be for you either. Perhaps you might be interested in more fluffy anime like A Galaxy Next Door, Astro Note, or My Dress-Up Darling then?

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