Long-Awaited Season 4 Anime Finally Happens After Almost A Decade And Fans Are Stoked

Of course, with such a large gap between the two seasons, it’s reasonable for there to be some changes. For one, Black Butler Season 4 has a different studio, or so it seems. The first three seasons were from A-1 Pictures and the new season is from Cloverworks, but the two companies aren’t as different as you might think.

Cloverworks was originally a subsidiary of A-1 Pictures but in 2018, the company separated and became its own studio.

So while there are some differences, the two studios and their styles feel very similar, which you can see in the animation style.

Mostly, the art style in Black Butler Season 4 has been updated to fit more modern themes.

Another difference is the director, but this isn’t entirely unexpected since every season has had a different director so far.

Toshiya Shinohara (A Lull in the Sea) directed Season 1, Hirofumi Ogura (Gintama) directed Season 2, and Noriyuki Abe (Bleach) directed Season 3 and Black Butler: Book of the Atlantic. Black Butler Season 4 is directed by Kenjirou Okada (Tsukimonogatari).

Surprisingly, the voice actors haven’t changed, at least in Japanese, for the main characters. After 10 years, you might expect the characters to have different voice actors. However, Sebastian is still played by Daisuke Ono (Durarara!!), and Maaya Sakamoto (Caode Geass: Akito the Exiled) is the voice of Ciel.

Fans of the opening of the other seasons of Black Butler may also be excited to note that SID is returning. While Otoha is in charge of the opening, the ending song is all SID.

I will preface my review by saying I haven’t read the manga, so I can’t say how similar the season is to the source material. However, so far, I think Black Butler Season 4 is quite good. The animation and storyline feel a lot like a direct continuation, and not from over a decade later.

New and old fans alike will enjoy the season. It fits the style of some of the more popular anime right now, especially with the school setting. My only complaint is that it doesn’t currently feel as dark as the previous seasons.

I fell in love with Black Butler because of how gloriously gruesome it was. The first few episodes were filled with death and murder. While this new season is good, I’d hoped it would start with a few darker scenes before actually getting into the story.

The first few episodes of Black Butler Season 4 are out if you want to watch it on Crunchyroll. All four seasons plus the six 6 OVA episodes and the movie are on the streaming platform in case you need a refresher.