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Black Butler I

by Yana Toboso · 2007

Black Butler, Vol. 1 (Kuroshitsuji) launches Yana Toboso's dark-fantasy manga set in Victorian-era London. It introduces Ciel Phantomhive, the young Earl who heads a noble family and serves the Crown's interests, and his… more

First published 2007 · 194 pages · Black Butler #1 · English

16 quotes ★ 4.35 (145,882) Fantasy

Quotes from the Book

I like black for clothes, small items, and jewelry. It's a color that can't be violated by any other colors. A color that simply keeps being itself. A color that sinks more somberly than any other color, yet asserts itself more than all other colors. It's a passionate gallant color. Anything is wonderful if it transcends things rather than being halfway...
325
The line between education and brainwashing is paper thin
86
He is nothing more than one of my pawns. However, he is not a normal pawn. He is a pawn that can get across the whole board in one move.
78
How interesting... humans will drag others down in order to get what they want even in death.
10
I'm simply one hell of a butler
6
Moping around with sadness and sorrow… what will come of it? Even dead people can do that. However, I’ll live and stand on my own two legs. If we are going to die one day, wouldn’t it be better to have no regrets?
4
Once drowned in the depths of darkness, you lose sight of light. When that light has dispersed there is no return. My light has died out long ago and so there’s nothing back for me to go back, or look forward to I shall continue to indulge myself in this darkness until it completely consumes me, then I will be nothing but an empty course left on this cold & cruel world to rot.
4
Yes, my lord. I devote my entire being to you. Until the day… that lies become truth.
3
However far I fall as long as there’s so much as a thread left I will use it to climb. I’ll take hold of it. I refuse to give up while I’m still human I can do that much. But every person must decide on his own whether to grab it.
3
Death is like being born, but backwards. It only hurts for a little while, then a new life begins. A life with no sorrow, no pain, a glorious new beginning. A beginning that will last an eternity.
3
Humans are easily tempted. When they are poised on the edge of hellish despair, and a spider-thin thread of salvation presents itself, they will invariably grasp it. No matter the human.
2
There are some things you can never get back, no matter how much effort you put in. And there are some feelings of despair, that you can never ever shake off.
2
You aren’t wrong. You fought to protect your world. What’s wrong with that? In the end, “justice” is just an official line taken by those in power to serve their own ends. No one’s looking out for others. If you’re careless, you’ll be robbed. There are only two kinds of people in this world. Those who steal, and those who are stolen from. And today, I steal your futures. That’s all this is.
2
I’m afraid when something is truly lost, one can never get it back again.
2
I am simply one Hell of a butler
2
How sade should it be that laughter should vanish from this place.
2

Did you know?

  • Black Butler has been serialized in Square Enix's Monthly GFantasy magazine since September 2006.
  • The first tankobon volume was released in Japan on February 27, 2007.
  • Yen Press released the first English-language volume on January 26, 2010.
  • By August 2025 the Black Butler manga had over 36 million copies in circulation worldwide.
  • The series has been adapted into anime, stage musicals, a live-action film, and animated films.

About Yana Toboso

Yana Toboso (born 1984) is a Japanese manga artist best known for creating Black Butler (Kuroshitsuji), serialized in Square Enix's Monthly GFantasy magazine since 2006.

More about the author →

About the book

Black Butler, Vol. 1 (Kuroshitsuji) launches Yana Toboso's dark-fantasy manga set in Victorian-era London. It introduces Ciel Phantomhive, the young Earl who heads a noble family and serves the Crown's interests, and his impossibly capable butler Sebastian Michaelis, who is secretly a demon bound to Ciel by a Faustian contract. The opening volume establishes the household and its eccentric staff while Sebastian dispatches each day's crises with supernatural ease.

Across its early chapters the book blends dark comedy with gothic mystery, weaving together themes of revenge, the price of a bargain made in desperation, and the master-servant bond between a boy and the demon sworn to serve him. The Victorian backdrop, aristocratic intrigue, and recurring tension between elegant surface and hidden menace give the series its distinctive tone.

Serialized in Square Enix's Monthly GFantasy from 2006, Black Butler became a long-running international bestseller, with the manga reporting over 36 million copies in circulation by 2025. It spawned multiple anime series, stage musicals, a live-action film, and animated films, and the first volume is widely praised by readers for its atmospheric setting and detailed artwork, though some note its introductory, scene-setting nature.

Key characters

  • Ciel PhantomhiveYoung Earl and head of the Phantomhive household
  • Sebastian MichaelisCiel's butler, secretly a demon bound by contract
  • Mey-RinThe household's clumsy maid
  • BardroyThe Phantomhive cook
  • FinnianThe household's gardener

Book details

First published
2007
Length
194 pages
Series
Black Butler #1
Reading time
1 hour
Genre
Fantasy
Goodreads rating
4.35 (146k ratings)

Critical reception

  • The first volume holds a rating of about 4.35 stars across nearly 146,000 Goodreads reviews.
  • Readers praise the atmospheric Victorian setting and detailed artwork.
  • Some reviewers note the first volume is introductory, setting up later story arcs.

Movie & TV adaptations

  • IMDb
    Black Butler (anime series) 2008

    Anime television adaptation, with later seasons following.

  • IMDb
    Black Butler (live-action film) 2014

    Japanese live-action film adaptation.

  • IMDb
    Black Butler: Book of the Atlantic 2017

    Animated feature film.

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