Black Butler (Kuroshitsuji) is an enduring franchise. Based on mangaka Yana Toboso’s manga, a lot of anime fans can point back to Black Butler as one of their mainstays. On paper, the young rich boy has a demon butler that seems simple and straightforward. For those who have fallen in love with it, though, it’s so much more. With topics like surviving trauma and learning to find catharsis, Black Butles offers a lot more than just a hot demon butler. To celebrate the series’ fourth season, Black Butler: Public School Arc, we spoke with the voices of our leads, Ciel and Sebastian.
Voiced by Brina Palencia and J. Michael Tatum, respectively, Ciel Phantomhive and Sebastian Michaelis add much more to anime and fandom than an aesthetic. To open the interview, we asked Palencia and Tatum how being part of such an enduring franchise felt. Brina Palencia answered, “I feel so lucky that people still love [Black Butler] as much as they do. Very few shows are like Black Butler—it’s so unique. There’s so much depth to the character of Ciel and so much to play with as an actor, both emotionally and technically, with a dialect and the fact that it’s a male voice. It’s every challenge that I would want as an actor. I am really fortunate that of all the things that could be coming back, it would be to a character and to a show like this.”
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Tatum echoed Palencia’s feeling of gratitude, “I mean, how lucky am I that I get to voice this smooth character, that’s just a fun voice to do. [Playing him] is like slipping into a warm bath. To be part of a show that’s so gorgeous—aesthetically—and so profound as a story and also to know that it has the longevity it does—just wow. It continually draws in new fans and keeps the old ones.”
But his work as Sebastian is made even better by getting to work with one of his best friends. Tatum continued, “How lucky am I to get to work opposite one of my best friends—who’s also one of the best actors in the business? I’m the sort of actor who relies on what my colleagues are doing. Because I’m lost without them. Every time I get to act with Brina, I know that I’m going to have to bring my A-game.”
From an acting perspective, it’s clear that both actors find joy and creativity in their roles as Ciel and Sebastian. Black Butler’s characters are substantial anime favorites, but what makes them so? How did the series and its characters become so beloved? Truly, it’s about the loneliness, dedication to surviving, and the catharsis your own personal demon can provide.
About Ciel, Palencia explains Ciel’s relatability. “I think there’s a level of loneliness that Ciel has that I think everyone can kind of relate to,” Palencia began, “The amount of suffering that he has endured, and then to have a demon that he can genuinely trust with his life and with everything that he needs to get done—that matters. I think a lot of people who go through trauma and go through hardships don’t always get that fantasy aspect of it. It must be very satisfying and fun to watch that play out in a fantasy sequence. Being a trauma survivor, and then having your very own demon to do your bidding! I mean, how lovely would that be?”
Tatum added his perspective. He focused on how Black Butler finds an analogy to the psychotherapeutic practice of Shadow Work, which involves exploring one’s unconscious mind to uncover repressed parts of oneself, such as trauma or undesirable personality traits.
“The show, on a certain level, is about doing Shadow Work,” he said, “Although, in Ciel’s case, he’s kind of overcorrecting and only focusing on the shadow side, which comes with its issues. But you know, I think many people can relate to that, especially as Brina says. For people that have been through [trauma], Shadow Work is vital. You have to say you’re being haunted by it anyway; you might as well make it work for you. That’s kind of what the show is about. For me, it’s about this person who has been through some of the worst things you can imagine. And instead of being defeated by them is learning how to use that darkness to get things done. And I think that’s—even as dark as it is—is a very positive message. I think that resonates in a weird, twisted way.”
And it’s true, Black Butler can’t be reduced to its gimmicks; instead, it’s built up by its core story of resiliency that makes everything click into place. But bringing out that resiliency in a performance that can be humorous at times and deeply dark at others isn’t an easy task. Palencia took the time to walk us through her process of balancing Ciel and how she channels the character when she performs.
“Ciel is one of the characters that I picture a lot of physical and abstract things about [when performing]—it’s like a Michael Chekhov technique, actually. [Ciel] has a center, but to me, it’s this grotesque center living right in the middle of my body, like where my diaphragm would be.” Using her hands to illustrate the technique, Palencia explains, “[The core] is sort of like, barbed wired, shut, and it’s all crushed inside there. To me, in order to survive, he has to shove all of it down. And he doesn’t have the luxury of getting to sit with his feelings and figure them out.”
Palencia shifts the discussion, bringing into focus another key element of Ciel as a character that has made him beloved by fans. “I think that is also another thing that resonates with people,” Palencia starts, “There is a lot of talk about therapy these days—which I’m a huge proponent of, and I think it’s wonderful. But I also acknowledge the fact that it’s not accessible [to everyone]. It’s incredibly expensive, and even if you can afford it, it’s so hard to find a good therapist because not all are equal. This makes me think that I don’t even see it as resilience so much as I just see it as what Ciel has to do to survive. He has to suppress everything. Which makes him lose himself more and more as he loses touch with his own emotions.”
Before adding his own perspective, Tatum takes the time to praise Palencia, “That’s beautiful,” he said. “I think this is why she’s such a good actor. She puts so much thought and effort—so much of herself—into the role of Ciel that it’s impossible not to be drawn in by the performance.”
Given Sebastian’s nature, Palencia’s strength in grounding herself in emotion isn’t something that Tatum can do to connect to his cold, demonic character. He added, “This is, incidentally, my challenge playing Sebastian. His job is to be as aloof as possible and to look at everything that Ciel goes through as kind of quaint—because he’s a demon. [Sebastian] is like, ‘Oh, you have trauma? Well, I’m from hell.’ Or at least that’s the implication. When I approached the role years ago, I had this idea that he should kind of be sort of airy, aloof, and inaccessible because that’s the ancient idea of what a demon was. They were the spirits of the air that were kind of morally ambivalent. Still, they could attach to a person and be kind of the caretakers of their destiny, and then could be evil, if you strayed from your path, and then they would do everything in their power to badger you back onto the right path. I hope that reflects in the voice.”
Adding to that inspiration for Sebastian as a character, Tatum added even more depth to what his performance means, “Sebastian means that I am playing a character that is not human, but who is essentially playing human to everyone else. He is essentially adopting a persona that his prey will buy. Sebastian’s personality, as the audience sees it, is a camouflage that he’s wearing because he’s hunting [his prey]. But the challenge as a character is to not get so fascinated with Ciel as a person that Sebastian forgets that necessary distance. [Sebastian] frequently forgets. I think he’s really interested in seeing Ciel grow and [learn] what Ciel can handle… So it’s almost like he’s concocting this meal. But it’s so beautiful and perfect that he’s reluctant to eat it. And so that’s kind of how I tried to maintain that distance [in my acting], but it’s very hard. It gives him some dramatic tension instead of just being this aloof character.”
“I think, particularly in the [Black Butler Public School Arc], you see even more of that with Sebastian,” Tatum focuses on the current season of the series and says, “Sebastian is taking a backseat. I feel like in prior seasons, Sebastian and Ciel kind of come up with their plans together. Ciel really needed Sebastian to help him figure out what his tactics and strategy were going to be. But in this Arc, it’s mostly Ciel coming up with [the plans and strategy] and then Sebastian going along with them, but secretly, Sebastian is kind of rooting for him from the sidelines, which is interesting and dynamic. I love that dynamic. The way it’s changed is because Sebastian is now undercover as Ciel’s superior in school, and he can afford to be a little condescending, a little patronizing. He can talk openly, but Ciel can’t do anything about it. He’s relishing that opportunity, which is super fun to play.”
I found Tatum and Palencia’s love of Black Butler completely clear. But what spoke to me, as a fan of the anime, was their dedication to seeing that the series’ narrative contains multitudes. With that in mind, I asked them what they wanted people to take away from their performances and their characters. They looked at each other and commented on the difficulty of the question, but their answers continued with the theme of the interview as a whole.
“I’ll answer it by telling you what I have come away with,” Palanecia started using her vulnerability as a starting point, “When I first started voicing Ciel, I was in my twenties. And I had not gone to therapy, and I had a lot of unresolved trauma. And I was really on his side. I was like, ‘Yes, I get you! Never let go of your hatred. That’s what makes you who you are. We need to be angry all the time!’ And then the more that I have grown myself, and the more that I’ve become an adult, I see what he’s been through and how he’s coping with it.”
“It breaks my heart a lot more. It also makes me grateful that I don’t live in that headspace anymore. I very much did in the beginning. So I would hope that maybe the takeaway [for audiences] would be that he’s a good timestamp of [your life]. [Ciel] is you when you feel nothing but anger, and you don’t deal with your emotions in the process. And then, if you grow, you can always come back to Black Butler and look at how you’ve grown.”
For his part, Tatum spoke to the audience directly, “I would love it if fans come away from [Black Butler] feeling that they have been given permission to embrace the things about themselves they don’t like—the thing that they think of as too dark or too hard to think about. That’s the only way you can integrate them [into who you are]. But also, if someone looks at Sebastian as inspired to be a guardian demon for someone else that they love who needs it, that would be great too.”
Black Butler Public School Arc is available to stream exclusively on Crunchyroll.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
