Black Butler: Book of the Atlantic

Black Butler: Book of the Atlantic (Japanese: 劇場版「黒執事 Book of the Atlantic」, Hepburn: Gekijō-ban Kuroshitsuji: Book of the Atlantic) is a 2017 Japanese animated supernatural disaster film based on the Black Butler manga series written and illustrated by Yana Toboso. The film was produced by A-1 Pictures, directed by Noriyuki Abe and written by Hiroyuki Yoshino, featuring character designs by Minako Shiba and music by Yasunori Mitsuda. It premiered in Japan on January 21, 2017. It covers the "Luxury Liner" (豪華客船, Gōka Kyakusen) arc, the sixth arc of the manga series.

Black Butler: Book of the Atlantic
Key visual
Japanese name
Kanji	劇場版「黒執事 Book of the Atlantic」
Transcriptions Revised Hepburn Gekijō-ban Kuroshitsuji: Book of the Atlantic
Directed by	Noriyuki Abe
Screenplay by	Hiroyuki Yoshino
Based on	Black Butler by Yana Toboso
Produced by	Yasutaka Kimura Hiroshi Kamei Natsumi Mori Ayako Yokoyama Tomomi Kyōtani
Starring	Daisuke Ono Maaya Sakamoto Yukari Tamura Junichi Suwabe Jun Fukuyama Kenn Noriaki Sugiyama Takuma Terashima Hiroki Tōchi Yūki Kaji Emiri Katō
Cinematography	Yukihiro Masumoto
Edited by	Masahiro Goto
Music by	Yasunori Mitsuda
Production companies	A-1 Pictures Aniplex Square Enix Company
Distributed by	Aniplex
Release date	January 21, 2017 (2017-01-21)
Running time	100 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
Box office	$248,286 (US & Canada)

A few months after its Japanese release, Funimation announced that they had licensed and would screen the film in a limited theatrical release in North America later in June of that year.

Plot

The story is based on the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. Ciel, Sebastian, and Snake board the luxury liner Campania on her maiden voyage to investigate the mysterious Aurora Society, rumored to perform unethical experiments to raise the dead. On board is also Elizabeth and her family. In a secret Aurora Society meeting, Ciel and Sebastian witness Doctor Rian Stoker use a machine to reanimate a dead woman, who starts attacking and killing the attendants. Ciel finds himself trapped in the ship's cargo with Elizabeth and Snake, where they realize that Stoker brought thousands more reanimated corpses on board. Sebastian rescues them. Upon interrogating Stoker, Ciel discovers that an even larger batch of corpses is stored in another area of the ship; that batch promptly awakens and begin killing the ship's crew and passengers. Amidst the chaos, the ship crashes into an iceberg and starts sinking, giving Sebastian and the Grim Reapers, including Grell, only a few hours.

The group discovers that Undertaker was behind the reanimated corpses and is a Grim Reaper himself. While fighting him, Sebastian is wounded by Undertaker's death scythe and his Cinematic Reel is played; Undertaker witnesses the early moments of Ciel and Sebastian's relationship, when Ciel summoned the demon, when they returned home, and Sebastian training Ciel for his royal duties until he re-entered society, receiving his title as Earl Phantomhive. Stoker falls to his death; Ciel is able to snatch Undertaker's funeral lockets as the Reaper escapes. Sebastian and Ciel barely escape the sunken ship on a lifeboat but find themselves surrounded by the remaining corpses. Knowing that the corpses will attack the other survivors should they attempt to escape, Sebastian has no choice but to fight all of them himself to protect Ciel. At dawn, with all corpses disposed of, a rescue boat appears to save them.

In the post-credits, William rescues Grell and Ronald, scolding them for failing in their task, while Sebastian and Ciel meet their friends aboard the rescue boat.

Voice cast

Character	Japanese	English
Sebastian Michaelis	Daisuke Ono	J. Michael Tatum
Ciel Phantomhive	Maaya Sakamoto	Brina Palencia
Elizabeth Midford	Yukari Tamura	Cherami Leigh
Undertaker	Junichi Suwabe	John Swasey
Grell Sutcliff	Jun Fukuyama	Daniel Frederick
Ronald Knox	Kenn	Joel McDonald
William T. Spears	Noriaki Sugiyama	Barry Yandell
Snake	Takuma Terashima	Spike Spencer
Baldroy	Hiroki Tōchi	Ian Sinclair
Finnian	Yūki Kaji	Jason Liebrecht
Mey-Rin	Emiri Katō	Monica Rial
Tanaka	Shunji Fujimura	R. Bruce Elliott
Charles Grey	Ryōhei Kimura	Clifford Chapin
Charles Phipps	Tomoaki Maeno	Brandon Potter
Aleister Chamber (Viscount of Druitt)	Tatsuhisa Suzuki	Todd Haberkorn
Edward Midford	Seiichirō Yamashita	Justin Briner
Rian Stoker	Kaito Ishikawa	Dave Trosko
Francis Midford	Atsuko Tanaka	Elizabeth Maxwell
Alexis Leon Midford	Jouji Nakata	Jeremy Schwartz
Lau	Kōji Yusa	Jerry Jewell
Madam Red	Romi Park	Lydia Mackay

Production

An animated film adaptation of the manga was announced on the official anime's Twitter account on October 10, 2015, with the cast from the anime television returning to reprise their roles in the film. It was later revealed in February 2016 that the film would be an adaptation of the manga's Gōka Kyakusen story arc (volumes 11–14), titled Black Butler: Book of the Atlantic, with the main staff from the Black Butler: Book of Circus anime television series also returning. The film was released in Japanese theaters on January 21, 2017. Sid performed the film's theme song, titled "Glass no Hitomi" (硝子の瞳, "Garasu no Hitomi").

External links

• Official website (in Japanese)
• Black Butler: Book of the Atlantic at IMDb
• Black Butler: Book of the Atlantic (film) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia