The episodes of the 2008 Japanese animated television series Black Butler (黒執事, Kuroshitsuji?) are loosely based on the Black Butler manga series written and illustrated by Yana Toboso. The episodes are directed by Toshiya Shinohara and produced by A-1 Pictures. The plot of the episodes follows Sebastian Michaelis, a demon butler who is obligated to serve Ciel Phantomhive, the twelve-year-old head of the Phantomhive noble family, due to a contract he made with Ciel. The episodes started airing on October 3, 2008, on Mainichi Broadcasting System and Chubu-Nippon Broadcasting. Other stations that aired the episodes at later dates include Hokkaido Broadcasting, Kumamoto Asahi Broadcasting, RCC Broadcasting, Shizuoka Broadcasting System, Tokyo Broadcasting System, and Animax. The anime adaptation of the manga was confirmed on July 11, 2008 by Gakken's Animedia magazine, and the official website of the anime began to stream a trailer of the anime on July 26, 2008. Two DVD compilations are planned for release by Aniplex; the first compilation is to be released on January 21, 2009 and the second on February 25, 2009.
Three pieces of theme music are used for the episodes: one opening theme and two closing themes. The opening theme is "Monochrome No Kiss" (though written as Monochrome Kiss) by the Japanese rock band Sid, the current closing which began airing with episode 14 is "Lacrimosa" by Kalafina, while the first closing theme is "I'm Alive!" by the American singer Rebecca Hollcraft, commonly known as Becca. Two singles containing the theme music and other tracks have been released; the single containing tracks from Sid was released on October 29, 2008 and the single from Becca was released on October 22, 2008. The third single containing tracks from Kalafina has a release date of March 4, 2009.
For the second season, the opening song is "Shiver" by The Gazette and the ending song "Bird" is sung by Yuya Matsushita, and the single was released on August 2010. The ending for episode 8 is "Kagayaku Sora No Shijima Ni Wa" by Kalafina. Animax Asia Started airing an English dubbed version of the anime from January 11, 2011.
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