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Black Butler Manga Gets New Anime Film in Early 2017

A theatrical anime film adaptation of the "Gōka Kyakusen" (Luxury Liner) arc from Yana Toboso's Black Butler (Kuroshitsuji) manga has been green-lit. The Kuroshitsuji Book of the Atlantic (Black Butler: Book of the Atlantic) film will open in early 2017. Toboso created a visual for the film:

The "Gōka Kyakusen" arc appeared in the manga's 11th through 14th compiled book volumes. The story is set on the luxury liner Campania and centers around secrets to resurrecting the dead.

Noriyuki Abe is directing the anime at A-1 Pictures, and Hiroyuki Yoshino is writing the script. Minako Shiba is designing the characters and serving as chief animation director. Yasunori Mitsuda is composing the music. All are returning from the earlier Book of Circus and Book of Murder anime, and A-1 Pictures and Shiba have been invovled in the franchise since the first Black Butler anime.

The returning cast includes:

• Daisuke Ono as Sebastian Michaelis 
• Maaya Sakamoto as Ciel Phantomhive 
• Yukari Tamura as Elizabeth Midford
• Junichi Suwabe as Undertaker
• Jun Fukuyama as Grelle Sutcliff
• Kenn as Ronald Knox
• Noriaki Sugiyama as William T. Spears
• Takuma Terashima as Snake
• Hiroki Touchi as Baldroy
• Yuuki Kaji as Finnian
• Emiri Katō as Mey-Rin

The Aniplex Plus booth at the AnimeJapan 2016 convention will sells limited-edition advance tickets for the film with an exclusive illustration from Toboso from March 26 to March 27.

Yen Press published the manga in North America, and it describes the manga's beginning:

When a terrible fire claims his parents, Ciel Phantomhive must step up as the head of his father's company and as Earl of Phantomhive Manor. It would be a lot for the young boy to handle were it not for his faithful butler, Sebastian. Ever at Ciel's side, it seems there's little Sebastian can't do, whether it's saving a dinner party gone awry or probing the dark secrets of London's underbelly. He's almost too good to be true... or at least, too good to be human...

Yana Toboso launched the manga in Square Enix's Monthly G Fantasy magazine in 2006, and Square Enix released the manga's 22nd compiled volume on November 18. Yen Press will release the 22nd volume in May.

The manga already inspired three television anime series and three original video anime (OVA) projects. The most recent OVA series, Black Butler: Book of Murder, premiered in two parts in Japanese theaters in October and November of 2014, respectively. Funimation released the first two television anime and the Black Butler II OVA project on home video, and it also streamed the Black Butler: Book of Circus television anime series. The company also plans to release both the Black Butler: Book of Circus TV anime series and the Black Butler: Book of Murder OVA series on home video.

Additionally, the manga inspired a January 2014 live-action film starring Hiro Mizushima. The manga has also inspired several musical adaptations, the third of which held its second run in Japan and abroad starting in November.

The manga won the top prize in the shōnen manga category of France's Japan Expo Awards in 2010 and the Best International Manga Award at Germany's Animagic in 2011.

Source: Comic Natalie