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Black Butler Manga Gets New Musical With 'New Cast'
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The May issue of Square Enix's G Fantasy magazine announced on Monday that a new stage musical adaptation of Yana Toboso's Black Butler supernatural manga has been green-lit. The magazine teases that the new stage musical will have a "new cast," but did not specify if this means it will feature a whole new cast or just new characters.
The musical will debut at the Tokyo Dome City Hall in Tokyo and will run there from November 18 to 27. The musical will then run at Fukuoka's Canal City Theatre on December 3-4, at Amagasaki's Amashin Archaic Hall in Hyogo prefecture on December 9-11, and then at Kariya's Kariya Cultural Center in Aichi prefecture on December 17-18. The magazine will reveal more information about the stage musical at a future date.
The new stage musical will be the fourth musical adaptation of Black Butler. The third musical, which is based on the manga's Jack the Ripper arc, originally ran in Tokyo in September 2014 and in Osaka in October 2014. That musical had additional runs last November and December in Osaka, Miyagi, Tokyo, and Fukuoka, as well as the first overseas performance of the musicals in Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen last December.
Sono Shitsuji, Yūkō (That Butler, Friendship), the first Black Butler musical, ran in Tokyo in 2009. The second musical, Musical Kuroshitsuji- The Most Beautiful DEATH in The World- Sen no Tamashii to Ochita Shinigami (Musical Black Butler: The Most Beautiful Death in The World – A Thousand Souls and The Fallen Grim Reaper), debuted in 2010 and had a second run in Tokyo in May 2013 and in Osaka in June 2013.
Toboso launched the manga Square Enix's Monthly G Fantasy magazine in 2006, and Square Enix released the manga's 22nd compiled volume last November. Yen Press is releasing the manga in North America, and it released the 21st volume last November.
The original manga revolves around a noble English boy named Ciel Phantomhive and Sebastian Michaels, Ciel's butler who is more than he seems. The manga already inspired a television anime series in 2008, a television anime sequel in 2010, several original video anime, and a live-action film. The manga also inspired the Black Butler: Book of Circus television series that premiered in July 2014.
A new anime film has been green-lit, with Daisuke Ono and Maaya Sakamoto reprising their roles as main characters Sebastian Michaelis and Ciel Phantomhive, respectively. The film will debut in early 2017.
