Kuroshitsuji

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Fandom
Name: Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler)
Abbreviation(s):
Creator: Yana Toboso
Date(s): September 16, 2006 – present
Medium: manga, anime
Country of Origin: Japan
External Links: SquidgeWorld
Kuroshitsuji Poster by bloodtsunami (2009)
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Black Butler (黒執事, Kuroshitsuji) is a manga written and illustrated by Yana Toboso. Black Butler was also made into an anime.

The series follows Sebastian Michaelis, a demonic butler who is bound by a supernatural contract to serve Ciel Phantomhive, the twelve-year-old head of the Phantomhive noble family and the business-savvy owner of the Funtom company, a toy manufacturer. In return, when Ciel has finished all of his tasks, including avenging his parents' deaths, Sebastian will be allowed to kill him and consume his soul.[1]

Fandom

There is a A Kuroshitsuji Fandom Overview (with some spoilers) at Crack Van.

Kuroshitsuji was considered ineligible for Yuletide in 2011.[2]

Yana Toboso is known to have been a BL/yaoi doujinshi artist before she was a pro mangaka, and used the name Yanao Rock. A point of discussion that comes up repeatedly in Kuroshitsuji fandom is the claim that, based on Toboso's past work, Kuroshitsuji is a yaoi manga, followed by the correction that it is and has always been meant to be a shounen story.

Theories

The Two Ciels Theory became popular in western fandom, though it had already been widely known for some time in the Japanese fandom. The theory eventually proved to be true in 2017.

Tropes

Shipping

The main ship is the pairing of Ciel Phantomhive and Sebastian Michaelis, known as Sebaciel. This ship has been a point of controversy among fans, and even people outside of the fandom. The popularity of the ship, combined with some undertones in the animated series, led some to believe that the story was primarily about an adult/child romantic relationship — although according to the author, this is not the case [citation needed]. In recent years, there has been a wide push against the ship, with many young fans on Twitter including the phrase “SebaCiel DNI” (indicating they do not want the shippers to interact with them) in their profiles. Some fans have begun depicting Ciel and Sebastian as father and son (one of the Tumblr tags is dadbastian), or as having a other forms of bonded platonic relationships.

Another popular ship is the pairing William T. Spears and Grell Sutcliffe, which has the second largest amount of fics on Archive of Our Own. The third most popular pairing on AO3 is between Eric Slingby and Alan Humphries. This ship was popularized by the musical “Kuroshitsuji: The Most Beautiful DEATH in the World.” Other pairings include Ciel Phantomhive and Alois Trancy, Elizabeth Midford and Ciel Phantomhive, and Sebastian Michaelis and Grell Sutcliffe.

Edward D., a member of the fandom in 2022, made this observation on shipping in the Kuroshitsuji fandom:

The Western fandom of Black Butler started to wane in activity maybe about 6 years ago. Because of that, the shipping information is kind of old and outdated. For example, most SebaCiel content is from at least 4 years ago, if not 7 or 10+. From what I’ve seen, there’s new primary ships— they just haven’t shot to popularity because the fans are relatively dispersed (plus, there simply aren’t as many of us in the fandom anymore). Some fans just don’t ship, and some fans are still into SebaCiel, and some fans enjoy Ciel/Alois or Grell/William or whatever, but I’ve seen lots of people who are into ships that have low visibility (because they have barely any fan content yet). Those ships are Madame Red/Grelle, Sebastian/Agni, and Ran-Mao/Mey-Rin. It’s definitely a more even balance, at least. SebaCiel no longer dominates.

Edward D. (talk) 02:42, 2 September 2022 (UTC)

Gen Ships

Femslash Ships

Het Ships

Slash Ships

Blogs

Challenges

Example Fanworks

Charms

Fanart

Fanfiction

Graphics

Headcanon

Icons

Meme

Meta

SMAU

Text Post Edit

Resources

References

  1. ^ Black Butler's Wikipedia page
  2. ^ Yuletide Rarity and an Incomplete List of Ineligible Fandoms
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