Supernatural Sustained: Black Butler’s Dual Mysteries

Fernando M. Bufalari is a PhD candidate in Literary Theory and Comparative Literature at the University of São Paulo (Brazil), with a MA in English Language and Literature from the same institution. His research interests include various cultural and literary aspects of the Victorian era, as well as Gothic literature and social history.

Trigger Warning: This article contains references to abortion and graphic descriptions of murder.

Black Butler, a manga series written and illustrated by Yana Toboso, revives Victorian England through the collision of the supernatural with the era’s dark fascination for crime and order. Although the manga, serialised in Japan since September 2006, currently spans over 150 chapters, this review will focus on the “Red Butler arc” (chapters 6 to 14), with the aim of examining its dual-mystery narrative structure.

However, before delving into the analysis, a brief overview of Black Butler’s main characters and plot is necessary. The protagonists are Ciel Phantomhive, a 12-year-old earl in Victorian England, and his butler, Sebastian Michaelis. Despite his young age, Ciel is the head of the Phantomhive household and serves as the “Queen’s Watchdog”, a role that places him under the direct command of Queen Victoria. In this capacity, he is tasked with overseeing the criminal underworld, keeping it within the boundaries set by the Crown, and solving cases that require methods beyond the reach of official institutions, such as Scotland Yard. Sebastian, ever the dutiful butler, ensures that Ciel’s wishes are always fulfilled—yet there is a twist: unbeknownst to most, Sebastian is actually a demon with whom Ciel has made a pact. As this summary suggests, in Black Butler the supernatural is intricately woven into the realism typical of most detective fiction.^[1]

Ciel and Sebastian. Official art available at: Black Butler.

The “Red Butler arc” centres on the quintessential Victorian mystery of Jack the Ripper. As expected in a detective story, Ciel begins his investigation by gathering information on Jack’s unconventional methods of killing. After questioning the character known as the Undertaker, it becomes clear that, due to the precision with which the victims’ wombs were removed, the murderer must be someone with medical training and no alibi. Regarding the reason for the organs’ removal, Ciel speculates they might be used in a black magic ritual—here, the supernatural seems to encroach upon what would otherwise be standard detective work.

After narrowing the suspects down to just Aleister Chamber, the Viscount of Druitt, Ciel and Sebastian attend one of Chamber’s parties undercover, with the help of Angelina Dalles, Baroness of Burnett, or Madam Red, Ciel’s aunt. Following a series of events, they conclude that the Viscount is, indeed, Jack the Ripper, and he is promptly arrested. The case seems solved, but the following morning the newspapers report another murder by Jack during the previous night, proving that Aleister was not the true killer.

In light of this, Ciel and Sebastian decide to monitor the person who they believe will be the next victim, Mary Jane Kelly—the name of Jack the Ripper’s final real-world victim—and lie in wait outside her house. After hearing a scream, despite not having seen anyone enter the building, they rush inside and discover Grelle Sutcliff, Madam Red’s butler, covered in the prostitute’s blood. During the ensuing confrontation, it is revealed that there are, in fact, two Jacks: Grelle and Madam Red herself. Madam Red’s hatred for the prostitutes she killed stems from the fact that they have had abortions, while she was forced to have her womb removed following a miscarriage years before the series’ events.

A fight ensues, ending with Madam Red’s death and Sutcliff’s escape. Order is restored: Angelina’s funeral is held at the church, and the Queen is informed that the gruesome murders should no longer trouble her mind. What was initially suspected to be supernatural, with black magic rituals potentially connected to the victims’ brutal deaths, is ultimately revealed to have a psychological explanation: Madam Red’s removal of the victims’ wombs was her twisted way of reenacting and processing her own trauma. It is worth mentioning that Angelina had medical training, and regarding the murderer’s alibis, this can be clarified by the involvement of two people rather than one.

Grelle and Madam Red (Toboso, 2014).

This narrative structure falls under what is commonly called supernatural explained, established by Ann Radcliffe’s novels and described by Botting with the following formula: “Apparently spectral events are […] explained after they have excited curiosity and terror over extended sections of the narrative” (Botting, 2005, p. 41). The frightening shadow turns out to be a tree; the candle flame was extinguished by the wind; and the groaning at midnight was that of some animal in the woods—these seemingly ghastly occurrences were nothing more than the products of the characters’ and the readers’ excited minds.

However, Black Butler cannot be fully interpreted through this lens: the supernatural is present all along, working behind the scenes. Not only is Sebastian a demon, but Grelle is revealed to be a Grim Reaper, though they act against the neutrality expected of their species due to their fascination with Madam Red. If the supernatural explained can be summarised as an apparently supernatural phenomenon followed by a rational explanation, I propose that Black Butler’s structure could be termed supernatural sustained, in which a third stage is added: the supernatural was indeed present, just not in the central or decisive way it was first imagined.

In Black Butler, the supernatural remains in the background, mostly unseen by those not paying close attention. It differs, however, from a faux supernatural explained, in which the rational explanation is used to provide a false sense of security before a final scare. The fact that both Sebastian and Grelle are supernatural beings is largely irrelevant for the commitment of the murders and their resolution, and the rational explanations provided are sufficient. That being said, when a supernatural being does intervene, it can change the balance of the rational world in small but significant ways—by entering a building without being seen, for instance.

Ciel and Madam Red (Toboso, 2014).

It is true that Sebastian’s and Grelle’s special abilities help their respective masters in their endeavours, but they are not decisive in the overall unfolding of events. Madam Red would have killed her victims with or without Grelle—and, indeed, had already begun her killing spree before they met. Perhaps she would have been caught sooner, or her body count might have been lower, but the crime itself exists independently of supernatural assistance. The same applies to Ciel—he might have taken longer to solve the case without Sebastian, but with his resources and (human) allies he would have eventually reached the same conclusions, regardless of his demonic butler.

Another way of describing the supernatural sustained is through a dual-mystery perspective: for the intermittent mysteries of daily life, however prosaic or brutal they may be, there is reason and logic; for the overarching mystery of Ciel’s life and Black Butler’s plot, there is the realm of the supernatural. For Jack the Ripper, deductive solutions; for someone’s final breath, the visit of a Grim Reaper. In the natural world, the supernatural explained; in the metaphysical one, the supernatural sustained. It seems that neither the unwavering faith in reason that characterised English thought in Ann Radcliffe’s era, nor the Victorians’ belief in the promise of scientific explanations, have emerged unscathed in 21st-century neo-Victorian fiction—logic and science suffice for daily life, but not for comprehending fate and its tides.

What happens in Black Butler is an aesthetic hypertrophy of elements already present in Victorian Gothic fiction. Take Henry Mansel’s 1863 review of sensation novels: “The man who shook our hand with a hearty English grasp half an hour ago—the woman whose beauty and grace were the charm of last night, and whose gentle words sent us back home better pleased with the world and with ourselves—how exciting to think that under these pleasing outsides may be concealed some demon in human shape, a Count Fosco or a Lady Audley!” (Regan, 2001, p. 47). The issue at hand is one of verisimilitude: how far can the narrative go with and without the supernatural before the reader ceases to suspend their disbelief? Lady Audley and Count Fosco maintain their respectability in the public eye while hiding criminal acts worthy of demons—the tone of these plots is social—whereas Sebastian does the same and is an actual demon, shifting the tone to the esoteric. In a way, Victorian Gothic fiction that employs the supernatural explained structure lays the groundwork for Yana Toboso’s series; however, Toboso goes one step further, moving beyond the mere appearance of the demonic into the realm of the supernatural, all while avoiding the conventional supernatural accepted structure, in which the supernatural is the main key for the narrative’s mystery.^[2]

As we approach the conclusion, I would like to briefly summarise another arc of Black Butler that further illustrates these themes. In the “Emerald Witch arc” (chapters 86 to 107), rumours of a cursed forest in Germany lead the protagonists to travel to the continent in search of answers. People who dare to enter the forest report seeing werewolves, just before experiencing grotesque symptoms and dying from what was dubbed “the witch’s curse”, as the forest is associated with those who escaped the witch hunts—once again, the supernatural seems to encroach upon detective realism.

In the end, it is revealed that the entire situation was a military project wrapped in superstition to keep civilians away: the werewolves were military personnel in protective clothing; the curse was poisonous gas being tested in the area, responsible for the strange symptoms and deaths; and the so-called witch was a child prodigy with a talent for chemistry. Once again, the arc’s plot is resolved through the supernatural explained structure.

Nevertheless, in this arc, there are also glimpses of the true nature of Ciel and Sebastian’s Faustian pact, with the latter almost devouring the former’s soul after losing interest in him once Ciel becomes incapacitated due to the poisonous gas. For the emerald witch, the supernatural explained; for the nature of the human soul, the supernatural sustained. For each compact arc, the natural world and its explanations are sufficient; for the overarch narrative of the manga, one must rely on the supernatural.

Among the many themes evoked in neo-Victorian fiction, Black Butler stands as a compelling example of how modern narratives grapple with the balance between reason and the ever-elusive supernatural. By weaving together elements of detective fiction, gothic horror and historical drama, Yana Toboso’s series challenges the boundaries of what can be explained by logic and what remains in the realm of the unknown. The supernatural in Black Butler is not a simple intrusion into reality, but a fundamental thread that gives deeper meaning to the narrative’s exploration of fate, morality and the limits of human understanding. In doing so, the series reminds us that while reason may solve the mysteries of the present, the mysteries of life, death and the human soul still belong to the supernatural.

Works Cited

Botting, F. (2005) Gothic. London & New York: Routledge.

Regan, S. (ed.). (2001) The Nineteenth-Century Novel: A Critical Reader. London & New York: Routledge.

Toboso, Y. (2014) Black Butler: Artworks 1. Tokyo: Square Enix.

Toboso, Y. (2012-ongoing) Black Butler: Volumes I-XXII. Translated by Dirce Miyamura. São Paulo: Panini Group.

Todorov, T. (1973) The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre. Translated by Richard Howard. Cleveland & London: The Press of Case Western Reserve University.

Valente, S. (2021) ‘Realism in Anglo-American Crime Fiction’, in: Göttsche, D., Mucignat, R. and Weninger, R. (eds.). Landscapes of Realism: Rethinking Literary Realism in Comparative Perspective – Volume I: Mapping Realism.Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 761-774.

^[1] In traditional crime fiction, “the main character must solve mysteries by the application of reason alone” (Valente, 2021, p. 761).

^[2] “Indeed, we generally distinguish, within the literary Gothic, two tendencies: that of the supernatural explained (the ‘uncanny’), as it appears in the novels of Clara Reeves and Ann Radcliffe; and that of the supernatural accepted (the ‘marvelous’), which is characteristic of the works of Horace Walpole, M. G. Lewis and Mathurin” (Todorov, 1973, pp. 41-42).