Funimation Bringing Black Butler To Theaters

Funimation was at Anime Boston this past weekend, and made some big announcements of what is to come in the future. At the companies panel it was revealed that the company has licensed the anime film, Black Butler: Book of the Atlantic. The company also announced that it will be planning to bring this movie to the big screen with a limited theatrical run in America.

Black Butler: Book of the Atlantic, is the most recent film from the popular anime series Black Butler, and was released in Japan back in January 21 of this year. If you are unfamiliar with the film, it is the adaptation of the "Luxury Liner" arc, from the original manga, and Funimation describes it below:

Ciel Phantomhive and his demonic butler, Sebastian, are back! And this next case has Ciel and Sebastian treading some rough waters. Aboard the luxury liner Campania, the two investigate an illegal human experiment that involves resurrecting the dead. But the closer they get to the truth, the closer they are to their own deaths! Will this be their final case or will one hell of a butler keep them afloat?

The film was directed by Noriyuki Abe at A-1 Pictures, and the script was written by Hiroyuki Yoshino. Minako Shiba was in charge of character design and served as chief animation director. Music was composed by Yasunori Mitsuda, and all of the staff members returned from the earlier animes. A-1 Pictures and Shiba have been involved in the Black Butler franchise ever since the first anime. The theme song for the film, "Glass Eye" is performed by SID. New and returning cast for the film includes the following:

• 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
• Ryohei Kimura as Charles Grey
• Tomoaki Maeno as Charles Phipps
• Tatsuhisa Suzuki as Viscount of Druitt
• Seiichirō Yamashita as Edward Midford
• Kaito Ishikawa as Ryan Stoker
• Atsuko Tanaka as Francis Midford
• Jouji Nakata as Alexis Midford

There is no official date for the upcoming North American theater run of the film, but it will be sometime this year according to Funimation.