Black Butler (Seasons 1–5)

Black Butler (黒執事, 2008) is the Japanese anime series you can watch online on iFILM, set in an alternate Victorian England where twelve-year-old Earl Ciel Phantomhive handles underworld assignments for the Queen from his family's grand estate. His butler Sebastian is perfect at everything — cooking, combat, etiquette, eliminating threats.

There is a reason for that perfection. Sebastian is a demon, bound to Ciel by a blood contract: he serves until the boy's revenge is complete, then collects his soul. Voice actors Daisuke Ono (Sebastian) and Maaya Sakamoto (Ciel) carry a dynamic that flips between gothic menace and dry comedy about the theatre of aristocratic service.

The series works best as a dark detective procedural with a running joke underneath it — the most dangerous person in any room is the one in the waistcoat. Stream all episodes of Black Butler online on iFILM.