Black Butler (manga)/Setting

• Alternate History: Type X, currently still not hugely different from the real history, but showing definite signs of divergence.
• Anachronism Stew: Quite a few examples. The intentionality or not of their occurrence is unclear.
  • What are The Mafia, dressed in modern clothing doing in Victorian England? Not to mention cell phones. (The anime at least attempted to retrograde their tech somewhat.)
  • There's also the television and video games. In Victorian England.
  • Sebastian appears to wear latex gloves when he works in the kitchen.
  • Let's not forget about a certain shinigami using a chainsaw, the cook using flame throwers or the modern washing machine in the Phantomhive Manor. Recently in the manga, only shinigami have out-of-place artifacts (for instance, this guy's "strange watch" and odd glasses).
  • Ciel's pierced ears were extremely uncommon for the nobility back then. And his father had them as well.
  • The clothing isn't modest enough. Both Victorian and Edwardian fashions were very modest; exposed legs and cleavage would have been obscene. Maylene's bathing suit would have been scandalous and Yana Toboso gave up even trying with the ladies' costume party and Ciel in Wonderland costumes. Also, Elizabeth's fashion sense sometimes sinks into 18th century territory.
• Author Appeal: Understandable, considering the author was once a Yaoi Hentai mangaka, but:
  • Nearly every single male character being an outright Bishounen.
  • Yana Toboso also has a thing for suave, gentlemanly characters, as seen by Sebastian, Aleister Chambers, and various other characters in this and Toboso's other works.
  • In the bonus comic in Volume XXI we learn that Yana Toboso included the attractive female soldiers as fanservice for herself and herself alone while all the assistants longed after pretty boys and Victorian elegance. Bisexuality confirmed.
• Back from the Dead: The goal of the Aurora Society.
• Battle Butler: A recurring character type. Sebastian, Agni, etc. fall into this category.
• The Beautiful Elite: Lampshaded with the Phantomhive family.
• Big Fancy House: The Phantomhive manor definitely qualifies. The Midford manor is even fancier.
• Bishounen: Ciel and Sebastian are the most obvious. There's also... pretty much a good majority of the male cast under the age of 45.
• Boarding School: Weston College.
  • Absurdly Powerful Student Council: The prefects in effect run the place. Actually getting to meet the mysteriously reticient principal becomes a plot of its own.
  • Elaborate University High: As fits a place based on Eton.
  • One-Gender School: Weston College only admits boys.
• The British Empire
  • Victorian Britain
  • Victorian London
• Coolest Club Ever: Sphere Music Hall is massively popular.
  • Then Ciel one-ups that with his new Funtom Music Hall.
• Cricket: The focus of one sub-arc.
• Dances and Balls: Ciel, being an aristocrat, attends these. One of the more memorable ones was when he had to be disguised as a girl while doing it.
• Elaborate Underground Base: Belongs to the German military.
• Elegant Gothic Lolita: The show has renewed an interest in this style in Japan and there's a line of clothing directly based on what the characters wear.
• German Dialects: Make an appearance during the trip to Germany and even foreshadow the plot.
• Historical Fantasy sliding towards outright Alternate History as Plausible Deniability gradually erodes during the course of the story and also other changes accrue. Major newspaper headlines have already been affected, and the trend only seems to continue. We may be watching the Butterfly Effect in action.
• Ice Palace: In a side story segment, inspired by the one from Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen.
• Imperial Germany: Becomes important to the plot later on.
• Japanese Pop Music: J-Pop is the most likely musical genre for Starlight Four even though the band isn't Japanese or in-universe singing in Japanese and J-Pop historically not having been invented yet. There are heavy references to the Japanese Boy Band Hikaru Genji.
• Malevolent Masked Men: Those well-dressed people in black-feathered domino masks, found around demon summoning rituals and illegal slave auctions, situations where it pays to avoid getting recognized.
• Not Using the Z Word: No one utters the word "zombie". Their creator refers to them as his "bizarre dolls", while everyone else talks about "moving corpses". This makes sense, as the concept of a zombie had not yet entered the popular culture in the Victorian times.
• Opium Den: Lau keeps one. It is a front for his criminal activities. All drugs were legal during the time of the story.
• Our Zombies Are Different: Type C/O. They hunger for souls and are able to sense where souls can be found. Initially the zombies seem to have been created with science, but it turns out that magic was responsible after all.
• Pimped-Out Dress: Lots.
• Purely Aesthetic Era: Despite all the painstaking historical research, the creators sometimes just throw accuracy to the wind. Mobile phone? Check. Modern motorized chainsaw? Check. To be fair, the modern motorized chainsaw is a supernatural weapon wielded by a death god who may or may not be constrained to series-current technology.
• The Raj: Where Soma and Agni come from.
• Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain: Zombies turn out to be very vulnerable to headshots and headstabs.
• Spell My Name with an "S": Grell(e) Sutcliff(e).
  • Ran Mao, Lan Mao, Ran-Mao, Lan-Mao, Ranmao...
  • Maylene, May-Rin, Mey-Rin, Mei-Rin, Mey-rin...
  • Rudger, Rudgar, Ludger...
  • Madam Red: Angelina Dalles vs. Angelina Durless. (Madame Red is just wrong though, as she isn't French.)
  • It might be easier to list the people without small or large name issues. Of the more important characters: Tanaka, William T. Spears, Ronald Knox, Agni. On the other hand, several other characters have multiple options for one name or nickname and/or multiple names where the spelling is inconsistent. Some name issues are common, others rather rare.
• Spot of Tea: Lots. This is England, after all.
• Sympathetic Murderer: So many examples.
• The Thing That Goes Doink: This Japanese mainstay appears in the Phantomhive garden as a part of a temporary Japanese theme.
• Town with a Dark Secret: Wolfsschluss.
• Überwald: The Cursed Forest in Germany near the Czech border.
• Weird Moon: The moon, when visible, is always either full or an unrealistic sickle.

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