Black Butler: Book of Circus ditches the anime-original second season, faithfully adapting Yana Toboso’s Noah’s Ark Circus arc. Ciel and Sebastian infiltrate a circus tied to missing children, finding a found family of disabled performers weaponized by adults. Noriyuki Abe directs a tighter procedural mystery with moral gray areas, backed by Yasunori Mitsuda’s melancholic score. CG animals are a genuine eyesore—stiff, weightless, load-bearing for circus imagery—but character acting and thematic commitment carry the season. For OVA-era fans who watch past budget cuts when writing’s committed, it's an 8/10 gothic mystery that respects its source.
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