Black Butler -Emerald Witch Arc- Ep. 5 “His Butler, Descending” has the mystery of the werewolves deepen and deepen. All even in spite of the efforts of Sebastian and the Phantomhive staff to uncover details of what’s been happening, and all while caring for the still-insensate Ciel. Needless to say, this is shaping up to be one hell of a mystery story.

Black Butler -Emerald Witch Arc- Ep. 5 “His Butler, Descending”: Details

Black Butler -Emerald Witch Arc- JP key art
A mystery as mysterious as this scene makes it out to be.

Black Butler -Emerald Witch Arc- Ep. 5 “His Butler, Descending” is the fifth episode (you can read my reviews of Ep. 1, Ep. 2, Ep. 3, and Ep. 4 here) of the new season of the dark comedy and darker fantasy/supernatural anime adaptation of Black Butler. This latest season comes directly after the Public School Arc.

Said anime is the anime adaptation of the manga of the same name by Yana Toboso (Rust Blaster, Disney Twisted-Wonderland). CloverWorks (Spy x Family, Bocchi the Rock!, The Elusive Samurai) is the animation studio behind the anime. Crunchyroll is the company licensing the anime for its global release.

Production Crew

Kakushi Ifuku is the director and storyboarder behind Black Butler -Emerald Witch Arc- Ep. 5 “His Butler, Descending”, with Konomi Shugo as the writer.

As for Black Butler -Emerald Witch Arc- as a whole though: we do know that Kenjirou Okada is the director, with Hiroyuki Yoshino as the writer. Yoshito Ito is the producer. Yumi Shimazu is the character designer. Ryo Kawasaki is the composer behind music.

Speaking of music: the opening theme song for Black Butler -Emerald Witch Arc- is “MAISIE” by Cö shu Nie feat. HYDE. Meanwhile, “WALTZ” by RYUGUJO is the ending theme song for the same.

Voice Cast

Black Butler -Emerald Witch Arc- Ep. 5 “His Butler, Descending” features the voices of Maaya Sakamoto (Brina Palencia in English dub) as Ciel Phantomhive, Daisuke Ono (J. Michael Tatum in English dub) as Sebastian, Rie Kugimiya (English dub voice unknown) as Sieglinde Sullivan, and Chikahiro Kobayashi (English dub voice unknown) as Wolfram Geltzer.

The Phantomhive manor voice cast consists of Hiroki Tōchi (Ian Sinclair in English dub) as Baldroy, Yūki Kaji (Jason Liebrecht in English dub) as Finnian, Emiri Katō (Monica Rial in English dub) as Mey-Rin, Takuma Terashima (Spike Spencer in English dub) as Snake, and Shunji Fujimura (R. Bruce Elliott in English dub) as Tanaka.

Other notable voice roles in this episode include Ayako Kawasumi (Alexis Tipton in English dub) as Queen Victoria, Hiroshi Kamiya (Aaron Dismuke in English dub) as John Brown, Ryōhei Kimura (Clifford Chapin in English dub) as Charles Grey, and Tomoaki Maeno (Brandon Potter in English dub) as Charles Phipps.

When and Where to Watch

Black Butler -Emerald Witch Arc- Ep. 5 “His Butler, Descending” made its airing and streaming (aka. simulcast) debut on May 3, 2025. You can watch this episode only on Crunchyroll. In fact, you can watch this entire latest season of the anime, along with all previous seasons and even the Book of the Atlantic anime film, only on Crunchyroll.

Black Butler -Emerald Witch Arc- Ep. 5 “His Butler, Descending”: Synopsis

Don’t worry. She plays a very important role in this mystery too.

Alas, Black Butler -Emerald Witch Arc- only recently began its airing a couple weeks ago. In fact, Black Butler -Emerald Witch Arc- Ep. 5 “His Butler, Descending” has only just made its debut two days ago as of this writing. Thus, here’s the official synopsis from Crunchyroll to give you an idea of what’s going on without too much in the way of spoilers below:

“While Sebastian and Snake are off investigating the Emerald Castle behind Wolfram’s back, a werewolf attacks.”

Black Butler -Emerald Witch Arc- Ep. 5 “His Butler, Descending”: The Good

Black Butler -Emerald Witch Arc- Ep. 5 "His Butler, Descending" screenshot 1
The butler, perturbed and puzzled by the mystery.

As in the previous episodes, Black Butler -Emerald Witch Arc- Ep. 5 “His Butler, Descending” continues the tradition of its story being the best part of it. After all, it’s the same story that Yana Toboso wrote that’s just now an anime. That story turns into a dark and foreboding mystery in this episode as Sebastian and co. try to uncover the mystery behind the increasingly aggressive werewolves and the witch’s magic binding them. Mystery fans will have lots of fun guessing at what’s going on before the big reveal. Fans of the manga will just be giggling to themselves at everyone’s guesses due to them already knowing what’s going on.

Oh, and of particular note: this episode contains one of my favorite scenes in this arc. All involving a snake who’s very eager to help as a distraction and a woman’s bosom. I won’t tell you any more than that for various reasons. I do believe though that this is one of the favorite scenes of most manga readers as well.

And of course, CloverWorks continues to provide some drop-dead gorgeous animation. Their animation team provides yet more feature-length anime film levels of animation quality to enhance all that wonderful mystery. Alas, there’s very little in the way of food in this episode. However, they make up for it with some beautiful animated environments, magical workings, and snakes. Adorable snakes. This automatically makes for one of the best episodes in the arc due to all the snake attention.

Black Butler -Emerald Witch Arc- Ep. 5 “His Butler, Descending”: The Bad

Black Butler -Emerald Witch Arc- Ep. 5 "His Butler, Descending" screenshot 2
When Finny gives you that look, any sane person knows to run.

Alas, as amazing as the story of Black Butler -Emerald Witch Arc- Ep. 5 “His Butler, Descending” is, I do have one teensy-weensy little criticism about it. It’s that the anime cut out one of my favorite scenes in this arc. It’s a scene where Snake is worried about their distraction attempt is falling apart, and that’s when Oscar steps up to the field…metaphorically, that is. For you see, Oscar is but a snake, but that scene has Oscar be the most eager snake in the world. He even has a face that screams “I’m on it!” in the manga. The fact that the anime cut that scene out is a personal peeve for me as a snake fan. Your mileage may vary here though.

Aside from that, this episode is a bit short on action. Yes, there is a short moment of action though. It’s even played up for bloody horror. Alas though, it’s very brief and is over all too quickly. If you want a more action-packed anime, then might I recommend watching Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Kaiju No. 8, DDDD, DAN DA DAN, Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online II, Zenshu, Blue Box, and/or Solo Leveling? Those anime should have more than enough action for your inner action junkie.

What did you think of this week’s episode of Black Butler -Emerald Witch Arc-? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.

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