Ciel and Sebastian walk into a forest where the deaths don't make sense yet, and the show spends thirteen episodes making you understand that some mysteries are designed to trap you. The Gothic machinery of Black Butler actually works when it has a single location to strangle, no jumping between arcs, no tonal whiplash, just two people and a curse that keeps revealing new teeth. This is what the manga does best, and the adaptation finally trusts it enough to slow down.

Queen Victoria sends 13-year-old Earl Ciel Phantomhive to southern Germany, where people from several villages have died after visiting the Werewolves' Forest and then suffering strange deformities. Locals blame an old witch's curse, but Ciel doubts anything supernatural is involved. With his demonic butler Sebastian Michaelis and the Phantomhive servants, he finds a hidden village of hostile women who serve Sieglinde Sullivan, a girl with emerald eyes known as the Green Witch. When the curse strikes Ciel and Sebastian too, the local legends start to look more real. This sequel to the boarding school arc blends action, fantasy and supernatural mystery.