10 Anime That Are Way Better Than Their Titles Make Them Sound
5. Black Butler
A beautifully-crafted Victorian era setting with demonic elements, Black Butler follows the orphaned child of a rich family, working for the Queen on solving mysteries of London's underworld with the help of his... demonically competent butler.
Much of the story is at first hidden under the creator's love of Victorian fashion and the show's comedic shenanigans involving a competent butler trying to run a house with incompetent staff and a spoiled child master, but eventually reveals its much darker, deeply unsettling origins as the show progresses.
From massacring underground pedophile rings and child-murdering circuses, to fighting Jack the Ripper, all while encountering demons and chainsaw-wielding death gods along the way, one of the show's greatest pulls is its ability to make human characters more disturbing and frightening than any of their supernatural cast. The seemingly mundane house staff have their own secrets and loyalties to their twelve-year-old master, with orphaned "Queen's guarddog" Ciel Phantomhive and his deal with the butler Sebastian the darkest secret of all.
A sinister, disturbing story overlaid with gorgeous visuals and a compelling, likeable cast of characters, Black Butler is transgressive fiction at its most elegant, taking Victorian England's darkest histories and making it the show's playground.