Downstairs with Kuroshitsuji

Downstairs with Kuroshitsuji are the extras that occasionally appear at the end of the volumes. They are drawn by Yana Toboso and commonly depict what goes into making Kuroshitsuji. Even though they are numbered as volumes, the number is not necessarily the same number as the volume it appears in due to them not appearing in every volume.
==Summary==
===Volume 1===
Found in Volume 1.
She talks about how she came up with the idea of a demon butler and what he would look like: After the completion of Rust Blaster, Toboso discussed her next project with her editor Mr. K. She has always wanted to do a manga with a butler as the main character, but was unsure how to make it work as a butler is usually only a supporting character. During that phone call, she had the idea to make the butler a demon. Mr. K called her an idiot when she said that.
Afterward, Toboso started to gather everything on Great Britain that she could find as she barely knew anything about that kingdom. Although the story would take place in a parallel world, she still wanted to make it as accurate as possible. Then, Toboso and Mr. K fought about how the butler should look: Mr. K. wanted his hair to be parted in the middle, but Toboso wanted to give him a 7-3 hairstyle because she liked it better and was not very good at drawing middle parts. They eventually settled on the middle part. Mr. K also proposed "The Disgraceful Butler" as the title before they agreed on "Black Butler."
===Volume 2===
Found in Volume 2.
Yana Toboso laments how everyone thinks her surname is "Hitsugi" (coffin), and Mr. K remarks that "Toboso" is such a difficult name to memorise and asks her why she could not pick a better pseudonym. This prompts her to reveal some of the strange names her editor thought of as the series' name before they settled on "Kuroshitsuji": "Butler = Slave," "Reduced to Butlerdom," "A Vile Worm of a Butler," "The Outcast Butler," "The Self-Destructive Butler," and "Lord Butler."
Then, Toboso adds that not only Mr. K is a bit "weird," but also her assistants, K, H, and S. For example, Toboso likes to draw clothes which means they always have to apply a lot of screen tones to the pages. While they were making their finishing touches on Chapter 7, Assistant H asked Toboso what screen tone she should apply on the Viscount of Druitt's clothes. However, she said "koshaku" (insolent) instead of "shishaku" (Viscount) which resulted in mockery and a new nickname for Aleister.
Furthermore, she reveals that no one in her team knows anything about 19th century England and they are always poring over history books. During their research, they always learn new things like that the Season is in summer and that, in summer, people put potted plants in the chimney because they never left a room unused. Every time they have to look up something, their pile of books grows, and Toboso even subscribed English magazines. They certainly do a lot of research, but she sometimes wonders where it is even used.
Lastly, she speaks about the Drama CD: When she first got the call that there would be a Drama CD, Toboso was quite excited. They worked closely with the publisher "Frontier Works," and she had a say in the selection of the voice actors. When she and Mr. K received the first script for the Drama CD, he suggested that they could add some new scenes and change things. For example, the part where Sebastian pulls away the tablecloth to hide the wine stains could be replaced with him slurping up the wine.
This suggestion was, however, vetoed by Toboso. The Drama CD does include some additional scenes though. Her personal favorite is the one in which Sebastian speaks with a pacifier in his mouth—another suggestion from Mr. K.
===Volume 3===
Found in Volume 5.
She talks about going to a count's home to take pictures for the "Phantom Night" (a Kuroshitsuji event) and her editor, Editor K, appearing in all of them. She also mentions the announcement for the anime adaptation.
===Volume 4===
Found in Volume 6.
She talks about doing all of the character designs for the anime, the announcement of the video game and doing the designs for it.
===Volume 5===
Found in Volume 7.
She talks about the amount of work she put into making Baron Kelvin's personality and how people ignored him for Vincent and Diedrich.
===Volume 6===
Found in Volume 13.
Two years have passed since the last volume, and she reminisces about everything that happened during this period: the second season of the anime, the two musicals, and the food collaboration with Namco Namjatown, a theme park in Tokyo Ikebukuro. Apart from addressing these things and thanking everyone for continuing to support her, Yana Toboso does not know what else she could say though. Mr. K suggests to answer fan questions like other mangaka do, but she says that she does not get many questions from fans regarding Kuroshitsuji. Instead, she is always asked how she draws male characters so well, and as she does not know it herself, she does not know what to answer. Another question she frequently gets is "How do you become a mangaka?", and Mr. K says that she could just talk about her experiences as a beginner mangaka then.
In 2003, Yana Toboso sent in a manuscript for a Square Enix manga competition. Her story was called "Hell-O" and followed two Grim Reaper partners called Koya and Ginji. It won the advancement award and caught the eye of Mr. K who then became her editor. "Hell-O" was scrapped because Mr. K disliked the plot. It, however, inspired the Grim Reaper Dispatch. The military uniforms the Grim Reapers wore in "Hell-O" were changed to suits though.
At the beginning of 2004, Yana Toboso sent in another manuscript for the same competition. Her manga "Disguise" followed a lord called Ao—who later evolved into Ciel Phantomhive—and his servant Kohaku. This time, she was ranked second and was offered to do a short guest manga. It was called "9th" and told the story about nine princes fighting for the throne. During that time, Toboso became more aware of her own inexperience, and Mr. K had to make her read various books on how to create mangas.
In 2005, she published her short series Rust Blaster, and, in 2006, she started Kuroshitsuji. Initially, Kuroshitsuji was supposed to be a short series as well, but when it proved to be quite popular, Toboso got the opportunity to expand it.
Furthermore, she remarks that, although she is a fully-fledged mangaka now, there is a lot she does not know and still has to learn.
===Special volume===
Found in Volume 15.
Yana Toboso and her team did extensive research on public schools for the Public School Arc, and the special presents the uniforms worn by the students of Weston College in detail.
DwK Regular uniform.png|Regular uniform
DwK Prefect uniform.png|Uniform for prefects
DwK Sportswear and college gowns.png|Sportswear and college gowns
===Volume 7===
Found in Volume 17.
She talks about doing research about cricket and about her trip to the Japan Cricket Association to learn more about the sport.
During the making of the Public School Arc, Yana Toboso asked her history consultant, Riko Murakami, if there are school festivities at public schools too, and he told her that, at some elite college, there is always a cricket tournament on June 4. Because she has no idea of cricket, she and Mr. K gathered all they could find on the topic. Even though cricket is a very popular sport, it is largely unknown in Japan. Thus, they were only able to find very little information, and the little they did find, they could not understand because they could not picture anything that was described as they have never seen a cricket game.
Mr. K eventually found a cricket course for beginners at a school in Tokyo, and he and Yana Toboso went there to try the sport themselves. The cricket teacher then referred them to the Japan Cricket Association in Sano. There they met the association's chairman, Miyaji, and asked him everything about the rules of cricket and how they could cheat without breaking them.
===Volume 8===
Found in Volume 21.
Toboso talks about the extensive research she did for the Emerald Witch Arc and that she could not include everything she learned: The more she researched about Germany, the more interesting she found it. She wanted to include a lot of technology in the arc as "what seemed like a supernatural phenomenon turned out to be the latest technology" is a "classic." Toboso was fascinated what existed and what did not exist by the end of the 19th century, and the fact that people rode in carriages while airplanes were almost about to start flying was one of the reasons why she came up with the Emerald Witch Arc.
Afterward, she reveals that her assistants were not happy that they had to draw factories, a lot of weaponry, a tank, etc. and wished that they could draw three-tier trays, chandeliers, balls, afternoon tea, and everything else that is part of the "decadent and elegant life of the evil aristocrat and his butler." Toboso replied that they did a party in the Luxury Liner Arc and the Midnight Tea Party in the Public School Arc, but her assistants insisted that these events did not count as the "ratio of elegant to zombies was about one to nine." The assistants also complained about the lack of "handsome dudes" and claimed that no one wants to look at "tough female soldiers in their late twenties." Toboso explained that she decided to make the population of Wolfsschlucht mostly female because she wanted to draw girls after the Public School Arc which lacked female characters; she adds that she likes female soldiers.
Toboso also told her assistants that she wants to return to drawing balls and dresses as well—and that they will return to drawing them "after the butler knocks the tank down." Hearing this, her assistants gave her a "gold look" which she tries to never forget.
Furthermore, Toboso states that she loves all kind of reader reactions, both the positive and the negative.
And as many readers write her that they have problems remembering the names of the characters as there are so many guest characters in each arc, Toboso reveals the nicknames she and her assistants came up with for some of the characters in the series because they often cannot remember the characters' names as well. She mentions that characters are called by nicknames until everyone remembers their real names.
Character 	Nickname 	Reason
Sieglinde Sullivan	Sally-chan 	Reference to the anime Sally the Witch
Wolfram Gelzer 	Yaa-san 	Because he says "ja" (yes) so much
Dagger 	Tarou Ku●daore 	Reference to Tarou Kuidaore, a symbol of Osaka
Maurice Cole 	Croissant 	Because his hair looks like one
Grimsby Keane 	Parakeet 	Because his topknot looks like a parakeet crest
Grelle Sutcliff 	Shark 	Because of her teeth
William T. Spears 	Takaeda 	Because it means "high branches"; his middle name is a remnant of this nickname
Lau 	Ramen 	Because of the pattern on the waist sash he was wearing in the Red Butler Arc
Ran-Mao 	Ramen's Kid Sister 	In accordance with Lau's nickname
Edgar Redmond 	Prince Hotel (Aka-Puri)	Because of his surname (Redmond → "aka") and former position (Prefect → "puri"); a reference to the Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka which was also nicknamed "Aka-puri"
Clayton 	Pomade 	Because it looks like he uses it
Ronald Knox 	Ha●burgular 	Reference to Ronald McDonald and Hamburglar
pl:Pod schodami Kuroshitsuji
Category:Out-of-Universe
Category:Volumes