Kuroshitsuji

---SPOILER---

I liked the comedy routine between the other servants and Sebastian and how Sebastian saved the day as a butler and more in the end so far. But what really amazed me was the origin of Madam Red which was told in a chapter in the begining of the volume 3. It was brilliant, so sad... Poor woman suffered alot. This didn't make her actions ok in anyway though, nothing could make that. What she did over and over again was just so horrible... That chapter and the all of the story involving Madam Red really made me feel like i got the worth of my money. I really recommend this manga to every one.

The Circus adventure was very good. The Second time the manga really imperesed me.
These words from Ciel really made me think:

''You Fought to protect your own world, there is nothing wrong with that. After all, the justice in this world is a sham created by those in power for themselves. No one gives a damn about anyone else. If you are careless, you are sure to lose. To begin with only two kinds of humans existed in this world. Those who rob and those who are robbed. And today, i shall rob you and your allies of your futures. That's all there is to it.''
Ciel Phantomhive

Words of the aristocrat of evil. Not bad for a shouta, Pretty cool words huh ? Not entierly true though, especially what the circus memebers did to protect their world... That was really wrong... But they were really desperate too... :/ But there is some partly truth to the Ciel's words...

And we finally learned the true origin of Sebastian and his master (false) Ciel's first meeting and making a covenant in vol.27. The (false) Ciel sacrificed the (real) Ciel, his brother to the devil so how the real ciel returned was big mystry, especialy since we learned that even the devil sebastion was not able to bring the (real) Ciel back to life. This brings the question of Is the returned (real) Ciel, really (REAL) Ciel... lol I liked the volume but there was nothing really imperesed me in this volume.

I thought it was a shoujo.
It has lots of fan service, which made be believe this until now, but other than that it is a great manga. One that I have enjoyed a lot. Its multiple stories combine historical realism with amusing fantasy, making this manga a very special one. The atmosphere created by the mangaka fits just right.
The development of certain characters might seem weak at first, but every one has a special moment where the magaka devotes her soul in order to make them important, yet interesting according to the general story.

And the art... well, Toboso is one of my favorites mangakas, aside from the story she tells, her art is superb! Is one I enjoy a lot. Taken really good care of, and very attractive. Not filled with drawing details, instead with a lot of contrast that make action scenes seem very real.

[Tiny spoilers]

The entire plot is just so well thought out... But it doesn't really move Ciel forward in his revenge scheme.

One thing I enjoyed was: a huge plot twist occurs in later chapters, showing just how well planned this manga is, but there are some arcs seem random but are in some way still enjoyable..
(The Circus, to cruise ship with zombies, a college, then a boy band?)


The art style is refreshing - highly detailed and beautiful. I also love the Victorian clothing and styles...

Each character has their own unique story and background - that's what I love, but side characters have little to no development. Ciel doesn't have much character development, but further into the novel we begin to understand him and his actions better.

If you love mysteries, I would definitely recommend this to all. Though, it maybe hard to understand at some points in the chapters, it is well written and thought through. From all the novel books I've read, this is in fact one of the closest you will get to get the feeling as if you're reading a novel book, except with pictures.

There are only two downside that I could come up with this manga. One, it is not complete. Though I prefer completed manga, I will wait for this. Two, characters, such as Elizabeth, can be really obnoxious and irritating, but that's what makes the story a manga.

Overall, a rating of 9/10. I would make it into a 10 but, since it's still on-going I will wait for it to finish. Once done, I will see if I change my mind.

Until then, this is Usa-chan man (BunnyMafia) waving good-bye.

A really interesting deconstruction of Faust (a favorite story of mine), which essentially asks: yes, Faust sold his soul, but what if he sold it not because "uwu power" but because he was a traumatized child desperate to escape? Every arc deconstructs a well-known historical event, work of literature, or movie by putting a spin on it, usually to a greatly satisfying result. The story varies quite sharply sometimes in terms of lighthearted humor with a sweet and meaningful message to dark and not out of place in Game of Thrones level grittiness, and yet it doesn't feel uneven in terms of tone. The pacing can be uneven though, but the characters are fun and always deeper than they initially appear to be--it just requires patience to get there.

Black Butler follows the story of a young earl named Ciel Phantomhive and his demonic butler Sebastian Michaelis on a quest for revenge.

Story (9/10)
The story is fairly unique and well executed, with each arc revealing information.

Black Butler arc: Serves as an introduction to the characters, setting and basic plot of the series. (7/10)

Red Butler arc: Ciel and Sebastian set out to find Jack the Ripper, Shinigami's are introduced. (8/10)

Curry/Indian Butler arc: 2 new characters are introduced, prince Soma and his butler Agni. (7/10)

Circus arc: This is where the story starts getting REALLY good, Ciel and Sebastian are sent to infiltrate the Noah's Ark Circus, as children go missing in every town they visit. This arc has one of best and creepiest antagonist I've seen in anime. (10/10)

Book of Murder/Phantomhive Manor Murders arc: Ciel hosts a banquet at the Phantomhive manor on the queens request and guests mysteriously start dying, 2 new characters are introduced, the queens butlers Charles Grey and Charles Phipps, also known as the Double Charles, this was an overall fantastic and enjoyable arc. (9/10)

Book of the Atlantic/Luxury Liner arc: Ciel and Sebastian have to infiltrate a meeting of the Aurora Society due to them being suspected of illegal human experimentation, this arc provides amazing development to a previously annoying character whom I disliked and made me like and respect her, the action scenes in this arc are one of the best in Black Butler. The Undertaker is revealed as the culprit behind everything and as a grim reaper. (10/10)

Book of Book/Public School arc: Ciel and Sebastian set out to investigate Weston College in disguise as teacher and student under the queens request as Derrick Ardern and other students refuse to return home, Undertaker reappears, it was overall a good arc. (9/10)

Greenwitch arc: Many strange deaths start occurring in southern Germany, with victims that were healthy but suddenly became grotesquely deformed and died afterwards, the queen sends Sebastian and Ciel to investigate, 2 new characters are introduced, Wolfram and Sieglinde Sullivan, one of my favorite arcs in the series. (10/10)

Art: (10/10) Some of the best art I've seen in manga, the art goes perfectly with Victorian and Gothic setting of the manga, the art starts out pretty good becomes better and better as the series goes on.

Characters: (10/10) The main characters, Ciel and Sebastian have a likable charm to them, Ciel is cold, calculating, merciless and morally grey, but is very protective and caring towards his loved ones, Sebastian comes off as a charming, perfect butler, but underneath that facade is a manipulative, bloodthirsty and hungry demon, Sebastian and Ciel have a perfect dynamic and make eachothers characters even more interesting, I love these characters!

Enjoyment: (10/10) I very much enjoyed this series, it's in my top 5 favorite manga.

Overall: (10/10)

This series is praised in its anime version, while the manga gets less recognition. But, why? Is the anime really better than the original series? Does it deserve all the hype it's got? Well, I plan to uncover this "mystery". Hell, what am I saying? Cutting this, let's get on to the review, shall we?

Kuroshitsuji, or Black Butler, as it is known by most of the fans, is a shounen manga with seinen and shoujo elements. But well, what the hell is that? Well, I have to say that the genre of this series is hard to pin down. Not only on story model, but art as well. The manga presents lots of cliche elements, stupid comedy (that's actually funny sometimes) and constant action, that categorizes it mainly as shounen. However, the concept is dark, with cruel references, gothic symbolism, and of course the pessimist, melancholic feeling that the main character brings. All those are seinen elements. The design of some characters (specially the male's) looks pretty gothic, with mostly sadistic expressions and smirks, but well, let's leave this to later. However, the "female yaoi loving" origins of the author influence the work making it seem more shoujo-like with all the annoying tendencies. But remember, that isn't something bad, however, as I'm a heterossexual guy, I don't really appreciate the yaoi tendencies presented in the manga.

Well then, after the gigantic explanation about the genre, I shall begin with the story. Well, straight-on, the plot development in Kuroshitsuji disappoints a lot. It had the concept to be the best story I've ever read, however it was crushed by huge simple flaws which could easily be corrected. There are some incoherences in many points in many arcs, and they actually end up ruining big part of the story. The narrative follows on different arcs, which are mainly different crime cases investigated by the main character, Ciel Phantomhive, his butler Sebastian Michaelis and usually more supporting character that'll be mentioned later on. The cases are quite creative at their most, and one of them actually has historical reference. Well, it would be a shame if a manga based off of the Victorian Era with a crime-investigation theme didn't have its own version of the so-famous Jack The Ripper case. This is one of the best arcs on the manga, and the one with the absolute best "conclusion", with a deep message that made me shiver.
Oh, the messages. They are the best thing about the story. Kuroshitsuji is pessimist in every way. The way tragic happenings are treated is amazing, talking about a shounen manga series. The main character ends up being one of the most cruel protagonists I've ever seen in a manga series, and Sebastian only adds to this cruelty of Ciel's with his demonic personality. It's a shame I cannot discuss spoilers here. If I could, I would tell more about the messages and philosophical meanings behind some arcs, such as the Jack the Ripper's and the circus' ones, that are, by far, the best.
However, the messages seem apart of lots of aspects. The story is full of stupid and useless "comic relief" characters that suddenly turn serious and perverse from nothing. That's nuisance and annoyed me many times. And, of course, this a shounen manga. The power of friendship could not be absent. Luckily due to the protagonist's cold and cruel personality, the messages are easily forgotten and it's actually funny to see how people around Ciel seem to consider him as their friend, while the only thing he cares is using lots of them as chess pieces. Still, I don't think Ciel can have friends, and I always ponder if he feels anything for some of the characters.

And as we're getting more into the characters, let's talk about them. As I already commented some about the protagonist, Ciel Phantomhive, there's no reason on going through that all again. Sebastian, I didn't talk much about him. Well, in short, Sebastian is one of the best characters I've ever seen in any story. He's known a lot by fangirls for his looks, and usually fans in general forget just how he really is. We already know his true motives, his true personality, and that he is not playing around. Many people seem to forget just how Sebastian is cruel, but, well, he's a demon. He's pure evil. But... well, aren't humans evil creatures as well? Hey, what is good and evil anyway? This is one of the many questions the manga seems to want you to think about.
As the due Sebastian and Ciel are good, realistic and solid characters, the rest are not as good. Most of them are created only to make comic relief after their main function on an arc is over (main example Prince Soma and Agni, the indian prince and his servant). Some others aren't interesting at all, some are a little bit funny and charismatic, however do not seem to cause much effect on the story (like Grell Sutcliff, the gay/bi shinigami, and Meylin, Finny and Bard, the rest of Phantomhive's Manor's servants). But there are interesting and well developed characters that affect the story, like Ciel's aunt, Madam Red, a very solid and realistic character, and the Undertaker, one of the most interesting supporting ones, and that seems to have a greater role in the future, as the story is likely to, now, get bigger as lots of things are starting to happen.
And, also, there are actual funny characters such as Lau, the Chinese manager of a trading company, and weird ones that have a bizarre charisma, such as Mr. Tanaka, former butler of the Phantomhive family that knew Ciel from long time ago, and also Snake, a servant that appears later on, but that have a interesting personality and ways of facing things.
Kuroshitsuji has some supporting minor characters that appear with equally minor functions in many arcs, and there are the ones that don't do a thing since the beginning. Being, the main example, Ciel's fiancée Elizabeth Midford, or Lizzy. She is the most cliche character and also the most unrealistic one, for reasons that are actually spoilers. But well, Lizzy is completely unnecessary for the plot and storyline, being the most useless supporting major character out of all.

Since the series is currently ongoing, I hope there will be more background development for the servants from the Phantomhive Manor, that hasn't been made until yet. And, of course, I hope for the useless Lizzy to do something that changes the story.

Concluding with the story, it is good, really good. However, the narrative have flaws and the author is not that good at storytelling. She should if her manga is shounen or seinen-focused. And quit with the yaoi tendencies, so that it would please a larger male audience, that I believe should be her target by publishing at a shounen action magazine.
But, well, there are many mysteries to be unsolved on the plot.

The art on Kuroshitsuji isn't good. I don't know what the hell was going on when I saw so many people praising the art as perfect and beautiful. It is not nearly as that. Not in the actual story. I mean this: The covers and full-color illustrations are beautiful and really detailed. The technique she used for the coloring and composition on such covers and special pages are amazing, and I am stunned at every new colored page or double page she draws. However the pages on the actual comic are... Well... Blank. The manga is supposed to present the reader to the Victorian World, where architecture and fashion was everything. There is almost no scenario in the manga, and they are extremely poor and lack "dirt". In case you don't know, in drawing a scene, we call "dirt" the different tones used for different things, or even lesser details, like cracks on a wall, or wall stamps, etc. Kuroshitsuji has few use of gray tones, and even less in this regard. When I see a building, I want to cry to see such the ability of the artist being thrown away by poorly drawn structures. And then I come face-to-face to a double page spread. Beautiful drawings and beautiful use of perspective.
I don't know, but in a monthly manga, I would expect much more of a manga that sometimes has twenty pages. Specially from an artist that CAN draw beautifully.

Well, the scenario is bad, but what about the characters? Are they well-drawn? Yes. Yes, they are. The character design is really good and fits well most of them. Using some examples: we see Ciel, a cold kid. His appearance, often dark and with grey tones resembling the blue give emphasis to that aspect of his personality. Sebastian; an almost perfect butler. Always dressed well in fancy clothing. But he's also cruel and a demon. His usual smirk and grim eyes alongside with the "gothic-ish" hair adds to the feeling of darkness. There are many different character designs, however a lot of the male adult characters look the same. Sometimes you just feel like you're surrounded by Sebastians in the story. Luckily, the hairstyles are distinct and can identify the characters, since the clothing of lots of them are uniformed.
Though they are anatomically realistic, there are little mistakes that can annoy someone that strictly analyzes art like me. For example, hats that do not correspond the actual size of the head, and so forth. And, well, I don't complain much, since I like the character design, however they do not match the Victorian Era theme. As most men wear really long and gracious hair with long bangs, some of them going through their eyes and even reaching the bottom of the chin. However I like this kind of design, and I don't feel the need to complain. It's a stylized manga after all, not an historical movie.

All in all, Kuroshitsuji is a great manga with huge flaws in art and story. A review of it is a bit incomplete without spoilers, but I tried my best to cover it all. I liked the manga and read it through with not a single regret, as I enjoyed through most of it. Even though I'm anxious to know what shall happen next on the story, I'm always afraid the author can screw it over. I feel like the manga has still many arcs to arrive to an end, and I feel like the mystery of Ciel's parents death will be more interesting than I first expected, with revelations coming from many characters.

I recommend Kuroshitsuji to anyone that can stand yaoi tendencies (that DO NOT happen, if it did I wouldn't have kept reading it) and likes a bit of philosophy and darker themes. If you're extremely obsessed with story flaws and art, try it out, however I guarantee that it won't be a perfect work for you.
Oh! Please don't watch the anime. Don't torture yourself doing so.

__________________________
My score: 7.9

Story: The idea and concept of Kuroshitsuji is very good and you really don't know what will happen next. The story is a little confusing because we, the readers, do not know quite yet what the whole point of goal of the plot is. However the little arcs are fascinatig and historical and very well made as well telling us important morals.

Art: The art is simply BRILLIANT. Everything and I mean everything is amazing. The backgrounds are detailed and the flowers, tea sets, clothes, and the characters are intricately detailed and drawn very well as well.

Characters: I love the characters. I cannot help it. 83. Ciel Phantomhive is the 12 year old successor to Phantomhive household and is a selfish adorable brat whom is absolutely loveable. Sebastian is a demon and the butler who serves Ciel. He can do virtually anything and both are characters you wish the author would quickly hurry up and tell more about.

Enjoyment: I thoroughly enjoy this manga. ^^ I look forward to reading it every day when I have time.

So I first saw the anime and was left bitter since I believed the story had more to offer than the show itself and then I picked the manga up.
They both get a seven but I honestly believe the manga to 100 times better than the anime or it's lousy sequel which by the way was too horrible to even watch till the end. Though I like the manga better it still lacks and so here I will try to explain why.

STORY: quite good, very good actually. The story doesn't have much consistency; the only consistent thing about it is that Ciel sold his soul and is now Sebastian's master and they try to find the right people so Ciel can unleash his hateful revenge on. While that is promising and good as an idea for a plot and could perhaps unravel in a sort of mysterious,detective kind of story with the boy being led from one clue to the other so he can find what he's looking for but it actually doesn't do so. Instead it relies on cliches and stories told so many times and in the same ridiculous shonen fashion that I have gotten very sick of.We have different arcs that, while some are enjoyable, eventually lead no where, sure the bad guys are done for and the mystery is solved but what does it have to do with Ciel and the people who killed his parents? Now since this hasn't finished yet and well...as painful as it may be we're not really sure when it's going to be, it may be never, these unrelated arcs might lead to something in the end but by the time we reach the end we've gotten so tired of the constant fillers that you just give up. The last few chapters are just fillers with stuff so unrelated that the story becomes stiff and boring, this plot could be carried out in a much wittier way and I suppose with less chapters but it just drags and tries too much to sell. 7 only for the concept

ART:ok the art is PERFECT! If you like Victorian fashion and generally the whole atmosphere of those times( and the gothic theme of course) then you'll probably enjoy the art very much. Beautiful castles are drawn in much detail and so are the interiors, in general we have a lot of great background( well maybe not as good as Kaori Yukis but close) and it captures the feel of the era perfectly. the clothes are all magnificent, I especially like all of Ciels outfits,they're imaginative and completely stylish. This series is great for the fashion, no let downs here. 9

CHARACTER: ugh, so I felt the characters were flat in the anime, the manga is no different.We have our mains here; Ciel and Sebastian. While I find Ciel's character to be promising and often comes off very interesting even though he is a spoiled son of a bitch. Sebastian is flat, I can't put my head around him, he has no character what so ever, even though he's polished to the bone with all the cool guy traits, with his wits and sharp moves and chilly attitude but still he's really forgettable at the end of the day.He COULD be interesting I mean he's a devil blah blah blah, I've come across interesting creatures of his kind but he fails completely. The servants of Ciels mansion are forgettable while funny but that's all they got,then there's some key characters that come and go like Lau who are enjoyable while they're there. The gay shinigami is awful and it's NOT because he's gay but he's just so...I dunno, he just doesn't fit. Elizabeth, Ciels fiancee, is terrible and annoying and oh my god so familiar! Ciel is promising and so are some others that appear for a little while but eventually he has no growth or in general he really just isn't well written. Boring, boring, boring and most of them just don't fit the script. They're too far fetched! 5

ENJOYMENT/OVERALL: So this manga IS enjoyable even though the characters are a major turn off for me that likes well written characters but it still is fun to read. You really can see that the author did her homework on England 1800s and that you can see very clearly, Kuroshitsuji is an enjoyable manga if you like to look at pretty art. You can get lost in it's era very easily and enjoy the story. Some arcs like I said are very good like the one about the Circus which is really really good. Nothing too heavy, an easy read definitely and it's kind of fun. The tackiness can get to you but it's still worth a look. If you like nice art then take a look at it, if you expect any kind of development aside form one or two hints every 20 chapters than forget it.7

Anime Kuroshitsuji was first anime I ever seen. So you can easily predict that I had to read manga. And I found it somewhere.

Anyway. Art is outstanding and while reading you really feel that they like their job. Drawings are very detailed and even thoug the plot (to which I'll move later) is not at highest level, simple looking at every single page is a great joy.

As I mentioned there is a "little" problem with the plot. At first, maybe thoughout first half, it seems quite realistic, if you don't count mistakes connected with time period (Cell phone? Really?). You quickly learn how to ignore it.

Than, unfortunately, story goes in a very wrong direction. I don't want to spoil the fun of reading, so I'll just tell that you get a very strong feeling of reading a bad fanfiction. Art is still great, of course, but it seems to me that Yana Tobso is sometimes too excited about her own character, Sebastian, and she tries hard to show all his possibilities - ignoring realism and throwing characters into riddiculus situations not matching withe the atmosphere of manga. Also the author's knowlegde of the time period in which action takes place is something she should work on harder (she certainly tries as you can see progress clearly in further chapters. Stupid situation reamin stupid, but you won't see as many futuristic objects).

That's all for objective review, because the rest is strongly affected by my own taste.

The biggest adventage is for me idea of shinigami. Don't ask me why. I just love them. It's not a horror, but they are a great idea in form she presented them. Althoug it also goes with many plot holes, from wihich the biggest one is certainly demon's selective ability to recognise shinigami what results in one recognised immediately, and second one ignored through many chapters. Explanation that is given doesn't stand up.

I had a problem with enjoying charachters. At first author managed to keep banace in their behawior and appearence time, but now things get a little out of control. Main character, Ciel, is getting more childlish and delicate, what is propably a result of letting Sebastian do more thing for him to show his strenght and inteligence. Still they're extremely enjoyable. I'm not sure what to think of quality and complexity of characters, but reading about them can still give you a huge amount of fun. Also not all of them were spoiled - for example Undertaker (my favourite one), appearing more often recently, hasn't lost his ability to interest and his entrance and motive remain mystery.

All in all - I think I'd recommend it. It's not the greatest one but if you look for something ligh-horror manga with many handsome guys in it and art which makes you contemplate the drawing for many hours - that's the one. Just don't expect too much.