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