ines37 - 2015-05-01 06:09:48

I found this hard to watch. I thought the plot was uninteresting, and I disliked the characters. (The sexual tension between Ciel and the butler?? and Alois?? TOTALLY CREEPY they're children D:) Not to mention, it's just not my style. But that's why baskin robins is 31 flavors, right?  However, I really appreciated the design and skill that went into this show. 

raymundo.quigley - 2015-02-09 05:50:47

"Black Butler" is a modernized, Victorian version of Faust. ...seriously.

The story itself is derived from "Doctor Faustus" and the whole idea of the Faustian bargain, but it's generally very-well adapted into the Victorian setting. The first 10 or so episodes are rather good, but things drop in clarity and get more confusing as the episodes progress. By the end, some things are tied up together well, while others are left in shambles.

Character wise, Sebastian completely steals the show. With his mysterious persona, [seemingly] nice attitude and FUCKIN' GOOD LOOKS (oh lordy), he's totally the centerpiece. Ciel can be annoying at times, but he is after all "only a child." I would have liked to see more development of the secondary and supporting characters, for they felt rather one-dimensional.

Art quality is very good, especially when it comes to the action sequences. OP and both EDs are very enjoyable. The English dub is quite excellent. The Victorian-style soundtrack really adds to the atmosphere.

I really enjoyed watching "Black Butler," despite the gripes I have with it regarding plot. It apparently deviates from the manga after the first arc or so, but seems good as a stand-alone watch.

runte.jimmy - 2014-11-23 16:03:49

This was the first anime that really captivated me.

Recommend for fans of demons, supernatural, history-themed, dark/mystery, some comedy, somewhat psychological. It's hard to grade these.

I have the tendency to shrug off requests, but as I watched the first episodes, I couldn't stop. The Victorian era is beautiful to me. The outfits aren't too busy, but they are detailed. I enjoyed the color change between vibrant scenes, and dark scenes. It wasn't too much of one or the other.

No matter the season, Sebastian is my favorite character, but Mey-rin is awesome too.

I didn't really care for the second season, but it was nice that it continued. I would've wanted one anyway. Book of circus was amazing to me as well. The ending didn't live up to my expectation, but I still loved it.

There were times where things got serious, but there's humor, so it doesn't give off too-intense of a feel.

So yeah. I love it.

dejah.kshlerin - 2014-09-29 03:50:37

Story

Black Butler is one of those stories that has multiple small arcs and detours, rather than mainly focusing on the over-arcing story. However, what makes it different from things like Fairy Tail or any of those other shonens is that there is actually an over-arcing story that is often acknowledged. This is something I really like about Black Butler, especially since each the individual arcs consist of multiple intriguing mysteries. Plus, the whole story is set up with an end in sight, and it follows through. Not counting season two, which I’m pretending doesn’t exist.

The over-arcing story in question can be forgotten at times when the characters get caught up in their little expeditions, but the tangents are still entertaining, and near the end, most focus is spent on Ciel getting his revenge.

The ending of Black Butler is perfect. It sums everything up, everyone is happy. Know that I think about it, it’s rare to find any show that has such a great ending. Of course, many fangirls were unhappy about it ending, but that’s natural when someone’s favorite anime ends. Having an anime end well is better than having an anime go on forever and then end crappily. I was personally happy with how it ended.

Animation

The animation in Black Butler is absolutely beautiful, and the art is gorgeous. It has the same style as Yana Toboso’s wonderful manga, and Yana Toboso is one of the most talented manga-ka I know of. And it’s not only the art. The action scenes are extremely well done, as are the small movements. Overall, it is near perfect.

My favorite part about the style is that it is much more detailed than the generic shounen style, but not too detailed like the shoujo style, creating a perfect balance. The character designs are also detailed and have a nice style, and all of the characters look pretty good. I know most fangirls would agree.

Sound

Both openings in Black Butler have the same song, but different animation. The animation in both is really good, and I absolutely love the song, (Monochrome no Kiss by SID). I just love the vocalist’s voice and the use of the guitar.

The soundtrack for Black Butler can only be described as beautiful. There are some pretty good tracks, ranging from haunting choral pieces to tracks with bouncy piano. It’s not the most outstanding soundtrack, but it’s pretty good.

Characters

Though there are only two main characters, there is a large cast of entertaining supporting characters that serve numerous purposes, but the main purpose that most of them have is comedic relief. And they definitely deliver. My favorite by far is Grelle Sutcliff, whom is probably one of the funniest characters I’ve seen in an anime. The whole cast is loveable and unique.

Despite how loveable the characters are, they don’t really have much development. I don’t personally care about development as long as the rest of the story is good, but if development is very important for you in your entertainment, Black Butler doesn’t really have that.

Ciel is really the only character given lots of depth, however, all of the other characters have interesting pasts and backgrounds. Some of them are only shown in the OVAs, but a fair amount also have a place in the actual show.

Despite the lack of depth and development in the characters, half of them were badasses. And badasses make everything fun, especially in a Victorian setting.

Enjoyment

Black Butler was overall, very entertaining. In fact, I have already rewatched it a few times. The only problem is the fanbase. I see Black Butler fangirls as being divided into two groups; the casual fangirls who love the hot guy characters but maintain composure, and then there are the crazy, hysterical fangirls who have the capacity to be very frightening. I’m a casual fangirl myself and the hysterical fans scare the shit out of me. I was once attack hugged by a group of Black Butler fangirls because I was wearing a Black Butler shirt… it was scary. But if you can ignore the rest of the fanbase and enjoy the actual show, you will not be disappointed.

If you want the best experience, watch up to the curry contest episode and then watch Black Butler: Book of Circus. If you have plenty of free time and want to watch it all, watch the first season of Black Butler, then Book of Circus, and then watch Black Butler II as a little extra.

Final Conclusion: 9/10

reed42 - 2014-04-21 22:05:57

Thunder's review nr.6: Black Butler

Would you sell your soul, your very afterlife for any price? Personally, if I would get my own demon butler in return I would at least consider it. Well, it would certainly be a one hell of a butler but not the one worth dying for.

Black Butler is an anime about a noble boy named Ciel who wants to avenge his dead family, simple goal but circumstances are far from being simple or normal. He made pact with a very charming demon, Sebastian Michaelis. In exchange for Ciel's soul Sebastian not only helps him with his detective work but also tries to be a perfect butler all the time. The setting is wonderful and classy Victorian England with all hers tea drinking, elegance, arrogant nobility and God save the queen syndrome, overall one of the better settings I've seen in a vast amount of anime. It gave the show original and distinguished feel.

Main plot doesn't actually kicks in before few episodes in, first we are introduced to the short detective arcs that last for a few episodes each. In the meantime we are given informations about mystery surrounding Ciel and Sebastian little by little which I think was fairly well done. Thanks to that despite episodic nature of the show there was still feeling of progress and we knew that there is something more to everything that it seems. Sure, there was some filler stuff thrown in that doesn't needed to be there but overall the plot managed to stay at least decently intriguing all the way through.

There is one main issue that I have with the plot, mixing serious moments with the lighthearted ones. When I started watching Black Butler I expected that I'm getting into dark and mature show but right after dark and mysterious intro I was shocked by amount of typical anime comedy thrown at me right from the start. I wondered if I'm watching the right show but I was. Big, if not biggest part of the few first episodes is filled with a lot of comedy, even extremely cool demon butler happen to run in a room with a deer head on and ruining serious drama ongoing there. I won't say that comedy in this show was bad, because in fact it could be ridiculously fun sometimes(but that's up to personal taste) but there are times for laughs and times when you should be able to reflect about peoples misery and learn something from it. Fortunately it gets better later on and show managed to be pretty serious without completely turning away from its half lighthearted path in the few last episodes.

When main plot itself isn't something I would call brilliant or even really good it definitely isn't a complete failure and manages to send certain messages. Is there a difference between "good" and "evil"? Is it better to lose yourself and live in arrogant lies or suffer and be yourself? Those kind of questions are main and true theme of this anime, too bad that we have to wait for so many episodes to explore them, when they eventually turn up they are rushed and end up not making a lot of sense.

The ending was quite open ended but despite that it felt like a show was complete, so I was quite surprised when I've heard about the second season. It doesn't feel like this anime is in need of a continuation and honestly I have a bad feeling about its successor.

One of the main things that made Black Butler enjoyable to watch was its beautiful art style. Victorian England is beautiful with its distinguished elegance. Backgrounds are beautiful and everything is drowned rather realistically(just a goof or two there and there). Every character, man or women looks well... sexy. I wonder if the whole show isn't made to question my sexual orientation, watching Sebastian and other handsome gentlemen isn't less and maybe even more... primitively satisfying that watching some ecchi harem, even so this fanservice for girls(and some men) isn't to extreme and even if you don't like handsome boys exposing themselves you shouldn't be turn down by it, well I think so but we all know that homophobia is a serious problem nowadays in some parts of the the societies.

Animations themselves aren't perfect, there are some moments when frame rate isn't as good as it should be but despite that they manege to stay on a very good level, overall good animation and amazing art style.

Soundtrack suited both victorian england setting and fantasy feel of the show perfectly. There was great variety of sounds, from the epic choruses to the slow, mysterious and beautiful soundtracks. Both the opening and endings deserve a lot of praise. Opening song stay the same trough the whole show but animations in it change and different song verses are used. It's very good song, yet I wonder if it's text suits the anime as well as soundtrack does or is it just another fanservice thing that should make us fall in love in Sebastian. First ending song is lively and rockie, it's kind of addictive but I think I preferred second ending more because it was both beautiful and serious, those of you that know famous in the anime industry music group named Kalafina should know what I mean. Both main and support voice actors done a very good job. Even Ciel sounds cool, despite being a young boy.

Our one hell of a butler Sebastian Michaelis is definitely main selling point of the whole show, actually the show is named after him so that must be saying something. Sebastian posses everything that makes a character likeable, he's mysterious, unique, seems to be kind(we never know), is extremely reliable and what's most important for some, he got a class. There is not denying that Sebastian is one of the most memorable characters I've seen. He steals all the lights and all the looks wherever he is. He doesn't get much of character development but we're waiting for every moment when something new is revealed about him. The only other character that managed to get my attention is the other MC, Ciel Phantomhive. From the beginning he seems to be some arrogant, annoying brat that can't even dress himself without Sebastian. Happily his situation and goals are explained to us very well and he's much more likeable later on. He also gets through some serious character development in the second part of the show.

Sadly despite Sebastian and Ciel being some pretty outstanding characters, rest of the cast is rather lacking. Well, every character at least seem to have much depth but sadly it just seems that way. Ciel's servants, friends, opponents and relatives are a bunch of two and one dimensional characters that usually have a straightforward goal and a simple personality. For example naive prince, extravagant aristocrat or your typical good cop. Different backstories that different characters posses aren't that bad, actually they are alright and despite being simple, all the characters are somewhat fun to watch, even if only for comedic purposes.

All those fun characters, decent enough plot and beautiful art and music makes Black Butler very enjoyable anime. Based on who you are you may even find comedy and fanservice enjoyable but I don't think that this show will appeal to everyone. It's hard to take it too seriously but it doesn't feel right to take it too lightly either. Somewhat I managed to both have some fun and enjoy the story and characters. Black Butler have a unique feel to it and despite comedy parts lessening impact of the serious scenes I don't think that Black Butler would be a show it is right now without them. Maybe it's better to get enjoyable imperfection than some average thriller.

Black Butler is overall a show with a unique feel to it, decent plot and unforgettable characters. It have some problems that keep me from calling it truly great but despite its downsides it was one hell of a show, the nice kind of hell.

.

kellie.keeling - 2013-10-12 01:10:50

This is one of the few anime I can say that I enjoy listening to dubbed. Tatum's voice suits Sebastian quite well. The casting for Grell is superb!

Overall this is a fun anime you can just sit back and relax to. It can be fairly dark at times but overall, some of the sillier characters will take you out of the dark fog and give you a laugh.

I would however, recommend stopping at the end of this season. The second season is much darker and didn't quite leave me as satisfied as the first.

reichel.layla - 2013-07-26 17:34:26

This was one of the very first animes that I've seen. I stumbled upon it in the "recommendations" bar on YouTube. I saw it around before, and so I jumped right in to episode 11. Heh, not really sure why I did that. ^_^ It was one of the episodes that was kinda a continued one, so I went on to twelve. To make a long story short... I LOVED IT. I decided that it was probably a good idea to watch the first one, and afterwards I was like: What the heck did I just watch?! I think the first one is probably one of the most disturbing. -.- In other words, you need to at least watch the first 3 before making a decision. The story itself is ok. I still don't really get why certain things happened... maybe that's just me. But the execution of the anime overall is superb. The character's personalities, the unforeseen twists, pretty much everything is exciting about it. I watched it subbed just because it was what I clicked on, but going back and watching it dubbed... I was disappointed. (Especially with Finny because he is one of my favorite characters.) Oh well.This is definitely an anime worth watching, even it is a little dark.

estevan.schimmel - 2013-07-19 20:50:42

As of late, Kuroshitsuji is essentially the poster-boy for thinly-veiled fangirl bait. Kuroshitsuji (or Black Butler, whatever floats your boat) has tons of yaoi tropes, and has the word bishie plastered all over it, so you may think that being somebody who does not like these things, that I hate it because of that. So let's make this clear now: No. That has nothing to do with it. There are plenty of legitimate reasons not to like Kuroshitsuji besides that, so before you reach for the Not Helpful button, please think for a second: are you doing that because my review is badly written, or just because you don't agree with my score? So, at the very least, just read the rest of the review first, OK?With that sadly necessary disclaimer out of the way, let's discuss Kuroshitsuji. Kuroshitsuji is the story of a boy named Ciel Phantomhive, and his butler, Sebastian Michaelis. Ciel is the head of a toy company, and is also in the employment of the Queen, who enlists him to deal with various mysteries. Why this is the case isn't really explained, but nonetheless, most of the episodes play out as a Sherlock Holmes style detective series with him solving various supernatural mysteries.Of course, Ciel is no ordinary boy... he has a contract with his butler for his soul. As you probably already knew, Sebastian is a demon of sorts. He is nigh invulnerable to everything, has amazing skill in pretty much every field, and is basically perfect in every way.This, however, is the first problem with the series... Sebastian is a massive Gary Stu. He's simply too perfect. Not once do you feel for him as a character. He is completely overpowered, and is essentially an end all, fix all solution to more or less every single problem the series can throw at any of its characters.Sadly, the rest of the cast isn't much better. Ciel Phantomhive is probably the most likeable character in the show, being something of a snarky, deadpan character with a chip on his shoulder the size of Africa. But he has his idiosyncrasies as well... most of which simply come down to him being a complete jerk to everyone. Ciel is generally single-minded, only caring about whatever mission the Queen has given him, or getting revenge on those who ruined his life. The reaper, Grell Sutcliffe, had potential to be a loveable psychopath in the vein of Ladd Russo or any given Hellsing villain, but they eschew the chainsaw wielding, slasher smile route laid out in front of them in favour of making him incredibly, incredibly gay, as though they were trying to make a psychotic badass Leeron. But unlike the aforementioned Gurren Lagann character, they don't manage to make him nearly entertaining or tongue-in-cheek enough... to be perfectly honest, Grell is just plain offensive.Another problem with Kuroshitsuji is that it can't seem to decide what it wants to be. For half the series, it goes down the aforementioned Sherlock Holmes route, painting a great depiction of 1888 London, rolling through themes like Jack The Ripper and Scotland Yard, but for the other half it tries to blend a Tim Burton-esque supernatural demon theme to the mix, and the tone of the series becomes very inconsistent as a result. Both styles are well-executed, but they conflict with each other. If they had been more consistent, Kuroshitsuji would have been better as a result. The character designs also mirror this quite heavily; While we often get a good, 1800s design like Sebastian, we also get overblown, colourful and vibrant designs like those of Grell or the Undertaker that creates a very poor contrast.Also, there's something that can occasionally be very jarring, and that would be the anachronisms. Despite the show being set in 1888, you will frequently see things that are very out of place in this time period, like advanced modern handguns, sophisticated chainsaws, and film. While all of these things did exist in some form at this point, none of them do in the form they are shown in. And even more jarring is that most of these are applied to the Reapers, ancient beings that would not realistically incorporate these sorts of things into their supernatural array of weapons.And on that note, one of the things that annoys me most about Kuroshitsuji is that the demon lore is left completely unexplained, as though they were some sort of afterthought. The reapers hate demons, but why? It's never given any real mention. There are also Angels, only one of which we ever see, whose purpose and role in the demon lore is never even touched upon, let alone their motives. I think Kuroshitsuji would have actually been better if they had completely left out the angel/demon/reaper aspects of the show and solely focused on the detective angle instead.The only aspect wherein Kuroshitsuji really shines is the production job. The animation is fluid, and the art style is thoroughly polished, using a blend of dark, rich tones. The 1800s environment is one of the strong points of the series, which makes it all the more of a shame that they so often opt for the Burton-shtick instead. The soundtrack is also very strong, featuring a variety of music fitted to the period, most notably the smooth jazz.Now, before this reads like an invitation for all the yaoi fangirls to break down my door, let me just clarify this by saying that Kuroshitsuji is not bad. What it is is average. Ordinary. Run of the mill. The only exceptional thing about it being the insane level of fan-pandering it stoops to.However, there is still one serious problem with Kuroshitsuji not accounted for... the ending. The last few episodes are an evermounting pile of contrived nonsense. Things happen, but no explanation as for why or how is ever really given. No character's motivations ever make sense. Plot twists come from absolutely nowhere with no foreshadowing or real explanation. It rivals Soul Eater in terms of ridiculous bullshit endings, but at least Soul Eater didn't leave us on an incredibly dodgy cliffhanger that leads to a second season of pure filler.Final Words: It had potential, but it ignored it so it could pander to fans.Animation/Graphics: 9/10Story/Plot: 3/10Music/Background: 9/10Overall: 4/10For Fans Of: Hellsing, Pandora Hearts.

bosco.giovanny - 2013-07-18 14:12:59

I only picked this up after seeing the awesome art on some posters at conventions. And the art does not fail it. It's eye candy 100%. However it is more than just art. The characters are quite interesting, when you get to know them, which might as well take as much as the entire show. I think then evolution of the characters to similar to that of the Gundam 00 ones. Takes you an entire season to find out how fucked up they are and the entire second season to warm up to them. Sadly enough, I think the second season of Kuroshitsuji has a different line up. The story is pretty straight forward. Regardless of the usual amount of twists and turns, there are no jaw dropping revelations. The sound was, well nothing spectacular. I complimented the series without standing out, which is a good thing. I did drop this six episodes into it. One of the reviews I read compared it to Hellsing so my expectations were a bit misplaced. As such, the happy end theme and the "happy" antics which composed the first half of the series were a bit of let down. But the visuals compelled me to rewatch it, taking it for what it was, and this time around I did enjoy it. I would have loved this series to push it a bit. A bit more fighting, a bit more raunchiness, a bit more gritty. They make the jack the ripper crimes and opium dens look totally bland. Still looking forward to season 2, will pro'lly pick up the manga as well and the rewatch it. So yeah, watch it. It is a decent series.

fisher.nicola - 2013-07-14 08:21:32

Recommended by a friend, I decided to watch this anime and expand my library. I have heard some previous things about it from another friend, making it sound unappealing, and I put this anime off until I finished others. When I started watching it, I was easily grabbed onto by the story, animation, and lovable characters.

The story of this Anime was different from others I have seen. It is about a young boy named Ciel who happens to have a Demon Butler, named Sebastian, and carries out the Queen of England's dirty work in the underworld. Upon reading this summary of the anime before watching it, I was wondering if this would surely be a worthy thing to put my time into, but the story kind of starts in the middle, the same way epic poems are written. It started not at the end, or beginning of the story, but smack dab in the middle. The previous events are explained in flashbacks, and although all of the holes in the story are not patched up, enough are to form a structure of a full story. It is quite scattered at times, but winds up in the end with each episode with some relevance to the ending.

I have to say, I enjoyed the anime for the most part, finding the ending to be shocking but fitting. If you enjoyed other Anime like Blood+ or Shikabane Hime, you will enjoy this anime.