Black Butler

Posted by in Anime Video Reviews | Tags: , | 16 comments


I don’t know what convinced me to look at Black Butler again…… *sigh* Feckin Shota
If your looking for my review of Black Butler II (The second season) you can find it here.

Buy Black Butler now!
RightStufAmazon

Commenting Rules:

 -- Rule #1: Don't be a dick.
 -- Rule #2: No spoilers.
 -- Rule #3: No linking to illegal streaming sites.
 -- Rule #4: No politics.
 -- Rule #5: If at all possible, make an effort to skim the comments before posting.
  • Shondrea

    Theoretically, I should love this series. A gay-undertone fantasy set in Victorian England? It’s like a perfect series for me.

    I couldn’t get past 3 episodes. I too was expecting something much darker and more serious. I was thinking it would be like Godchild meets Tokyo Babylon meets Angel Sanctuary, but no. It was not. And I had a disappoint.

  • MrFitz

    I really like the new opening. It just further proves how awesome you are at editing. Great review overall and the ending scene prompted a number of different emotions…confusion, awkwardness, hilarity…going off that scene alone I think I will have to check out this show…

  • SpacemanHardy

    I can’t say much about the anime, but in the manga, Sebastian is frikkin’ badass. That, and there doesn’t seem to be so much of a focus on shota between him and Ciel.

    The manga’s currently being serialized in Yen Plus magazine, for anyone who’s interested in reading it. I actually like it quite a bit.

    And it’s called “Black Butler” here in the States.

  • notrogersmith

    I’m about equally fond of the older and current openings, but it’s nice to have a change-up now and again.

    BTW, on shota in Ouran vs. Kuroshitsuji, I don’t think that it’s just that shota’s being played for laughs in Ouran, but also that the guests in Ouran with the shota fetish aren’t that threatening, either. They’ll coo and squee, but that’s about it. A powerful demon with a shota fetish who might plausibly actually hurt the target of said fetish … yeah, I can see why you’d find that creepy.

  • rheiders

    The manga’s a lot better, IMO. It’s alright for the first couple of chapters, then gets silly and annoying for a while like the anime, but then, once it settles into the first story arc, it gets a lot better. Then, after that’s over, it gets dumb and unfunny again, and I’ve been waiting for it to get good again. I think it’s starting to get serious though, so here’s hoping! *crosses fingers*

  • http://www.youtube.com/MCBigman Michael Flinn

    New opening is cool.

    I dug the end scene. Hilarious. Nothing like a little rape to get some lulz.

  • nevercomemonday

    I really like your new opening!

  • http://theriverofdeath.webs.com Jolt

    I see blue text. :3

  • http://heysayanime.kokidokom.net/ Miken

    Your new opening was nice, though I preferred the one used before.

    As for the review itself, I have to say you hit the nail on the head here. Going by the anime alone, it does go very off track at times. I went into it expecting a somewhat tone-down Hellsing, but got an odd mix of…stuff. Perhaps I’ll pick up on the second season when it comes out and see if some of the downfalls are remedied.

    In the end, the anime was okay, though I am also keeping up with the manga, which I find to have quite a number of the darker scenes that I expected (but still having a bit of comedy)

  • OtakuGamer

    The new opening was pretty cool. It’s sometimes good to have a little change every now and again to make things seem fresh. I say keep it.

    Good review man. Can’t wait till next week for Baccano. I’ve already seen the series…but come on! It’s frickin’ Baccano! What’s not to be excited over, haha. Until next week.

  • http://www.aniviewreviews.com lyzl

    Great Review. I can agree with everything said here, although I’d add that the plot is very inconsistent throughout, having a slew of decent serious episodes, then divebombing into horrible ones in 5 seconds flat. The shota aspects didn’t bug me though, I actually found them amusing. I think they attracted a lot of the odd kind of crowd to the show though lol.

  • jalford

    It’s called a “Reverse Lolita Complex”!

  • waternymphsiren

    My best friend is obsessed with this manga/anime and she didn’t know what was wrong with me when I didn’t share her fandom. Thankyou for convincing me it is o.k. not to be a fan of anime’s Pride and Prejudice.

  • WWI historian

    Cool opening. My sister came across scenes of this anime, and I do agree with you on the Shota.

    I know this will sound strange from me, but what the h** was going on in that scene at the end? I can only make guesses, but I just only hope I’m wrong. It confuses me.

  • Ivee

    I dunno. I thought it was an okay anime. The time period was a nice change from the present day school crap floating around all the time. But i agree that the first half left me rather dissapointed and waiting for a darker story arc. The whole shota thing didn’t really bother me, maybe because i’m used to blocking out crap like that and focusing more on the plot than fanservice. Great review, however.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Camilla-Bender/100000697116025 Camilla Bender

    I’m really glad I wasn’t the only one who was immensely disappointed with the show’s bi-polar pacing between dark and moody plot development and random, pointless “comedy”. I wish the show would have just stuck with one or the other– personally, the dark stuff– rather than trying to make a very bad balancing act. It could have been a whole lot better than it actually was. :/