Review: Black Butler

Today I had meant to review Little Dorrit, but I just finished catching up on this manga and wanted to share my thoughts on it, so here: have a Black Butler review instead. (Little Dorrit will just have to wait until Sunday... sorry, Little Dorrit!)

Cover of the first volume

So, what is Black Butler? Black Butler (or Kuroshitsuji if you prefer transliteration, or 黒執事 if you're Japanese) is a manga by Yana Toboso. I suppose you could call it a period drama in that it's set (mostly) in Victorian London, but it's more mystery or horror than historical fiction.

What's it about? ...That varies depending on the arc. It's the story of Ciel Phantomhive and his butler Sebastian, who is actually a demon Ciel made a bargain with, and the cases they have to solve for Queen Victoria. Yes, you read that right. Yes, it makes... some sort of sense in context.

Ciel and Sebastian

(There won't be many pictures in this review, because I was too busy reading to take screencaps and too lazy to go back and get some.)

As you might have guessed, it has a very complicated plot. Actually, it doesn't have a plot at all; it has a series of plots, one (usually) in each arc. The plots tend to follow a predictable pattern. Something mysterious is happening somewhere, Ciel and Sebastian investigate, they solve the mystery, rinse and repeat. Some of the arcs are good, others... aren't.

We'd be here for a week if I tried to explain all the plots, so I'll just focus on my thoughts about some of them.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

First, and the thing that annoys me most, is that Ciel originally made his bargain with Sebastian to avenge his parents' deaths... but we're 142 chapters in and maybe a quarter of them have actually had anything to do with Ciel's quest for revenge. The rest are unrelated mysteries he and Sebastian solve. This is starting to change as of the latest arc, but that's a pretty long time to wait.

Next on my list of things I really don't like is the school arc. It drags on and on and on and nothing important happens. The entire thing could have been at least five chapters shorter. It was so dull that I actually gave up reading the manga for a while.

Slightly less annoying is the twist at the end of the werewolf arc. On the one hand, that arc was pretty good, but on the other, how can someone build up an entire village and invent a whole myth in under eleven years? And use this myth to keep outsiders away, even when surely at least some of those outsiders knew there had never been a village there before? That just doesn't make any sense.

The historical inaccuracies are also irritating (except when they're so incredibly bizarre that they're hilarious -- boy bands in Victorian London? Seriously?). But I can grit my teeth and bear them, even if only by reminding myself that it's set in a world where half of Jack the Ripper was a chainsaw-wielding Grim Reaper, so it's obviously not meant to be historically accurate. Less bearable is the utter lack of character development for Ciel. Over 140 chapters, and he's still the same as he was in chapter 1?

But that's enough about the things I didn't like. Now I'll focus on the things I do like, and I might as well start with my favourite character.

Undertaker

The Undertaker is one of those characters it's hard not to like, even though you really shouldn't. He's so utterly crazy and creepy that he's hilarious, and awesome in the way Tim Burton films are awesome (weird, scary and really good). He's also a villain, and possibly the villain. But he's so mysterious, and there are so many questions about how he's connected to the Phantomhives, that even if the manga was rubbish I'd keep reading to learn more about him.

My second favourite character is undoubtedly Frances Midford.

Frances

Anyone who can terrify Ciel and Sebastian into good behaviour, and sword-fight zombies on-board a ship in a dress, is a pretty awesome person. Frances Midford is simultaneously a very funny character (forcing Ciel and Sebastian to tidy their hair) and a terrifying one (the aforementioned zombie incident).

Now, enough about characters I liked, and on to plots I liked.

My favourite arc is probably the Campania arc, because of the revelations about Undertaker and Lizzie. And also because zombie apocalypses are common enough in fiction, but how many of them take place on a ship, because of a renegade Grim Reaper?

My second favourite arc is probably the murder arc, partly because it's an interesting plot and partly because of the sheer weirdness of implying that Ciel and Sebastian inspired Arthur Conan Doyle to create Sherlock Holmes.

The current arc... I don't know what to make of it yet. At first I was furious because how dare they kill Agni? But then Ciel's twin arrived, and now I'm impatiently waiting to find out what happens next.

So, would I recommend this manga? ...Yes, but only if you don't mind a lot of violence and some pretty long, slow arcs of varying quality.

Can it be read online? Yes, if you search for it. I read it on Manga Rock, but it's available on other sites too.

Rating: The really good arcs would get 7/10, but the really bad ones would get 5/10 or even 4/10. So I think the overall rating is 6/10.