One Hell of an Anime: Black Butler
Hello all! I know that you guys missed me last week
because I didn’t have a new review up, but I’m glad that I got some important things
said and done with last week’s announcement post. Plus, you got to see me in person (or at
least on your computer screen). But I’m
back with a new review this week that you’re sure to love. Why?
Cause this review is on the show about a boy and his butler. That’s right! This week’s review is on the
hit sensation Black Butler. So without any further delay, let’s get on
with this review!
Black
Butler, in general, follows the young Earl Ciel Phantomhive. After a religious cult kills his parents and
tortures him, Ciel makes a deal with a demon to save him and help him seek his
revenge in exchange for his soul. This
demon later becomes his butler, Sebastian Michaelis. Now that’s season one-if you didn’t know,
there are three seasons so far. In season two, Ciel has already had his
revenge, but a series of incidents occur while Sebastian is about to take his
soul that make him unable to do so. This
also causes Ciel to have amnesia once he is revived. Having no memory of carrying out his revenge,
Ciel is persuaded by Sebastian to believe that another young Earl named Alois
Trancy was responsible for killing his parents.
All the while, Sebastian and Alois’s demon butler, Claude Faustus fight
to the death over Ciel’s soul. I know,
it’s a little complicated. Season three
is a bit of a mystery to me. Why? Cause, well… I haven’t seen it yet. Still, coming from experience, Black Butler is certainly an interesting
show. Plenty of action and plenty of
twists and turns-and plenty of Sebastian to dribble over, ladies- it is definitely
something to watch.
Giving a rating to Black Butler in general was a bit of a
challenge. It was the hardest thing
about this week’s blog. How do I rank Black Butler? Well, I decided to take each individual
season and rank it accordingly: season one gets four out of five stars, and
season two gets three and a half out of five stars. Looking at this, the series in general gets
an overall four out of five stars. The
show has pretty great animation and a good story line as well as some
intriguing characters. Both seasons have
their strengths and weaknesses. In terms
of strength, both seasons retain the classic animation found within the
series. Season one has a great plot
following Ciel carrying out his revenge, and season two has an array of new
characters that bring in something different to the show. Not really much else to say. All in all, the show has a lot of good things
going for it. However, and like any other
show I’ve reviewed, it’s not perfect.
So far, the major downside to the
series is the plot. Now, I did say that
the plot in Black Butler so far was
pretty good. However, there was a bit of
a plot hole concerning the religious cult and Ciel’s past. Much of the hole surrounded the cult
itself. How did this cult come to
be? It was a question that was never
answered. Now, those who have seen the
series can only guess at how the cult was created. But even so, it leaves more questions that
should be answered that are never answered.
However, much of the plot issues come out in season two. This twelve-episode installment of the series
does well the first six episodes, but then the plot goes down the drain after
that. The plot moves so quickly and
introduces all these twists and turns that should take much longer to
explain. This may be the fact that
season two has only half the episodes that season one has- that’s twenty-four
episodes in season one. To cram a huge
amount of story into a season that was only half as long as the first is not a
smart idea. And in this case, it leaves
a huge mess. This is not necessarily
something that an otaku would look for.
But when it comes to critiquing an anime-and I wouldn’t call myself a
critic by any means- it’s a big deal.
However, it can leave viewers in a whirlwind, and that’s not good.
Overall, Black Butler, as this week’s post title implies, is simply “one
hell of an anime,” in both good and bad ways.
With one hell of a cast and one hell of a plot, it is certainly not to
be missed. Just hold on though if you
decide to go into the second season. If
you’re interested in seeing Black Butler,
the first season is available on YouTube and funimation.com. Both seasons are available on DVD wherever
anime is sold. Now, I briefly mentioned
the third season earlier in this post.
Currently, I have yet to see it. But
if you ‘re interested in seeing it after seeing the first two, Funimation has all
ten episodes of the third season on YouTube.
Well, I believe that is all that I have for this week. So until next time, stay posted for more!
-Hanime
on Anime
P.S.: If you don’t remember from my announcement video, the Trigun and Bleach boards are now available on the Hanime on Anime Pinterest
page. The link for the page is
bellow. So go check it out! ;)
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