Title: Black Butler Collection 2
Alternate Title: Kuroshitsuji (黒執事)
Published by: Madman Entertainment in Australia and New Zealand
Based On: Manga series of same name by Yana Toboso.
Audio: English and Japanese Dubs
Subtitles: English
Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic Widescreen (16:9)
Runtime: 325 Minutes
Cost: $59.95
Classification: This title is rated MA15+ for Strong Animated Violence
Blurb: “Taking place after the events of the first Collection, both Ciel and Sebastian are after the murderers of Ciel’s parents and the cause of many disruptions to the general public and the queen. The storyline starts off slow for the first episodes with a mini-arc following on with some more intense episodes leading to a climatic conclusion. Alongside the storyline, the design and sound qualities have been maintained making for an overall enjoyable conclusion to the first season of Black Butler.
Special Thanks: I would like to thank Madman Entertainment for providing me with a review sample of this title.
It has only been a month since I started watching the first collection of this series, and out of all of Madman’s releases this month, this was the one I was most eagerly waiting for hands down. A few days back, Madman recently announced that they will be releasing Black Butler onto television screens in at the very least, Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales starting next month, so you have no reason not to experience Black Butler for yourself. For those who have not read my review of the first part should take to reading it HERE and ideally trying to watch some of the first part before reading this to prevent spoilers (Hell, it is not like this will be a negative review given the previous comments). Anyway, all your favorite British accented characters are back in the second part of Black Butler.
Sebastian Michaelis is more than just one hell of a butler. He’s a lonely boy’s everything. Summoned from darkness, Sebastian serves Ciel with a sly smile. He brews the morning tea with care, gently dresses his ward in the daintiest of robes and quashes the Young Master’s enemies with a flourish! But following orders can be quite the bore, and Sebastian grows ever so hungry.
Before he can silence the rumble in his stomach however, there is the small matter of an unholy union, a contract if you will. The Butler must locate and exterminate the nefarious ne’er-do-wells responsible for the murder of his Young Master’s most unfortunate parents. Then – and only then – may Sebastian reveal his true form and dine on the delicacy that is Ciel’s scrumptious soul. And while the demon devours his prize, all of London shall burn.
I really hate to say it, but I was extremely disappointed when I started up the DVD and found they had abandoned the Girls turned to dolls storyline as I was honestly expecting something of an ending to the arc upon the start of this DVD. Instead, they seem to have jumped forward in time and started a three episode filler arc which features an Indian Prince, a human super-natural Butler and curry. Whilst it plays a role in introducing the new characters in the second half, it wasn’t all that interesting. After four episodes, the series gets into full gear and starts the final, but most rewarding storyline of the series. Thankfully, whilst Sebastian plays a primary role in the first half of the series, this part focuses more on Ciel and him managing to do things himself, whilst relying less on his faithful, but ever so devious butler.
For fans of Sebastian however, do not fret as your favorite butler still remains the unbalanced plot device that they have used in many battle sequences before, but thankfully they have placed him up against bigger forces that can prove to be less easy then throwing bullets at people to kill. Whilst Ciel and Sebastian remain the two primary characters of this series, characters such as the Phantomhive Servants get some much needed character development, even if it comes late into the series, whilst one time characters such as the Grim Reapers Grell (Who is my favorite character in the series) and William (The one time character from Part 1) also have more important roles in the series, however have less character development then others.
What I did like was that they didn’t use the “Once a friend, always a friend” plot, and instead showed shifts in allegiances between characters, both for and against the Sebastian and Ciel and they were not afraid to kill off a character, no matter how likable they are or how much effect they held on the storyline. Whilst I will not debate the antagonists of the series, I will say that they did choose the most interesting personalities for the antagonists which were suitable for the people and beliefs of those in the time periods.
Overall, if you were to take out the first four episodes of this part and maybe use them to develop the characters, both new and old, then in terms of storyline, they would have had most probably the best conclusion to a series I have seen in the long time, however with four episodes being taken up by what I would consider filler and the rather slow progression to the conclusion (On an episode by episode basis), I did feel that there was more that could have been offered in terms of the Grim Reapers and regarding Ciel and Sebastian. However, as there is a second season to this series, despite the storyline not currently permitting such a thing, I am sure they will offer more in terms of this later. Further character development for the characters would have been nice, however what was provided was satisfactory and if the series were ending in this episode, I would be more then satisfied with the information I knew about the characters.
To summarise the storyline, it has a Shin Megami Tensei-esque opinion of Angels and Demons, it has a cult, it has a mysterious queen, it has backstabbing, it has many fight scenes, it has insanely depressing backstories and it has Sebbastian being whipped if it tickles your fancy. In other words, it has something to appeal everyone.
As I usually do with second parters, I will not debate as much the graphic or music quality as my first review. In terms of design quality, it remains the same as the previous part, and as my score for it originally was A, it was very good. I would say that, considering the darker nature of the second part, that the environment designs were much more impressive, with locales such as a burning London and a very well detailed church being some examples of how much effort the animators put into this series. Character designs more or less remain the same. I would say however, that the emotions portrayed by the characters facial expressions do not always match
For the music, it is also essentially the same as the first part and has era appropriate tracks, alongside a nice array of melancholic and depressing tracks, all of which were used quite heavily during the final episodes. Although on one note, London Bridge is Falling Down is now officially one of the creepiest songs to me…. to think I once thought of it as a children’s song. The Opening sequence also receives a new animation sequences whilst the ending receives a new song and animation.
Voice Acting is still the winning component of the series. For those of you who exclusively listen to Japanese dubs in anime, this might be one series that you should make an exception for. Not purely for the “In Britian, speak as the British Speak”, but the accents presented by the characters work well with everything in this series. Also, for characters of other nationalities such as the Indian prince they have in the first three episodes, they also use Indian Accents which are also appropriate. Sure they are over the top at times, but I think it makes this series.
As with every collection, we all like our extra content right? Black Butler has a sufficient selection of bonus content for you to enjoy. This includes:
- A Bonus Episode “His Butler, Performer” in which the entire cast of the series takes part in a Phantomhive play of Hamlet. I have never read the play Hamlet, with me studying Romeo and Juliet and MacBeth, but it was definitely more enjoyable to watch then watching the actual play I’d expect.
- Episode Commentaries for Episodes 16 and 21.
- Textless Opening and Ending Songs from this collection.
- Trailers for Xam’d Lost Memories, Honey and Clover Collection, Tsubasa Chronicles OVA, Corpse Princess and Phantom.
Without the bonus OVA episode provided, the extra content would be bland, however the OVA episode was definitely an excellent addition to the set, and was much more satisfying to watch than the recap episode which was provided with the last set.
Ignoring the first four episodes, this was most probably my favorite release from Madman Entertainment this month. Sure the storyline progression dragged on a bit at times, however instead they delivered a storyline that was not afraid to keep pushing depressing element after depressing element to the watcher and did so in a purposeful way. At times this series had me questioning what sort of genre the series was going to be and whether it would be a mystery, action or another genre entirely. I am still not sure, but all the elements worked well in the end, and the Cult Arc (Essentially all bar the first four episodes) showed some clever writing. I would highly recommend purchasing the collection on DVD or alternatively, waiting for the TV release which will be hitting what I assume will be one of the ABC stations starting next month.
Final Score
Storyline: A-
Characters: B+
Design: A
Music: B
Voice Acting: A+
Extras: B
Personal Opinion: A
Overall Score: A-
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