Anime on DVD - BLACK BUTLER Collection 1 Review

Black Butler (Kuroshitsuji) follows the life of Ciel Phantomhive and his titular butler, Sebastian, who is in his own words "One hell of a butler". Set to the backdrop of Victorian era England it is filled with a colorful cast and generally interesting plots.

The most interesting characters are without doubt the two leading protagonists who have a depth of mystery to them that makes them intriguing to watch. Ciel is a tortured youth (being roughly 12-13 years of age) who was forced into a ritual a few years prior and watched his family get slaughtered. As a result of his trauma he has forged a pact with a demon, Sebastian, to help him get revenge. Clearly the events have forced him to mature well beyond his years and viewers are presented with a character that has more bitterness than his age suggests.

Sebastian is interesting because as a character he is hard to place, and serves as a point of mystery. It is known early on that he and Ciel have a contract, and that the completion of the contract will come at a grave price, but virtually everything aside from his obvious skill is unknown.  

The supporting cast of characters are far less interesting, and in a lot of cases do not feel as though they fit in with the setting general tone of the series. This includes the people that work at the Phantomhive manor, who all come across as moronic; serving as comic relief in an otherwise dark story.

Especially confusing in this regard is the head butler, an old man who often "deflates" and goes chibi (pint sized caricature of himself), when drinking green tea, which really conflicts with the Victorian era - gothic setting.

The strangest choice however by far is the inclusion of the "death gods" or "reapers" who appear to use various gardening implements to take souls, something that strikes me as a very Japanese concept that does not fit well with the premise of Angels and Demons which is decidedly more European.

Many of the plots of the series seem to focus on Ciel and Sebastian undertaking investigations for Scotland yard, with some of their own personal endeavors thrown in. The stories for the most part are entertaining, working like miniature length murder mysteries. The format works and keeps the show interesting, with small occasional hints at a larger picture being revealed. The treatment of Jack the ripper in particular is interesting; this, however, is also tarnished with the revelation of the aforementioned "reapers".  However this is only half the series the rest of the plot has yet to be revealed.

The presentation is fairly standard, not a bad thing as the characters are well drawn and the animation reasonably fluid, it has all the trappings of Japanese animation. The voice work is also good, the Japanese voices work well despite the setting, and preferable to the english dub, although, it at least has the accents somewhat accurate.

Overall it is an entertaining enough anime, but it is held back by its overuse of comedy in an otherwise darker setting and plot, and can lose itself somewhat by expanding its own lore in unecessay directions. Perhaps a more faithful recreation of the time and circumstances would have been more appreciated, but in the end it is worth the watch despite the distractions, if only to see what a real butler should look like.