The stage of Kuroshitsuji II opens on the life of Alois Trancy, the young heir to the Trancy earldom. Though he is privileged now, such was not always the case for the hot-tempered boy. Kidnapped and forced into slavery at a young age, he was eventually rescued and returned home, only to have his beloved father pass away soon after.
However, there are certain individuals who doubt Alois' story and legitimacy. And rightfully so, because things in the Trancy household are not as they appear, starting with Alois' black-clad butler with supernatural abilities, Claude Faustus. Who exactly is the mysterious Claude, and what connection does he have with Alois?
Amid the web of lies and deceit running rampant in the mansion, the bond between Alois and Claude will be tested as hell itself arrives at their doorstep.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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-Naami-
Sequels can be a dangerous territory to tread on. Especially ones for shows that already do not follow the manga but instead, creates its own story. On one hand it has the job of following and wrapping up the previous season’s (to an extent, “original”) storyline and on the other hand, pleasing the fans. To many, Black Butler II has done neither and to others it has done more than that: in other words, there is a clear division between fans. Let’s get the technicalities out of the way. The art and animation is as beautiful and Victorian-Gothic as the first season, though the animationdid slip at times. New pieces of music by Taku Iwasaki (Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Soul Eater) are introduced along with new characters, thus being their character theme songs. And he sure does not disappoint. Again, in keeping with the theme of high class Victorian England classical music (or pieces that are inspired by those roots) are used, violin being the most distinct sound out of the instruments. Animation for the OP is taken up a notch and again we have two sets of animation for the OP song “SHIVER”; both of which were fitting to the song and showed two different styles of art; the first animation being the more unique and visually stimulating one.
Now that sound and art is covered, time to sink our teeth into the real meat of it.
So how does one solve the problem of concluding the story from season one, especially with the amount of mess it had been put into? Why, just create a couple of new characters, slap ‘em in and you can create all sorts of plot lines and justifications.
Enter (or rather waltzes and tap dances in) our scapegoats; Alois Trancy, a bipolar; sadistic; misogynistic and rather scantily clad fourteen year old boy and his poker-faced butler, Claude Faustus. Along with the beautiful dark skinned maid, Hannah Annafellows and the silent triplet servants you have yourself the Trancy Household.
Already the anime is set up for a Trancy VS Phantomhive storyline, and it indeed takes that turn, for the better part of the show anyway. Simultaneously it tells us of the involvement of the new master and butler to Ciel’s own past. Easy isn’t it, to just make up characters for the convenience of the story? True, it isn’t the most respectable way to go about wrapping up a storyline but A-1 Pictures does it in a way that doesn’t seem like an obvious convenient plot device but actually attempts to build a relationship between the new characters and the viewers, which I can’t really say the same thing about the first set of master and butler.
First things first: No, this season does include ANY material from the manga in any shape or form, but considering how much the first season had flown off on a tangent it does not really matter, as if content from the manga (such as the anticipated circus arc) were to be included it would just be filler and would not relate to the happenings of the season. This does not mean that this season is ‘pure filler’ though as some fans have stated; instead it can be seen as an ‘alternative storyline’.
The plot itself is not the best, but neither is it the worst they could have done. The introduction to the new characters was a decent move A-1 Pictures made, even though – as I said before – it was not an entirely respectable twist. Because of the short season (only 12 episodes long) there were fewer opportunities for plot holes, and the frequency ratio of random twists had depleted considerably compared to the first season. Some fans argue that there were more inconsistencies and plot holes than the first season, but quite frankly, I have to disagree. This season is as, or a lot less plot hole filled than the first season. It required people to work things out and guess. Nevertheless, there were some semi-serious plot issues but I appreciated how the story was a lot more consistent and actually seemed planned out.
The brilliance of this short season has to derive from the nature of the show however. There’s a reason why the rating has been raised since the previous season from a PG-13 to an R 17. It’s vulgar. Quite disturbing. And very crude. One of the many things I disliked about the first season of Kuroshitsuji was how there would be an awkward transition from serious business to idiotic comic relief, which would just kill the dark atmosphere of the show that was built up. Heavy topics such as prostituting and abuse are brought in, and the entire series was kept mostly enigmatic and dark.
But to be honest, the story wasn’t what really shone during the course of the show. It was the characters. Not just the new cast, but also the old familiar faces.
For the first time, Sebastian the “perfect” being has met his match, an equal: Claude Faustus. Claude contrasts greatly with Sebastian. Rather than being mischievous and teasing he is straight-faced and serious and very, very undeservingly hated – and mostly for being true to the nature of a demon: sly, cunning and untrustworthy. Demons aren’t known for being the most docile of all mythical creatures, and this is prominent in Kuroshitsuji II. The new butler drove the plot of the season, and I have to commend A-1 Pictures/Square Enix for not merely pampering the fans with what most would have had anticipated: a Claude arse-whooping by Sebastian. Sebastian is repeatedly put in a befuddled state, which did not just add that much more realism to him, but also made the viewers connect with the character a bit.
Alois is definitely one interesting kid across any anime. From being happy-go-lucky, to a practicing sadist and cross-dressing (Can anyone say Maria Holic?) Alois displays an array of characteristics which combined, would indicate to your classic psychopath. And as with almost all mentally unstable characters, he did not have the most pleasurable childhood in the world. Thankfully, there was no sob story as there was a disgusting and disturbing past. Truth be told, I found Alois’ nature and antics to be quite entertaining, refreshing and again, a big contrast to Ciel’s personality.
Unfortunately, his character had been marred by the suggestive clothing he dons. You can’t take a psycho 100% seriously if he is wearing hot-pants and leather high heel boots, which sadly is the case with Alois Trancy. I wish I could say that the fan service was just limited to this, but it isn’t.
Fan service is blown WAY out of proportion. Every episode is gorging with it. Think of the first season. Now times the fanservice in that by 10 and you have a rough idea of what Kuroshitsuji II is like. Depending on the viewer, this can either be a plus or a minus. And weirdly enough, although there is triple the gay in this season, there is also fanservice aimed at men.
Re-introducing the maid of the Trancy Household; Hannah Annafellows, the object creating fanservice for the guys. Victim to Alois’ fits of abuse and her clothes ripping as easy as tissue (and always in the area where her cleavage is...I still wonder how her back doesn’t snap holding up a rack that huge), Hannah is, for the first time in the entire Kuroshitsuji franchise, a female character who is a PART of the show; though this does not seem apparent at first.
The biggest problem this show has (which, ironically, is the exact opposite of the first season’s problem) is the length of the show – it was too short. Too short to make it as grand an ending it could have been. Kuroshitsuji II had the potential to be great, but then ended up anti-climatic, which was a shame really considering how great the first two-thirds of the anime had been. I just wish Alois could have been expanded on, as such a interesting and unique character as him is ever so rare. Even so, this season presented thrill, suspense and comedy that wasn’t as strong or well carried through in the prequel.
And what a great comedy it is at times. Not the obvious and staged comedy the show usually (awkwardly) presents with its idiotic antics or side characters (the Phantomhive servants) but with its UNINTENTIONAL comedy. Some of the fanservice, or scenes were just plain ridiculous; you’d double over from laughing at it.
Sequels are dangerous, but nowhere near as dangerous as a demon lusting for your soul. Kuroshitsuji II should be taken with a grain of salt – it most definitely isn’t the best it could have been, but honestly, it could have been a lot worse. If not for the open ended conclusion, which is most likely to lead onto a third season to milk the proverbial “cash cow” I would have rated this higher, but as it stands, it is decent enough.
But you can never please all the fans, and this has never been truer when it came to Kuroshitsuji II.
XxXTsubomiXxX
Being an avid fan of Kuroshitsuji, and seeing the entire first season, OVA as well as being an avid manga fan, I must say that I'm disappointed in this series for several reasons. This is merely an opinion, but I found myself hating the storyline behind season 2 entirely. Below are the good, bad and ugly of this series: The good The series has amazing artowrk and beautiful sound.The animation was crisp and clear and the music was amazing, especially with songs coming from Yuya Matsushima and Nightmare. The bad, and the ugly. As several reviewers stated before, it does not follow the manga, but I don't consider that badbecause a lot of anime follow this trend. The storyline had actually stopped following the original manga plot during the Drocell arc in season one.
Also, this series started off with a filler episode as the second episode. That is a big no-no for any anime. You start off the series by building up the plot, not doing a filler episode that, regardless of whether you watched it or not would still understand the story.
Out of character moments. There are several large out of character moments and things that were brought up and dropped. In one of the episodes, Viscount Druitt (who has a medical degree and offered to sell off the protagonist, Ciel Phantomhive in pieces on a black market auction) fainted at the sight of blood. It was rather vague on if he was extremely happy in seeing it, since he had sadistic reactions to the previous battle, or if it was because he was woozy but I found it very out of character. There are several other moments in Ciel, Sebastian and a few other characters that I found out of character.
Unexplained changes to characters. Several relationships and things about the characters were not explained or elaborated on, which made a very obscure plot and caused general confusion among fans who had been following the series faithfully.
Fan service. To be honest, in my opinion, and don't kill me on this, but this series was written like bad fanfiction and left many answered questions. There was also a huge amount of fanservice and hardly any of it was presented in a way that I thought was well thought out or tasteful in the slightest. The setting and time period for this show went from elegant to trashy and it caused the series to lose it's appeal.
There were also too many of what I call 'scenes of convenience'. Several characters had the opportunity to be interesting and have a good amount of spotlight but were disposed of in poorly executed ways. Viscount fainting was a poor excuse to get rid of his character during an important scene where he could have taken active role in the plot. He was actually promised a very good storyline with watching over Alois but it was disregarded shortly after wards, which was a let down to me, as a personal fan of the characters. Also, as good as the first episode was, shoving Ciel and Sebastian in it all too quickly, as if the say 'Look! They're still in this season!' Because the writers were afraid of fans not being interested was a poor decision in execution as well.
The show had overall poor execution and a lot of things were unexplained or left off. The episodes got more and more ridiculous after a moment in time and I couldn't find myself watching it after a while. It became a chore and not an enjoyment. As a Kuroshitsuji fan, I'm sorely disappointed in this season. As an anime fan whose critiqued anime for 4 years, this is the worst I've seen in a long time.
It's nothing but a case of bad fanfiction turned into an animated series. I expected a lot more from Kuroshitsuji. It only got worse as the series ended. If they make a season 3, I might not even give it the time of day. There are better anime out there, I implore anyone who reads this to stick to season one, or they might end up just getting angry.
IceAndCream
Here we have Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler), season 2. What is it, and what is it not? (Please, loyal fans, be kind to me, for voicing my opinion.) And please, all you Black Butler fans under age 18, ask your parents before watching this series. I'll say up front that the content is at an overtly ADULT-ONLY level. Moving on.... What this series is not: It's not at all related to the manga. It's a continuation from the end of season 1, which had begun to diverge from the manga around halfway through. Even though the first season apparently painted itself intoa corner, we continue on from that ending. (And eventually get some questions answered regarding that.)
And I hope this isn't a spoiler, but Ciel's back. And so is everyone's favorite butler, Sebastian.
So what IS this series? It's fanfiction. Pure and simple. By fans, for fans. And that means heavy doses of fanservice. You can imagine that its creators took everything they had fantasized about in regards to the first series, and decided, "Let's put it into an anime!" And this fanservice isn't for youngsters. Funimation was right about choosing to rate the series MA (equivalent to an "R" rating). The opening scene is a mere sampling. It shows a naked young boy crawling out of a bed from next to a naked older man.
Fanservice is pervasive, with hints of shotacon, and enough boyxboy and butlerxbutler to make yaoi fangirls melt into squeals.
Synopsis:
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The first episode introduces a new young master, Alois Trancy (a blonde boy of Ciel's age), and his butler, Claude. The next three episodes are similar to the original series: Ciel goes about with Sebastian, running errands for the queen. We reunite with a lot of beloved characters from the first season (the Phantomhive servants, Elizabeth, Prince Soma, Lau, Grell).
But then Alois and Ciel cross paths. And that's when things start getting sticky. Secret arrangements between butlers. Soul transfers. New contracts. A new rule was added to the Black Butler world when the creators came up with the idea of keeping souls in rings. All these ideas and more are pushed to the max, to practically the very final moments of the series.
For some reason, Alois and Claude are after Ciel and Sebastian. It's not until halfway through the series that we find out what for. We also discover why Ciel is still around, despite how the first series ended. Sebastian also has his own personal bone to pick with Claude. Get ready for a butler showdown....
After we get to the middle of the series, we encounter an incredible number of new twists and turns, making things muddier and muddier. They can come off as brilliant plot twists, or tiresome complications, depending on how you liked the series up to that point. Personally, I didn't have a very good opinion of the series by the 5th or 6th episode, so as each of the final episodes unfolded, I kept asking myself, "Can things get more screwed up than they already are?" And yes, they do.
To its credit, the ending is not ambiguous like the first series' was. Although things are still unclear until the final 60 seconds or so. I'm not sure that they could make more series based on an ending like that (or that I would want to see them!). But it's pretty satisfying, and in keeping with the spirit of both series. You do wonder how it's possible within the Black Butler world, since it's sprung on us quite suddenly, and we've not seen anything like it before. Still, it's nice and gothic, and a little creepy; makes you feel good, while giving you a bit of a chill.
***********
I had always thought of Ciel as being a tad cruel, and rough on his servants. But now he seems a veritable angel compared to Alois. Alois dregs the depths of cruelty, sadism, cunning, and is an utter brat. And creepy. "Ciel," he says, "I want to become One with you." Yep, that's one messed-up kid. Later, we see some of Alois' backstory, and some tragic and difficult things that happened to him. But it still doesn't excuse (or, I think, fully explain) his cruelty and borderline insanity. Fans of creepy characters might like him. But he's rather pathetic. I only felt a twinge of pity when I found out what it was he really wanted from Claude.
There's also one busty maid who's always being required to strip or wear revealing clothing; or sometimes she even rips off her own clothes. If this were a shounen anime, it would be almost ecchi. There's also a character who acts as a sheathe for a demon sword, and gets the sword pulled out of their body in a rather grotesque fashion.
Conclusion:
Season 2 retains the lovely animation and sense of style from the first one. And hot butlers. And, as a bonus, an ending that doesn't leave you hanging like before. However, if you want an intelligent, well-crafted story along the lines of the manga, or even the first season, it's really not here. It's a fanfiction series that tries to see how messy you can make the world of soul/demon contracts. Sure, you need to know the world of season 1 in order to watch this. But its purpose is no more than to be a pleaser for mature fans and yaoi addicts.
Thus, my comparatively low rating.
TypeOfCicada
Kuroshitsuji II (Black Butler II) is not a true sequel to the original, or at least I refuse to hail it as such, but it is still an interesting addition to the series and appears to experiment with several archetypes, something I as a writer and literature major can appreciate. I've heard it called an abortion, a sort of a tragic death to the tragic series about death and mortality, and taken in the aspect of a literal sequel - a direct followup to the Black Butler that received high acclaim - this would indeed be the case. However, what Black Butler II does is notpoor storytelling in any sense, as far as I can tell (at least until the last few minutes of the final episode, but we'll get to that) - it is simply such a strong deviation from the anime offered by the original that many I've encountered have trouble accepting its premise. Both offer an interesting, Faustian take on the story of the classical romance, (where the bond between demon and contracted is not platonic, but romantic) but Black Butler II greatly underplays the elements that made Black Butler what it was.
This series introduces Alois Trancy and the butler Claude Faustus, along with several other characters who seem to mirror Ciel Phantomhive, Sebastian Michaelis, and the cast who tends to the former's mansion. While Ciel is outwardly dark but ultimately benevolent, Alois is (in several cases) outwardly benevolent but ultimately sadistic. The image we get from the beginning of the anime is one where Ciel and Alois are polar opposites, with Alois playing the Moriarty to Ciel's Holmes, but that dichotomy is played with in such a way that I would have to consider it unique or innovative at least.
Black Butler II has several faults. For one, it does not serve as a tangible vehicle for an intuitive storyline, but uses its allotted run time to dabble in the deconstruction of dichotomies and social mores (at times not as subtly as it should). The relationship between butler and master is questioned, as naturally so is the relationship between demon and contracted. Fictional conceptions of "the villain," who serves as opposite and parallel to the central protagonist, are also challenged. I can't get into how without spoiling the ride for you, but if you take a step back, it's definitely there. How it goes about this "deconstruction" is questionable.
For one, it's almost not Black Butler anymore. Sebastian is presented on a level plane thanks to Claude Faustus and the presence of several other "demonic" characters, meaning he doesn't allow the series to shine quite as much. I've heard it said that Black Butler IS Sebastian Michaelis, and people who agree with that notion are likely to face disappointment at the sight of this new, humbled Sebastian.
Additionally, it's much darker with much less comedy than the original. We see less of the servants, of Elizabeth, and of the main cast, who have been relegated further into the background. At its core, it's simply not the same anime anymore.
I liked it. I liked that I was able to see where it played with the romance genre and with fiction in general. Ultimately though, its willingness to experiment and dabble in concepts does not save its occasional poor delivery or the eerie ending which doesn't fit with the buildup of the series. The conclusion is quite a deus ex machina, to say the least.
Another thing I will say is that Black Butler didn't need a sequel. If ever it did need one, Black Butler II is certainly not its rightful successor.
crankyy
Kuroshitsuji II embarks with the debut of Alois Trancy, the sadistic, erratic, and creepy-as-hell lord of the Trancy estate. Alois’ backstory is disturbing, though in an incredibly enjoyable way. His character is endearing; a classic anime psycho that you can’t help but be immediately drawn to. His character design is one of the best I’ve seen in a while. He was such a complex character that had so much development potential. He really could have held the series up on his own. Until he dissipates into a sniveling excuse of a train wreck along with the rest of the cast. Let’s hope all those fanficsyou read late at night conditioned you to characters acting OOC.
Contrary to all the warnings I was given before viewing Kuroshitsuji II, I began with high hopes. It’s Kuroshitsuji, after all. How can it fail? Surely Alois Trancy’s creepy-as-hell demeanor would get the ball rolling. His juxtaposition to his stoic demon butler, Claude, was promising. But despite all the possibilities Kuroshitsuji II could have embellished upon, it fell flat. The character relationships so intrinsically built up in the first season came crashing way, way, down. It seemed as if Sebastian and Ciel were tossed into the plot just to please the fangirls. Character development for the debuting servants of the Trancy household is stagnant to nonexistent. The season begins with shameless fillers—starting in the second episode, no less—and later thrusts itself into a plot woven flimsier than one of Claude’s spider webs. The romantic 1800s London time-setting of the first season seems to disappear from plot significance. Like the rest of the season, you really don’t know what’s going on anymore.
By the time the plot weaves into a labyrinth game show you could’ve sworn you were watching Kuroshitsuji and not the Kids’ WB.
And don’t even get me started on the amnesia ass-pull.
But don’t let me senselessly bash. The art is still great, but not as flawless as the first season’s. Both versions of the OP, set to the song “SHIVER”, were stunning, with dazzling animation. (Especially Alois’ version—oh my god, can you say impressive?) Needless to say, Kuroshitsuji has THE best anime OST I’ve ever come across. Alois Trancy's theme, "The Slightly Chipped Full Moon", is as beautifully disturbing as he is. But don’t expect to hear the flawless soundtrack of the first season all throughout this sequel. You’ll have to make due with cartoon sound effects tossed behind every “comedic” fast-dash movement.
Comedic. Right.
Hahaha. Aha.
Successful comedy in this season is rare, but its rarities are frequently supplied by Viscount Druitt. His idealistic ravings are hilarious, albeit ill-timed considering they most often arose during what could’ve been considered a more serious fight scene in the anime.
The relationship that Ciel and Sebastian built up season one came tumbling down faster than my expectations for this sequel. (On another note, Daisuke Ono’s voice is like God whispering sweet nothings into your ear. Have you heard Sebastian’s character song, “Aru Shitsuji no Nichijou”? Woah baby. On second, thought, go hear Ronald Knox's character songs. And the entire Kuroshitsuji OST.)
Hinted shotacon is evident, but nothing you can’t endure. Characters you thought were gone are back, characters you thought would show up are nowhere in sight, and the characters present—namely Sebastian, Ciel, Alois, and Claude—surprisingly leave the show unsatisfying.
And if you thought Lady Elizabeth couldn’t get any more annoying, think again.
I know that it’s biased to compare a second season solely to its former, but the only reason I managed to stick it out until the end was…well, it’s Kuroshitsuji for God’s sake. Especially considering that this season didn’t follow the conclusive events of the first season’s at all. It really felt as if this season was expecting to generate success solely by the loyal fanbase built up from the first. I’m a major fan of the first season, but my loyalty can only take me so far. I really didn’t know it was possible to slaughter a series like this. I really didn’t. Creating a sequel is always a risky process. This risk should’ve been left alone. The season quickly became tedious to watch. Season 1 also had a brilliant ending. This season’s ending left a lot less room for interpretation, but it really doesn’t matter how tight an ending is if it stinks. The characters provided this season with so much potential, but just couldn't hold up. But that being said, Alois Trancy is enchanting, and Ronald Knox (though his screen-time is pathetically minuscule) is an epic cutie pie.
I never thought I’d be giving anything of Kuroshitsuji a 5. But a 5 is really all this second season deserves.
In short, Kuroshitsuji II managed to take everything the first season stood for and drive it into the pits of hell. But don’t worry, at least Sebastian will be waiting. Along with the season’s production staff.
Burn, baby. Burn.
ChibiHime
Kuroshitsuji II, a new butler and a new master. It is completely original and does not follow the manga. Kuroshitsuji II was born as fanservice and it died as fanservice too. But you know what? A-1 is pro enough to make this fanserivce work with the plot. I call it!! *drum roll* Logical fanservice!! :P Ok so I'm not talking about boobs and panty fanservice. There's plenty of boobs I assure you but I'm talking about a different kind of fanservice. Notice how Ciel and Seb are in the character section now? They're in there for a reason. So think about it, Seb and Ciel +fanserive equals what? And you probably got it so I'm not gonna say :D
This season has been dubbed as Toboso-san's personal doujinshi just so you know.
Okay so, the story was weird for me. It was dark and everything but it just didn't have that original touch to it, like it was obvious Toboso-san didn't make it. The plot was infuriating if you ask me. It was like a roller coaster I was kinda regretting to ride. Later in the season, maybe because of my biased thinking, the story was just annoying. The comic relief was in the wrong places, everyone's ooc, it was just wrong and I didn't like it.
But thinking of it from an unbiased point of view, it was pretty smart. The plot was clever and contains a whole lot of symbolism. It's crack, I have to say but it's crack that just made it into an anime. It was a cool crack and even though watching it annoyed, I'm still glad I 'went on the roller coaster'.
Art was beautiful. God I love it!! However, it was lacking. I don't know if the budget was running low or something but some of the faces were really blank, quite literally too. Okay, so they didn't have fully blank faces but it was really under detailed and honestly, I think they could've done better. The art is clean, beautiful, good use of colours, just lacking detail.
I LOVE the sound. I love the OP and ED and the little movie that went along with it. They were so beautiful. Kalafina comes back as well with their beautiful voices to give us a really beautiful song. Even Seb's actor for the musical sings the first ED. It's really meaningful once you watch the whole season. It was like a light bulb that went off in my head.
The seiyuu is just wonderful!! Ono Daisuke does a wonderful and so does Maaya Sakamoto!! Sakurai and Mizuki-san do wonderful jobs as well!! I love their voices. I jsut find it kinda funny how Ciel and Alois are voiced by girls LOL But it's cool :)
Characters is the main section of Kuro II. It's pretty much what drives the story. I love the cast. All of them, even if they are characters you can't help to hate. It's one of them love to hate characters. You get them in this season. But it makes it oh so interesting!! It's because of everyone's weird personalities that Kuro II is just that much better. However, characters -obviously- give out huge spoilers so I cannot continue with this section anymore :( And I love talking about characters the best!! Just some advice, don't judge a book by its cover, ok?
I loved the season, even though there were parts when I felt bored or incredibly angry but it's good. The fanservice kinda makes up for it. It's definitely something for fangirls/boys but if you're a serious follower of Kuroshitsuji, then you might not like this season at all. It's sorta a love or hate thing. However, A-1 still gets points for mixing the plot with fanservice!! I pretty much worship them now :P But yeah, if you're serious, this might not be your thing. If you're part of the fandom, you'd probably enjoy it.
If you're going to watch it, then try to watch it with an open mind, or if you want to go on that roller coaster, you can always watch it biased :P Either way's good. Btw, watching this season will make you love the manga more, whether you love it or hate it, you're gonna wanna go back to the proper thing. Sometimes you really do have to be careful with what you wish for.
kitten320
First things first, I never read the manga so I completly don't care about its story since I didn't like season 1, it was boring. I never planned to watch second season but I saw some interesting things and finally decided to give it a shot... And I loved it! Yes, I love season 2 and dislike season 1. Firstly I never found Ciel/Sebastian to be interesting. Sebastian is way too perfect that I don't even care about him. But here comes season 2 where we are introduced to several new characters. Alois is very mean and had some pathefic moments but over all I would better watchhim and his active live instead of Ciel who mostly drinks tea, walks around, gets kidnaped and orders Sebastian around. However, in this season Ciel happened to be more ative and became more interesting.
Sebastian had finally faced some seriouse trouble and is not a Marry Sue anymore.
And most importatly, characters who seemed to be useless forthe most part, happned to have a big suprise for everyone.
It is one of those series where good guys actually lose at some point. I don't want to spoil too much but ending was perfect for me. It was unpredictable.
The only people who will be dissapointed are crazy yaoi fangirls, that is if you don't try to look deeper into it. Becaue I think that you also should be happy about the ending.
And of course if you are manga obessed, then you also won't like it.
Faeron
To those lucky people out there who come across this review without watching Kuroshitsuji I: Before you watch the first season, I strongly, STRONGLY recommend you watch the second season first, and then follow up with the first one and look at them as two different little stories, rather than being continuous. Look at them as two possible endings which might've occurred and you will have a choice of choosing the ending which best suits you and by doing so you won't have a chance of being disappointed and no ending is then "forced" upon you. (I will not compare it to the manga and howthe anime should have been adapted)
Sequels and second, third seasons are very dangerous; they can make a mess of things, good and bad. They can satisfy your wish when you don't want the anime to end, to go that extra episode or two because it can, they can clear the mistakes of the season I, they can be fun and ok to watch, they can be great and just the perfect thing to end the whole deal, they can even improve the first season!
However...
Kuroshitsuji II isn't one of those sequels.
The first season, as far as I am concerned had a superb ending, but seeing the first episode of season II which confused me, few episodes later, they explain perfectly as to why the anime continues and that satisfied me, because to some level they had a point and well, I too wanted to go on for a little while. But the sequel was unnecessary.
Now, shall we begin?
The Art and Sound (10 - perfect)
The art is as good as season I, the same perfect style of drawing and coloring which suits the atmosphere, plus an extra additional touch when it comes to opening and ending themes. Music, great as ever. When it comes to intermission it blends more into it; instead of suddenly playing some happy tune when the mood way on the other side, it is continuous, the way it should be.
Characters (6 - fine)
There are a few additional characters as to season I:
Aloys Trancy - a bipolar child who dances on the line between thriving to destruction and then towards sadness and needing love to the maximum selfish extent. A sadist, yet a sad boy, jealous and vengeful, yet misplaced, lost and scared. The exact opposite of the young Ciel Phantomhive we've accustomed to and certainly refreshing to a point. He has a past which is not that sad as it is disturbing. Really, really disturbing. You can sit back and take a break from those sad, throbbing and sobbing flashbacks and be assured there are very, very few of those.
Claude Faustus - AloysTrancy's very own demon butler who's perfect in every way as he should be, who can go head to toe with Sebastain. His forks and knives are golden, opposite Sebastians silverware, his eyes are yellow and he wears glasses. He has a few tricks on his own, being the servant of Trancy family, whose crest holds a spider.
Hannah Annafellows is a maid at the Trancy household. Aloys takes his insecurity and sadism on her without regret. Toying with her at any given time and given chance as the anime goes on, yet she remains loyal to her master in hope he will be happy...
Trio - three identical bulters of the Trancy residence. They too had and have a part to play, though they could have been ignored. They are there for the soul purpose of being the "new character", anime could have gone without them just fine.
With the Trio exception, characters are very well made and fairly interesting.
As opposed to the Trio, Phantomhive trio isn't seen much, which means there are zero to One "unnecessary" episodes.
Onward to the story.
I'll try my best not to give out and spoilers so I will keep it short.
Since there is a new master and a new butler, predictably, they will clash. Sebastian has met his match, a perfect copy of himself, Claude. He basically carries the story. Being sly and cunning he makes twists and turns and thus Sebastian has to work as hard as ever to protect his young master. Sebastian finally shows some "emotion" if you can call it that way. His expressions do change from the well accustomed satisfied, eager and hungry to rage, rage and rage and yes, even sometimes concern.
Enjoyment of this series is pretty well. It's not good, it's not bad, it's a perfect mediocrity. Exactly what you'd expect from a sequel. The story had a bellow average, predictable development, an impressive twist none the less
However...
The ending is idiotic and disappointing. Compared to season I, which had a perfect ending, nothing else was needed, they go ahead and give the ending (thus giving the entire anime) meaninglessness and mediocrity.
I know that most of you who will finish season I will immediately go searching for season II, but I feel I have to warn you, the ending Is disappointing and you Will be disappointed. Not because it might not be to your liking, but because it butchered what the first season was all about and thus killed the entire anime.
Would I recommend watching it? Yes, ofcourse. But ONLY if one looks at it as a different story that stands by itself, instead of combining it into one anime. Looking at season I and II as two different little anime who have same characters, different stories, different endings. That way, you can choose which ending suites you best and it's not forced on you as The Last and Final Ending.
Hope it was helpful :)
ktulu007
Last week I looked at Kuroshitsuji. This week I'm looking at the sequel. What's odd about Kuroshitsuji having a sequel is that the first series is complete. It tells the story of Sebastian and Ciel beginning, middle and end. Going into this, I have no idea how they could make a sequel, unless it's some kind of spiritual successor. Well, let's take a look at the series and find out how they handle it. You can't see it, but I'm face-palming right now. Given the quality of the first series, I gave them credit. I didn't think they would go for a true sequel, butI was wrong. This series is a direct continuation of the first. With Ciel and Sebastian both making return appearances. Why, just why? The first series may have had an ending that was obvious and kind of rushed, but it was also suitable for the series. Why would you take a series with a pretty satisfying conclusion and add to it? That's actually my biggest issue with the story in this series. It's unnecessary. You have a young man named Alois Trancy with an impossibly talented butler. One evening they're visited by a strange traveler covered in heavy clothes. The man is revealed to be Sebastian and he's brought Ciel along in a briefcase. He steals something from the mansion and makes his getaway. I'm not going to give away the reasons behind all of this, but they're kind of stupid. After that Ciel and Alois gain a lot of animosity for each other so that there can be a plot. Now, let's start with the negatives, aside from it being an unnecessary addition. The first is that the retcon is very poorly handled and the plot that's added in to explain it is weak. Then there's the ending. It's pretty terrible. The story itself is lazy. A lot of it is just devoted to the rivalry between Sebastian and Claude. The series does have some episodes devoted to Ciel, Sebastian and the rest of the characters from the first series that are entertaining. It also has some plot elements that have merit, but they aren't really handled well enough to be as interesting as they could've been.
But at least the characters are still good, right? Well, kind of. Sebastian and Ciel are still good characters, although not nearly to the degree that they were in the first series, probably because they retread a lot of the same ground and development that they already covered with less competent writing behind it. Ciel's staff still provides the same comic relief they did before, albeit less of it since they barely show up. On the downside, Grell reappears with the same problematic elements from the first series. Then we have the new characters. Alois, whose an obnoxious and very annoying brat with little personality aside from being a sociopath. We also have Claude whose incredibly dull. we also have Hannah, a maid in the Trancy household. When you learn what her motivations are the sheer stupidity will likely make your head hurt. We also get some triplet servants in the Trancy household. They have no personalities whatsoever.
The art is still well done. The character designs are still good, for the most part. The backgrounds are still well done. The action sequences in this one really aren't as good. Part of that is just that they involve a lot of awkward scene transitions.
The cast is still really good. Tamura Yukari, Hirano Aya, Sakamoto Maaya, Ono Daisuke and most of the other actors all give strong performances. Fukuyama Jun is still a weakness based solely on the fact that the character he's portraying is ridiculously exaggerated. Mizuki Nana has the same problem, although she does a little better at putting some nuance into the performance in spite of it. Sakurai Takahiro doesn't give his best performance either, largely due to his character having less emotional substance than a tapeworm.
The yuri factor is still a 1/10. there's no yuri here.
You probably deduced this already, but I didn't care for this one. It has some of the elements that made the first one great, but most of them are either weakened by idiotic contrivances and/or terrible new characters. My final rating is going to be a 4/10. It's a sub-par piece that doesn't stand well either on its own or as a continuation to the Kuroshitsuji. Next week, I'll look at Usagi Drop. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is next on my request queue, but I'm not going to have time to finish all of it in time. So expect that on the 29th.
JadeOlivia
I don't know if it's because I already poured my cereal in my bowl this morning and I didn't have any fucking milk, or if it's because this anime truley sucked. What I do know is this anime pissed me off. It introduces a set of new characters, Alios and Clyde, these two domininating the second season. Story: 4 The story was mediocre at best. It honestly wasn't in the least bit interesting, and was a waste of time to even watch. The storyline of the first one was great, amazing I'm fact. But this one was appealing, and made me think they should've ended it withwhat they had. Alios and Clyde weren't any significance, and seemed like a knock-off of Ciel and Sebestaion. It was long and drawn out, no character whatsoever.
Art : 9
The art was nice, nothing special and kept the Victorian era true to its name. Alios, Clyde, Ciel, and Sebeastian were all drawn nicely, and we're very original. The scenery in the background was nice, overall it was a solid 9
Sound: 10
The voice acting was magnificent , and the voices fit the personalities of characters they represented. The opening and closing weren't very memorable, but the pictures were nice, while the second season lacked in story, the sound made up for it.
Character: 2
The characters pissed me off. Not because they were annoying *cough Alios cough*, But because how two dementional they are. I hate when animators try and use flashbacks as a way to do character development. Some cases it works, others it miserably fails. This of course is the latter. They also love to try to have a depressing past to make us have sympathy for them, using this as an excuse for said character to be a complete asshole to everyone. Alios was an annoying brat, and quite frankly I'm glad what the animators decided to cut his part. Cylde was just overall creepy and delusional, obsessing over Ciel for some odd reason. They are just cookie cutter characters, nothing special.
Enjoyment: 3
I did not enjoy this anime at all. I loved seeing Ciel and Sebeastian again, but this anime was a train wreck. Alios ruined it for me, and I finished it, hoping that it will have a great ending, but it was a disappointment. I recommend that you watch it for the shits and giggles, but don't expect it to be the best thing since toast was invented.
Overall : 5
This anime averaged to about a 4.9, after adding each number I gave it then dividing it by the four categories, giving it a almost solid 5. It looks like shit compared to the first Black Butler, but after having an amazing first season, my expectations weren't set to high. I recommend to watch, but don't make my mistake of thinking it will be good, then being disappointed in the end. If you enjoyed my review, feel free to check out my others! Enjoy!
RukiaRocks
You know, people said the second season would suck. The only thing I ever knew about the second season(this was back when I was still watching season one) was the infamous "tongue boy." Alois, I thought, would be a little like the Ikuto(Shugo Chara sexy kitty boy) figure. But it turned out that he was a very...Interesting person. Disturbed in terms of society's "moral correctness," Alois made for the perfect character to use as support for Kuroshitsuji's finale. I'm not one to like it when an anime series alters it's plot just so they can end it ahead of time, but this was a reallywell done plot ending. Although there were a lot of new characters, Alois, in particular, was my big surprise. Because I'm sure anything anyone hears is just about his "booty-licious shorts." For those of you who are turned off by that factor(I wasn't but..You know, if you are) there's more to him than you'd imagine.
Without giving away any details, he's one of those characters that, if you're an open mind to different takes on justice, you can really come to love in the short amount of time that he was a lead in this series. Though it was definite that he supported Ciel, he also added a new twisted flair to Kuroshitsuji that I really liked. It was really because of him that Kuroshitsuji had as good an ending to the anime. (After all, by his wishes, did everything that happened come to be reality.)
The other new characters such as Hana and Claude are both support for Alois. Because of Alois's "Needy behavior," it was very skillful to add such high contrast characters beside him that help support such a boy(otherwise he probably would have fallen apart.) Hana is a passive maid who lets Alois treat her as a rag doll, while Claude is a sort of absent character who is very hard to please. As Alois's butler, he says things with empty meaning and often, Alois goes searching for actual emotion in Claude. Though Alois and Claude, as a duo, where never as effective as the Ciel-Sebastian duo, they were still a very successful contrasting pairing(not in the romantic way.)
The story begins in a rather rocky start as a lot of information is dumped on you. As the story starts when a big time lapse has occurred between the end of season one and the current events, it takes some time to piece together everything that happened, but the fact that the plot still functions, without the viewers having full knowledge of the previous essential points, is proof enough that the ending to this series was really a piece of work that was woven together beautifully.
A lot of people will debate about the yaoi or non-yaoi-ness of season one. But those who cater toward such style of affection will be slightly pleased to know of a fact that they will learn upon the first few episodes of the series; Alois Trancy is an aristocratic boy with a demon butler(like Ciel). But--rather than being an exact copy of the Earl of Phatomhive--he has differences in his past that led him to his current position and the location of his contract seal is different from Ciel's.
With a detailed past quite similar in cruelty and suffering to Ciel's, Alois's hardships toughened him into a callus soul that masked his wounds with twisted smiles. In some ways, he ended up less "complete in mind" than Ciel in the fact that his consciousness is not completely at peace with itself. By his sporadic behavior, ranging on the bipolar side, we can tell that he is very deeply damaged as a result of his ordeals. And his savior, Claude, is always the person he looks toward for recognition. One can hardly blame such a soul as Alois, though. He clung to what brought him out of the darkness; it could only be cruel to condemn him for not noticing the foolishness in asking for love from a Demon.
If we return to the very sensitive topic for this anime: Yaoi(which makes or breaks some people's experience with such a series), we will notice the location of Alois's demon contract: his tongue. Popularly, he is seen licking people with his tongue, or rather, a single entity. A certain boy for whom also has a demon butler... Ironically, however, Alois does not favor Ciel or seek any romantic relations with him(as I first assumed by all the comments I got on Alois's character), he actually wishes torturel Ciel. This becomes evident in the first episode(so don't think I spoiled anything for you). And the way for which his past, his demon contract, Ciel, and Sebastian weave together to create the finale to Kuroshitsuji make this a MUST WATCH for any fan of Kuroshitsuji, be it the anime or manga.
DestructiveNix
Alright guys, I'm going to say this straight out of the box. I had my doubts, five minutes in to the first episode. I didn't think Alois was going to live up to the standards Ceil set, nor did I like Claude. He was simply too fussy. I changed my mind in the last few minutes of that same episode. Once I realized Ceil was in fact, still around, and it wasn't going to be about Alois, I was thoroughly delighted. From the standpoint of an animator, I have to say that the animation isn't as great as it maybe could have been, but consideringhow hard and quickly they have to work to get an episode out on time, I think they did a brilliant job.
I also liked the different entry scenes for the two different characters, both Antagonist and protagonist.
I think you're going to come to like Alois, once you get past the fact that he's incredibly creepy at times. He's a bit co-dependent and needy, but he's also devious and clever. He knows how to get what he wants-when flirting fails him, he either acts crazy or incredibly clever. He's quick witted and VERY sharp--if a little sadistic and cruel. I respect character writing that makes me think, and Alois is definitely someone who keeps you on your toes. He's an ASTOUNDINGLY complex character, despite all surface appearances.
Hannah, despite appearing to be incredibly submissive in the first episode, reveals a side of herself you'll find very surprising. Telling more would be spoilers though!
Claude I didn't like, but I recognize the importance of having a character like him--His development is actually quite surprising as well.
the triplets seemed a little flat for me, but I think their role was just to be pretty and act creepy, points for that. There's really no back story or development behind them. I would have liked to see them explained a little more.
Over all the series is a lot of fan service, (I assume as an apology to those who were upset by the final episode of the first season) and some trolling on the part of the maid and Alois. There are also a few Monty Python's Flying Circus, Jojo's bizarre adventures, and Eddy Izzard references(from my point of view at least) Showing that the Creator, Producers, Writers and animators all have BRILLIANT senses of humor, and good skills in subtlety. Indeed there are a few phrases in the middle of the project that you don't understand completely until the last two or three episodes, but it's well worth the wait.
My opinion? Props for going out with a bang, keeping me on my toes and waiting, practically begging for more, and for doing a great job in a little window of time. 12 episodes isn't very much to reach the climax of this sort of thing. Kuroshitsuji II has a fantastic storyline, wonderful writing, intelligently crafted characters, for the most part. Because of all of this, I love this series as much as I loved it's predecessor, and the manga it's derived from. I'm sure you'll love it as well!
Good watching-Nix
Nia9001
As a fan of the first season, I was looking forward to the announcement that the second season got a green lit. I disliked the idea of having a new master and butler but as the updates and airing date were moving close, I felt that the new master is indeed interesting and unique. Aside the new butler of course. The moment I got to watch the first episode of the second season, there were mixed feelings. Confusion, amusement and unsatisfaction. The latter episodes became dull but there were certain ones that just makes me “Okay fine, I’ll finish this. Maybe it would be more interestingon the next episode.” I was damn wrong. The second season was full of faults in an overall score. The characters took a sudden landslide the moment Alois declared that he wanted Ciel, Claude lusting for Ciel’s soul and Sebastian being a weak demon whenever Ciel’s soul was on the table. Landslide?More of a catastrophe I guess.
So I’ll start with the first and second most important part, characters and plot.
Ciel Phantomhive is a strong hearted independent noble. Why in the name of the queen of England should he let his emotions of pride and selfishness just because there is someone working for the queen other than himself? This is clearly a point why Ciel is, most of the times, a spoiled brat, only a million fold richer. Ciel’s reincarnation as a demon made the overall season’s score lower than the others. He is Ciel but at the same time not. It’s not confusing. Just imagine Ciel, being himself, only as a empty hollow. Do you get it now? Great. Now you’ll see why Ciel isn’t interesting anymore. I just don’t know for those Sebastian x Ciel fans though, I’ll just leave their imaginations of pedophility love.
Sebastian Michaelis is the famous talk around bishounen town. I’m not a fan of his character but if I could compare his development between the two seasons, I would say that he became more of a lowly and cowardly dog than a humble butler in the present season. He is confident that his possession, Ciel’s soul, wouldn’t be robbed by some other demon. Which lead to a disaster which also lead to another huge failure, particularly the 12th episode. His resistance as declared in the first season was his biggest mistake if I say so myself.
Alois Trancy(please do not remind me of his real name, I prefer this instead) is one of the freshest characters I’ve seen. He is an interesting, pathetic, adorable, slutty, pitiful, devastated, attention-seeking male cinderella. But he became the dullest thing I can see in the 12th episode. He has become weak and easily-controlled soul. Leaving his murder behind, his character, wanting to be loved by Claude is just like those romantic movies I’ve seen a hundred times. It’s unrequited love, master and butler special edition. He became a poorly made character by the moment he said that he wanted Claude despite his failure of finishing the contract. Biggest waste. Period.
Claude Faustus, fuck this butler very much. He is the biggest mistake. And because he is the biggest mistake he is also the culprit of the biggest downfall and biggest waste of the series. He’s too honest, sneaky and is a monkey dressed in a butler suit with glasses. He’s the type that if he wanted something, he would use anyone just to attain his ‘something’ and this something was none other than Ciel Phantomhive. His death was a failure too. I dislike him so much that I wouldn’t even be able to accept comments about my rant about him.
Hannah Anafeloz,with no mistake, has the most development especially in the last two episodes. She has become Alois’ savior and Ciel’s killer. She ignited Alois’ passion of becoming one with Ciel and devoured Alois’ into a new contract after letting him know that she is one with his younger brother, Luca. I’m surprised that she grew feelings with Luca which lead to performing a contract with him which became a bridge to be of service under the Trancy household. Oh, did I say she’s a masochist? Yeah. The hell with it. She rocked the boat herself.
The triplets, the highlight of their existence was their failure of killing Sebastian. Other than that, they’re triplets! And triplets are eyecatching. I prefer them cleaning and doing household chores instead of attacking Sebastian just to hide their idiocy and uselessness.
And of course, who would forget the Ronald Knox appearance? I didn’t see that coming, I doubt that you did too.
The minor characters that were adapted to the second season has a pale presence. The parts where Sebastian was handing over a letter declaring the death date of Ciel were confusing. Their reactions weren’t as lively as before.
Second, art.
The art of the first season was balanced. The background and character quality was well balanced. The second season wasn’t. The background quality was more of an A+ while the character quality was lower, more of a B minus. Maybe it’s just me, but other than that, it was brilliant. The animation was great too especially when it comes to the fighting scenes.
Third, music and character voice.
The CV in the first season had a good score coming from most of the watchers, why wouldn’t the second season have too? It’s better and more fine. The music is more than passable. It’s befitting. Except that in some points it sometimes overpowers the characters.
Kuroshitsuji or in English, Black Butler, is a finely made series. The thing is, it flunked during the second season in very many points. So many that you will be able to point them out even though you haven’t watched the first season.
Third season? No thanks. But if they’ve decided to push another season through, good luck with that. I’ll keep my mouth shut till then.
xxcchaosxx
Kuroshitsuji II (two stars like this ** means that there is a spoiler coming up, and you should skip to the next set of stars) And here we come to a sequel. Sequels can be a good thing, if expressed correctly and if it is relevant to the parent story, much like an OVA. And let’s be honest – if a show is THAT good, and it ends in a sort of open ended way, shouldn’t it just stay like that? I mean, I’m pretty sure no one wants to know what happened to Azmaria at the end of Chrono Crusade. And though I used to hopefor it, I like the way the Code Geass series ended. You were left with either believing he was dead or alive in some other world. Quite honestly, I think that’s the best kind of ending – one that you’ll remember long after finishing the story. And this sequel is just passable. I preferred the way the first season ended, because it was just at the cataclysm that Ciel dies. Or, it was assumed so. I just don’t like the way it all took off. And sadly, it doesn’t look like they’re done. (I'm grading this according to the MAL number ruling - a six is fair, meaning its not great but it isn't bad either.
Art:
The art hasn’t changed much if at all from the first season. If there was a change, then it was so small I couldn’t even notice it. So I’ll give it the same art score I would’ve given the first season.
Sounds:
Nothing to say about the ending and opening soundtracks. They weren’t overly enjoyable or disappointing, they were just ok. The soundtrack in the show, however, is a different story. The sound track of the second season is just as enjoyable as the soundtrack of the first. Beautiful melodies that mask sorrow or that exempt it all together – that’s the kind of music you can hope to hear from this show.
Story:
To make it simply and clear: There really is no story at the beginning. The first episode brings Ciel back, and then it’s just…“what?” until episode 6. Don’t get me wrong, you enjoy this arc, as you reminisce with old characters, but it all seems irrelevant to the story – and that’s a problem. This, to me, is always what can make any viewer drop an anime. If the show flies way out with an idea or its arc is too long and irrelevant, you gotta wonder why you’re still watching it. I can’t tell you how many shows I was excited to watch, that I ended up dropping because the arcs got too boring and I began to question its relevance. But this is not the case, it was a little over played, yes, but it was enjoyable, and that makes up for it. In the end, the reconciliation of the characters, though late and not very deep, is strong, albeit a little more confusing than it should have been.
Characters:
Ciel and Sebastian are old news. Elizabeth has very obviously taken a liking to Ciel, even more so than is noticeable in the first season. And sadly, you don’t get to see much of her after the first few episodes. And then we get to Alois Trancy. A homoerotic, sadistic **(actually gay, as we see in the first scene)** freak. **People may argue that he was forced into it, but he doesn’t seem at all deeply affected by it. Almost like it just doesn’t bother him.** He is utterly disgusting and despicable to say the least. It’s not because he’s gay, but because of the way he acts and the way he treats others. His butler, Claude, is another freaky one. When you meet him, you sort of get the feeling he’s like…Sebastian from wal-mart. Like, Sebastian is a nicely polished Lamborghini or BMW, and Claude is just a cheap knock off, like a 90’s era Toyota Corolla, or Dodge Grand Caravan. They just don’t compare. Maybe I’m being a little biased, perhaps because I already know Sebastian from the first season and have seen just how good he is at what he does. And, his humor has upped its ante from the first season – there was one specific part that I couldn’t stop laughing about midway through the series that I had to watch again and again. You also start to wonder what the hell other characters are even doing in the story. And the truth is, you won’t know until you get to episode 5 or whatever, when the story starts to make sense, as they’re all explaining what has happened thus far. In simpler terms, your favorite characters don’t exactly get enough air time this time around. I was honestly hoping for some more bonding with Lizzy. But that was shot.
Enjoyment:
While I still wouldn’t exactly categorize this show as pure fan service or maybe even partly fan service, it does deliver a lot of what you’re hoping to see. Not because its eye candy, although that is sometimes the case, but because it relates to the story, or helps set up a premise to the next or future setting. I thoroughly enjoyed this series. Even though the first few episodes you’re confused to no end, the last few episodes stick to the main plot and the point it is trying to get across is received clearly. Though, the ending was probably a disappointment simply because it ended, and made you think that the story could honestly have just not even started if it was going to end the way it did. **With Sebastian being trapped into eternal loyalty.**
Faults:
I think the series was a great piece of work, but to be perfectly honest, it almost seems like the creators tried to make something out of nothing. I think that they wanted another season, and to make it possible, they brought Ciel back. He was dead at the end of the first season, and it should have just ended there. If the production team had wanted to do more work, they could’ve just chosen to do an entirely new series. I wanted to watch this sequel because I assumed it would ONLY be based on Alois Trancy and his butler. **Now, however, they’re both dead.** And it only seems like it’ll get worse, as word of a possible 3rd season is going around.
Overall:
This being a direct sequel, you are obligated to watch the first season in order to get this one. I honestly thought this was going to be a standalone show with just Alois, but that was wrong. Way wrong. Anywho, it was a great watch. I have personally been getting pretty bored with all the new anime coming out this season, as they are either too cliché or they haven’t finished (I had a bad experience waiting for Bakemonogatari to finish, since I started watching it a week before the last episode was supposed to come out, only to find out that the last episode was going to be coming out HALF A DAMN YEAR LATER). I’ve started to watch MM! and the new To-LOVE-ru, and hope to finish them soon to write a review.
InFireX
This is my first review, so I apologize for any mistakes. I watched the 1st season which was awesome and also received 10 from my side. But I was really disapointed upon the 2nd season (I expected that). STORY: starts with the most annoying character(s) in Kuroshitsuji franchise but in the 2nd episode everything was almost the same like in the 1st season. From about 5th or 6th episode the story started to lose it`s sense; the ending didn`t have it anymore so I give it 4. ART: that`s the only thing I enjoyed while watching the anime; it was clear, detailed (especialy in gore moments) and enjoyableto watch. Score: 10
SOUND: I don`t pay too much attention to sound but it was alright and the soundtrack was good to listen. I give it 8.
CHARACTERS: They`re the same as in the 1st season + new characters (Alois Trancy and his servants) but some of the old characters didn`t appeared much during the season. Almost all new characters were really annoying, but toward the end their true selves were revealed and I liked that. Score: 5
ENJOYMENT: Despite the mistakes and whole sense of this series I still enjoyed in it because of action, development of story along with the characters. Score: 6
OVERALL: this season wasn`t necessary because the story was already finished in the 1st one and yet the developers decided to stretch it. I give it 3 because of annoying new characters and story without sense, but also very good action and plot twists. If you watched the 1st season and enjoyed it, I disrecommend watching this one because it`s not worth of your time. Score: 3
adureme
I enjoyed Kuroshitsuji a lot and that was what got me hooked onto it to begin with. The fact that they made a second season made me leap for joy in a way but I'm utterly disappointed with what I've seen in this season. For the most part it doesn't have anything to do with the manga. The story from the beginning is really confusing and was really hard for me to understand. It was really obvious that the producers were only making a second season to please the fans. I would rather have Kuroshitsuji ending the way it did rather than have this crazyplot put together as a dire last method to make us happy.
If you are looking for a consistent storyline this is not the anime to watch. Some episodes I enjoyed and some I thoroughly didn't understand at all. Alois and Claude were newly made characters for this season; first off understanding the two is really confusing. Their personalities are hard to describe. One thing I noticed was that their behaviors were hard to follow but I'm not sure if this is just me or if they're just like that. I'm guessing it's both. From episode 1 to episode 12 it just makes me wonder what the hell happened. The ending was absolutely ridiculous to me but then again I'm sure this might have pleased many other fans out there.
From the moment you begin to love a character you suddenly start to hate them as well towards the end. For some of the fanservice moments I laughed and enjoyed myself, but these moments didn't last too long. I'm not sure how to explain how confused I was by this season, the dialogue and events occurring didn't flow well and you don't get the answers to certain questions until you're at the end of the anime and even then it still leaves you puzzled.
Watching the second season was still great because I got to see Ciel and Sebastian again. Kuroshitsuji fans I'm sure will watch this second season but I am honestly disappointed with the outcome of this season. The fanservice was still enjoyable though but the overall expectations I had for this season were not even close.
Asagirims
Read the manga Don't watch this. It's like they shredded the plot and characters through an AI and asked it "write the worst possible thing in existence", used its script, and animated it while drunk. Strange, abnormal amount of fanservice, weird fujoshi bait (for EVERY pairing you can imagine) and some wildly unnecessary gore. The timeline is so messed up I don't even understand how the animators understood what they were doing--it's not messed up in a fun, creative way, just in a bad, messy way. So watch it if you want to get an all around experience of Black Butler, but make sure to readon the correct chronological order of the animated series. You shouldn't judge this series as a whole based on this season, as, as you know, it isn't manga canon.
This was really a one of a kind experience. This makes the manga's writing feel like a holy script upon an alter. Just read it. The art is better, the plot is better, and there is no Alois (god bless). The music goes HARD though.
Sapphire
Creators have to be extra careful when they create sequels and even series to popular movies/shows. I can name only a few sequels that have been almost or even better than the original, but this...not even close. I don't count this as a 'sequel'. Plot: With the story, the first five episodes are clearly fillers, except maybe the first when introducing Alois. But we don't really get a proper story line until the middle of the season. It's a bit disappointing when you reach it and say, "so what was the purpose of the last few episodes?" clearly the writers weren't thinking when they wroteit. I do understand this strays far from the manga, but I found many scenes where it...just didn't make a whole lot of sense. Having the random episodes and humour is fun, but does it fit? Probably not.
Now the themes of death and sacrifice were clearly there. Good. Some symbolism with the rings, marks, etc. But I found it repeated some mistakes from the first season. However, I won't hold season II responsible for a cliche plot. They did well to establish something original, creating a darker more gory atmosphere the first one didn't have much of.
There is one thing that bugged me was how Sebastian felt like a supporting character in this. It was all about the new characters and less about developing the character of Sebastian and Ciel. When watching this, don't be surprised when they don't show up in the first episode.
Art:
I have no problems with the art. The same comments apply from my review in the first season. Very clear effects. We had some rain, blood spilling out, shiny spiderwebs we all know and love, and many other things. The castles are well designed and animated, showing the dark-Gothic, 19th century theme in the show, and the characters the same.
Sound:
There is actually natural sound in this. The music fit perfectly with the selected scenes, and added the touches of the mood to the story. There are even the eeriness moans and screams from children and other things in the night. Adds to the horror genre this show wanted to come across as.
Character:
Oh boy...here we go. Let's start with Alois, shall we?
Can someone please get this kid a psychologist? Clearly he has some major mental issues and even sexual issues. Now we do get a backstory on him, but I don't think it went far enough. We never got to see the relationship with his parents. Perhaps his birth father sexually abused him and his brother to make him the way he is. Who knows. But I have a feeling his parents or at least his father are to blame for his behaviour as the Lord and how he comes up with such vile things/ideas. He has no fear, and probably is diagnosed with PTSD or separation anxiety. I can say he is one messed up kid.
The good thing about him is he is not a stereotype. That is a relief right there. The writers created a very dark character though. I was shocked what I saw at the beginning. No child should ever be doing that sort or thing, which is probably one of the reasons why this show is rated R.
Onto Claude. He is another Sebastian except a spider version of him. He doesn't really have a personality of his own. I don't have anything else to say other than that...
Hannah seems to hold a darker secret, which if you read the synopsis you'll know who she is. But she is probably the second darkest character after Alois.
Now Ciel. I actually liked Ciel in this season. He's changed and his character has developed. He turned into a likeable character, something the first season failed to do. But Sebastian is still the same lovable, demon butler. He didn't change as much.
Enjoyment/Overall:
I'll say it again, I didn't enjoy this season as much as the last. The ending was...a bit odd for my taste. Black Butler I and II is it's own series in itself. It doesn't follow the manga plot at all. And remember the cliffhanger ending in the first one? BB II doesn't show what really happens until a little while later. Go ahead and watch it to let go of your tension of wanting to find out after the last one, but don't be surprised if it's not what you expected. I was rather confused at first until I hit the fifth or sixth episode.
Overall, I give Black Butler II a C+ or a 68% on the soul scale.
defunctmaluser
Black Butler II turned ten years old two weeks ago, which is quite surreal to think about considering how recent it feels. There's a rather peculiar phenomenon that happens in popular culture with time. It would seem that stuff that was popular ten years ago tends to age poorly, and yet 20 years later, we laud it as a retro classic. Given that, we must ask ourselves whether or not history will vindicate Black Butler II. Indeed, it wasn't the most critically acclaimed at the time of its release, and yet there was this rather notable subset of the fandom that tried to find thegood in an extremely controversial second season. Even so, some would argue that this show's transgressions are so unforgivable that what little good this season accomplished would never be enough to justify all the nonsense viewers have to endure. I am one of those people.
My initial impressions of Black Butler II were not positive when I first watched it. Even if I try my damndest to forgive the show for its many transgressions, I can't find myself feeling anything except visceral disgust. Do not be fooled; there is no merit to be found here in Black Butler II. What little good that it manages to accomplish boils down to mere coincidence and aesthetics rather than any sincere attempt at telling a coherent story involving characters who have compelling narratives. I'd even go so far as to say that this show is the perfect example of a "cash grab sequel" considering how much shit the viewer has to wade through before finding anything remotely close to what the first season had to offer.
That's something I'd never imagine myself saying, much less in a long-form review. Though the 2008 anime is flawed to high heaven, I can at least respect the fact that it tried to branch out into newer concepts. While its ending wasn't satisfying for me, it felt like an airtight conclusion to the Faustian tragedy about a victim of circumstance and his pursuit for revenge. It's common knowledge by now that the 2008 anime ended with Sebastian about to devour Ciel's soul, how the fuck can anyone make a sequel to that? Unfortunately, I can't go into too much detail about that due to spoilers, but I will say this: the explanation feels like it was ripped straight from the depths of some shitty headcanon on Tumblr or FanFiction.net than Yana Toboso's mind.
While it was challenging to try and find anything about this show's marketing, the general assumption that one could make at the time its pilot aired was that this show would be about a new young master and a new demon butler. Of course, we all know that setup was a fake-out as the real story this season has to offer is a battle between old and new. The new young master Alois and his demonic servant in Claude are now locked in a struggle with Ciel and Sebastian as we watch this marvellous chess game unfold in real-time. At least, that's the best way that I can try to describe this sad facsimile of a plot positively.
The thing is that Black Butler II tries to set itself up as this grand battle of wits between eerily similar nobles where we can see just how far Ciel could have fallen were it not for the way his circumstances played out. It doesn't achieve that effect whatsoever and instead plays out more like a sadistic child psychopath bitching about why everyone hates him. Ciel wasn't the epitome of characterisation in the 2008 anime. However, it was still relatively easy to root for him considering how Ciel still had his moments of humanity shown (i.e. his affection for Lizzie, his acceptance of Soma and Agni, his bond with the servants of Phantomhive, etc.).
I want to give Alois the benefit of the doubt because I get no joy out of hating him. However, I cannot tolerate his presence on the screen for more than mere minutes at a time and no amount of great voice acting from the likes of Her Highness, Luci Christian can ever change that. Alois is quite literally Ciel if he had no redeeming qualities whatsoever and any attempt this show makes to paint Alois in a sympathetic light falls flat on its face when you take his actions during the anime into account. How the fuck can I feel any modicum of sympathy for a child who gouges out his maid's eye for a simple mistake?
What's more, is that the anime tries so… fucking… HARD to make the audience feel sympathy for Alois to the point where it just comes across as fucking stupid rather than compelling. I don't give a shit how tragic your character's backstory is; sympathy is earned rather than given. Ciel's actions in the anime and manga are indeed morally questionable at times. Again - he's still got those crucial moments where you can look past his Bruce Wayne facade and see a child who's ultimately a victim of circumstance. You want me to see the light in Alois? How about you portray him as something other than a sadistic, psychotic child with the telltale signs of histrionic personality disorder in the present day and present time?
I don't give a rat's ass if Alois was abused and defiled like Ciel nor do I give a shit about his background as some impoverished child; shitty people, in general, don't deserve our sympathy. Alois's entire motive boils down to an obsession with what Ciel has that he doesn't have. Indeed, this feud between Ciel and Alois gets even more ridiculous when Claude decides to take an interest in Ciel after tasting his blood. Get this: Alois is such an irksome shitstain that his demonic servant who is contractually obligated to serve him leaves for the superior protagonist. That's how you know you're an utter failure as a person.
There is an argument that I've seen some people make that Alois was an excellent villain specifically because he got you to hate him and in a vacuum, I can understand that logic. The problem with this train of thought is that merely hating a villain doesn't automatically make them compelling. Wrestling heels evoke the ire of the audience on purpose, but there's a clear distinction between a heel like Randy Orton and a heel like X-Pac. Hell, I'd wager that Alois isn't even in the same league as X-Pac. He's more like Roman Reigns in that the larger audience hates him and yet A-1 Pictures decides to pull a Vince McMahon and continue pushing Alois despite the sheer volume of disapproval.
What makes all of this even more disgusting is how far A-1 Pictures tries to go with its pandering. I stated before that I'm grateful for Yana Toboso deciding against making Black Butler into a BL manga. Now, we get into the part of this review that goes into great lengths about why. The fan service in Black Butler was uncomfortable, but it never got downright nauseating like its cash-grab sequel does. Hell, put the two shows side by side, and you can make an argument that the first season was tasteful with how it handled its fan service. Again, that's a statement I never thought I'd say out loud, but here we are.
Alois's backstory involves him getting exploited sexually by the former Earl Trancy. If you think that's bad enough, we get treated to several flashback scenes where we see Alois seducing him in excruciating detail right down to the ugly bastard sucking his toes. We get treated to countless views of Sebastian pandering to Grell's lust for him by striking poses while she takes photos of him beating up the bishonen triplets. Speaking of which, we get treated to many scenes of these mute triplets who exist for two reasons: padding out Alois's servant lineup and also fan service for all the fujoshis who couldn't get enough BL material from the first season. You know, because why bother telling a compelling story when you can amp up the number of pretty boys in your narrative and have the fujoshis buy the BDs in droves? Don't think they're the only ones who get in on all the pandering either, because Hannah exists specifically to cater to perverts who lust after a one-eyed maid with huge tits.
It gets to a point where Claude is the only character introduced that I can find myself rooting for in some manner. Why? Because he reacts precisely in the way that I would if I got beckoned by a child psychopath. I'd just put in the bare minimum necessary to get the kid to shut up and ditch him when I get the first chance. Ordinarily, I'd take umbrage with Claude's lack of charm or charisma. However, that would imply that all demons in the Black Butler universe are exactly like Sebastian. Is it that much of a stretch to assume that demons can have different personalities and aesthetics? Plus, Jason Douglas does a fantastic job voicing him, so I can't find myself being too hard on him.
What baffled me when I was watching this was how I saw so many comments on KissAnime deriding Claude for not caring about Alois, but I feel like we're missing out on one crucial detail here: Claude is an expletive demon! His only vested interest is in Alois's soul, not Alois himself. That's also the reason why Sebastian went through so much trouble to reclaim Ciel after Claude kidnaps him! This utterly stupid fandom seems to forget that demons view humans as food and nothing more. Sebastian and Claude didn't fight for Ciel's love; they were effectively fighting over who gets the last slice of pizza! The only reason why Sebastian ever act in a remotely paternal manner to Ciel in the first place was due to Sebastian's dedication to the butler aesthetic. Claude had no such commitment to any aesthetic, so it makes sense that he'd act in a vein similar to other demons.
I've seen other reviews of this show saying that they liked how it cut back on the gag comedy that plagued the first season. What's more, those same reviews praised this season for being darker and taking risks that the first season didn't. Like I said in my analysis of the first season: it's pretty fucking dangerous to romanticise risk-taking. Why? Because it leads to people accepting abject rubbish as genuine quality when all it's doing is being edgy for edginess's sake without any care for storytelling or characterisation. To be fair here, it's not like the manga was devoid of edge, but there's an obvious distinction to be made here.
Whenever we get a look back at Ciel's time with the cult shortly after Vincent and Rachel Phantomhive get murdered, the manga treats these moments with absolute seriousness. Sebastian even says that Ciel was calling out for help "in sorrow, in anger, in despair, and terror" and that "he spits out curses that fall like flames from his tongue." We don't see Sebastian as a knight in shining armour rescuing his uke like so many awful drawings on DeviantART, Tumblr, and Pixiv make him out to be. Instead, we get a picture of a predator masking his prey drive with a Faustian contract. Sebastian does save Ciel from the cult, but not without reminding him that his soul is forfeit when the time comes. If Ciel ever has a traumatic flashback to the cult, Sebastian comforts him just enough to bring him back to sanity (or he'll opt to scare him out of it in the recent chapters). It's not because of any vested interest in Ciel beyond the contract. It never was, and it never will be.
If Black Butler II were to recreate this type of scene, it would instead feature Alois crying out for Claude never to abandon him while he's wearing boa, hot pants, and no shirt. Oh and don't forget to throw in some flashbacks of Alois's hilariously oppressive past to garner more sympathy and some shots of Hannah staring at him wistfully while the triplets stand there doing nothing. If it still seems a little too sterile for you, why not throw in some shots of the old Earl Trancy and his harem of underage boys along with Alois's quest to usurp the Earl? That'll surely make the audience root for Alois. You might think I'm exaggerating here, but that's literally how all of these "dark" moments play out in the context of the show.
Moving away from all that ranting about the story and Alois's numerous transgressions, let's talk about the other characters. While Ciel and Sebastian make a return in this season, their involvement in this season feels forced beyond all belief. All our beloved Bassy wants to do is eat his dinner in peace, but A-1 Pictures couldn't even afford him that luxury. Still, there was a part of me that was happy to hear Brina Palencia say "This is an order!" only for J. Michael Tatum to follow it up by saying "Yes, my lord." Given that, I guess that's one positive point in this show's favour.
Unfortunately, that positive is immediately followed up by another negative in that the remainder of the returning cast has absolutely no purpose whatsoever. Lau even makes a return despite visibly dying toward the end of the first season, so it's not like A-1 Pictures even cared about consistency. Perhaps most insulting is how Fred Abberline now has a twin brother... who looks and behaves precisely as Fred does in the manga, right down to the moustache. Mind you, Episode 20 of the first season explicitly stated that Fred lost his entire family when he was young. Where was the twin all this time? Directly from some coked-up executive's anus, perhaps. I think the best part about the twin is that he completely undermines Fred sacrificing his life to save Ciel from impending danger. Thank you, A-1 Pictures for completely ruining one of the few poignant scenes from the first season. We don't need compelling narratives involving characters we care about; we want more BL fan service! But, I digress because I've been blathering far too long about this. Let's take a look at some of the more superficial aspects of this show. Maybe then, I won't have so much venom to spare.
Due to the shorter season, there was a much higher animation budget which pays off quite well this time around. There's much more action in this season which admittedly is a refreshing change of pace considering how slow the first season was. Even more surprising is how fluid these action scenes are. It was quite a marvellous sight to witness Sebastian throwing tableware at random goons in the first season, but now we get full-on brawls between Sebastian and Claude.
Still, there are quite a few inconsistencies with the animation that isn't as apparent in the first season. The CG horse carriages returned, as did the CG teapots. What's more, they've come back in droves. Let's play a drinking game: take a shot every time you see some conspicuous CG in the show. The first one to die of cirrhosis won't have to suffer for the rest of the show's run. Thankfully, that's the worst I have to say about the animation. There aren't any instances of the animators going off-model that I could make out while watching the show, so that's a plus.
Unfortunately, the audio has taken somewhat of a downgrade from the first season. There is no iconic song like "Si Deus Me Relinquit" from the first season in Black Butler II. The only iconic track from the OST in this season is the OP, ironically enough. "Shiver" by the Gazette is a decent song. It does pop up in my head every so often, but it's not the type of song I'd actively seek. Still, upbeat J-Rock songs are always okay in my book. The dubbing this time around is also much more tolerable, though that could be due to the lack of exaggerated Cockney accents from the likes of the Phantomhive servants. I just wish that Funimation didn't waste Her Highness, Luci Christian's talents on such an awful character, but that's a comparatively minor gripe in the scheme of things.
Now we get to my favourite part of this review: enjoyment. It should be apparent that I fucking hated watching this show. Even when I first watched it back in 2014, I didn't care too much for it. However, I wasn't quite able to vocalise how I felt because my thoughts were far too abstract for me to piece together. Coming back to Black Butler II six years later has given me the capacity to precisely vocalise the sheer contempt that I feel toward this failed abortion of a cash-grab sequel. Unfortunately, this came at the cost of my entertainment. To date, this is the only A-1 Pictures show I've ever watched that I didn't enjoy in any capacity whatsoever. Not even in that ironic "so bad it's good" way.
So many people say that this season had potential. Do not be fooled; there was never any potential to be had with this awful show. Its very premise relies on breaking an airtight conclusion from the previous season. Even worse, it amplifies all the worst aspects of the first season from the fan service to the sheer volume of uncomfortable BL subtext between Alois and Claude or Ciel and Sebastian. Hell, there are even some moments where A-1 Pictures tries to shoehorn some subtext between Ciel and Alois too. The only way Black Butler II could've ever been good is if A-1 Pictures decided to adapt the Circus arc of the manga. We didn't even get that for a good four years after this travesty aired.
The whole time I was watching this, I couldn't help but ask myself one question: "why am I not watching Black Butler: Book of Circus?" In so many ways, that is the superior sequel. I'm not even trying to be a manga purist at this rate. I'm all for a show deviating from its source material if the creators of the programme are willing to put in the effort to develop their stories and characters. However, A-1 Pictures had no intention whatsoever of giving us any of that. This show isn't an attempt at genuine quality; this is the finished product that we receive when coked-up executives try to cater to the lowest common denominator. That's pretty fucking insulting when you consider just how rich and deep the manga's lore is.
While all of this drama was going on in the world of the anime, the manga was flourishing. Do you want to see Sebastian challenged in his duties as the Earl of Phantomhive's butler? You don't have to watch this season to witness Sebastian struggle. We get treated to countless moments where Sebastian isn't so peerless after all. He didn't even know how to treat Ciel's asthma when he had an attack during the Circus arc. Sebastian's superhuman endurance also gets pushed to its limits during the Luxury Liner arc as he tries to protect the young master from danger approaching him at all sides. All of this was happening during the time that Black Butler II was airing. Imagine being one of the poor sods who watched this season and came out of it pissed, instead of being one of the people who had the luxury of enjoying a proper story from start to finish.
Should you watch this show? Absolutely fucking not. Even if you're sceptical of my praise to the manga, there are still other shows in this particular genre that are worth watching. Pandora Hearts started airing the year before Black Butler II came out and while I do have my grievances with the series as a whole, it's a far more satisfying experience from start to finish than Black Butler II is. Alternatively, you can turn to Karneval and get a similarly brief show that makes some modicum of sense. In a landscape where shows of genuine quality exist, there is no reason whatsoever as to why you should give this season a chance.
Finally, I have a little message I want to give to this incredibly bizarre fandom that I begrudgingly associate with due to my love of the series as a whole. If you thoroughly enjoyed Black Butler II, if you liked Alois, Claude, Hannah, or any of the other characters that this show introduced, or what have you: that is 100% okay. However, you should do us all a favour and not conflate your sense of enjoyment with actual quality. While it is true that anime is an art form, there is a baseline for what does and doesn't work within the context of a particular show. Black Butler II has so many holes in its writing that it plugs with fan service to the point where people have gone out of their way to write fan fiction, not to mention the full-on roleplays on websites like Tumblr. I can't even begin to fathom why anyone would even bother with that. It's not the duty of us as fans to fix the mistakes that the writers made. Your headcanon won't change the fact that this show sucked so hard that you had to resort to making headcanons in the first place. Similarly, you may be able to roleplay as Hannah or Alois without making either character insufferable; even so, that won't change the fact that their characterisations were so mind-numbingly awful in the show itself.
Black Butler II is a blight upon the franchise and isn't worthy of the Phantomhive name whatsoever. Not even those admittedly hilarious bloopers or the OVAs can justify this abomination's existence. If you don't opt to heed my warnings, don't be surprised if you come out just as crestfallen as I am.
