The Butler Did It: A Look at Book of Murder

(Once again, I'm posting my obligatory "I didn't read the manga" disclaimer. The only thing I know about this arc comes from what they presented in the OVA because I haven't gotten that far in the manga yet. Volumes are expensive, yo. And for the sake of not ruining the fun of the mystery, this review won't include spoilers. Yay!)

I can't tell you how many times the English major in me squealed while watching this.

I'll do my best to convey just how well-researched this particular anime/manga is with this review, but for those of you who haven't caught on, Miss Taboso has clearly read a great deal about Victorian England, both in culture and in history. Literature is a big recurring element of Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji—this arc in particular—and it makes me positively giddy with excitement.

Here we go.

Book of Murder is an OVA that was screened in two parts in Japanese cinemas: Part One on October 25, 2014 and Part Two on November 15, 2014. Unlike most other OVA's I've seen, this one is two hours long—more an actual full-length film than an animated short. Since it had such a considerable length, I decided to review it as a sort of faux-season. It's kind of strange how they've treated the Black Butler franchise in general with this whole issue: There's a 26-episode first season that follows the manga only through the first half and then makes everything else up, a 12-episode second season that is entirely independent from the manga, a 10-episode spin off/sequel/third season that returned to the manga and eliminated everything after the curry competition in season one, and now we have the OVA which is an animated version of the arc following The Noah's Ark Circus, The Phantomhive Murders.

Maybe the next production will consist of a thirty-minute speed read of the arc following this one.

Regardless, I will say that I'm glad they're at least keeping this franchise alive, even if that means they're resorting to Not-Actual-Seasons and feature film-length OVA's to do it. I mean, hey, I don't know anything about how advertising in Japan works, but the promotional material/ads for Book of Murder were kind of neat as hell:

I know that it has seen a pretty considerable boom in popularity since the first season was produced, so maybe that's why A-1 Pictures is bending over backwards to make this stuff as impressive as possible. Why they can't just produce normal, full-blown seasons for it, who knows. The aesthetics of this show continue to be outstanding, from Ciel in a Sherlock Holmes costume to the side silhouettes of the characters.

Our story is as follows: After the investigation of the Noah's Arc Circus ended with somewhat questionable results, The Queen instructs Ciel to host a banquet in the honor of a prominent German banker, George Siemens, while he is visiting England. Ciel invites a small cast of characters to his mansion for the occasion—including a struggling writer named Arthur Conan Doyle. During the party, a gruesome murder transpires and Ciel himself is suspected to be the perpetrator. As a powerful storm continues to rage outside the manor and more people drop dead, the trapped members of the household must work together to find the true culprit before it's too late.

Before I get into the review itself, I want to take a minute to discuss the state of detective fiction in Victorian England, as this particular arc takes its lead from many of the tropes associated with them. Detective fiction as it's own unique genre was a product of the Victorian era, though it had been around prior to Queen Victoria's reign. The difference between those stories and the Victorian detective novels were two things: One, pre-Victorian detective tales often focused on the villains in the story and emphasized sympathy towards them and two, it wasn't until the mid-nineteenth century that the detective figure emerged as a prominent type of character. From an historical context, the shift from making the villains sympathetic to irredeemable criminals could be a result of the Victorian's desperate need for order in a world that was becoming rapidly infested with crime. The Industrial Revolution exploded the population of London and increased the amount of people that lived in cities instead of on large tracks of land. Over in America, Edgar Allan Poe wrote a collection of three short stories involving his protagonist Dupin, including "The Purloined Letter" and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." Conan Doyle would later model his character of Sherlock Holmes off of Poe's Dupin. "The Purloined Letter" is often considered the first modern detective story, and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" established the "locked room" formula which involved a seemingly impossible crime coupled with a surprising solution--the exact type of narrative that Book of Murder uses as its framework.

Which brings us back to the story.

Obviously, the story includes Arthur as a somewhat neutral, detective figure who assists Ciel in figuring out the mystery behind the killings. The first part of the OVA sets up the murders and doles out information through the narrative that more or less serves to complicate the entire case. By the end of Part One, it's impossible to guess who's innocent and who's guilty or really, just what the hell is even going on. Like "Rue Morgue," the story is complex and has several layers to it, none of which become apparent until the end. A mysterious new figure appears as the cliffhanger for Part Two, though it's incredibly obvious who that person is. The neat thing is that knowing his true identity doesn't make the mystery any less substantial; it complicates it further. In the fashion of many of Holmes' stories, the entire final half-hour of the OVA is dedicated to explaining everything that happened. Trust me--you'll want to slap your forehead and then take an Aspirin because it's one of those "Ohhh, now I get it now!" mixed in with a big fat "WTF."

I won't give anything away, but I will say that there is an incredible amount of well-handled humor in regards to the explanation and a particularly fantastic gag involving Sebastian and a small band of cats.

What's interesting about this arc is that, even though there are multiple deaths, plenty of blood, and a few spouts of passionate crying, the tone of the story never feels excessively dark. It manages to strike a balance between being engaging and a bit frightening while also knowing when to play up the laughs, a lot like Book of Circus did. The last five minutes of the OVA are fantastic, balancing laugh-out-loud funny with endearing and utter seriousness (there's also a great post-credits 30-second exchange between Sebastian and Lizzie that's quite charming). It feels very much like a Sherlock Holmes tale come to life: Holmes took his job seriously and knew how to get things done, but he also joked and did goofy things like stalk, on foot, the carriage of a man he believed to be responsible for the murder of Sir Charles Baskerville throughout the streets of London.

Speaking of Sherlock Holmes, Book of Murder sports a cameo of a caliber that hasn't been seen yet in this series: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle appears as a character in this arc, albeit a young version, pre-knighthood, when he was still a struggling author. They manage to make his appearance work well within the context of the story, which is something I don't feel they accomplished as well with Jack the Ripper way back in season one. Part of that, I think, is because they present him as a character in his own right while also paying plenty of respect to the historical figure. It's not that they didn't do that with Jack the Ripper, but because no one knows who the real killer was, the person they chose as the murderer and how they fit it into the story felt a little awkward and stilted.

Conan Doyle can be considered either a Victorian or Modernist writer, as he did publish some of his work in the late 1880's and 1890's, but also wrote a great deal in the early twentieth century. His most famous Sherlock Holmes story, The Hound of the Baskervilles, was published in 1901 (the year Queen Victoria died and the often marked end date for the Victorian era). Despite that, however, Conan Doyle was in fact writing in 1889—the year the arc takes place—and struggling to make a name for himself. In one of the conversations he has with Ciel, the writers drop three or four Easter eggs regarding his writing and personal life (all of which I have posted at the bottom of this article). That one conversation not only builds on Ciel's character as a lover of good stories and someone interested in the affairs of "commoners," but it also gives legitimacy to the setting of this story. It presents a real person in a fictional context without making him simply a name-drop. They don't just use the Victorian aesthetic; they plant these characters in the world of London in 1889.

Arthur is also entirely likeable. Where his most famous protagonist can be kind of a pompous goof, the Arthur they present here is far from pretentious. He can't seem to wrap his head around the idea that such a wealthy member of the Victorian upper class invited him to his banquet, even if said upperclassman is a thirteen year-old boy who reads and enjoys his work. Arthur comes across as genuine and kind as well as intelligent, but he doesn't put much stock or faith in his crime fiction writing. In fact, the real Arthur Conan Doyle viewed his Sherlock Holmes stories as silly entertainment that didn't have much literary value, and his passion was to write historical novels based on British history. Ironic then, that the works he is most famous for are the stories he cared the least about. But it's clear that Ciel has chosen Arthur to be at his banquet for a reason, and as the OVA plays out, it becomes apparent what that reason is.

This arc isn't focused as much on the growth of the characters or even illuminating more of the past. It's purpose is to tell a good mystery while still keeping in mind the timeline and general status quo of the show so far. We do get a little bit of insight into Ciel's relationship with his parents, but most of it is contained in a single flashback in Part One. It's helpful and interesting, but it's far from the crux of the story. Of course, just as they have everything stamped firmly in Victorian London, the show doesn't forget its own world that has been constructed over three two seasons. This includes it's colorful cast of characters: Both Lau and Ran Mao are guests at the banquet and Soma, Agni, and Lizzie make brief appearances as well.

A big blunder, however, is the new characters we meet. Aside from Arthur and Charles Grey (who is the Queen's butler/servant/bodyguard that attends the banquet as Siemens' escort of sorts and is a delightful pain in the ass), we are given the bare bones of characterization in many of the banquet guests, who range from a bombastic theatre director to a businessman who sells illegal weapons on the side. Even Siemens, the honored guest at the party, does little more than be a boorish oaf who gets drunk early on and dies within the first twenty minutes of the OVA. Everyone feels like they're there to be suspects rather than actual characters. Not to mention they introduce Charles Phips as one of the Queen's other bodyguards, yet he's in the show for all of five minutes and doesn't come back. He could have been eliminated from the OVA and it wouldn't have made a difference at all.

They do a solid job of introducing everyone through both on-screen title cards as well as Sebastian's formal roll-call. The problem is that none of them ever retain their individuality, at least not enough to make you care much beyond "Gee, wouldn't it be terrible if this soft-spoken lady was killed?" My thought is that you're not supposed to care, but then that also takes away from the suspense. You're not so much concerned about the new people dropping dead as you are the ones you've gotten to know that are stuck in the house as well: the servants, Ciel, and potentially Lau and Ran-Mao.

What I do like, though, is that there is a lot of attention brought to the servants of the Phantomhive manor. After Sebastian's death, Tanaka comes out of his bizarre chibi mode and returns to his position as the head butler, per Ciel's request. We get to see the real person behind all of the tea drinking and sitting that he spends the majority of the show taking part in, and that person happens to be an extremely skilled and capable gentleman. Each of the servants' relationship to Sebastian is brought to light here as well. It's not profound or even that deep, but you can see the love and affection that Finny, Mei-Rin, and Bardroy have for the man who has instructed and led them for the past three years. The servants are often the characters that receive the smallest amount of development (even in season one you don't get their back stories until the last batch of episodes) and it was nice to have them in a more dramatic and serious position instead of just a humorous one.

And I have to say, thank God that Sebastian doesn't screw anybody in this arc. It's probably because he spends the majority of it dead, but I don't care. I'll take it. Although for you fan girls out there, they do have a scene where Sebastian's corpse is being examined and the writers make quite a blatant joke about the fact that he's stark naked in front of a bunch of dudes, including Ciel (who giggles because he's both a teenager and because he enjoys seeing Sebastian humiliated).

Also, and this could just be me being a bastard, but I happen to think Sebastian's expression on his corpse when they find him dead is...kind of hysterical.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just desensitized to this kind of stuff after watching and playing Mortal Kombat for so many years, but there's something about his expression that feels over-the-top.

On the technical side, they make great use of the instrumental music here, as Black Butler always kind of tended to do. It manages to be both elegant and spooky depending on what's happening. Whenever they discover a new dead body, the music that plays is a great dramatic orchestral piece.

For projects that were both considerably shorter than their predecessors, both Book of Circus and Book of Murder have surpassed the previous two seasons in terms of production quality and character design. Everything is looking much more polished and updated, with smoother lines and richer colors. Season one came out in 2008, which makes it far from dated, but even in seven years the difference in quality between the first season and Book of Murder is obvious:

Part of it, I think, is in the way the line work is colored, which looks to have smoother and more detailed shading in BOC/BOM than in season one or two. There's a lot more depth to the hair in particular and a stronger emphasis on lighting. Ciel's eyes aren't nearly as oppressive in their proportions and his face shape seems to have been made a little narrower. I also love how they've added more color and detail to everyone's eyes, Sebastian and Ciel in particular.

That improvement is interesting especially when looking at the progression of the artwork on, say, Sebastian in the manga:

That doesn't mean the animation is perfect. There are moments where faces in the background look a little disjointed and there are a couple of cases (and by that I mean pretty much every occurrence) where the CGI is far from well-incorporated into the traditional drawings. Some of the clothing folds and shading look a little lazy and somewhat nonsensical as well:

As always, though, the backgrounds are beautiful and I love how they have rain falling every time there is a window in sight rather than just leaving it a dark color.

Since both Book of Circus and Book of Murder are brand new and haven't been dubbed yet (if they dub BOM at all), I've gotten used to the Japanese voice actors and even started to like them a heck of a lot. I'm not saying that their performances are good, since I don't speak Japanese and have no idea what a "good" Japanese performance would sound like, but the voices themselves are very well-cast. My biggest fear now is that when they're dubbed, I won't enjoy the English actors as much as I have in the past. But I guess there are worse things that could happen.

Fun fact: The actress for Ciel, Maata Sakamoto, also played Haruhi Fujioka in the original Japanese version of Ouran Highschool Host Club. I think this is hilarious.
 
If you're a fan of Black Butler, this is a must-see. It continues on from Book of Circus and also adds a little more to the mythos of this world. If you're not a Black Butler watcher, it's still a solid mystery that will keep you entertained for its two-hour run.

*************

References are as follows (there's a lot):

• Ciel tells Arthur that the reason he invited him to his banquet was because he had read one of Arthur’s works in the Beeton Christmas Annual, a holiday collection that often sold out, but wasn't considered hugely important. You know what story he’s referring to? A Study in Scarlet, the first Sherlock Holmes novella. The “witty and charming protagonist” Ciel speaks of would be Holmes himself.
• In the same conversation, Ciel says that he “even reads Punch,” which was a magazine dedicated to political satire and one of Conan Doyle’s uncles contributed to it as a cartoonist. 
• The snakes around Snake’s neck are all based on Victorian poets/writers. Goethe and Wilde in particular wrote stories that dealt with the state of the human soul: Goethe in his two-part play Faust and Wilde in his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. Hilariously enough, Arthur says to himself that Sebastian was enchanting enough to be a character in an Oscar Wilde novel, which makes sense considering the titular character of Dorian Gray was supposed to be inhumanly beautiful. I’m assuming the name Emily is referring to Emily Bronte, but I don’t know for sure. "Webster" is most likely Julia Augusta Webster who was a Victorian poet, essayist, translator, and dramatist (and even though it's most likely not what Taboso was referring to, there's a play/short story/film called The Devil and Daniel Webster about a fictionalized version of the famous lawyer and orator who defends a farmer who sold his soul to the Devil in court) 
• Arthur tells Jeremy that he reminds him of his old teacher, Dr. Bell. Joseph Bell is who he's referring to, one of Conan Doyle's professors and the primary inspiration for Sherlock Holmes. Bell encouraged his students to use observation skills and all of the senses when diagnosing illnesses and could even guess many of his students' professions using inductive and deductive reasoning.
• Though he's not in BOM, Ronald Knox was a real person as well. He was a detective-story writer and Catholic priest who wrote an article called “Studies in the Literature of Sherlock Holmes” in 1912. The essay included satire on the jargon of literary criticism and assumed Sherlock Holmes was a real person (this is actually a lot more common than you’d think). 
• When examining the body of one of the deceased, it's revealed that they have bite marks on their neck. Irene makes a comment about Carmilla, which was a vampire novel written by J. Sheridan Le Fanu and published in 1872. It was actually the precursor to Bram Stoker's Dracula. Many of the names and motifs were taken from that story and put into Stoker's famous novel.
• The show makes use of a safety coffin at one point. Victorians, for whatever reason, had a hardcore fear of being buried alive (Edgar Allan Poe in particular was known to be terrified of it). There were often newspaper and doctor reports that mentioned certain cases where individuals had met such a fate, and a lot of it had to do with the fact that they didn't really know how to declare someone "dead" at that point in history--not consistently, at least. As a result, safety coffins became a prominent product that featured all kinds of designs. The one in BOM makes use of a type that had a bell: "Alarm bells were replaced with firecrackers, sirens and even rockets which could be set off from inside the coffin." [source] The idea was that someone would hear or see the alarm and come dig you up before you died of suffocation or starvation.

Kiss, Kiss Fall in Love: A Look at Ouran Highschool Host Club

(As with Black Butler, I am aware that OHSHC has a very well-known and loved manga series from which the show was adapted. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to read or access to the manga at the moment and this post will only cover the anime. In addition, Hunny and Kyoyo's names are spelled differently depending on what you're reading so I'm using the forms that appear in the actual manga--courtesy of an Amazon preview.)

I swear, I’ve got to be losing my mind.

It was one thing when I developed a strong and passionate love for Black Butler. That was fine. It was one show, one thing for me to devour episode after episode like some kind of pop-culture-starved pre-teen girl. I could spew my fangirl reserves that lurk beneath the surface of my outward appearance all over that particular franchise because at least there were deep and meaningful things that were going on beneath all of the jokes and filler episodes and fanservice. There was resonance, something on a deeper level for my English major self to latch onto and endlessly use as an excuse to write excessive amounts of words about it.

And then I watched Ouran High School Host Club. Which really does not have any of those things.

To be fair, it’s not like this show knocked Black Butler out of first place in terms of shows that have my heart forever. But it did manage to snag me by the throat and not let go for the duration of its 26-episode run, and that’s what has me concerned for my sanity.

This isn’t the type of show I would watch, even if it was a live-action Western drama that everyone else was raving about on Facebook and Twitter. I’m not a RomCom type of gal, Eastern, Western or otherwise, so if someone gave me the premise of this particular show and said it was good, they’d have to do more to sell it to me than say, “It’s a really funny RomCom!” A friend of mine tossed out a couple of points regarding the show, but the only thing I remembered discussing was a scene where someone was chasing another person while riding in a horse and buggy and the definition of a host club. I had a vague idea of what host clubs were, which are more or less PG-rated man brothels. I do not want to watch shows about PG-rated man brothels, especially when the men involved are not actually men but teenagers in high school. Yet I kept seeing this show pop up all over the place, as it apparently has a rather infamous position amongst the larger anime community. 

And then, since I had time to kill before procrastinating on homework, I found the show online and decided to see just how ridiculous it was.

Several hours later I had almost blown through half of the series and could. Not. Stop. 

I initially wasn’t sure what direction this thing wanted to go in. I knew so little about it beyond its general reputation and the whole host club shtick and the first half of the pilot episode made me feel a little uncomfortable. I was also confused about why the main character was quite clearly played by a woman when all of the other cast members (with the exception of the person playing Hunny) were men. Then—SURPRISE—turns out she IS female.  Caitlin Glass’ voice work is  pretty androgynous for the most part, but there’s a definite lilt to it that is distinctly feminine. Kind of like how you know that female actors are playing young boys, no matter how well they try to hide it.

The rate at which this show won me over is insane. By episode two I knew I would have to watch every single one of the 26 episodes even if it killed me, and part of that was because my god is this show funny. It’s funny in that batshit-nuts kind of way, breaking down the fourth wall and knowing that the whole thing is supposed to be one big joke. Even the club's leader, Tamaki, admits in the opening narration that the host club was where “the school’s handsomest boys with too much time on their hands entertain young ladies who also have way too much time on their hands.”

It’s pretty clear through this statement that even the characters don’t take this thing seriously. Like I said, the entire show (and the manga from which it was adapted) is supposed to be a satire of not only the shojo genre and the types of clichés that thrive in it, but the fanbase surrounding them as well. The amount of screaming girls in this show is enough to make me plead for God to strike me deaf and for the duration of most of Renge’s appearances I wanted to punch her in the face. Everything is supposed to be ridiculous and over the top to the point where each member of the Host Club knows exactly what type of role they're supposed to be playing and use that to their advantage. The whole thing has it's tongue planted firmly in its cheek, which is where a lot of the strength and appeal comes from.

…and then they play the serious card by inserting a bunch of dramatic moments in between weird beach parties and rabid fan girls and an entire episode dedicated to one of the characters having a cavity.

The worst part? It works. It works so damn well.

Seriously, the amount of whiplash I got from these dramatic moments should have taken my head clean off. One minute I’m laughing at the absurdity of the boys’ hosting and the next I’m grabbing a tissue because holy crap I actually care about these little pipsqueaks.

I attribute that entirely to the fact that the characters are so likable it’s almost gross. They managed to make a bunch of preppy, snobby rich kids that are more or less fully-realized stereotypes some of the most charming and entertaining people, and I'm not talking about their baiting lady-talk. I mean each of them as individuals are all fun and interesting outside of their designated Host Club personality. Sure, they all adhere to the "type" they've been given on some level, but there's more to each of them than just being "The Devilish one" or "The Cool One." Like any good stereotype, they exaggerate the truth to simplify identification, and in the case of the Host Club, the reasons for their existence is not only as genre commentary, but as a business strategy in the actual context of the show. "A Type For Every Girl" is essentially the idea.

What I think makes it all work is the fact that those stereotypical traits are not so exaggerated that everything about them is predicable. Tamaki's arrogance and melodrama isn't a facade or a cover for insecurity. He really is that arrogant and melodramatic, but it's balanced out by his sincerity and genuineness towards other people. Hunny doesn't have some kind of twisted and sad back story that explains why he acts like a child; he just does so because that's how he feels comfortable. Both of the twins seem to struggle with the idea of being separate individuals, but they also don't harbor any resentment towards each other and barely make any attempts to operate as their own unique entities. And while it's implied that Kyoya's father is responsible for a lot of the pressure put on him to achieve levels of success, his statement to Haruhi that "he could think of nothing more fun" than striving for excellence gives the impression that Kyoya is naturally a Type-A Perfectionist even without his father's influence.

Of course, I'd be lying if I said everyone got their fair share of development and depth. The twins are so rarely separated from each other that it's hard to extract their individual personalities. Kaoru is nicer and more sociable, but there wasn't much more that I found to be distinguishable. Mori gets so little time devoted to him that you can't remove Hunny from his character because everything about him would dissolve. Hunny himself isn't that complex, either. He has moments of maturity and...uh, normalcy (his defense of Tamaki's anger during a particularly infamous beach episode comes to mind--and this article does a great job of explaining said infamous beach episode), but they're few and far between. Most of the time he's just kind of strange and you can only get used to his behavior rather than understand it.

Even Haruhi, the launching pad for the bulk of the show's criticism, comes off as a little dry and empty in comparison to some of the other characters. Her apathy towards a lot of things is humorous and relatable (as she's the "straight man" of the group aside from Kyoya) but there came a point where I almost felt like she didn't enjoy anything. I also wanted to see how her mother's death affected her more than what they presented, because even in regards to that she seemed...well, apathetic. The one or two moments we got to see her reflect on her mother felt kind of flat. After the first episode, she dropped the idea of talking to her mom in her head almost completely, and that could have been a great way to include some more information on their relationship.She isn't boring, but giving her something to be enthusiastic about would have brought a lot more depth to her character.

Not to mention that none of the characters really change or are affected by the events that happen throughout the season. Everyone more or less stays who they are, with maybe a little more respect and awareness for poor people added to the mix...if that even counts as development. Then again, that isn't the focus of the show. Ouran is composed more of what could be considered "filler" episodes that don't weave into a larger plot and the purpose isn't for anyone to go on a life-changing journey. It's for you, as a viewer, to laugh at the stupid things that pompous rich kids think and say and the commentary that the show is making. It's a traditional sitcom but with characters whose eyes are freaking gigantic and have perfect hair.

Actually, I want to talk about the character designs for a second, because they are ridiculous. And I mean that in a good way. Part of the show's critique I think can be seen in these character designs which are more or less exaggerated in every possible way. For starters, these kids are all (knee-less) legs and arms. If they were to exist as regular people, they would be frightening. Is that a bad thing? No. The overall look is consistent and everything is still proportional in terms of the limits of the designs, but holy crap look at how long those legs and arms are:

I'm not seeing any knees...

It's not that it's grotesque or even disproportionate, but in comparison to even something like this:

...they look like spiders. Not to mention that many of these characters--Kyoya and Tamaki in particular--tend to stand as if they have a spine made of pipe cleaners or a hard core case of scoliosis which emphasizes the long limbs and torsos. And again, it's just a matter of stylistic choices rather than bad artwork. The idea of having a tall, alluring kind of figure probably has mass appeal and would therefore be a smart decision. Either that or my affinity for lanky dudes is blurring my judgement. Who knows. Regardless, it's still an appealing look that goes well with the general cartoon-like tone of the show.

Then you have Haruhi's eyes which, even by anime standards, are effing enormous, to the point where she looks like an actual freaking owl in certain scenes:

Whoot.

If she's moving they don't tend to look too bad, but good grief looking at her straight-on is almost unsettling. It doesn't help that out of all of the characters her nose disappears the most often and her mouth is about the size of my fingertip. Even Disney princess facial features are not that wildly exaggerated. Like the limbs above, though, I can forgive it (for the most part) because it's a stylistic choice and in many ways is meant to be kind of absurd.

The animation itself is quite solid, and the way they pull off all of the over-the-top comedic drawings is impressive. There are also a lot of great facial expressions for each of the characters, even aside from the exaggerated, cartoony ones. You know who these characters are by the way they stand and present themselves as well as the looks and expressions they possess.

Unfortunately, the structure of the show doesn't allow for much in terms of finale, at least not the way they did it. The "finale" is two episodes worth of buildup and introduces two characters in Tamaki's cranky snob of a grandmother and a French woman named freaking Éclair who doesn't do much outside of be a pain in the ass and act quite rape-y towards Tamaki. One of the episodes includes some information regarding Tamaki and his relationship with his mother that we really could have used much earlier in the season because, looking back, it makes his interest in Haruhi's mom a lot more complex.

The final episodes themselves seem to pull drama out of the air and rush everything to some sort of quasi-finish. Not to mention a lot of people were confused by the fact that the show doesn't end with Haruhi sharing spit with Tamaki which, on one level is nice because it's different but on another doesn't make sense given the ENTIRE SEASON worth of build up for it. It was one of those things I kept waiting for and waiting for and was disappointed not because I was fawning over the two as a couple, but because I felt cheated out of an ending that, by all accounts, the show was moving towards. If the writers don't want to pair her off with someone, fine, but don't bait us for 26 episodes with that possibility. Grr.

Anyway.

I like a lot of the classical/instrumental pieces that are littered throughout the show. They add a nice regal feel to the general atmosphere without being annoying or silly. That being said, the opening and closing are both pretty atrocious--at least the English versions. It could just be the quality of the dubbing itself (2008 isn't old, but it was still seven years ago) rather than a lack of talent on the singers' part, but I skipped the opening and ending for the duration of the show because, aside from the poor quality, the lyrics themselves were sub par. The Japanese versions are far more tolerable, but you won't see me downloading either of them into my iTunes library.

On the plus side, there was a song released for...a reason that I honest to god cannot find anywhere called Mata Ashita! that is infinitely superior and catchy and features the entire Japanese cast of the show. I'd say I want a dub of that, but looking at the dubs of the OP/ED I don't know how good that would be. At least, as a song in it's own right. I have no doubt that Vic and the rest of the cast would pull off an English version that, if nothing else, would be stupidly amusing as hell.

Here's a video of that:

Speaking of Vic, he and Caitlin Glass were apparently the ones who fought to get Ouran dubbed over here and Vic in particular wanted to play Tamaki. Seeing what I have of him from Con videos, that isn't even remotely surprising. But he and the rest of the cast do a phenomenal job of bringing these characters to life. I mentioned before that Caitlin Glass' voice is feminine yet still androgynous, and it she keeps it that way without making Haruhi monotone (you'd never know that she was Miria in Baccano!). Luci Christian's Hunny is adorable and cutesy without being obnoxious or hard on the ears. I'm a big J. Micahel Tatum fan (surprise, surprise) and his portrayal of Kyoya is great as well, if maybe pushing the age barriers a little bit. Kyoya's voice is the only one out of the group who doesn't sound like he's in high school and it tends to stick out. And of course, Vic Mignogna's Tamaki is delightfully off-the-wall. He yells, he sniffles, he pouts, he gets serious...and Mignogna makes it all authentic.

The only thing I was left curious about is why they decided to leave the honorifics in the dub which, from my (limited) experience, are typically translated into another type of pet name or left out altogether because it's a cultural/linguistic thing that doesn't have any real equivalent here. On the one hand I thought that would be alienating to a viewer who knows nothing about honorifics or why they're used (and, you know, had to Google what the hell "senpai" was), but on the other it makes sense in light of the show's subject matter. Since it's poking fun at otaku culture, including those honorifics is almost like a jab at English-speaking otakus.

On the other side of the coin, the episode or two I watched in Japanese was great as well. I’ve gotten used to dub/sub hopping, since oftentimes streaming services like Hulu or Netflix only have one season or a few episodes dubbed and the rest are subbed, but with a dub as good as the one for this show I was afraid I’d go into the Japanese version and be disappointed. I found it to be just as good and enjoyable as the English dub. The only thing I found jarring was the fact that their cast boasts much deeper voices than the English one, so hearing Tamaki speak like, an entire octave lower was…shocking, to say the least.

If you can, watch at least a couple episodes from both.

And at last, with all of these words being said, I'd recommend you check the show out, even if you don't have much experience with anime. The jokes about the otaku culture aside, it's still a laugh-out-loud funny and enjoyable show that doesn't require a degree to appreciate. Plus it makes for a fabulous way to decompress if you're stressed out, and we all know there are never enough distractions in this world.

One Heck of a Ruckus: A Review of Baccano!

When browsing lists of some of the more acclaimed and recommended anime titles, Baccano! is one that tends to pop up often. It's a show that walks the line between being artistic and experimental in its storytelling conventions while also supplying the viewer with a great deal of fun. For that, I give this show a lot of credit.

After powering through two seasons of Black Butler, having my heart ripped in two by Book of Circus, and my mind blown by Book of Murder, I decided I wanted to opt for a show that was more about the fun and absurdity of the story than the deep emotional moments to balance out what my experience with anime thus far had been. I mean, the only other shows I had seen were Elfen Lied and Hellsing, neither of which are known for, uh, fun and jovial plots. Baccano! caught my interest because it was so highly praised and known for being a heck of a good time. It also takes place in Prohibition Era America, particularly Chicago and New York City circa 1930-1934, and even though I'm not all that interested in mafia wars and gangs, the unique style and atmosphere of the time period often supplies a great many ideas for stories.

Plus at only 13 episodes long (with three OVA's), I was able to watch the whole thing in two days.

Over the Hills and Far Away: A Look at Black Butler: Book of Circus

(As with my last entry, part of what I want to discuss in this post is the ending, so if you have not seen Book of Circus, be aware that there are spoilers towards the end.)

After the controversial ending of Black Butler II induced a virulent rage in the fan base, many people had given up on the idea of the show ever having another season. The reaction that the viewers had towards the entire season in general seemed to be a mixed bag, and most felt that it wasn't worth it for A-1 Pictures to bother resurrecting the show for another outing. There didn't appear to be a story left to tell, and most of their audience would end up either avoiding a new season altogether or approaching it with preset negativity. For the most part, the fans were content to enjoy season one and the OVA's as they were and, if they felt so inclined, ignore everything that happened in season two for their own headcannons.

Then early in 2014, it was announced that Black Butler would be returning for a third season for the summer anime block later that year.

And all of the fans unanimously did a face-palm.

There was a catch, however: Instead of taking the story forward from where season two ended, A-1 would be returning to the manga and animating the Noah's Ark Circus story--the arc directly following the curry competition from season one and where the show first deviated from its source material. Everything after the curry competition, including the ending of the first season and all of the events of the second, where effectively being retconned to make way for this arc to take its place in continuity.

Of course, for a lot of people this news didn't make them any more excited to watch the new season. Between the fact that the highly-praised ending of season one was no longer cannon and the general discontent that was still echoing across the fanbase, people were skeptical that the show could return with any semblance of dignity. Caution was the word for almost every viewer who went into episode one.

So it's a good thing this season is far from terrible.

I'm going to be honest here, since this is basically a review and all, and say this: Book of Circus takes the number one spot for me in terms of where I see the three seasons (and the OVA, Book of Murder). I loved this season. I loved it more than the first one, even though that one was the first time I had ever experienced so much affection for an anime. Out of all the seasons I think that it's the most well-paced, well-balanced, and effective, even though it's only ten episodes long.

It's actually kind of hard to determine whether or not Book of Circus is supposed to be an official season or if it's more of a spin-off type deal considering it's brevity. A lot of people found the continuity and timeline to be confusing, but for me I tend to look at it as taking place between the curry competition and the anime-only events of season one, much like where they said it was supposed to fit. I don't think it works perfectly, since I'm sure there are discrepancies between the seasons, but thinking of it that way allows me to get the best of both worlds: the amazing arc presented here and the phenomenal ending of the first season. Regardless of where it fits in the larger story, though, I feel that this arc has the ability to--for the most part--stand on its own as a single piece of work.

The plot: When a number of children in England begin disappearing in accordance with the routes of a traveling circus, Ciel is instructed by the Queen to investigate. Taking with him his faithful butler Sebastian, the two go undercover inside the Noah's Ark Circus to find the children and figure out what the members of the troupe have to do with the kidnappings.

I'm not sure what it is about this season that grabbed me by the ears and didn't let go. I suppose it has something to do with my love of color and the entire circus aesthetic, both of which feature prominently in this season (as the title would imply). The overall design of the show, from the title cards that have a 19th-century puppet show vibe to them to the saturated and rich colors in each of the circus characters and Ciel's circus costume oozes with things that I find appealing. Not to mention that there's something inherently spooky about circuses, which I think fits well with the rest of Black Butler's tone.

Speaking of things I loved, how 'bout that animation? Black Butler has always had pretty solid animation even in it's weaker moments, so saying that it's well-drawn is kind of redundant. Season two stepped it up a bit by looking a little more polished, as if the animators had gotten into the swing of how the characters moved. Here, though, I think it looks even better. It may just be the colors and the often dramatic lighting (the nighttime scenes around the circus tents are beautiful), but this season looks the best overall, even more than Book of Murder which came after it. There's a richness to all of the colors, solidarity and smoothness of the line work, and some fantastic and fluid action sequences.

Oh, and that opening. Holy dear gracious is that opening fantastic.

I'm not going to say that I dislike any of the other openings to Black Butler, but I do think season one's tend to be little on the generic side and neither of season two's really grab me in the same way this one does. By episodes two or three in the previous seasons I was skipping the openings entirely, but I could watch this opening on repeat thirty times in a row and love it every time. There's a lot of well-choreographed animation and beautiful stylistic choices in this 90-second clip that make it worth watching more than once just to take everything in. The song choice is also smart, especially the weird opening electronic tune and strumming on the guitar that has a folkish feel to it. They both fit well with the show's aesthetic. This opening is a perfect introduction to what you're about to watch--it was made specifically for this story. Plus I have listened to the song so many times that I have gotten to the point where I can kinda sorta mumble the words in botched Japanese and make the necessary garbled noises when I can't sing them

I like this thing so damn much that here it is embedded in this post because you need to watch it if you haven't had the opportunity:

But aside from the visuals, I have a lot of respect for everyone involved, from Miss Toboso to the animators and everyone in between, for the amount of research that went into this arc. Victorian circuses were actually a really big deal. They were considered a pretty lucrative--if challenging and often dangerous--business, tending to attract large crowds wherever they went, and had the potential to make people a lot of money. Part of their appeal was the fact that they traveled to their audiences--much like they do in this show. They would tour from the biggest cities to the smallest towns, and the invention and development of the railroad enabled large circuses to travel even farther. The daring and outrageous acts that many troupe members performed captivated the Victorians and made circuses one of the most prominent forms of entertainment in the mid-19th century.

All of the big, main acts in the Noah's Ark Circus* are historically relevant, too. Even their costumes are pretty spot-on, with the exception of Beast's corset. There's...no way that would have flown in Victorian England. At all.

Of all of the seasons, Book of Circus is far and away the most evenly-paced. Since there are only ten episodes, all of the potential fluff and filler is eliminated to make way for the plot. The only possible weak point is the first episode that spends a lot of time retreading old ground. It doesn't have much to do with the rest of the story, but it does efficiently set up the characters (the fact that this episode was treated in such a fashion adds to the confusion of whether or not this is meant to be a spin-off, stand-alone, or sequel) and the scene in which Ciel and Sebastian inform their guest that they know of his plot to kill Ciel is so damn neat visually that I can't say it isn't still enjoyable.

After three seasons, I think the show finally began to gain its footing in the tone department, as the amount of disjointedness between comedy and drama is much better balanced here than in the previous two seasons. Most of the jokes are circumstantial rather than contrived, pulling from Ciel's frustration with having to live a poor lifestyle while undercover as a new member of the troupe and possessing absolutely no special skills whatsoever. Sebastian's method of redirecting the knives Ciel throws and preventing him from falling off the tightrope without being caught is brilliant and hysterical. At the same time, the show is serious when it needs to be and the humor never feels like it's impeding on the real tone. Towards the back end of the season, there are hardly any jokes at all, which is fitting given the outcome of the entire investigation (although there was one joke in either the ninth or tenth episode involving Grell that got me to laugh pretty hard, and I don't even find Grell to be particularly funny).

There is one area in which the series falls a little flat and that's in the characterization. The members of the troupe are not as fleshed out and real as I think they could have been. That isn't to say they're all flat--Joker and Doll have the most solid characterization of all the main cast (aside from the leads), but they also get the greatest amount of screen time as the leader of the circus and Ciel's new BFF, respectively. Beast and Dagger are almost there for me; there's enough information that I can still somewhat care about them and their ultimate fates do strike a chord, but I couldn't give you more than a handful of words to describe them. I know next to nothing about Peter, Wendy, and Jumbo, which made it hard for me to care about what happens to them. Not to mention the supposed romance between Beast and Joker feels shoe-horned into the story and has very little attention or purpose brought to it.

The flashbacks that take up the first third of the final episode of the series give information about the circus "family" that we could have used much earlier. They're a really moving set of scenes that supply some needed characterization too little too late.

The actual "villain" of this story took me by surprise, though I guess in retrospect it shouldn't have. It's not so much that the primary antagonist isn't involved or directly responsible for the atrocities that go on related to the circus and carried out by its members; it's just that they take it one step further, and the added layer of involvement on the part of that person makes the story even more disturbing that it already was. And that's saying a lot.

What I did love, however, was how there was a lot of focus on Ciel's development as a character. We get to see a bit more into his past, specifically the torture that he endured at the hands of that strange cult and the formation of his deal with Sebastian (though Sebastian's demon form is still ambiguous aside from those killer stiletto heels). This arc centers on Ciel's weaknesses as a human, from his inability to hold his own at the circus; his frequent physical sickness as a young child, including asthma; and his absolute mental breakdown that happens once he finds himself back in the place that he was tortured. Despite all of this, Ciel still holds onto his pride and nobility as an earl, never once doubting who he is or where his loyalties lie. Ciel doesn't pretend to be good. He only does what is his duty and tries to keep his emotions (and conscience) out of the equation, doing whatever it takes to get "over the hills and far away."

Ciel isn't unlike the circus troupe. They each have experienced a great deal of pain over the course of their lives and take extreme measures to pull themselves back up and survive; they're all striving to get somewhere better, to achieve a level of success or satisfaction within themselves. The issue with Ciel, though, is that his moments of arrogance are backed by a great deal of self-awareness. When Sebastian tells him that his assumption that the children they found were better off dead was quite arrogant, his response is: "Yes, I'm arrogant. But not arrogant enough to make irresponsible boasts that I can save others." Ciel recognizes his weaknesses. According to him, Sebastian "brought the necessary strength [needed to survive], and that's the only reason [he] recovered." He doesn't presume that if he were to escape his torture that he would have been okay. He knows that the only hope he has is found in Sebastian--a terrible and tragic thing, as the pact doesn't ultimately give him any hope at all for his soul.

Which makes the entire scene in the final episode where Sebastian carries in his arms a frightened and slightly psychotic Ciel out from the roaring flames of Lord Kelvin's burning mansion all the more poignant. Ciel clings to the only thing he has, and that happens to be the demon that wants to claim his soul.

Plus, I mean, that entire scene is so gorgeously animated that you can feel the emotion coming off of both characters. The music, a melancholy instrumental string piece, compliments it all so well.

All of this culminates in a character that really is quite unpredictable. You're never sure what is going on in Ciel's head or how he truly feels about certain situations. His actions make sense after the fact, but often times they feel like they blindside you. This isn't a bad thing. It adds complexity to an already well-developed character and allows him to stand on his own as intriguing next to someone like Sebastian who is, for all intents and purposes, god-like in his abilities.

Sebastian is just as present and delightful as always, but with Ciel's story and that of the other characters, he tends to fade off into the background a little due to his pretty static characterization. That being said, he still does a lot and is the reason why Ciel is able to get into the circus at all. One thing that stands out even from the other seasons is that Sebastian gets the opportunity to laugh--really laugh, which I don't believe we see until now. He certainly gets a kick out of Ciel's irritation and frustration, whether it's over his nickname being "Smile" or the fact that Doll ends up sleeping in his bed with him while he recovers from an asthma attack. His scenes with the reaper William are also great; we get to see him interacting one-on-one with someone that isn't Ciel, Grell, or a Phantomhive servant. William's flat hatred of him comes out the best comically when he refuses to touch Sebastian during a certain trapeze act, requiring Sebastian to get creative in finding a way to complete the performance without Will's cooperation.

There are great darker moments with him, too. The look on his face when Ciel screams at him to burn the mansion to ashes with the children still inside is enough to set some viewers aback. It's one of the few times we see him questioning his master's orders. As I mentioned above, the scene where he carries Ciel away from the burning mansion is a striking moment as well. There's an expression he has after taking care of Doll that implies Sebastian might have, if not regret, but some sympathy for the people of this entire season. Maybe. But that's all part of the charm of Sebastian's character: You never really know what he's thinking (kind of like Ciel *wink wink*).

Oh, and his ending speech? It's not particularly unique or saying anything that hasn't been said before,  but the last sentence I think speaks volumes about who he is: Perhaps that's why humans are so interesting. Whether or not other demons see humans as interesting is debatable, but I'm going to assume that thinking of what's supposed to be your food in such a fashion is probably out of the ordinary.

However, there is one thing in regards to Sebastian's character that I am going to continue to complain about because it annoys the hell out of me. I don't like how they are continuing this trope of putting Sebastian in sexual situations in order to "get information" out of female characters. At least in season one it was sort of done for laughs (though I think everything leading up to the actual act itself was funnier) but here it's played straight and in a manner that I find to completely unsettling. I'm not a prude. I don't have an issue with sex in a show, but I like that sex to serve a purpose, and to me this entire charade here did not. If anything, it left me confused about Beast's character. She makes it clear that she knows exactly what Sebastian is doing in seducing her, seems rightfully horrified at the thought, and then has sex with him anyway. And it's not even like she seems excited or interested in it at all. She just lays on the bed all mopey and explains a little about the family and their history with "Father," and then bam--it's done.

Maybe it's not so much the scene itself that aggravates me as it is the fan reaction to it. I get that Sebastian is attractive--trust me, I do. He is an ingeniously designed character and there's nothing wrong with fawning over someone for that. My issue is that, regardless of how good-looking he is, Sebastian is still a freaking demon and his appearance is not even his real form or face. That's like one step below screwing the Devil and no thanks, but I'll pass. Yet I see the squealing everywhere and it boggles my mind how many girls are turned on by this scenario.

Anyway.

There are some people who feel that the ending to Book of Circus wasn't as complete as a stand-alone work should be, and to some extent I can see that. We don't get much of a conclusion to the larger story, which is Ciel's search for the killer of his parents. What it does do well, however, is conclude this particular arc. Maybe it's because I read a lot of comics and have gotten used to the idea of storytelling being broken up into coherent arcs, but the lack of solid closure didn't bother me in the slightest. The final twist reveal in the last episode is one of those moments that leave you with your mouth hanging open and your brain repeating "Damn..." over and over again. Ciel's maniacal laughter that follows the realization is both disturbing and fitting. I like how they play a soft piano cover of the "Tom, Tom the Piper's Son"** nursery rhyme that repeats in some form throughout the season while the spirits or ghosts or whatever they're supposed to be of the circus troupe float across the rather beautifully-drawn sky and take turns grabbing hold of Ciel's own "top knot" from his hat. Some people felt that it was a little corny, and I'd by lying if I said I couldn't see that. But given the grim and unrelenting darkness of this season, the bittersweet ending felt much needed. I'll take the cheese if I can get some kind of peace for my soul that spent ten episodes breaking in two.

If you watch nothing else of Black Butler, I'd strongly encourage you to watch this season. It's a solid story with some beautiful artwork and captivating character moments that will make your heart want to burst.

*****

*It's never really explained why the name of the circus here is Noah's Ark Circus. It's another Western reference, though not one that's limited to just Britain. The biblical story of Noah's Ark tells of how one man built a massive boat to house a pair of every animal species as well as Noah and his family while God flooded the earth, effectively creating a sort of floating refuge once everyone and everything else was dead. One could interpret the name as symbolic of the circus troupe's own refugee status, since they were all abandoned and found a new home through this occupation. The circus was their Noah's ark. Or Miss Toboso could have just thought it sounded cool. Who knows.

**"Tom, Tom the Piper's Son" is a traditional English nursery rhyme that was first published in 1795 in chapbook form. It became a popular tune in England during the 19th century, though the original song was only the first verse of what is often printed as a much larger work and had been around long before publication. The origin of this more well-known first verse of the song (the one sung in the show), as well as the tune, is unknown. Ciel also mentions Mother Goose when he asks Joker about the song. Mother Goose was the name of the fictitious character in collections of English nursery rhymes and has appeared in various printed forms for centuries. The collections often contain rhymes like "London Bridge is Falling Down," "Mary Had a Little Lamb," and obviously "Tom, Tom the Piper's Son."

A Stray Dog Into an Earl: A Look at Black Butler II

(Due to the fact that one of my main talking point is in fact the ending to this season, be aware that there are spoilers. Also, this is really damn long, so read at your own risk.)

Fun fact: The first I ever watched of Black Butler was actually the first four episodes of season two. Netflix decided for some reason to eliminate the first season from their library and, because I wasn't paying attention when I clicked on the show, I started watching from the beginning of this one.

And my initial reaction? "Oh. Wow, okay so I hate the two main characters. This will be fun."

I didn't realize that it was Alois and Claude and not Sebastian and Ciel that started out the season until Alois made a reference to Ciel in the first episode. I was still really confused, but because I didn't have much of an idea of what to expect from an anime, I assumed it was a round-about way of introducing the audience to the main characters. That, or my friend who suggested the show and had given me the basics of the story decided to leave out a rather important detail in her explanation. It took me until four episodes in, when I stopped watching the episodes one after the other automatically, to realize I was in season two at all. Suddenly what I thought was a terrible way to open a story and introduce characters turned into an intriguing continuation.

There were many people--a large majority of which were readers of the manga--who were aware of the fact that this season was taking a different direction than the source material. The anime had already deviated from the manga about halfway through season one, but I feel that what they did with the story there worked well as a single one-shot adaptation. Season two, on the other hand, was more or less pulled out the writers' asses, and the perspectives and opinions on the season turned out to be pretty polarizing. Some thought it was fantastic, others thought it was a horrible and ridiculous idea.

I'm...somewhere in the middle. I ran through the series twice, because my initial viewing spanned about forty-eight hours and I had a lot of questions that were left unanswered. My second viewing helped to clear some things up, since I was less focused on flying through everything and more on, you know, the different facets of the story. Unlike season one, I watched the entire thing in English as that was all that was available on Netflix.

The premise of season two is that a new young aristocrat, Alois Trancy, after being kidnapped as a baby and spending his childhood living in a poor village, survives the destruction of his home and the death of his baby brother, who was his only familial tie that he had as the two had become orphaned early in their lives. Soon after, he becomes the...uh, "toy" for a pedophile earl and Alois manipulates the old man into making him the heir to his estate. The earl then "dies" and Alois takes over as the new earl of Trancy Manor. He runs the mansion alongside his new butler, a mysterious and deadly serious man by the name of Claude Faustus*, who performs his duties to the utmost perfection. With Claude's help, he sets his eyes on the young earl Ciel Phantomhive and his own suspicious butler, Sebastian, hoping to destroy them.

The good news: I didn't actually end up hating Alois or Claude.

The bad news: This season is all over the place. Some of it's great, and some of it falls short.

I'll start by saying that, structurally, the pacing is wonky. The first four episodes spend far too much time on plot lines that have no bearing on the actual story that's being told, instead dragging us through episodes of deranged ladies killing people with cameras, Lizzie screaming, and a really dumb reference to Aberline in the most useless episode of them all involving a train and a kidnapped boy. Most of these plots felt like excuses to bring characters like Lau and Grell back into the show, though Grell at least becomes useful towards the latter half of the season. Sort of. Once the story picks back up, there's a lot of weird scenes involving food fights and two or three dinner invitations and glaring from Sebastian and Claude and oh my god someone please get Viscount Druitt out of this show I'm begging you.

That being said, I do like how they opened with an ambiguous scenario where Sebastian goes to great lengths to steal some tea from Alois' basement that you find out wasn't actually tea later on. It was clever.

The inclusion of Hannah is alright, but there's a lot about her that doesn't make much sense and isn't explained until much later in the season when we could have used it sooner, if it's explained at all. We may find out why she puts up with Alois' abusive behavior without complaint, but then what's the story with that giant demon-slaying sword being held inside her body? It's both disgusting and interesting, and like many other things in this season, left largely unexplained.

I still don't understand who on earth those triplet demons are and why they follow Hannah/Claude around, but I guess the writers didn't feel like giving them a back story was important. They had a scene where they brushed Hannah's hair. I guess that counts.

It's pretty obvious that the writers wanted to construct Alois and Claude as the dark doppelgangers to Ciel and Sebastian. This isn't an original idea by any stretch of the imagination, but it was certainly a challenging endeavor to take on. Neither Ciel nor Sebastian are, by any means, "wholesome" characters, and so creating two unique characters that went even darker than they are while still keeping them interesting and--on some level--likeable sported it's own set of hurdles to overcome. It's debatable whether or not they achieved that balance, but I will say that they managed to balance screen time and importance within story amongst the four leads well.

I'm not really a fan of this kind of approach with characters because too often it feels contrived and pointless. At least in the case of this particular story, they managed to make use of the fact that Alois and Ciel have such similar pasts. The only problem is that it comes across pretty forced and ham-fisted.

The way they managed to circumvent the happenings of the last episode of season one were kind of clumsy. Even when they took a clever plot point--the fact that Sebastian lost his arm that had the mark of their covenant--and used it as a way to start the conflict was marred by the fact that they don't explain it well. Sebastian says he "temporarily lost his arm" and therefore their contract was rendered null and void, so why did he not regenerate that arm the minute he lost it? Sebastian never puts that arm back within the span of the final episode, presumably because he was expecting to eat Ciel's soul and no longer need that form, anyway. If he knew that not having that arm would kind of eliminate their contract, why wouldn't he regenerate it sooner? He also mentions that Claude "stole Ciel's soul" more or less out from under him. How? Sebastian was standing right there the entire time. We're not shown how Claude does it. Ciel is just lying still on the bench while Sebastian has a hissy fit, and the only indication we have that Claude is even there is the cryptic shot with the spider on the bird's head. It's not an all-together bad way of fitting this conflict into the larger narrative, but the way they went about presenting it just leaves a lot of questions that I don't feel were adequately answered.

The biggest blunder, though, is the fact that Ciel has no memories of what happened prior to his "awakening" other than what we started with at season one. Amnesia is almost always a cheap plot device, and the fact that it only eliminates a certain stretch of Ciel's memories rather than all of them makes it worse. They don't bother to explain why he lost those memories in the first place (or even why he didn't lose ALL of his memories instead of just the past two or three years), just that Sebastian knew something was wrong when he put Ciel's soul back in his body. That's a cheap shot.

By the back end of the story, there were so many contracts overlapping with each other that it bordered on ridiculous. Three contracts were connected to what amounted to one body. I re-watched the season mainly for the last five or so episodes because the first time around I had no idea what the hell was going on. That being said, the mixing of Ciel and Alois' minds allowed for a great episode involving a garden maze, and the way that it pitted Claude and Sebastian together made for both some funny and poignant moments.

To be fair, the focus of this season wasn't so much on plot. Everything was centered around the four leads, and any conflict that did arise felt almost incidental rather than born out of a genuine motivation. I think the writers just wanted to sic a bunch of twisted characters on each other and see what happened.

I still can't make up my mind about how much I like Alois as a character. I won't claim that he isn't well constructed, because I believe he is, but some of his defining facets I find...not entirely grounded? The fundamental thing that Alois seeks--which motivates all of his actions--is unconditional love. That makes sense. He grew up poor, lost his parents at a young age and then his baby brother, was constantly ridiculed and condemned by the people in their village, and then sexually abused for who knows how long by a man probably five times his age. Fine, cool, sad back stories are interesting. My problem with it is that Alois is kind of a little shit regardless. Even before the worst of those things happen, Alois was doing and saying things that were not normal for a psychologically healthy child. Wishing for the villagers to die because they threw some rocks at his brother Luca is twisted. I don't believe kids ever say those words and know exactly what it is they're saying, but Alois does. He makes that statement to Luca after also spending a lot of time threatening the villagers with violence in his little brother's presence, and he says it with such blatant honesty and deadness in his eyes that it creeped me out both times I watched those scenes.

Alois comes across as a snot even to Luca, and because Luca was too little to understand the misbehavior Alois directed at him, his undying devotion feels--to me--tragic more than endearing. Luca is painted as such an innocent and good soul that he even thanks the demon he later makes a contract with right before he dies, so it's not unbelievable that he would feel that way towards Alois, but it irritates me anyway. Alois craves love and affection, but he doesn't act in a way that would ever allow him to find it. He beats the crap out of Hannah for no real reason on more than one occasion, threatens to kill Ciel's friends as a way to blackmail him, threatens Sebastian with Claude as his weapon, and then has the gall to beg for his life when Ciel stabs him. Alois is twisted and disturbed, and while I think he has reasons to be the way he is, I also feel most of what happened to him amplified the rotten character that had always been there. I don't see much in him that's redeemable; he's just someone to pity.

That's where he and Ciel differ for me. Sure, Ciel is a spoiled brat with a traumatic past, but he doesn't prance around claiming to be a saint or blame anyone else for his problems. He does some terrible things, but always with a purpose. He does have a heart underneath his trauma and anger. There's honor in Ciel.

One thing I do like about this season are the moments where Ciel shows his childish side, in particular when he botches his attempt to stab Alois and then has a tantrum because Sebastian won't let him finish the job. Aside from being amusing, since it makes Sebastian look like a father holding his bratty son, it also reminds us that Ciel is still a kid. Despite all of his maturity and self-awareness, he will still lose himself at times because that's what thirteen year-olds do. And when Ciel breaks down, he freaking breaks down. This becomes a little more obvious in Book of Circus, but that moment gives us a good look into Ciel's desperation that is very, very childlike.

Sebastian and Claude are the pair that make this season, however, and for all of the arguing and complaining, not many seem to have an issue with the conflict between the two demons. If anything, it's the element that's done the best in the season and leaves us with the least amount of questions.

Claude is a foil to Sebastian in ways that are little less subtle than Alois and Ciel. They're both demons, so they both operate on the same basic level of consuming souls for food. Unlike their humans, they are not fundamentally different. It's the ways in which they go about their business, and how they present themselves, that differs. Claude is constructed as a "real" demon where Sebastian is more unique.

I mentioned in my other post that Sebastian, as a protagonist, needed to have something different about him that made the audience care about his presence in the story. He becomes interesting because he has not only a personality, but because the quality of his own character is ambiguous. Someone that is supposed to be evil and irredeemable has moments where the audience can see something deeper within him. Claude remarks at one point that Sebastian's overprotective and obsessive behavior towards Ciel is very much unlike a demon and asks if any soul is worth the trouble to allow a second chance at achieving their revenge. Sebastian's response is more or less "Yes, and you wouldn't understand, so back off." When Ciel and Alois' souls are merged, Sebastian is ordered to leave and stay out of sight, and as furious as it makes him, he respects the order.

Claude, on the other hand, is a bastard. Where Sebastian plays along with Ciel's idea that he is a pawn for Ciel's games, Claude never makes any attempt to do so with Alois. When Alois demands that he laughs at something that wasn't particularly funny, Claude hesitates and almost refuses. He reminds Alois that he will "make one hell of a feast" out of him. Claude then kills Alois, essentially breaking their contract as he didn't fulfill Alois' stipulations, which is painted as some kind of demon treason, and uses Alois' soul to gain Ciel's. He then has the audacity to criticize Sebastian when they both think he has disobeyed Ciel's order to stay out of his sight. Claude also does so in a pretty juvenile way, repeating, "He saw you, he saw you!" several times like a damn five year-old. When, in the body of Ciel, Alois asks him why Claude killed him, Claude's initial response is to lie--something that Sebastian swore up and down to Ciel that he (or any other demon) doesn't do. And above it all, he betrays one of his own kind with a pact that he made with Sebastian on a false pretense. He isn't honorable, tactful, or even honest. He's entirely selfish and manipulative.

And so, when compared to Claude, Sebastian's own tactful means of operation look that much better. It's clear that Sebastian harbors some affection for Ciel, which Claude notices and takes advantage of. It's almost as if Claude fights so fiercely for Ciel's soul simply because he knows how much Sebastian wants it. The competition that comes out of their rivalry amplifies everything about the story--Sebastian's feelings towards Ciel, the quality of Ciel as a character to have such a desirable soul in the first place, the uniqueness of Sebastian as a demon that makes us care about him, and Ciel's awareness of what Sebastian is when he isn't playing the dutiful butler.

Which brings me to the ending.
Good grief.
What a way to make fans rage quit.

Let me start by saying that there are three different kinds of endings to stories: Appropriate, inappropriate, and appeasing.

Appropriate endings are those that fit the tone, direction, and arc of a story. They can be sad, happy, bittersweet, surprising, whatever--as long as they match the rest of what's been presented. Inappropriate endings are the opposite; they contrast completely with what a story has been working towards and tend to not make any sense. Appeasing endings are those that the audience wants. They can be either appropriate or inappropriate, but they're almost always happy. Funny enough, Victorian novels tended to be that way; people didn't want to read a 600-page book and then find out everyone died or something. They wanted happy endings. They're all, of course, debatable depending on your perspective.

This ending...manages to fit well with none of them.

I don't believe that the decision to turn Ciel into a demon is out of left field. For all of the weird ways they scooted around plot points, this one was one of the few decisions that made at least some sense to me. Alois' deal with Hannah makes it so that Ciel is helped and Sebastian hurt, because he comes to realize that both Claude and Sebastian are using the two of them for their own gain. Ciel doesn't have to die and Sebastian is forced to remain his butler until he has consumed his soul, which doesn't even exist anymore, so Sebastian is stuck serving Ciel for all eternity. Do I wish they made it clear that demons had the power to make humans other demons? Yes. But it's also not something that's entirely unbelievable for a demon to be able to do. Look at vampires: They have the ability to turn humans into other vampires. I think that the process would be similar here. Humans are, above all else, food for these creatures, but if either of them decide to make a human one of them, that's an option as well. It just doesn't happen often because--why would it? There would need to be a reason for either case, and Hannah doing so as a stipulation of a contract supplies that reason.

On the other side of the coin, it doesn't make sense because it couldn't happen. That isn't the direction that the story is headed. My personal opinion is that there isn't supposed to be a happy ending to this story at all. I'm not sure where Miss Taboso plans on taking this series, but if I had to guess it wouldn't be this direction, and not because people all but had a stroke over it. Some stories are not meant to be pleasant or positive, and there are plenty of moments within the anime that make it clear this is one of them. Everything about this story is layered in tragedy: Ciel's past, his pact with Sebastian, the fact that the only person in the world he has any amount of trust in is a demon, even Ciel's own actions that he does out of duty. It's all pointing to a desperate need for closure, which I think is why the first season as a basic adaptation, though not the scripted ending, worked. Ciel and Sebastian both win, it's just that Ciel's idea of winning is dying. That's the best he can get, and that sucks. But it fits, based on the content of the story as a whole.

And it certainly wasn't appeasing, because I think the fan base erupted like a volcano when they saw it.

So where do I see it? I don't agree with it, but not necessarily because "it's stupid" or "it doesn't make sense," and it didn't unleash a rage in me that it did so many other people. I disagree with the decision for two reasons:

1. Sebastian gets the short end of the stick without really deserving it.
2. They wrote themselves into a corner that doesn't allow for much else to happen.

I know that it sounds bizarre to say that a demon "didn't deserve" what ended up happening. But if we look at it from the context of the story, Sebastian has never once gone back on his word with Ciel, done something he wasn't supposed to do, or broke their contract in any way. He put up with a lot of nonsense from a lot of people, including Ciel himself. I'm not saying that his motivations behind what he was doing were good, but they are also what demons do. He wasn't behaving in a way that was abnormal, aside from the fact that he was developing an attachment to Ciel that demons don't or shouldn't. I said this in my previous article, but I'll say it again: Ciel chose to make a contract with Sebastian, and he was entirely possessive of him for the duration of the series almost as much as Sebastian was towards him. Their relationship was strangely symbiotic. As much as it sucked, Ciel knew that he was giving his soul away and Sebastian had every right to it as per their agreement. The loophole of making him a demon, despite the fact that it wasn't his choice but Alois', still screws over Sebastian in a way that didn't feel justified.

As for the second one, there really isn't any solid direction they could take with this story that would be engaging. I'm not a member of the Ciel and Sebastian Shipper Club and the last thing I would want to see is this story take off in that direction. I find that idea both creepy and uninteresting. Part of what made Ciel's character work well with Sebastian is the fact that he was so helpless; he needed Sebastian to get anything done or to survive longer than five seconds with all of the enemies his family made. As a demon, what could Ciel possibly need him for? Ordering him to fetch him souls? Demanding that he stop devouring souls? Sebastian would become a lackey, and Ciel--for all of his faults--doesn't seem like the kind of character that would keep someone around for the hell of it. People argued that maybe Sebastian would become his mentor and they might form some kind of friendship, but I don't see that happening. Sebastian lost out on the soul he wanted the most due to some technicality more or less and it's not like Ciel was particularly fond of him as a human. If Sebastian has no hope of getting what he wants, he could spend eternity being an asshole to Ciel because--what's he going to lose? And being forced by a contract to be nice to someone or to do things for them doesn't build a solid foundation for any kind of positive relationship.

To me, the story works best with Ciel as a helpless human and Sebastian as a powerful demon. That was kind of the selling point of the show and the manga.

The animation is still top-notch, with some parts of it surpassing the original. The line work looks a little smoother and more solid, and I do like the contrasting colors they chose for Alois. Then again, my favorite color is purple, so that might have something to do with it.

There is still a struggle with the tone, though it seems to have balanced itself out a little better since most of the season focuses on the seriousness of the situation with the occasional joke thrown in. The exception here are the first four episodes which, again, don't even fit well within the larger context of the story and feel like a repeat of the first season without any real purpose. They're made up of more humorous moments, but a lot of them don't work, in particular the idea that Lau is making money by having people gamble on Ciel and Lizzie's relationship and anything that the detective/Aberline stand-in/stupid character does in that train episode.

I can't emphasize enough how much that train episode does not belong.

The voice acting for the English dub is solid. I like the flat monotone of Claude's voice juxtaposed against Alois' high-pitched one. As usual, Brina Palencia and J. Michael Tatum are wonderful in their respective roles as Ciel and Sebastian.

And now, because this post is way longer than it should be, I'll conclude with this: I don't believe this season, regardless of the fact that it doesn't follow the manga and has a questionable ending, is that bad. Is it my favorite? No. But I can't bring myself to dislike it.

*"Faustus" is more than likely a reference to Dr. Faustus, which I also mentioned in my previous post.