Kuroshitsuji II

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!

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

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.

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.

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