Synopsis:
In late-nineteenth century England, one year and three months after the dramatic conclusion of the original series, Kuroshitsuji II introduces a new butler and young master. The sadistic yet cheerful Alois Trancy has faced some harsh times. He was kidnapped as a baby, and was forced to work in a village as a slave. Gradually, he lost his parents, his best friend, and everyone he knew. Alois eventually returned home and became the head of his mansion, but seemed to exhibit some strange behavior ever since. Even more curiously, he returned with Claude Faustus, an enigmatic, emotionless butler with unfathomable talent…
Read more at http://myanimelist.net/anime/6707/Kuroshitsuji_II#gF85wMxvkgAJ5CBl.99
Ah, I remember the moment that I knew that they had made another season. I disliked the idea so hard, but proceeded to watch it anyways. It is not like I did not find other animes interesting, no. It’s just because it was twelve episodes long, and why the f*ck not??
Did I regret it?
Well…
This is going to be comprised of just random rambling. Nothing coherent out of this. To start, we will say that Kuroshitsuji 2 suffered from the same animation problem as the first season, but this time, it is slightly worst. Don’t mind me, it is quite beautiful at times. However, I will tell you that they messed up the character designs quite often and their features end up a little…different For example: (remember, he is not the only one)
Season 1:
Season 2:
See? It is just a little off and it was really distracting because it came up often. However, I must say that the fight scenes in this season were incredible. They really were, and they bypassed so many other awesome scenes that you have ever seen. Including the one hour and twenty minutes of this:
Yes, if you are asking, I watched all of that in one sitting. I rate this fight a 7/10 for Ulquiorra, considering that I have never watched a single episode of Bleach before. I only do that when I need to wash my clothes. This shit kept coming up as a recommendation and I just…gave in.
Anyways randomness aside, the fanservice was uncalled for. Since they had diverged from the manga, they changed the tone of this series quite a lot. This was supposed to have yaoi subtext, and I am pretty sure the fangirls did not want to see Sebastian grope Hannah, for all the cheap fanservice generated. I disliked Hannah’s fanservice. They should have known by now that the demographic of viewers are female, or was that a gift to themselves? I disliked this so much, it made me angry. And oh, I still dislike the soundtracks. That has not changed from season one.
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| oto-san, why you be complainin’ for?? |
I must say that season two did something there that I am quite thankful for. Amidst, the yaoi strip tease, and the many nosebleeds, it settled a matter that I am most grateful for: the reason why Sebastian was fighting for Ciel. That was explained in perfect detail, and instead of the fact that I was confused, I came to the full conclusion that he just wanted his soul. Seriously, in season one, I thought it was just a servant/whore-ish type of relationship, I am not even kidding. The anime really developed that very beautifully, and I am most thankful for the clearance. Especially considering the fact that Sebastian wanted to kill Ciel….biggest shock of my life that water scene. I realized that Sebastian is not THAT mysterious after all, but…Yes, I am grateful for being enlightened but it cast my fascination over this character. Oh well, it can’t be helped. He is not as complex as I thought he was. *sad face*. The second season did not raise as many questions as the first, but it still manages to leave subtle hints here and there along with symbolism. Maybe one day, I might do an analysis of it all, but I am not sure that will happen. Black Butler is not a favorite of mine after all.
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| This episode was full of subtext between these two. |
There were some aspects of the plot I did not particularly appreciate. I mean, I swear, they pulled a generic shounen (I am not the sort to throw generic lightly around) with the whole “Sebastian working together with his arch-nemesis for a ‘tamachi'” garbage. I cringed so hard when I saw that part. I think I put it down for a while after this before getting back to this. Season two stripped Black Butler of what made it “Kuroshitsuji” the first season. Claude and Sebastian’s battle over Ciel\s soul was funny and everyone should have seen Claude’s betrayal coming from a mile. It was sort of all over the place for a while, because I feel as if the arc with the photographic-bomb-lady was unnecessary as hell. It was never mentioned afterwards, and I wonder why. The plot was sort of all over the place, because first, we get Sebastian meeting Claude in the Trancy household, then the train, then the photograph lady,then Sebastian starts an all-out ridiculous war with Claude for just Ciel. I felt as if it was unnecessary because Claude was NEVER match for Sebastian in the first place. The first episode with that tap-dancing blew everything out of proportion and I knew that this season was going to be very strange. Strange, it was indeed!
Jah, I have to mention the anime-only characters. Claude, Alois, Hannah, and the triplets. The triplets were…useless except for fight scenes. Well, a sad plot device. I am not interested on expanding this further. Hannah…Jeez, that character was so unlikable but she had a body that I would kill for and did an excellent job in the eye-candy aisle. It was unsurprising to find out that she would play such a major role in the show, that she was an akuma, and that she would die. If the first season was unpredictable at times, this season was fully predictable to the core. I just did not foresee that she would have had Alois’s eyeball in her mouth, the contract, that she was involved with Alois’s brother. Oh boy, I bluff a lot.
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| LOL, NO. |
I wont spoil it for those that have not seen it, but well, I must say that quite a bit of thought went into making this. I agree that Claude/Alois’s relationship was complicated. Till this day, I still don’t know if Alois had feelings for him or if he just wanted someone to love him because of his cliché backstory-that-was-not-even-sad. Alois is a sassy little thing, and since episode one, he made me flinch. Throughout the entire series, he spends a lot of time crying and being generally pathetic. I don’t care how emotionally broken he was. When you have got someone as spiritually strong as Ciel, everything just seems so dull. I cringed so hard when he was prying Hannah’s eyeball out. That was brutal, and it took a willpower that I did not know that I possessed to finish watching this. He is gorgeous, and his personality was interesting, but it depends on your taste.
The only thing that interested me about Claude was the seiyuu. That is one hell of a sexy voice, and to find out that he voiced Makishima Shogo from Psycho Pass!! That is a villain that easily made it into my favorites. I actually watched Psycho pass after this, and I knew Shogo’s voice told me something. It was by the way this both pronounced “tamachi” that just cleared it for me. We should try to count how many times the word “soul” is uttered in both shows!
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| The first time I have ever seen him truly smile… |
Claude is good-looking, but he was generally hateful. Seriously, I don’t think I liked any of the new characters in this season. I don’t know what to say about them much. I did not particularly feel any remorse for the fact that he killed Alois, but I must say that that was unprecedented. It was shocking, and brutal. He took advantage of the moment when Alois was the weakest. Then, he died. I don’t think anyone cried. I just wanted the scene to move on already. For the others, well…I never really cared for Elizabeth. I never saw nor understood what her purpose was. The cute factor, maybe? The lolicon? Well, a love candidate for Ciel then. Mah, whatever!!
When I heard that they were going to pull a continuation from the perfect ending of the first season, this show already lost one point. I mean, I already knew exactly what was going to happen. I knew that they were going to involve another demon who works as a slave for another master. It was completely unsurprising. Though I must say that Sebastian’s freak-out was a first. I will say that I won’t spoil Alois’s and Ciel’s conflicts, but it really showed a brutal side to Ciel. I loved it, mind you. I do love Ciel, and I already mentioned how much I don’t care about Alois. Having a rude character for drama is nothing new in the book. Ciel’s character is original. Random note: Sebastian’s manipulation of Greil was just hilarious!! You guys should check out their banter, it is seriously entertaining.
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| Seaon one random pic. |
I don’t think that this review would be complete if I did not mention that infamous ending. I am full of conflicting emotion, because I actually don’t know what to say. I never saw that coming, and it was a full, shocking 360. Sebastian now has to work as a slave for Ciel, even when Ciel is-
OMG! That was so interesting. But, it felt so out of place. I am angry because they actually ruined the ending of the first season. Well it is up for interpretation. I can’t find much to critique about.
In conclusion: I half-assed this review. This is not a review I actually wanted to write, because I was having such a hard time finding anything to rate it on. Not because it was perfect, but because I can hardly find anything positive to say about it. The second season cleared up a lot of things for me, had great fight scenes, and seemed to have been quite thought out. But along the way, it is full of flaws that cannot be ignored.
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| Ohhhh…. *wiggles eyebrows* I see, what you did there! |
Final rating: 6/10
Mindless Otakus 