Raven’s Special Review week 2: Day 6 Black Butler Anime series
Black Butler is a very curious work, and one of the rare examples of a work that manages to get some of it’s details down right, but is lacking in many of it’s basic elements. While this makes it interesting to review, it was still a disappointing to view. It’s been a long time since I have actually reviewed a work that disappointed me as much as this one did. While it wasn’t one of the worst experiences I have had with an anime, I can’t honestly say I enjoyed Black Butler very much. While I have a lot I can say about why I felt this way, the bottom line was that this show just isn’t nearly as fun to watch as it is to write about. While I can see why certain people love this series, I couldn’t get past the major problems this show has. I ended up finishing this anime series feeling lost, and rather cheated by the ending reveals.
The animation style for Black Butler doesn’t really stand out all that much, but is better then many other anime series. The character designs fit well into the setting and were well enough done to be interesting to look at, but not well enough to be a really memorable after watching. The animation for Black Butler tended to be very inconsistent. Some times the animation was very good, at other times the animators clearly cut corners obvious corners. While the lighting could at times be interesting, only one element of the animation for Black Butler really stood out for me. This stand out element was set design, which was befitting for the era and setting of the show. I was impressed at how well this anime portrayed Victorian era London, especially in it’s use of proper London architecture. While Black Butlers setting was impressively animated, I wish the overall animation for this show and character designs were a lot more memorable.
Likewise in the sound department Black Butler is a mixed bag. While the voice acting and first closing credits sequence is strong, these elements are kind of overshadowed by the overall weak score, and the bland nature of the other credits. The voice acting in the Dub is the biggest draw sound wise. With the exception of Sherlock Hound, Black Bulter has the most British sounding voice cast in a dub I have ever heard. While the sub is okay, it is the stellar cast employed by Funianimation for this anime’s dub that is really noteworthy. The lead character’s voice actors are especially strong in this dub, and make the dub the strongest element of this entire work.
Sadly the music is tragically much weaker then the voice acting. I did enjoy how the score took chances, and made interesting use of Gregorian chant (like the Death Note anime) and operatic singing. Despite this though the music was often absent, many tracks were generic and these tracks were reused far too often. The music also really for the most part like the animation wasn’t very memorable, and at times was to weak for setting the proper mood. While I appreciated the creativity of the music, at times this creativity didn’t really work for me. Though this shows soundtrack did take some interesting risks in the soundtrack that paid off, most of the music for this show wasn’t memorable, was minimal, and often didn’t work when it was presented.
With the exception of the first ending most of Black Butlers credits were rather average. The first opening does a good job a introducing the characters, and has some nice atmosphere, but isn’t anything special that I haven’t seen or heard before musically. The 2nd opening is even more boring in all aspects (except the song that doesn’t change), and loses some of the original opening draw of atmosphere making it slightly worse. The 1st ending is easily the best of credit sequences, not because the music is much better, but because of the creative and cute imagery added. The imagery of Ciel (the main butler) doing all of his tasks in a chibi reel is funny, and cute. Sadly the 2nd ending does away with this cute animation, and instead replaces it with the slow panning across static images, and a bland song, which was really skip-worthy. While I enjoyed the first ending, I felt that the rest of the credits while not terrible were not interesting or noteworthy.
Black Butler’s basic premise is fairly easy to explain (though after plot details are explained later in the series it gets needlessly complex). Earl Ciel Phantomhive, is a orphan child, and the inheritor of the Phantomhive company and name. The Phantomhive company specializes in toy making, but secretly serves the queen with special tasks involving the underworld. When Ciel was young his parents were murdered, and his house burnt down. Ciel begins the series by summoning the demonic, and literally perfect Butler Sebastian to serve him. Ciel offers his soul in return for Sebastian’s service, until his parents murders are found, and revenge is taken upon them. Ciel returns to his estate, rebuilds his manor, and continues his service to the queen. He continues to plot vengeance upon his parents murder(s), and hopes draw out clues while performing tasks for the queen.
The problem with this story is that although parts of the plot are interesting and original, these interesting elements are almost completely buried under a number of faults. To start with the good elements of this show, the setting is interesting and accurate when it needs to be. This show does a excellent job making the setting feel properly Victorian. However, it isn’t so concerned with accuracy to the point where it is distracts from the shows plot. It’s use of Faustian themes likewise I found very interesting.
Most of the plot is sadly marred by a variety of major pitfalls in it’s basic premise. These faults are so major that they really end up dragging the plot. To start off with the vengeful kid seeking revenge is one of the most cliche plots ideas of all time. This is a common plot device found in a number of anime series and other works, and doesn’t really alone make for an interesting plot concept. While this concept lacks originality, it wouldn’t have been a major problem had the rest of the plot been well executed. The problem is that the plot’s execution contains a three fold series of problems. The primary problem with the plot is that there is so little of actual story. Most of Black Bulter consist of side stories, and comedy, rather then working on the actual central plot. In fact most of the actual underlying plot is relegated to the last four episodes of the show. While some of the comedy is funny, I felt most of it was dull and bogged down the shows pace. The comedy also was often extremely random and unexpected, and the show would switch between serious and silly tones in a ways that were often jarring. While I enjoyed some of the side stories, more often then not I was bored with these side stories which were pointless toward advancing the main plot.
The second problem I had with the plot is how the supernatural elements are handled. While I am not naturally again elements of super-naturalism (and when they are well done I actual enjoy them immensely), I feel that this sort of plot device needs to be applied with special care. The problem with the super-naturalism in this show is that it is used too often as a plot contrivance, and feels underdeveloped. Every time something supernatural was introduced in Black Butler there wasn’t any reason for it’s introduction, other then advancing the weaker elements of the plot. Usually the supernatural elements seem out of the blue and random, or like sad attempts to cover up poor bad writing. These poorly handled elements were merely excuses used to hide the weaknesses within the placing and plot of Black Butler.
The last major problem of the plot can be found in the ending of Black Bulter. I appreciated that the ending took some more chances then the rest of the show, and presented some actually meaningful action. The reveals at the ending though highly were disappointing, and were initially confusing to me. As I mentioned in the introduction, after ending this anime I was left with a major headache, and dissatisfaction as my mind tried rap around the revealed elements. The ending didn’t feel rushed, so much as it felt convoluted and morose (I won’t reveal the details and spoil it). These three major problems covered up the interesting details of the setting, and made many of the show’s episodes seem convoluted and/or boring.
Character wise some of the characters are interesting, and other characters are extremely boring and/or annoying. No where is this more clear then looking at the two lead characters of the show. While I thought Sebastian was a interesting character, I was less then impressed with Ciel. While Sebastian was often used as deus ex machina (which was sometimes one of the funny running jokes of the series), he was reasonably interesting because his service was merely vested in self interest. It is clear that he doesn’t help Ciel out of the goodness of his heart, despite this he is also obsessively loyalty to Ciel. His cool and mysterious nature was befitting of a demonic character, and it was clear his interest was to feed off of Ciel’s soul. Ciel on the other hand is a constantly brooding and cold figure, who hides a occasionally warm heart. His character is rather predictable, and isn’t really given much chance to grow or change. His motive for revenge was nothing out of the ordinary, and I found this motives and mopey nature to be really boring. His young age and cursed pentagram eye (which is usually covered) is perhaps the only remarkable feature he has. There isn’t enough originality, or personality to his character me to really care about his brooding emo nature.
The rest of the cast has even more of a discrepancy between those character who are interesting, and those who are bothersome. I really enjoyed the curious and mysterious Lau, a powerful Chinese gangster, and drug dealer working with his sister Ran-Mao. His motives are hard to peg, making it hard to tell if he is a real silly ally of Ciel or a plotting fair weather friend. I also enjoyed the weird undertaker character who plays a minor, but interesting role in the story.
On the other hand the comical relief character’s such as Ciel’s three incompetent butlers, and the head butler who drinks tea most of the time were really annoying. Until the last few episodes they added nothing to the show other then comedy relief that was at best bothersome. I also thought that although cute, Elisabeth was a totally useless character in this adaptation. The worst character though without a doubt was the gay stereotype/female (it is hard to tell which) red haired Shinigami character Grell Sutcliffe, who appears a bit later into the series. Grell is constantly irritating, is always trying to flirt with Sebastian for some reason, and is mostly a bungling troublemaker. In both versions (sub and dub) Grell’s voice and demeanor really got on my nerves, especially since Grell acted like a gay stereotype. I was also not impressed at all by the major villain of the series that is revealed toward the end of the show (though I won’t go into detail so I don’t spoil anything). While I enjoyed Sebastian and some of the minor characters, I felt that Ciel and most of minor characters were annoying, boring and/or unnecessary.
While certain details of Black Bulter were impress, they were not enough to sell me on the entire show or for me to overlook the shows many flaws. I while I enjoyed the Victorian setting, voice acting and some of the ideas and characters presented, I didn’t have any love for other characters and the overall plot. The music and animation though not terrible failed be of any interest to me either. While I feel that this isn’t the worst show I have seen, it was still was a major let down, and definitely wasn’t as interesting a show as I had hoped for. For a better anime with great English voice actors I would advise instead to watching Miyasaki’s Sherlock Hound, rather then this show. Though I didn’t loath this show as much as some others I have reviewed even this week, I often found myself bored by it and wouldn’t recommend viewing it.
