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I will admit that I wasn't exactly a big fan of the first series of Black Butler. At times it seemed unsure of its direction, lurching uneasily between farce and horror and bogging itself down with irreverent storylines about the main character learning to dance or the pratfalls of his inept staff. It picked up towards the end, but finished in a way which didn't exactly suggest a sequel. Needless to say this series wasn't amongst my most anticipated of the year, but then a lot of things have surprised me recently… Black Butler Series 2 begins by introducing another
master and butler duo in the form of the unhinged Aloise Trancy and his
Sebastian-alike butler Claude Faustus and wastes little time in resetting
everything back to zero. Ciel has no memory of what happened at the end of
the last series, and returns to his normal life in the Phantomhive mansion with
Sebastian, Mey Rin, Bardroy, Finnian and Tanaka. With his memory gone Ciel
believes his mission of revenge to be unfulfilled, and turns his attention to
the Trancy family in his search for his parent's killers. Like the
Phantomhives the Trancys have a special charter from the Queen, but whilst Ciel
is tasked with defending the realm and investigating crimes the police cannot
handle, the Trancys work in the shadows as erasers, secretly assassinating the
Queen's enemies and destroying all evidence. With Sebastian's guidance
Ciel believes the Trancys killed his parents and burned down his home to hide
their crime, swearing vengeance against Aloise and looking for an opportunity to
kill him. Sebastian wants Ciel to complete his revenge to enrich his soul
before he devours it, whilst Aloise's butler Claude also covets Ciel's unique
soul. Meanwhile Aloise, disturbed by and envious of Claude's interest in
Ciel, wants to capture the young Earl for his own ends. With everything
pointing to an explosive battle between the young nobles and their demonic
butlers there's a huge amount at stake, but is everything as it seems?
Without his memories Sebastian could be engineering a conflict between the two,
and is there an even more shadowy game being played by Claude? |
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If I expected Black Butler 2 to be full of the same pratfalling manservant storylines that peppered the first series, then a scene early in the first episode where Aloise Trancy gouges out one of his maid's eyes in a fit of rage soon put that to bed. From the outset it is clear that this series will be a lot darker and more disturbing than the first, and one of the main reasons for this is that Aloise is an absolute nutcase prone to violent mood swings. With a shorter run than the first series Black Butler 2 is a far more focused affair, and the clash |
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between Ciel and Aloise is kept firmly at the centre of the story from the outset. Aloise's unpredictability makes a good contrast to Ciel's cold and collected manner, whilst Sebastian faces an enemy who is not only largely similar to himself in looks and demeanour but also boasts comparable skills and cunning. There are plenty of twists and turns in the story and it is never clear in what direction things are ultimately going to go, and it's good to see Ciel's comedy servants largely confined to the background so the series can concentrate on the drama and action. However, whilst the main story is both intriguing and strong
the best aspect of this set is the inclusion of the OVA Collection on the third
disc. The six OVA episodes are basically fan fiction from the anime
writers, taking the familiar characters and either putting them in unusual
settings or showing them from an unusual point of view. These six consist
of Welcome to the Phantomhives, where the viewer is pretty much put in the shoes
of a guest to the Phantomhive manor, The Tale of Will the Reaper, which is a
relatively straightforward story explaining how William & Grell became grim
reapers, The Making of Black Butler 2, a bizarre story where the characters are
modern day actors preparing to reprise their roles in the second series, The
Spider's Web, which shows the same day in the Trancy manor from the points of
view of each of Aloise's servants, and Ciel in Wonderland, a two parter which
retells Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland with Black Butler's
characters. All of the OVA episodes are excellent, each utilising
different techniques to tell its story and draw the viewer in. There's
plenty of comedy packed in, from fake clips in The Making of Black Butler 2
which depict alien invasions and space battles to the Triplets in The Spider's
Web being given permission to speak aloud and spending their time making snide
comments about the other members of the household. However, the undoubted
highlight is Ciel in Wonderland, both in comedy and just pure surrealness.
It's amazing how well Black Butler's cast work as the characters from
Alice in Wonderland, and half the fun is working out who will play who (no
prizes for guessing who Grell plays!). The episodes stick pretty closely
to the original story, with Ciel's Alice running into the Cheshire Cat, Queen of
Hearts, Dodo, Caterpillar and the Mad Hatter whilst pursuing Sebastian as the
White Rabbit. It's great fun, and the OVA collection as a whole is worth
owning this set for on its own! |
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If I have any real criticism it's with the lazy reset at the start of the series. While I understand that the way the last series ended made a sequel a bit awkward, and Ciel's amnesia is integral to the plot, it still seems a bit cheap. There's also a few parts where it becomes unclear what is going on and the ending isn't exactly what I expected, it was clever but didn't provide the sense of closure I was expecting. It's also guilty of getting a little melodramatic in places, but these niggles are outweighed by the positives. The story feels |
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far more balanced this time round with the comedy blended more effectively with the action and drama. Aloise is an excellent villain, unsettling but somewhat tragic, and the story has some clever twists that you don't always see coming. On the whole it's darker than the original series and with the one story arc and only a couple of standalone story episodes, it avoids getting sidetracked of bogged down with unnecessary distractions. Somewhat surprisingly I really enjoyed Black Butler II, the series was dark, dramatic and extremely intriguing whilst the OVAs are funny, entertaining and endlessly inventive. The characters are good, the storylines are more intelligent than you may expect, and despite the somewhat contrived reset the series doesn't come across as a cash-in. The OVA Ciel in Wonderland is by far the high point of the set, and is unexpectedly one of the better adaptations of Lewis Carroll's surreal tale that I have seen. It actually has a couple of points to make that are relevant to the series too, whilst the other OVAs are all excellently constructed and approach the characters in intriguing ways. The OVA collection is a perfect light-hearted close to the series, and whilst some of the situations covered are far from the the series' setting (particularly the bizarre but entertaining Making of Black Butler 2) they always stay true to the characters. In the end I would recommend this collection highly, it has its drawbacks but its a more focused affair and the OVAs are far more entertaining than the highly contrived comedy episodes from series 1. Good stuff. Extras Textless opening and closing sequences, trailers, outtakes and an episode commentary on each of the three discs. Great stuff! Ratings Feature:
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