Review for Black Butler: Series 1 - Part 1

Introduction

There's been a dearth of butler anime in the UK, and I have long campaigned for that imbalance to be redressed. We need refinement, elegance, and upper class servitude in animated form. Finally, that vacant spot in my anime collection has been filled; this woefully underrepresented genre is underrepresented no more. The thing is, when it comes to animated butlers, I wanted Hayate the Combat; instead we get Black. Typical! Still, with Bandai releasing Hayate the Combat Butler in comparatively expensive, subtitle only form, we in the UK are lucky that Crunchyroll streams it, as our anime industry isn't at that point yet where mainstream shows can be released without dubs. Funimation on the other hand licensed Black Butler, and they at least still create English language dubs for all of the anime that they licence, and they also release anime in hefty collections at budget prices, a tactic that is right up Manga's alley.


Ciel Phantomhive was born into a life of privilege, scion of one of the most influential and powerful families in Britain. He's cultured, he's rich, he wants for nothing. Of course he was witness to the brutal murders of his parents, before he was abducted and tortured to the point where the only way that he could save his life was to make a deal with the devil. He sold his soul for a chance to find and mete out vengeance to his tormentors, which is why he is now constantly waited on, hand and foot, by the (literally) devilish butler Sebastian. The Phantomhives have been the watchdogs of the British Empire, and with Sebastian's aid, Ciel has taken on that mantle. Together, master and butler venture into England's underworld, to seek out and remove those who would do evil on England's green and pleasant land.


Manga Entertainment present the first twelve episodes of Black Butler across two discs thus.

Disc 1

1. His Butler, Able
2. His Butler, Strongest
3. His Butler, Omnipotent
4. His Butler, Capricious
5. His Butler, Chance Encounter
6. His Butler, At the Funeral
7. His Butler, Merrymaking

Disc 2

8. His Butler, Training
9. His Butler, Phantom Image
10. His Butler, On Ice
11. His Butler, However You Please
12. His Butler, Forlorn

Picture

Black Butler gets a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer, which courtesy of Madman Entertainment in Australia, comes to the UK in native PAL form with the requisite 4% speedup. The image is clear and sharp throughout, no problems with ghosting and the like, with only the smallest hint of aliasing along fine edges. The animation itself is fluid and vibrant, Black Butler is a decently budgeted show, and it certainly comes across on screen. The character designs are a mishmash of generic and stylised, certainly the more otherworldly characters make a greater impact on screen, but Black Butler is a show that exhibits the curious dichotomy of a comedy horror, taking the show to some quite dark places, before pulling back and delivering pure comic moments. Victorian England comes to anachronistic life with a pleasant and recognisable world design, albeit one with motorcars, electricity, and car phones. For a moment I thought I was watching D. Gray-Man. I have to say though, that the CGI horses look absolutely rubbish.

Sound

You have the usual options of a DD 5.1 English track, or a DD 2.0 Japanese track, with translated subtitles and a signs only stream. The 5.1 upmix certainly makes for a pleasant surround experience, but as always I opted for the original Japanese track, which was more than adequate. Black Butler gets its music from Taku Iwasaki, and his score certainly elevates the show with its scope and grandiosity.


But then there's that dub. Let's put it in context. A UK company could make a show, with British actors, set in America, with everyone speaking in American accents. Depending on the quality of the actors, most of the UK audience would accept that show. But try selling that same show to the US… Black Butler is an anime show set in Victorian England, and Funimation have created a localised dub with accents, with a predominantly US cast, and for US audiences. You can hear it in the commentaries when they talk about giving the characters British accents and not English ones. For them, British accents amount to upper class, and cockernee. Sebastian and Ciel are tolerable, even enjoyable to listen to, but the supporting cast leave a lot to be desired, and when they start throwing in Irish and Italian accents my ears start to bleed. In an ideal world with loads of money in, it wouldn't just be Ghibli's Arriety that would get separate US and UK dubs.

Extras

The discs get the usual presentation of static menus and jacket pictures.

Disc 1 has two audio commentaries to it. The first ADR director, and voice of Angela, Colleen Clinkenbeard, hosts the first track for episode 1. With her is Brina Palencia, who plays Ciel. The second commentary accompanies episode 7, and the second ADR director Ian Sinclair (Bardroy), joins the voice of Sebastian, J. Michael Tatum. As you can imagine with a show set in Victorian England, there is a lot of talk about accents in these commentaries.

On disc 2, you'll find the textless credit sequences, and a musician profile for BECCA, who recorded the end credit song, five text pages worth.

You'll also find "The Story Thus Far" with narration from Tanaka, a 23-minute long recap episode, accessible from the extras menu, or the episode select menu.

Conclusion

The eager anticipation with which Black Butler has been greeted on online forums and social networking sites has led me to believe that this show could potentially be the next big thing, offering something new and original, adding another string to anime's already substantial bow. That couldn't be further from the truth, although perhaps I ought to have examined the demographics of that anticipation more closely. In a comparative rarity for Manga Entertainment, they have a title that is skewed firmly towards the female anime fan, filling the same sort of gap as Ouran High School Host Club did, although it lacks that title's crossover appeal. You have as your main characters a young, cute upper class boy, wilful and arrogant, but damaged enough to evoke that maternal instinct, and waiting on him hand and foot is the supremely elegant, handsome, and devoted butler Sebastian, with a literal devilish side to him designed to get knees wobbling everywhere. That's a whole lot of squee that I as a male anime fan find difficult to relate to.


The anime itself is depressingly middle of the road in terms of its story and its execution. It's yet another show centred around mysterious supernatural shenanigans, with our heroic duo solving various mysteries on behalf of Queen Victoria, keeping Britain safe from its nefarious underworld, and the occasionally inhuman villains who lurk therein. The twist of course is that the heroic duo themselves have a past which isn't exactly pleasant. Ciel's traumatic childhood led him to literally make a deal with the devil, and now Sebastian's unearthly abilities aid Ciel in his fight against supernatural crime, as well as help him keep the Phantomhive estate in good order. That's a useful talent when you consider the rest of the Phantomhive staff, incompetent comic relief to the last one.


Black Butler is a dark and comic affair, but it's one which keeps the darkness and the comedy mostly separate, relying on the minor characters like Ciel's staff, Mey-rin, Finny, Baldo and Tanaka to supply the laughs, while Ciel and Sebastian supply the reaction shots, unwittingly become the butt of jokes, or their main job of solving the spooky mysteries. The comedy isn't all that sharp either, consisting mostly of running gags and catchphrases. The chibi-Tanaka gaining human dimension for three minutes in order to relate exposition, before deflating once more barely raised a smirk in me, while Mey-rin's otaku lust for Sebastian, and Finny's ridiculous strength were just as thin. Only Baldo seemed to have some depth to his comedy.


I also didn't really warm to the whole butler master routine with Sebastian and Ciel, dripping with elegance, poise and perfection; gold-tinged, soft-focus lectures in etiquette and style that owe much to Ouran High School Host Club, but lack the irony that made that show funny. I also quickly tired of Sebastian's obsequious catchphrases, and care little that 'a butler worth his salt can do no less', or the fact that he is 'a hell of a butler'.


But then some of the comedy does work, and I did find the presence of the character Grell added a much-needed anarchy to the proceedings. The addition of Pluto, a hellhound that has a disconcerting habit of taking on human form when he is excited also provided more than a few chuckles.


Where Black Butler does impress is with the story itself, and when it gets dark and spooky, it hits all the right notes. The early episodes are more comic than dramatic, but when we get to episode 3, and Ciel and Sebastian start investigating the Jack the Ripper murders, it becomes clear that this is a story where no character is safe, and the unexpected can happen at any time. There's a touch of Hound of the Baskervilles in the next story, which is the weakest of the three arcs in this collection, although still enjoyable. The collection ends on another very strong note with Ciel and Sebastian's investigation of the disappearance of several young girls made all the more imperative when Ciel's childhood friend Lizzie is taken. He has to go up against a demonic puppeteer, and as we all know, puppets are evil in themselves. Because of the way the earlier stories have panned out, there's no way of knowing if Ciel will succeed or not, and that at least makes watching Black Butler an edgy and interesting experience, even if the characterisations and comedy do not.


If these aspects of the show are a disappointment, then so is its reluctance at this point to really explore Ciel and Sebastian's back-story, as the few hints that we get in these twelve episodes are as tantalising as the three spooky storylines that we have. Hopefully the next collection of episodes will limit the character clichés and pull back on the comic relief, to develop this back-story more, and hopefully go in even darker and more unexpected directions with the ongoing storyline. When all is said and done though, Black Butler is just another spooky supernatural anime show, albeit a very pleasantly animated one.