Review for Black Butler: Complete Series 2

Introduction

Has it already been a year since the release of the first series of Black Butler in the UK? That series was designed for a wholly different demographic than the one I reside in, but I found much to appreciate about the show, a supernatural mystery anime that centred on a young heir to the aristocracy and his devilishly elegant butler. Still, I would have thought that 25 episodes of tall, dark and evil menservants and cute and damaged young boys would have been enough to sate the girly squee quotients of all appreciative fangirls. I thought wrong, as this year Manga Entertainment bring us Black Butler II. 12 more episodes of just what you have been seeking. Only Black Butler II starts off in a way that you least expect.


Alois Trancy was born into a life of privilege, scion of one of the most influential and powerful families in Britain. And soon after his birth he was abducted from his parents, and grew up as a plaything for monsters. He sold his soul for a chance to survive, which is why he is now constantly waited on, hand and foot, by the (literally) devilish butler Claude Faustus. Alois' mother died soon after his abduction, while his father died not too long after his return. Now Alois is head of the Trancy estates, and his experiences have turned him into a capricious, selfish, sociopathic and malicious master, the sort that enjoys tormenting those he considers beneath him (which amounts to everyone). He's the kind of boy that gouges out a maid's eye for looking at him the wrong way. The only person he defers to, the only person he depends on and needs and is emotionally attached to, is Claude Faustus, even though he does his best to ruffle his elegant feathers. Then one stormy night, there is a knock on the door of the Trancy mansion, and a stranger appears seeking shelter, a stranger named Sebastian Michaelis. You seriously didn't think that Ciel Phantomhive's story concluded at the end of Black Butler, did you?

Manga Entertainment present all twelve episodes of Black Butler II and the six OVA episodes across three discs.


Disc 1

1. Clawed Butler
2. Solo Butler
3. Wench Butler
4. Terrorist Butler
5. Beacon Butler
6. Bedewed Butler

Disc 2
7. Deathly Butler
8. Divulging Butler
9. Hollow Butler
10. Zero Butler
11. Crossroads Butler
12. Black Butler

Disc 3 OVAs
1. Ciel in Wonderland: Part I
2. Welcome to the Phantomhives
3. The Making of Black Butler II
4. Ciel in Wonderland: Part II
5. The Threads of the Spider's Story
6. The Story of Will the Reaper

Picture

Black Butler II 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 still 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

Disc 1 has an audio commentary that accompanies episode 1, with voice actors Lucy Christian (Alois Trancy), and Jason Douglas (Claude Faustus) discussing the new young boy and devil partnership in the show.

Disc 2's audio commentary accompanies the final episode and has the other pairing, Brina Palencia (Ciel Phantomhive) and J. Michael Tatum (Sebastian Michaelis) having a good chat about the show, with a little information, and a lot of giggles.


The rest of the show's extras are on disc 3.

The commentary here accompanies OVA 3, which is an interesting episode as it's a mockumentary making of, which has the show's 'actor's' interviewed about the sequel. It required the voice actors to create actors that would be playing the characters in the show. Think Galaxy Quest. Ian Sinclair, ADR director and voice of Bardroy provides the commentary, and unfortunately it's a little messy, and doesn't live up to the complexity of the episode.

There are 3 minutes of English voice actor outtakes here, which are actually quite funny for a change.

There are the Madman trailers for Season 1 and 2, and finally there are the textless credit sequences. Unfortunately there are only three of them, one for each song. It's a shame as quite a few different animations were used for the credits, depending on the particular episode.

Conclusion

Deception! Black Butler II is a deceptive sequel, which delivers surprise upon surprise, plot twists and unexpected characters, revelation upon revelation, and succeeds in blindsiding the audience again and again, and all in a good way. The first series of Black Butler turned out one of the few consistent shows of 2011, a high quality action comedy drama with supernatural overtones that kept hitting the mark. If you liked Black Butler, you're going to love Black Butler II, although that love won't initially manifest, until you figure out what the show is doing. But believe me, it is definitely worth it. It's also impossible to discuss this further without talking about some of the show's surprises, so at this point, you're advised to stop reading and just buy the show. I'll try my best to be circumspect, but invariably from this point on, the review will contain SPOILERS!


First of all, if you were expecting more of the same from Black Butler II, then prepare to be surprised. It's one complete story told over a 12-episode run, although you won't realise it for five or six episodes. This story is at the heart of everything that is interesting about Black Butler, the relationship and the contract between master and his devilishly elegant butler, and the back story behind it all. If you want Ciel and Sebastian to take centre stage for the story, then this is the series for you.


You won't think it is at first however, as the first episode seems to suggest that the whole Black Butler franchise has seen a reboot, with all new characters. This does make sense, given that at the end of Black Butler, it seems that Ciel had achieved his revenge, and that the time had come for Sebastian to collect on the contract. Episode 1 of Black Butler II begins by introducing a new young master, Alois Trancy, and his satanic gentleman's gentleman, Claude Faustus. It's a similar relationship of young aristocrat and his manservant, but it immediately becomes clear that the dynamic is subtly different, with Alois a more sadistic and warped personality, truly condescending to others in a way that Ciel only put on as an air, yet a lot more needy and dependant on Claude than Ciel was on Sebastian. It's also a far darker and more ominous an episode than any in Black Butler, suggesting that the new series will go in a direction that really lays on the psychological horror in an unsettling way.


Only it doesn't. Episode 2 sees the return of Sebastian and Ciel, and indeed the whole Phantomhive household. Or does it? This Ciel is curiously blank when it comes to what happened previously, and it seems that his relationship with Sebastian is newly contracted. It's as if he's newly returned to the Phantomhive estates, and is now picking up on his role as the Queen's watchdog. The first few episodes, for all intents and purposes may as well be flashbacks to early on in the Black Butler story, where Ciel encounters characters like Grell Sutcliff the Reaper, and the Undertaker for the first time. All of a sudden Black Butler II is episodic, and the episodes are playing far lighter than anything in the first season, making the opening episode seem very out of place.


It's in the second half of the series that the pieces start to fall into place, the reason for the apparent reset for Ciel and Sebastian becomes clear, as do the roles that Alois and Claude have to play. It's all about possessing the perfect soul, which is all that Sebastian has wanted since he made the contract with Ciel, to the point where he's been taking his time manipulating and guiding Ciel on his path to vengeance to make that soul all the sweeter. For reasons that become clear as the story progresses, when the moment came, the contract couldn't be fulfilled; Ciel's loss of memory has apparently set him back to square one. Sebastian needs another target for Ciel's vengeance, which is where Alois Trancy comes in. Alois' past is similarly warped by adversity, and he too has made a deal with the devil to survive and seek revenge. He's an interesting character, a vision of Ciel pushed over the edge, what Ciel might have been if he had broken in his ordeal. Alois is sadistic and sociopathic, but needs his butler Claude and his approval in a way that Ciel never needed Sebastian.


While Alois is a less complicated case of selling his soul for revenge, his behaviour and the trappings of his aristocratic station make him as interesting as Ciel. The trouble comes when he encounters Ciel, or rather when Claude encounters Ciel. Ciel's soul has been perfectly shaped by Sebastian, and Claude recognises that. He not only recognises it, but he wants it too, and he manipulates Alois in a way that will bring Ciel's soul into his possession. Black Butler II is all about who will possess that perfect soul, a conflict between demons Sebastian and Claude, but the way that the story resolves is in the most surprising way, as the truths behind Ciel and Alois' pasts are explored.


If there is one issue that can irritate with anime, it's that of indefinite conclusions, those stories which just tail off halfway, or get non-canonical conclusions from the anime creators, or which are deliberately left open-ended by the creators in the hope, usually vain, of a second season. That hasn't happened with Black Butler. Season 1 got a conclusion, and I would have been happy enough with that. But they pulled Season 2 out of their hats, and made it fit perfectly in that continuity, so it doesn't seem out of place. It's also a complete story, beginning, middle and end, and it concludes on the perfect note. It's very rare that you see an anime series as complete as this one. If I do have a minor criticism, it's that it delivers the unexpected so often, so many plot twists, that it does begin to feel like the boy who cried wolf. It's worth it in the end though.


After the dark conclusion of Black Butler II, the proceedings lighten up with a disc full of OVA episodes. They are a nice accompaniment to the show, and entertaining in their own right. They keep things light and frivolous, while maintaining the atmosphere of the story. The two-parter Ciel in Wonderland is another take on the Alice tale, with Ciel donning the blue dress and chasing after Sebastian's bunny. This is the most absurd of the stories, but it pulls an atmospheric coda out of the hat which is pure Black Butler. The Making of Black Butler II goes all Meta, while the final episode focusing on the soul reapers is just the perfect light note to end on. I liked Black Butler II even more than the first series. Just remember that if you come to Black Butler II simply expecting more of the same after Black Butler I, you'll be in for a shock. In my case it was a very pleasant shock, but your mileage may vary.