Kuroshitsuji 2 - One hell of a butler.

This review contains some serious spoilers, so refrain from reading if you have not finished the series or plan to watch it on the future.

It took me quite a while to get me some time to sit and enjoy the second season of the black butler. I hold some dear memories from 1st season and was a bit taken aback by the idea of a new season, taking into account how first season had ended in what seemed like a point of no return for the main characters.

Second season starts anew with a new earl, Alois Trancy, and a new black butler called Claude Faustus, with their own set of servants, as a perverted mirror parody of the Phantomhive household. Alois is a sadistic cruel son of a bitch and the fact that he gouges the eye of her chambermaid in the first chapter doesn't help a bit sympathize with him. Fortunately the reapearance of Sebastian and Ciel by the end of the chapter return hope to the watcher for an enjoyable season.

The Trancy household.

Ciel seems oblivious at the events of first season, including some certain characters deaths (her own being the most obvious XD) and other major turning points, contrasting with some other characters rememberring those events well, which and has the watcher to constantly thinking on what is going on. Because if second season is something, it definitely is a mindtrap web.

Early on, Alois and Ciel become entwined in a perverse dance of twisting memories. With Sebastian wanting to rebuild a perfect revenge for Ciel who has forgotten that he already fulfilled it and was to be devoured by his butler. Claude on the other hand is trying to breed Alois in a similar way, in the hopes he will taste like Ciel's soul. This will lead the demons to gang up to make both their masters part of an opulent menu.

Care for his employees is Alois dumped stat.

After some midseason climax with plenty of battles, Claude, infatuated by Ciel's flavour, will merge both souls into one body, causing quite a commotion and having both demon butlers fighting in several ways to recover Ciel, while Alois and Ciel both struggle for personal sanity in what remais of their shared body.

Overall the second season seems more deep, dense and storydriven, compared to the short story arcs of season one. This makes few room for sidecharacter appearances with the notable exception of our favourite god of death: Grell Sutcliff. On the other side, the fun driven episodes are just cut out favoring the overall dark atmosphear of the story, so some of the audience may feel left apart.

Hannah, the constantly abused chambermaid of Alois becomes one of the new character appearances. She will have a deep impact on the story, and the fact that she holds a bunch of tricks on her sleeve (and down her throat) makes her quite an appealing character, yet her story once revealed seems quite plain and not very consistent. I'm sorry but i don't buy an all powerful evil being like her simply turned into a masochistic slave from day to night for the pursue of love. Demons don't work that way.

One on one duels and eyepatches: what's in this season.

Also the ending too seems just... Wrong. One of the main points of Kuroshitsuji is the weak master/ powerful servant relationship between Ciel and Sebastian. By turning Ciel into a demon breaks the balance, effectively binding Sebastian forever to him as he will never be able to consume his soul. For me i must say it feels like cheating. I understand that no one has the intention of becoming a demon's main dish, but Sebastian has done too much for Ciel to deserve an eternity of servitude. It just feels wrong, and Sebastian doesn't feign his disaproval of the situation he has ended on (risking his life in the process by the way).

If we will have another season of the black butler, only time will tell, but certainly if the Ciel/Sebastian balance of power doesn't return to normal i fear that the main premise of the series would have been maimed or at least badly wounded.

Well, as this post lacks some Sebastian i will have to amend for that with the opening, which is awesome by the way. Oh, and the Trancy guys get a special opening sequence of their own in some of the 12 chapters.