The anime's oft-used "one hell of a butler" is an idiomatic translation of the japanese phrase used, which could be interpreted either as "I'm simply a butler", OR as "I'm a a demon and a butler". It's the difference between [飽くまで執事ですから] "Akumade shitsuji desu kara", meaning "I am [only/entirely] a butler" and [悪魔で執事ですから] "Akuma de shitsuji desu kara", meaning "I am a demon and a butler". In speech, they're indistinguishable, so its a similar pun in terms of how Sebastian is being entirely truthful and also a massive troll.
@@senritsujumpsuit6021 I disagree, as it explains an interesting detail that wasn't explained in the video, and sheds light on one of the few things the anime got right, but I suppose we all have different priorities...
It's the fact that them being twins was set up from the very first few times we were shown flashbacks. They showed us Ciel being stabbed from the pov of the twin.
@@happilyevernever4289 in spanish fandom rt, the vast majority had the theory of a twin since the flashbacks began, because of the child's position with the father, how they spoke, the clothes, the background, everything. Yana did it great from the beginning, showing that possibility, that when you looked at the past there was something more with "Ciel". There are also theories about the real name of the patched Ciel, I don't remember what they said, but they also got it from all the symbology that Yana puts in and such. so, yeah, love and hugs
Seeing the public school arc, the visual comparisons to Twisted Wonderland are SHOCKING. If it wasn't evident before that Toboso worked on that game, it certainly is now.
I love how the manga foreshadowed the Ciel twin theory quite early on and how the fandom caught on and analyzed all of the frames. And the current theories about the Undertaker's unknown relationship with Claudia Phantomhive.
I remember like almost 10 years ago there was one scene that made me think ,,haha that seems like ...no way" and I looked it up on tumblr and already a tiny handful of people had the theory that ciel had a twin. It was so mindblowing. It sounds strange but the first time Lizzie makes an appearance and says ,,I told you not to call me Elizabeth but Lizzie" and Ociel starts calling her Lizzie, I just thought ,,hmm strange" who would have thought that my little suspicion would become real 😂 Yana really took almost 10 years to reveal this
I actually picked up on it during the first episode of the anime. There’s a scene where we can see Ciel stabbed as a sacrifice which summons Sebastian but then Ciel is completely unhurt and Sebastian is offering to make a deal with him. I was like “wait, what? Are there two of them or did Ciel get a full heal?”.
Thing is, there’s a very good reason to have suspected a brother all along that I’ve never seen anyone else point out. And it’s in a manga story Yana didn’t even write…but it’s one that probably highly inspired Black Butler. It’s a collection of stories usually called something like Earl Cain Saga or Cain Series. It’s a bit more difficult to read at the beginning, with the page layouts being confusing, but it’s worth it if you like Black Butler.
if you looked closely, yana-sensei even foreshadowed the ciel twin thing on the very FIRST CHAPTER the panel where ciel says "because im ciel phantomhive" there are quotation marks which is weird asf because any other dialogue has none as if hinting something to him being really what he says he is and the next panel after this is Sebastian laughing also that flashback in campania where Sebastian says "you're quite the liar" after ciel says he's "ciel phantomhive" after establishing the rule for Sebastian to never lie
The part in the Green Witch Arc when Ciel only wanted to see Finny because Finny was a child too and Ciel was having flashbacks of all the adults who harmed him.....yeah...that still sticks with me years later. It was so good.
@@rolo8847 WORD!!!!! Not sure if that's still an issue in fandom, but that fact was constantly forgotten back when I was in fandom. Used to upset me a whole lot too but luckily I've gotten over it.
@@ElizabethMidfordHatesCopsSebastian does a good job of lulling you into a false sense of security. Probably part of being a devil, he gains prey by having people trust him so of course he’s good at seeming trustworthy. Beyond that it can be difficult to tell how much of the apparent care he shows toward Ciel is genuine affection, how much is the normal care and attention of a farmer raising a goose for Christmas dinner and how much is simply him fulfilling his role as Ciel’s loyal butler. That being said I think his feelings towards cats are the story’s way of showing us how he behaves when he genuinely loves someone without considering them food and he doesn’t act that way towards Ciel.
@@cathygrandstaff1957 This is why I love the headcanon thag Sebastian molded his human form after the appearance of Ciel's father Vincent Phantomhive. It goes along so well with everything you just said.
the funniest thing about the twin thing, is that the entire fandom was lit in flames online whether there were twins or not due to a lot of hints. A lot were against the "twin truthers" then this dropped and we all got to scream victory lol
@@yahikokurotama4351 true, but the way Yana set it up makes so much sense. The hints were planted, looking back. And a lot of inconsistencies when it comes to the flashbacks especially when Ciel was bleeding out on the table and looked like he died eyes opened then suddenly he was alive. And how in the flashback there was a mention of "we" but there weren't other children shown but ciel. It's not ur typical telenovela "oh u think it was her? but it was me, the evil twin!" which is annoying as heck since its usually used as a deux ex machina or sm kind of twist trying to be clever lmao
The Twins Twist is one of the best cases of foreshadowing I've ever read. There's one particular dialogue line in the Circus Arc that lives in my brain rent free, ie when a man approaches the antagonist of this arc, he says "the earl Phantomhive and his family were killed", but that is just translation, in original, when referring to the family he uses a phrase "okaasan-tachi" which means "mother/wife and the rest/the others". At that point, the audience is convinced the man means "The mother and the child (Ciel)", but having the full context of the manga, we now know that he truly meant "the earl phantomhive, his wife and children were killed" AND I'M FOAMING AT THE MOUTH WHEN I THINK ABOUT IT, because the translator OR the English speaking or even the Japanese audience has no reason to suspect there was more than one Phantomhive child during the Circus Arc and it's such an amazing thing to realize upon re-reading or even rewatching because this line appears in the anime as well. I just really love Yana's foreshadowing. It's so good.
The way the frames are also done shows that one child is way more timid than the other. Lizzie also speaking about his height. To be quite honest, I didn't like the twin theory because I thought that Ciel projecting his past self as dead could be a great show of his trauma but since Yana is using it for the story, I find it quite ingenious !
@@Mizore34 It is usually bad because it is overused (trop used even in mythology) and out of nowhere. Yana teased it throughout the story so it seems way more logical and well written. It shows that Yana knew what she is doing .
i would say the green witch arc forshadows the blue cult arc with the way the blue cult arc recontextualizes ociel's paranoia and fear of his adult servants including sebastian, and how he only allows finny (another teenager) to be near him and take care of him. we also have the panels where hes breaking free of his own mind showing theres two ciels; where at first glance you think its just him, but now reads as rciel and ociel. also the forshadowing of rciel with the undertaker where we think he's making ociel drink something without sebastian knowing that someone has entered the manor, then we learn later that this was actual rciel. it's especially horrifying when we find out that undertaker has been bringing rciel everywhere ociel is, but we never see or know he's there. like, you know. when ociel is sitting on a coffin in the early chapters and rciel is actually inside of it.
The blue cult arc is insane man, the early chapter you mention when ociel is sitting on a coffin with rciel inside of it just shows that the undertaker was laughing in ociel's face the entire time and he didn't even know. It's so good
22:15 Thats a very simplistic way of looking at it. Yes he “reinforces” his desire for revenge - but the devil is in the details. The hallucinations are caused by Sebastian, so it showcases the fact that Sebastian himself is the one trying to snap him out, but fails to understand why Ciel is so obsessed with revenge. Ciel always talks abt “revenge” but rarely is it so prominent the idea that this is for /himself/, not whatever damage has been done to others. It’s also a way to show that whatever corruption has happened, whatever evil he’s done and feels shame for, is always a choice he takes. Killing his aunt, setting the manor and the children on fire, they’re all HIS choice. He’s not being manipulated by Sebastian nor is he blinded by feelings. It’s a conscious choice and he is willing to accept the consequences. I also recommend you analyze the side characters parallels to Ciel. Sullivan for example, is a parallel to Ciel. (Wolfram being a parallel to Sebastian)
I agree with you to a certain point but you can't forget that Sebastian always talks about 'cultivating' his soul, which I take that it means he wants to corrupt his soul further to more fully satisfy his tastes when he eats him. Of course Ciel is at fault for the things he's done but it goes without saying that Sebastian being his DEMON butler definitely makes him more easy to manipulate and spiral into darkness especially.
@@O_Ciel_Phant0mhiveThat interpretation takes away a lot of Ciel’s own agency and Sebastian’s character development. If Sebastian hands the gun, Ciel pulls the trigger. I don’t think think painting Ciel as someone only being manipulated, works. The manga isn’t shy about how Ciel is not a good person. He uses, manipulates and discards of others, for the sake of his revenge. He knows Sebastian is someone he can’t fully trust, yet he made a deal with him, because he can give him the power to do what he wants. He’s the representation of hurt people hurt people. And most importantly, it’s all for his own sake. The revenge is his own greedy want. Not bcs r!ciel died, or his parents, or his legacy. No. It’s what he wants. Ever since he made the contract, he’s been selfish.
Sorry, non reader or watcher here, this is my first dip into this franchise. Just a quick question though since you brought up how Ciel's revenge is explicitly for "himself", is it actually for himself, the younger brother who had to watch all of this happen, or is it really revenge for "Ciel" the real Ciel, the older brother who had all this done to him? Do they ever end up going into that in the manga?
@@cammischoenherr9047while the manga is going twisty with the Ciel twins, one thing that has always been very very clear since the beginning is that the Ciel Sebastian made a deal with do it entirely for himself. Selfishness, AND self-determination is at the core of Ciel's character. His revenge, his actions, his decisions, good AND bad- ALL of it he did for his own sake. People can take away his identity, but people cannot take away the decisions that made him to be where he is.
About the totally-not-nintendo cartage in the first chapter, Nintendo as a company has actually been around since 1889 making playing cards and board games! Which would put it squarely within Black Butler's assumed time frame of Victorian London (about between 1820 ~ 1914) so a new hard to get board game with nintendo labeling could plausibly work without breaking the history much c:
Since Queen Victoria is older in the series that narrows it down to the late 19th century, so 1880s to 1900. I believe I’ve seen someone say it’s specifically the 1880s because of other contextual cues but I’m not sure. Not that Black Butler is really trying to be historically accurate, but all this is to say your theory makes sense :)
Black Butler was a giant inspiration to me as a child, along with Katekyo Hitman Reborn. It showed me that even if you don't know where you're going, if you have enough passion and enough drive, you can achieve amazing results. Each arc is just Yana hyperfixating on something and making the world momentarily switch genres to fit it. And yet it works because she puts her whole ass into making it work. As someone who would not understand they were neurodivergent for another like 10 years, it was the first time I had seen that this was something that not only weird kids on Disney channel shows went through. Real life adults don't stay on one path and neither do their stories. But that's okay.
Hunter x Hunter is also like that, it feels like each arc is build around whatever the autor is interested at the moment. You may like it if you haven't read/watch it, but I must warn you the work tends to go on long hiatus because of the author's health problems.
Oh good, you got to the flashback arc - cuz when you said at the end of the Green Witch Arc "I don't think having Ciel fight himself in his mind really ADDED anything to the story" I was like RRHGHGHRHGH actually out loud i said that LMAO excellent writing there. Also the cut in slides with the shaky text saying "That's not Ciel" oooOOH, you're getting it! :D
Something I always appreciated with Yana Toboso is her dedication to styling the clothes and also learning about other cultures. I’ve never really seen a manga or anime where they care so much about the foreign culture they’re portraying for such short sequences as Black Butler has for its indian characters. This is especially a rare thing to happen when media portrays south asian/indian culture (or any other ’oriental’ culture), just compare how awful Genshin is in comparison 🥲 I also heard somewhere that Yana Toboso basically filled her office with references of indian and south asian clothing for designing the indian characters. But this could be a myth..
Omg in the next book that he didn't mention we get to see Sebastian and Ciel wearing traditional Chinese clothes! My favourite fashion moment in these books for sure Also as someone who loves Victorian era fashion, I never really knew what children wore before reading this manga. Ciel is always adorable!
@@jojoslameerrand9305 Thank you for telling me this!! I engage a lot in discussions regarding orientalism and portrayal of the middle east and south asia and basically everytime someone dogs on for example genshin’s design of Sumeru, I see someone bring up Yana Toboso’s designs as good examples lol
If you read the comments in the manga, she also talks to historians so her story can be as accurate as possible to the times even tho she stretches some events and of course, magic. She also refers a lot to Victorian architecture. She’s so cool!
Genshin is has a fantasy setting. It's not supposed to be the same but to carry a resemblance. In contrast Black Butler happens in the real world in 1500-1600 and only has some fantasy additions ( silpirits exists) . Stop hoping on the hate train. You can hate Genshin for some stuff like the reisin cap but not this one.
Kuroshitsuji is literally the phrase: The manga was better. Its a fact at this point. Im hoping the next OVA of the anime stays tru to the manga, bcs its the school arc and i did really like that arc. Anyways, highly recommend anyone who hasn't read the manga to read it, great experience always full of surprises
this arguments is really retarded all the time really like ah of course lets say everything about the original stories are horrible because they did not copy the homework of 100+ or a 350+ chapter book to a T Black Butler 2 could have been longer but what we got was really interesting an gave us some the dumbest charming fanfic
At 12:01 I really really hope you don’t mean the house system by this, because I hate to inform you in case you didn’t know but that’s real, and wasn’t made up for Harry Potter. Most British primary schools still have them too. I was in the squirrel house at my school and we were represented by the colour blue…
For my primary school our houses were basically bugs, weirdly. I remember being Grasshopper too. There were grasshoppers, ladybirds, butterflies and i THINK spiders if memory serves.
Actually! Correction! The bug houses were infants school. Primary school houses were I think themed around the different planes? I know there were a red arrows house and yellow belly house. Idk the others.
In Australia we have the house system as well. My primary school was based on colours (red house, blue house etc) and my secondary school had 6 houses that were based on famous past students, each represented by a colour as well. It irks me a bit that in the USA they think that these sorts of things come from fantasy, there's such a limited knowledge of the outside world. Same with "the f word" they talk about. Here in Australia, it's actually a slang term for a cigarette as well (coming from the Italian word for cigarette). Not everything is offensive everywhere.
Hey, I'm early! I'm still up to date with the manga and it's so much more gritty and dark compared to the anime. Especially when established side characters actually start DYING. the current arc is long AF but it's definitely the actual story that everything else has been building up to.
Also, the current arc is so freaking long the community has begun subdividing it, it's great yall, and puts spotlight on all the side characters we have. My current favorite chapter is 183(?) where it talks about Baldroy's background, both the story and the art really was just A+. Trigger Warning, there are corpses and attempted cannibalism though.
I’m on book 32 and I have to say that the reveal *blew my mind!* when I first read it! I know that the school arc is going to be animated and it will be forever after the Emerald Witch Arc, but I am SUPER excited for when they get to the Blue Cult arc being animated too.
The "demon of a butler" and "hell of a butler" translation is just the result of trying to carry over a Japanese word play. In the manga he says "akumade shitsuji desu kara", and that translates to "I'm simply a butler". If you say "akuma de" instead of "akumade", it becomes "I am a demon butler". They sound almost the same out loud, but in writing "akumade" and "akuma de" are very different in Japanese, and they flip between the spellings depending on the situation.
You cannot understand how grateful I am that you tackled the Black Butler anime fiasco and decided to read the manga and make a video about it! I’m so happy that you saw what I saw when I started reading the manga 7 years ago! It truly is a wonderful work and it deserves more recognition! And this is another reason to be upset with the first 2 seasons of the anime. Because it made it so difficult to get people into Black Butler! So yeah…a big big THANK YOU!
correction: at 29:45~ ish, you say Ms. Nina has never been mentioned before now you already brought her up at 6:55- she is the one who designed the staff's clothes and she regularly designs for ciel,,, [like the iconic Robin dress! And both Ciel and Lizzy's matching easter outfits!)
It’s very fynny, since to me the green witch arc is by far my favorite, I love the “magical” mystery and was even morE hyped when it turned out to be a chemistry related mystery. (Sully is a stem girlie frfr and I love her) The scene where Sebastian almost ate Ciel is also one of my favorites. Firstly it broke my heart how Sebastian just threw Finny out and Ciels hallucination tells us a lot about his internal struggle with survivors guilt and we get to see how much of a toll all the traumatizing things took on his psyche (though at that point we didn’t know is was about his guilt for sacrificing Ciels soul) On another note it is another sneak peak into Sebastians true personality and not his crafted persona, which is extremely funny and enjoyable so even the reader sometimes forgets what he actually is, so these moments make Sebastian also an even more interesting character to me However there was a lot off with the historical representation of Germany at that time, but who am I too complain about historical inaccuracies of a dark fantasy manga
*trembling severely after years of consuming black butler* oh y-yeah I'll definitely read the manga... *Praying for the 15th of this month for another chapter update*
Pls the monthly updates kill me 😭 and the chapters are getting shorter that I legit let the manga marinate for *3 WHOLE YEARS* and I managed to read through all the chapters accumulated within the span of 2 hours (of slow reading), I'm sobbing
Oh yeah, and if you're ever interested in more Yana Toboso work, get into Twisted Wonderland! It's directed by sensei and a lot of characters share similarities to the black butler characters.
Yooo, thank you for covering thiiis! I'm one of the translators for the fan-made English patch for the DS Game "Phantom and Ghost" and I never actually played the whole thing after it was complete... Would TOTALLY love to see you play it! (different name in the credits, I'm the one with the Finny icon) Holy effin sharks, that was work I did in early-to-mid 2018... That's 6 years ago :X
So I stopped the video after the emerald witch arc because that’s as far as I read in the manga and don’t wanna get spoiled haha, cause oh my god your analysis of black butler has me wanting to get fully back into it again 😭 love your videos, keep up the great work!
Great time, new chapter takes awhile since it’s released monthly but there’s a decent chunk to read after emerald witch to the current arc. Highly recommend it, happy reading!
Does this indicate that O!Ciel will die in the end (reaching the end of their contract) and Sebastian was just telling the story of his past contractor? ... that would make me cry and probably not be able to move on for a year T^T
I always viewed them both as main characters. They always move together anyways in the plot so it's really quite convenient, and this won't change even if Ciel actually dies in the end (bc by then the story itself will be over)
I can’t wait for the Public School arc to make its anime debut. It’s my favorite arc in the manga, and Violet is my favorite character (followed by Snake and Cheslock). The manga is so good, and it really is a shame the anime went off into left field. Toboso is probably my favorite mangaka purely because of how awesome the BB manga is. The anime has its good points, but still. Now that you’ve gotten into Black Butler, I’d recommend checking out Twisted Wonderland. It’s Toboso’s teamup with Disney, and there are major similarities to the Weston College setting and characters but it also has so many of its own unique features. Toboso is a self-confessed Disneyphile, and she made the artwork and the characters, and wrote the story for TW. The eye candy is very present here, as are the darker story content and the off-beat humor we love from BB. Also, if you think Sebastian is hot, wait until you see Malleus!
Whether or not you review up to the current release, you should definitely keep reading! Fugitive!Ciel v. Undertaker's!Ciel is fascinating, and there's a lot of good character and plot development, especially for the side characters. Ran Mao and Mei Rin have a fun and productive mini-arc, and Baldo gets more depth as well. I have been genuinely shocked and moved to tears by the manga - Agni's fate left me reeling for days, and Lizzie's torn loyalties... I wonder how much of her being with the original Ciel now is out of obligation, and whether she has any regret over seemingly betraying the Ciel she's known since the fire. The one she's doted on and bonded with and shown her true self. I feel for her so much. The manga, I feel, is the superior version, but I do love Grell in the anime. Both the Japanese and English voice actors do an amazing job with her character (and I love the safety-scissors gag so much) that it's easy to see why she's a fan-favorite. I have a plushie of Grell in my classroom, behind my desk, and my students who recognize her are always excited to find out I love the series. The student who gave her to me originally also gave her a little trans-flag keychain to hold, and she holds it to this day.
Small funfact of a German reader who coincidentally is from the area the emerald witch arc takes place. I come from a neighbouring city of Nuremberg and in my city we have a place that is just as the place Sieglinde Sullivan rules over called "Wolfsschlucht". It's really a tiny ravine we have there where nowadays a chruch stands and a narrow path leads through that connects to city parts more directly for people on foot or bike. I don't know if this is what Yana Toboso referenced. It would really surprise me as most people in the city except for the people who live around there don't even know that name but given what crazy research she does maybe she did stumble upon it. If it is that though I gotta "complain" a bit on behalf of my city though. We are not some place on the outskirts of Nuremberg. My city is factually older and the mother city of Nuremberg. The two have close history with even the first train in Germany travelling back and forth between them. Today the grew so much together that the only things that remind you you are going to a different city are signs and the metro station "Stadtgrenze " (tranlation: "city border") indicate now that they are two cities. Hope ya'll have a nice day and enjoy the manga as much as I do ^^
This actually has me interested in black butler now. I had such a different view of it when I was younger. I don’t have much time right now in my life to read manga, I use to read a ton, but when I do again I’ll make sure to pick this series up. When more novels do come out and the story is expanded even more I would love to see another video
As someone who's only seen seasons 1 & 2 of Black Butler, I always cringed when remembering it. Like "Oh, Black Butler (derogatory)" lolol But after watching your videos, especially this one on the manga... it makes me wanna get back into it.
Omg ME TOO!! Its why the circus ark in the anime confused me so much I stopped watching. I had no one around me who was big into the manga side of otaku culture, so I only had the anime to go off of and got really confused after season 2. It was a really long time ago, but I have a vague memory about seeing fans online up in arms mad about season 2 and the second half of season 1, but I don't remember hearing/reading the reasons for it. Guess now after all these years I'm learning just how bad the anime dropped the ball on the story.
They didn't even actually take from Harry Potter, school houses, with house masters, a house cup, and all of that, is just an ACTUAL British thing, in retrospect Rowling didn't actually do anything original with that series.
the mirror imagery in the black witch arc where you as a reader originally think Ciel is comforting himself with his reflection in a mirror, but is really imagining his brother drives me INSANE INSANE INSANE. WILD stuff. I should have caught on sooner, maybe, but when RealCiel was revealed i was simultaneously SHOCKED and also SOOO SATISFIED because now everything made sense. Some panel framing in flashbacks that I thought were inconsistencies now all just clicked into place... phew! Good manga. Great manga. Weird fanservice? yeah in a few panels. but I think the manga does a lot of work recontextualizing these scenes as... trauma... rather than just fucked up shota-bait. by contrast, fucked up shota-bait is what all of s2 felt like lmfao
SPOILERS FOR THE VIDEO AND THE MANGA FOR VIEWERS . . . I've read the entire manga. When you put the messages in that evolved from "No he's not." which got a chuckle out of me to "That's not Ciel." and then the CHILL of "That is Ciel" even though I already know that. That is editing artistry. It's a beautiful blend of comedy transforming into dread-horror. I absolutely loved it. I'm so glad to see that you've come to enjoy the manga especially enough to dedicate that little bit of art there to it. Thank you.
I'm kinda glad you ended the video where you did - you refreshed my memory up to the point where I stopped reading a while back (life stuff happened) and I've been meaning to go back and pick it up again. Having a refresher is nice, so thank you! Edit: For anyone wondering, the video ends around Chapter 144-ish and there's currently 209 chapters as I'm writing this comment, so....... plenty to catch up on reading. I do recommend reading the manga all the way through though if you haven't, cause the story is worth taking in the details. The murder mystery is still one of my favorite arcs honestly.
The panel at 33:51 is just magnifcent. Ciel making a contract with a devil where the body visually on the table is a three-part price. Physically and metaphorically, Ciel has paid through his brother; his other half. Symbolically, the body on the table is the protagonist as well, as Ciel himself is the final offer in this contract.
Honestly I would love it if you covered Twisted wonderland, another of Yanas works. It’s currently ongoing but when you reach chapters 6-7 THOSE ARE GOOD plus all is the characters are really fun
The Green Witch arc is actually supposed to act as a foreshadow. Ciel cowering and refusing to change while he is surrounded by stars in the background, Sebastian revealing that HE is beginning to change, Ciel's non-reaction to Reapers, as well as the Reapers revealing one of the reasons why Sebastian, despite having a LOT of reason to, refuses to break the contract. This is also the time-frame that Ciel begins to over-compensate a lot.
Wait I don't remember the second part. *Can* a demon break a contract willingly? Obviously a human can, it's their wish and as soon as they give it up it will be a violation of terms. But a demon seems very physically compelled to obey the terms, and also their power in this realm seems to be tied to it (for example, the more obvious the place of the seal, the more power the human is given.) I don't believe that we were ever told what happens if a demon breaks a condition, like if they are punished, or expelled.
It's one of my favourties , reminds me of the movie " the village". Tho i as good as it was i will be forever sad we didn't got a "real"witch(fictiob fantasy version i mean), i would love to see them react to a human with actual magic powers of their own. But some of what sebastian says does seem to imply they do exist in the kuroverse.
@@nessyness5447 He probably does need to eat souls. Like the way u need to eat food. I don't think it was ever mentioned in the full chapters but, during a side story when Ciel asked after BoA what would make Seb'd wounds heal, he said human food & drink & rest does nothing, only souls work. Stands to reason theoretically demons could starve to death.
@@landmerry_6742 he needs to eat souls, he doesn't need a contract for that, that's why the reapers and specielly william don't like to have him around, they are worried he will steal some souls from them. And Sebastian actually taunts William about it in Book of Circus, saying that if it's such a big job, maybe he can " help with all those souls". He also confirms he used to eat whatever soul he could get his hands into but grew bored of it and decided to opt for Faustian contracts so he could get some entertainment as well as to "spice up" his meal.
black butler is my best friend’s favorite series. once i started getting into manga i decided to read black butler too so i could better understand/ it was something we could talk about. i absolutely love the series and am so glad i started reading it (fully up to date at this point). i haven’t even bothered watching the first two seasons of the anime bc she told me how they didn’t follow the manga. i’ve watched most of the OVAs though and enjoyed them. can’t wait to see how they handle season 4
Overall, this was a good, basic summary of events that highlighted some obvious differences in the anime adaptation... Thank you for making this video. I hope more people start reading the manga in the future. As someone who is fond of theorizing about a few mysteries that have yet to be revealed within the story, and who has been a fan of Black Butler for a very long time I think you did a great job; It was clear to me immediately that you left out a few things on purpose as not to spoil everything. ;) 💙
Oh! To add on to my comment for the previous video, Twisted Wonderland also has a manga run. So far, arcs 1 and 2 have been fully published, while the 3rd arc is in the works. Worth noting, the character Yuu changes between arcs, likely as a reference to how in the games, Yuu is meant to be the player. I believe the books for the 1st arc have been translated into English, but I'm not 100% certain. Information about the Twist manga in general is kinda hard to come by.
Around 22:30 where you said the chara growth didnt do much, it was actually the moment when all of us started shouting about the theory that the other person ciel saw in his mindscape was his brother. We really came a lot far from that moment of epiphany to where we are in the story rn 🤧
I mean this is indeed the video that got me into the whole black butler genre in first place. I am currently at volume 20 but I don't think watching the video ruined my experience any means! I LOVE THIS DARN MANGA!!!!! Sure, knowing that Ciel has a twin did twist my view a bit but I still go along by it and just see how this is gonna turn out.
When I see that term that starts with F in historical documentation and things written in the subject I usually prefer to use the term “factotum” because it encompasses much of the same meaning without being a slur, or “Bloods” which is a C.S. Lewis term he used to describe them as opposed to the alternative.
The thing is, i got into black butler cause i watched my brother watch season 1 as a kid. I was so obsessed with frills and the aesthetic of it all (i still am) and when i turned a little older i started to read the manga. I binge read until the latest chapter at the time which was 136 (the twin pllot twist). At first i really hated it. It made no sense. I was like no way they used this dumb trope. I left the fandom for a bit (2 yrs) and came back last yr to reread when i realised it WAS foreshadowed. Every single recollection of Ciel's past is from a third pov. Which never made sense until u realise Ciel is watching Og!Ciel do everything. From the very first major arc (circus arc) every single memory, every single side story has foreshadowed this exact same thing. I was so mind blown.
I got spoiled on the Ciel reveal a few years ago after picking up a random volume and flipping through it. A that point the last thing Id read was somewhere in the werewolf arc
loooved black butler when i was 13, when my mum finally managed to buy me some manga as a xmas/bday gift it was whatever she could find on the shelves, and it just so happened to include the public school arc & beginning of the germany arc. i was mindblown at how gorgeous and thrilling it was to experience those!!!!! I immediately had to jump onto my crummy computer and find a site to continue reading for dayss. so good im so excited to see the manga done justice, and soooo want to reread it all now . these videos are bringing back the hyperfix letsgo!!!!!!
[SPOILERS] After learning the truth about o!Ciel, if you rewatch the Book of Circus anime, you can actually see foreshadowing of them being twins, especially during the episode where there's flashbacks of the party where the Orphanage owner met the Phantomhives
Not only that but also little hints like only o!ciel having asthma and lizzy looking at him suspicious when he started coughing in boa. Or lizzy bringing him a piece of "his favourite" cake strawberry and later that saame scene, sebastian brings him a slice of his favourite cake chocolate (which was his actual fav. They briefly touched upon it in the flashback about the twins fav flavours)
So glad I saw this get posted right away ❤ I just watched the anime black butler review you did and was hooked. It was such a cryptic series for me in middle school and I didn’t understand anything 😂 I really appreciated your full plot explanation! You have quickly become one of my fave channels 🥰
I binged & caught up with the manga beginning of last year. Before that I didn't consider reading it bc I prioritized other series. However when I noticed it was hitting 30 vols, I got curious like what could possibly be going on for it to still be going. I was spoiled about Ciel's biggest secret way before that, but didn't know the context behind it so I decided to read it. one night, I was on a big binge bc I couldn't put it down then I finished vol. 28.... I could barely sleep the next few nights after that 😭😭 I agree, I super enjoy the overarching storyline & the characters. Every wish we have, the author gives it to us like for example, Negative kept saying how the servants should get more development. Literally the next arc from where Negative left off, we get all the backstories and they're really good 😭😭 please read Black Butler.
8:53 Technically, Sebastian IS the main character, or at least he was invented to be that way, which was the main challenge for Yana Toboso when she first got the idea because usually, the butler is supposed to stay behind the master. That's why the first volume features Sebastian and not Ciel.
I'm grateful that the anime introduced me to the world of black butler but the manga is so much better and i am happy that I read it right after and am now caught up. Eeryone needs to read the manga. He is not lying, it is sooo good.
Black Butler was the first manga I ever purchased a volume of, when I was 14. I was beginning to access to the internet around that age too, and I didn't know how to navigate it well, so I actually never found out about the anime until years later. This very well made video made me want to re-read it all again, especially since I happened to stop keeping up with it a few years ago so there's lots of stuff I missed. As a work and story it's still very special to me. I've always loved the setting and characters. Thanks for reminding me of it again! Will check out your other videos :)
I once again humbly request that you do a video on Twisted Wonderland. I made a more eloquent argument for it on the last video and this is more of a plea. It's such a good game and more people need to play it.
I LOVE THE MANGA I read it in 2016 and have been following ever since, nowadays I catch up on the chapters like once or twice a year. PEOPLE REALLY NEED TO READ IT
I'm really glad you enjoyed the manga, black butler truly is a great manga so after reading the manga it's just such a great experience And the green witch arc I'd say helps us the audience see a glimpse of how our Ciel actually is, and foreshadow the real Ciel But yes, Yana Toboso is definitely a great mangaka, her writing, art and dedication are great :]] I would still recommend checking out twisted wonderland as it also has an interesting story
when I first read & watched Black Butler around 10 yrs ago, idk why but it felt like darker Scooby Doo mysteries 😂 I've since then lost track of it (cos I got bored of S2 halfway) and only finished up to the zombie arc (go Lizzie!!!) w/ Undertaker's villain reveal (I felt so betrayed 😂). Since then I occasionally pass by random spoilers about the manga and it's insane 😂 It's so interesting but it's hard to find the time.
i loe thoe inbetween text cuts around 26:42 because i knew what they were refering to. i' a few chapter behind but the story got a lot better the further it went. I've been reading it for years, before the anime started to follow the manga again.
Black butler was my favorite anime as a kid (it was the first one i watched and finished i was traumatized and strangly hooked by it lol) I never really noticed how many plot holes the anime had or if I had I would just make a theory about it/ignore it, I tried to get into the manga because I heard the it was different but I never really could get into it as well as I got into the anime so i'm glad you made this review/mini video summary! I absolutely love how you point out the differences between the anime and manga and now im debating on rewatching the anime/reading the manga, Maybe when the new anime comes out :) Love your stuff!
Wow. Weston College Arc and Blue Cult Arc really melded together in my mind. I thought those were the same arc. I was so excited to see Blavat in the upcoming season.
Yeeeees .... Yesssss!!!! 2020s Black Butler content! More people discovering it! My favorite manga ever it just has EVERYTHING and our Ciel is a perfect character to me, for once I don't wish him to be any different, and SPOILERS . . . . . . .no matter how I scratch my head, I can't figure out what is Undertaker's plan with (real)Ciel... Yana is a master not only at drawing but at revealing information one drop at a time so that you don't notice anything until it all stares you in the face... I hope she does not end up like many overworked mangaka with health problems. I complain about the updates being so slow and only a dozen pages every month, but I've been patiently waiting for the paper release instead of reading the scans so I can get more satisfaction at once hehe. This video brought back my passion which is usually dormant between releases!!
I think undertakers plan with r!ciel is to fully bring him back to life so that he won't be reliant on undertaker or blood anymore. As for r!ciels current plan, there are speculations that his plan might be to seperate o!ciel from sebastian to save him since sebastian will take his soul someday (since r!cirl in the flashback was portrayed to be quite protective of o! ciel)
^ Agree with above. Undertaker has a really weird attachment to the Phantomhives, i don’t think he had anything to do with the Manor Massacre. He wants to “preserve” the bloodline. One theory suggested “putting” o!ciel’s soul in real ciel’s body “uniting” them and maybe(?) fixing real ciel’s blood issue (aka infusing “life” permanently?) honestly i don’t have a definitive guess either lmao
@@ToscaTee omg I never thought about that, uniting them would be absolutely atrocious I hope Sebastian eats oCiel's soul before that can happen, that would be a true villain move from undertaker
I have heard theories that the undertaker was married to claudia and thus, the ciel's grandfather, which explains his obssesion with the phantomhive bloodline and why he carries claudia's hair in a locket.
ok I think I'm intrigued enough to maybe read the manga. I'm not a huge manga reader because I have low vision and those don't have a lot of contrast for me to tell what is going on. I'll fight my vision for that tho
It took me a long while after suffering through season 2 of Black Butler to even dare touch anything from the series. Even when I saw nothing but high praises about the manga, suffice to say the anime ruined the experience for me. But when I did get back into it during the pandemic after binging D.Grayman one too many times, I just fell in love again. It just had that flair and storytelling that I was craving and at the time when I was very much trapped in a bubble unable to see theoutside world, it was an escape.
She litereally invented mustand gas AND discovred blood types two of the most influential scientific discoveries in history, all before age 9? She dosent get enough respect cause like she has the most promising future. I kind of get the vibe that Queen Victoria wants to adopt her and pass on the throne to her. I think its unfortunate they havent done more with her character yet beyond like making a boring love triangle with her and lizzy. Because she hasnt been in any of the anime adaptations yet she just gets absolutely slept on like no one ever cosplays her when she should be a fan favouite character.
I *hate* what they did to Elizabeth in the anime. She's just vapid and shallow. In the Manga she's just so much more interesting. She has actual depth and they show how much she actually cares about Ciel, but that she is also still just a child and prone to childish decisions. They did almost all the girls in BB so dirty.
See, the funny thjng about Black Butler being shonen Usually when a manga is part of a weird demographic, like how RWBY was designated as a seinen manga, or Cowboy Bebop being publisbed under a shojo magazine, there doesnt seem to be much question among native Japanese readers. But in the case of Black Butler, shonen readers in Japan very much did notice how out of place and this lead to numerous complaints.
watched this and the other video to go on a fun trip down memory lane, since i started reading kuroshitsuji almost 13 years ago, when I was 13 myself! I was far too young to be reading it (alas, those were rhe 2010s) which might have been why I dropped it a couple of times for very long stretch, the last time being halfway through the green witch arc. It's fun to see a work grow up with you and reread parts you didn't like as a kid only to find them your favourite! Now I need to get caught up again. I guess I'm an unexpected demographic!
I stopped reading the manga around the same place you left this video lmaoo (I stopped just cause it was taking long to release) this made me want to resume it and see how the plot's been going
I've been reading the manga, and the twin part was so satisfying. Due to a whole decade of theories supporting this. All I am waiting for now is to know our Ciel's real name. Like... What is his real name? But we are following Finny right now, so yeah
This manga is amazing. Also I recommend Twisted Wonderland. It's also created by Yana Toboso and it's basically about traumatized teens looking up to Disney Villans. It's amazing and there's a really good story with lots of foreshadowing
i have 5 manga’s to recommend which might interest anyone who enjoys black butler, only 2 has a decent anime though. first two are by the same mangaka (jun mochizuki) the manga’s are pandora hearts and the case study of vanitas (anime is decent), d. grayman (more shounen and has an alright original anime), 07-ghost and devil x realist both are for anyone who loves some queerbating make relationships. i think all these have a simular vibe of black butler but they are amazing in their own right. i own all of jun mochizuki’s manga so i might be slightly biased but god i adore the artstyle. if anyone tries any of these then enjoy ! ❤
It's wild how a plot twist that could have come across as so cliche (he had a twin the whole time) instead felt mind-blowing due to the execution. The fact that Yana Toboso had the patience to sprinkle in hints over the course of nearly a decade still boggles my mind. I remember discovering the twin theory and looking at all the evidence so far, and even when I was convinced that it was true it still kinda felt like a tin foil hat theory, haha. When the reveal finally happened, it was amazing. Definitely one of the most memorable plot twists I've ever experienced. I haven't read the manga in a few years, but I should pick it up again. Thanks for the great video! :)
I thought Black butler was just some shotacon BL manga so I never bother looking into this series since I prefer yuri a lot more but holy you talking about the plots in this manga and the things that happens in it really made me want to read it now, lol. And while I still watch anime, Im in the same boat as you. I 100% prefer to read the manga than watch the anime of shows just because studios have a habit so changing things that makes no sense and it gets annoying but sadly anime only fans just eat it up. (im looking at you School-Live!)
I've loved black Butler for so long but because of the way the anime makes it look (like a weird shota bl) people refuse to give it a shot 😞 I hope you enjoy reading the manga lol
@@Kekekekenn i was one of those people before, it didn't help that i first heard of black butler from a friend who was a fujoshi at the time nothing wrong with bl but the blatant fetishization of gay relationship wasn't very appealing (also im not sure if this was a thing in english but in spanish a lot of fujoshi groups had adopted r*pe as slang for sex and that gave me the ick)
A friend of mine loves religious horror/dark fantasy and this manga is her favorite. So while I trust her, did some other fans creep me out, which she said was understandable. But now I may give it a try..!
Fanservice does happen in the manga, it’s mostly for comedy and is never taken to the extreme. It’s both sad & funny to me how tainted black butler’s image was because of the (very) vocal fujo/shipper fans, (from the false “black butler was originally intended to be yaoi” rumor and rampant sebaciel fanart) it really sucks seeing it ridiculed when it’s a genuinely good story & very fun reading experience. I’m glad you’re open to trying the manga out. I can’t say whether it’s up to your taste or not i just wanna say it’s totally different and so much more than your initial impression.
I am so glad I stumbled across this and the previous videos as they served as a great reminder of all that took place. There are some events that have happened so long ago that I forgot about them. It is a shame you did not go into detail about the current arc, as it is extremely good and we are exploring the servants in depth.
I wouldn't call it the safest since it has a lot of really dark themes such as sui****, sa, gore and other stuff but I definitely agree on the interesting part. It just gets really good and even though it's quite slow and takes its time like you mentioned in the other video, it fortunately stays in quality A lot of people hate the recent twist but I personally find it very good and necessary for a specific character (I'm not talking about the twin thing here btw)
I'm late to be replying but I remember that one post in Tumblr pointing out clues on Ciel having a twin. Almost 10 years ago! I was completely dumbfounded after that theory came true, really incredible. I love this fandom so much.
There’s a manga scene way back at the beginning in a billiard room, and everyone in this background scene is an important character. In fact, the Italian mafia guy from that arc is the least important person there. A decent test of a manga fan is if you can identify everyone.
I've left very long comments in community posts ajd other videos on this so I wont write it all out again but I greatly appreciate this glowing review :DDDDD Ive been reading the manga for sooooooo long I cannot remember where it was when I started.
I had to watch this twice (once for learning more about Black Butler since I only ever watched the anime and couldn't afford to get the manga at the time I've watched it. And twice for comparisons) so i could see how Yana illustrates the world of Twisted Wonderland. The public school arc has the most similarities between Black Butler and Twisted Wonderland. And, of ciurse, i have to mention so many of the characters in Black Butler are obvious inspirations to the characters pf Twisted Wonderland. For example, Riddle's inspired by Ciel and Jade's inspired by Sebastian (that part's obvious). I had to whip out my Twisted Wonderland mangas to confirm my observation. There's still some similarities to point out between the two but it'll only turn into a rant😅
So much of this video has simply been me sitting here like "yea that was also explained in the anime" Like I hated the last video deeply because so much of the point was missed, only for the EXACT SAME SCENES to be given much more grace this time? Has been insane to see. Absolutely favorite was talking about Ciel's revenge and using the exact same phrasing the anime used previously.
![เจ็บที่ยังฮัก - ม่อน วรวิทย์ [ Official Mv ] จอนนี่มิวสิค](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/KALIGSRSjFs/mqdefault.jpg)
“people had the hots for Grell for the same reason they got the hots for Jeff the Killer”
Why would you say something so controversial yet so true
The anime's oft-used "one hell of a butler" is an idiomatic translation of the japanese phrase used, which could be interpreted either as "I'm simply a butler", OR as "I'm a a demon and a butler". It's the difference between [飽くまで執事ですから] "Akumade shitsuji desu kara", meaning "I am [only/entirely] a butler" and [悪魔で執事ですから] "Akuma de shitsuji desu kara", meaning "I am a demon and a butler". In speech, they're indistinguishable, so its a similar pun in terms of how Sebastian is being entirely truthful and also a massive troll.
this is very unnecessary information
@senritsujumpsuit6021 yeah, but it's interesting, at least to some.
yeah I found what that 3Q is internet slang for Thank You in China since 3 is San so SanQ is like Thank You @@serenkeating7672
It's funny how he keeps saying that he is a demon but nobody seems to notice 😭
@@senritsujumpsuit6021 I disagree, as it explains an interesting detail that wasn't explained in the video, and sheds light on one of the few things the anime got right, but I suppose we all have different priorities...
It's the fact that them being twins was set up from the very first few times we were shown flashbacks. They showed us Ciel being stabbed from the pov of the twin.
Almost everyone, myself included, assumed it was present ciel viewing himself in 3rd person POV when he’s actually been that third person all along
@@ToscaTee not me tho. It made more sense to me that something wasn't right.
@@happilyevernever4289 you were that galaxy brained minority
@@happilyevernever4289 in spanish fandom rt, the vast majority had the theory of a twin since the flashbacks began, because of the child's position with the father, how they spoke, the clothes, the background, everything. Yana did it great from the beginning, showing that possibility, that when you looked at the past there was something more with "Ciel". There are also theories about the real name of the patched Ciel, I don't remember what they said, but they also got it from all the symbology that Yana puts in and such. so, yeah, love and hugs
...it is usually how flashbacks shown.
The only thing that wasn't right is how "Ciel" stayed alive with all those stabs
Seeing the public school arc, the visual comparisons to Twisted Wonderland are SHOCKING. If it wasn't evident before that Toboso worked on that game, it certainly is now.
She did the designs. I thought everyone knew that
I wonder how the anime is gonna describe the perfects umm… retainers since the manga used a different word, but it used in a different meaning.
I may have seen the manga Ciel in the thumbnail and for a split second thought it was Riddle… so uh…. Oops
Fr
@@marondadebrito1516same- I legit pulled out my twst manga and compared their faces and they look like siblings😭
I love how the manga foreshadowed the Ciel twin theory quite early on and how the fandom caught on and analyzed all of the frames. And the current theories about the Undertaker's unknown relationship with Claudia Phantomhive.
I remember like almost 10 years ago there was one scene that made me think ,,haha that seems like ...no way" and I looked it up on tumblr and already a tiny handful of people had the theory that ciel had a twin.
It was so mindblowing.
It sounds strange but the first time Lizzie makes an appearance and says ,,I told you not to call me Elizabeth but Lizzie" and Ociel starts calling her Lizzie, I just thought ,,hmm strange" who would have thought that my little suspicion would become real 😂 Yana really took almost 10 years to reveal this
I remember the theory really starting to take off in 2009 after the Baron Kelvin flashback chapter and people finding hints even earlier.
I actually picked up on it during the first episode of the anime. There’s a scene where we can see Ciel stabbed as a sacrifice which summons Sebastian but then Ciel is completely unhurt and Sebastian is offering to make a deal with him. I was like “wait, what? Are there two of them or did Ciel get a full heal?”.
Thing is, there’s a very good reason to have suspected a brother all along that I’ve never seen anyone else point out. And it’s in a manga story Yana didn’t even write…but it’s one that probably highly inspired Black Butler. It’s a collection of stories usually called something like Earl Cain Saga or Cain Series. It’s a bit more difficult to read at the beginning, with the page layouts being confusing, but it’s worth it if you like Black Butler.
if you looked closely, yana-sensei even foreshadowed the ciel twin thing on the very FIRST CHAPTER the panel where ciel says "because im ciel phantomhive" there are quotation marks which is weird asf because any other dialogue has none as if hinting something to him being really what he says he is and the next panel after this is Sebastian laughing
also that flashback in campania where Sebastian says "you're quite the liar" after ciel says he's "ciel phantomhive" after establishing the rule for Sebastian to never lie
The part in the Green Witch Arc when Ciel only wanted to see Finny because Finny was a child too and Ciel was having flashbacks of all the adults who harmed him.....yeah...that still sticks with me years later. It was so good.
It was so gruesome 😭
Also, the arc reminds us that Sebastian is still a demon and not a friend to Ciel now, and WILL eat his soul if he considers the contract broken
@@rolo8847 WORD!!!!! Not sure if that's still an issue in fandom, but that fact was constantly forgotten back when I was in fandom. Used to upset me a whole lot too but luckily I've gotten over it.
@@ElizabethMidfordHatesCopsSebastian does a good job of lulling you into a false sense of security. Probably part of being a devil, he gains prey by having people trust him so of course he’s good at seeming trustworthy. Beyond that it can be difficult to tell how much of the apparent care he shows toward Ciel is genuine affection, how much is the normal care and attention of a farmer raising a goose for Christmas dinner and how much is simply him fulfilling his role as Ciel’s loyal butler. That being said I think his feelings towards cats are the story’s way of showing us how he behaves when he genuinely loves someone without considering them food and he doesn’t act that way towards Ciel.
@@cathygrandstaff1957 This is why I love the headcanon thag Sebastian molded his human form after the appearance of Ciel's father Vincent Phantomhive. It goes along so well with everything you just said.
the funniest thing about the twin thing, is that the entire fandom was lit in flames online whether there were twins or not due to a lot of hints. A lot were against the "twin truthers" then this dropped and we all got to scream victory lol
I was always a twin truther, I mean all the hints were there, it would be a waste for them to not be true lol
The hints were there but I absolutely refused it cus I hate that soap opera shite, its overused and always annoying
@@yahikokurotama4351 true, but the way Yana set it up makes so much sense. The hints were planted, looking back. And a lot of inconsistencies when it comes to the flashbacks especially when Ciel was bleeding out on the table and looked like he died eyes opened then suddenly he was alive. And how in the flashback there was a mention of "we" but there weren't other children shown but ciel.
It's not ur typical telenovela "oh u think it was her? but it was me, the evil twin!" which is annoying as heck since its usually used as a deux ex machina or sm kind of twist trying to be clever lmao
Well, twins plot twist are just so boring, lame and lazy writting. So I guess people just wanted something clever instead.
The Twins Twist is one of the best cases of foreshadowing I've ever read. There's one particular dialogue line in the Circus Arc that lives in my brain rent free, ie when a man approaches the antagonist of this arc, he says "the earl Phantomhive and his family were killed", but that is just translation, in original, when referring to the family he uses a phrase "okaasan-tachi" which means "mother/wife and the rest/the others". At that point, the audience is convinced the man means "The mother and the child (Ciel)", but having the full context of the manga, we now know that he truly meant "the earl phantomhive, his wife and children were killed" AND I'M FOAMING AT THE MOUTH WHEN I THINK ABOUT IT, because the translator OR the English speaking or even the Japanese audience has no reason to suspect there was more than one Phantomhive child during the Circus Arc and it's such an amazing thing to realize upon re-reading or even rewatching because this line appears in the anime as well. I just really love Yana's foreshadowing. It's so good.
There is also that part in early chapters were we see the family graves, and it shows Ciel's grave
@narudayo5053 Yesss, I think the graves were one of the more obvious points of foreshadowing but still, the way all of that was RIGHT THERE AAAA
The way the frames are also done shows that one child is way more timid than the other. Lizzie also speaking about his height.
To be quite honest, I didn't like the twin theory because I thought that Ciel projecting his past self as dead could be a great show of his trauma but since Yana is using it for the story, I find it quite ingenious !
@elwynnquinslais2776 Usually I also don't like "IT WAS A SECRET EVIL TWIN ALL ALONG" but like you said, ingenious
@@Mizore34 It is usually bad because it is overused (trop used even in mythology) and out of nowhere. Yana teased it throughout the story so it seems way more logical and well written. It shows that Yana knew what she is doing .
i would say the green witch arc forshadows the blue cult arc with the way the blue cult arc recontextualizes ociel's paranoia and fear of his adult servants including sebastian, and how he only allows finny (another teenager) to be near him and take care of him. we also have the panels where hes breaking free of his own mind showing theres two ciels; where at first glance you think its just him, but now reads as rciel and ociel. also the forshadowing of rciel with the undertaker where we think he's making ociel drink something without sebastian knowing that someone has entered the manor, then we learn later that this was actual rciel. it's especially horrifying when we find out that undertaker has been bringing rciel everywhere ociel is, but we never see or know he's there. like, you know. when ociel is sitting on a coffin in the early chapters and rciel is actually inside of it.
oh my god i completely forgot about that.
The blue cult arc is insane man, the early chapter you mention when ociel is sitting on a coffin with rciel inside of it just shows that the undertaker was laughing in ociel's face the entire time and he didn't even know. It's so good
22:15 Thats a very simplistic way of looking at it. Yes he “reinforces” his desire for revenge - but the devil is in the details. The hallucinations are caused by Sebastian, so it showcases the fact that Sebastian himself is the one trying to snap him out, but fails to understand why Ciel is so obsessed with revenge.
Ciel always talks abt “revenge” but rarely is it so prominent the idea that this is for /himself/, not whatever damage has been done to others.
It’s also a way to show that whatever corruption has happened, whatever evil he’s done and feels shame for, is always a choice he takes. Killing his aunt, setting the manor and the children on fire, they’re all HIS choice. He’s not being manipulated by Sebastian nor is he blinded by feelings. It’s a conscious choice and he is willing to accept the consequences.
I also recommend you analyze the side characters parallels to Ciel. Sullivan for example, is a parallel to Ciel. (Wolfram being a parallel to Sebastian)
I agree with you to a certain point but you can't forget that Sebastian always talks about 'cultivating' his soul, which I take that it means he wants to corrupt his soul further to more fully satisfy his tastes when he eats him. Of course Ciel is at fault for the things he's done but it goes without saying that Sebastian being his DEMON butler definitely makes him more easy to manipulate and spiral into darkness especially.
@@O_Ciel_Phant0mhiveThat interpretation takes away a lot of Ciel’s own agency and Sebastian’s character development.
If Sebastian hands the gun, Ciel pulls the trigger. I don’t think think painting Ciel as someone only being manipulated, works. The manga isn’t shy about how Ciel is not a good person. He uses, manipulates and discards of others, for the sake of his revenge. He knows Sebastian is someone he can’t fully trust, yet he made a deal with him, because he can give him the power to do what he wants.
He’s the representation of hurt people hurt people.
And most importantly, it’s all for his own sake. The revenge is his own greedy want. Not bcs r!ciel died, or his parents, or his legacy. No. It’s what he wants. Ever since he made the contract, he’s been selfish.
Sorry, non reader or watcher here, this is my first dip into this franchise. Just a quick question though since you brought up how Ciel's revenge is explicitly for "himself", is it actually for himself, the younger brother who had to watch all of this happen, or is it really revenge for "Ciel" the real Ciel, the older brother who had all this done to him? Do they ever end up going into that in the manga?
@@cammischoenherr9047 He definitely says "I DO IT FOR MYSELF!" (volume 95)
@@cammischoenherr9047while the manga is going twisty with the Ciel twins, one thing that has always been very very clear since the beginning is that the Ciel Sebastian made a deal with do it entirely for himself.
Selfishness, AND self-determination is at the core of Ciel's character. His revenge, his actions, his decisions, good AND bad- ALL of it he did for his own sake.
People can take away his identity, but people cannot take away the decisions that made him to be where he is.
About the totally-not-nintendo cartage in the first chapter, Nintendo as a company has actually been around since 1889 making playing cards and board games! Which would put it squarely within Black Butler's assumed time frame of Victorian London (about between 1820 ~ 1914) so a new hard to get board game with nintendo labeling could plausibly work without breaking the history much c:
Since Queen Victoria is older in the series that narrows it down to the late 19th century, so 1880s to 1900. I believe I’ve seen someone say it’s specifically the 1880s because of other contextual cues but I’m not sure. Not that Black Butler is really trying to be historically accurate, but all this is to say your theory makes sense :)
@@camilafeitosa7743It’s taking place in 1889, since Ciel is nearing his 14th birthday and was born in 1875
@@camilafeitosa7743 The murders of Jack the Ripper were in 1888 so it is another indication
so Yana should have just given him a pack of Nintendo brand Hanafuda cards XD
¹pu❤❤@@luciennesmilkandhoney
Black Butler was a giant inspiration to me as a child, along with Katekyo Hitman Reborn. It showed me that even if you don't know where you're going, if you have enough passion and enough drive, you can achieve amazing results. Each arc is just Yana hyperfixating on something and making the world momentarily switch genres to fit it. And yet it works because she puts her whole ass into making it work.
As someone who would not understand they were neurodivergent for another like 10 years, it was the first time I had seen that this was something that not only weird kids on Disney channel shows went through. Real life adults don't stay on one path and neither do their stories. But that's okay.
Hunter x Hunter is also like that, it feels like each arc is build around whatever the autor is interested at the moment.
You may like it if you haven't read/watch it, but I must warn you the work tends to go on long hiatus because of the author's health problems.
Oh good, you got to the flashback arc - cuz when you said at the end of the Green Witch Arc "I don't think having Ciel fight himself in his mind really ADDED anything to the story" I was like RRHGHGHRHGH actually out loud i said that LMAO excellent writing there. Also the cut in slides with the shaky text saying "That's not Ciel" oooOOH, you're getting it! :D
AND THE HAVING NOT CROSSED OUT "That's -not- Ciel" OMFG
Something I always appreciated with Yana Toboso is her dedication to styling the clothes and also learning about other cultures. I’ve never really seen a manga or anime where they care so much about the foreign culture they’re portraying for such short sequences as Black Butler has for its indian characters. This is especially a rare thing to happen when media portrays south asian/indian culture (or any other ’oriental’ culture), just compare how awful Genshin is in comparison 🥲
I also heard somewhere that Yana Toboso basically filled her office with references of indian and south asian clothing for designing the indian characters. But this could be a myth..
Omg in the next book that he didn't mention we get to see Sebastian and Ciel wearing traditional Chinese clothes! My favourite fashion moment in these books for sure
Also as someone who loves Victorian era fashion, I never really knew what children wore before reading this manga. Ciel is always adorable!
It's not a myth. Yana's office is full of all kinds of reference books. She's an impressively diligent researcher
@@jojoslameerrand9305 Thank you for telling me this!! I engage a lot in discussions regarding orientalism and portrayal of the middle east and south asia and basically everytime someone dogs on for example genshin’s design of Sumeru, I see someone bring up Yana Toboso’s designs as good examples lol
If you read the comments in the manga, she also talks to historians so her story can be as accurate as possible to the times even tho she stretches some events and of course, magic. She also refers a lot to Victorian architecture. She’s so cool!
Genshin is has a fantasy setting. It's not supposed to be the same but to carry a resemblance. In contrast Black Butler happens in the real world in 1500-1600 and only has some fantasy additions ( silpirits exists) . Stop hoping on the hate train. You can hate Genshin for some stuff like the reisin cap but not this one.
Kuroshitsuji is literally the phrase: The manga was better.
Its a fact at this point. Im hoping the next OVA of the anime stays tru to the manga, bcs its the school arc and i did really like that arc.
Anyways, highly recommend anyone who hasn't read the manga to read it, great experience always full of surprises
this arguments is really retarded all the time really like ah of course lets say everything about the original stories are horrible because they did not copy the homework of 100+ or a 350+ chapter book to a T
Black Butler 2 could have been longer but what we got was really interesting an gave us some the dumbest charming fanfic
Tokyo ghoul too it’s kinda funny the 2 manga i grew up reading share a lot of similarities despite their unique differences 😂
that and tokyo ghoul because oh wow look how they massacred my boy
There's a reason why the anime is so loved, least Season 1
It's fantastic on its own, but manga is better
At 12:01 I really really hope you don’t mean the house system by this, because I hate to inform you in case you didn’t know but that’s real, and wasn’t made up for Harry Potter. Most British primary schools still have them too. I was in the squirrel house at my school and we were represented by the colour blue…
For my primary school our houses were basically bugs, weirdly. I remember being Grasshopper too. There were grasshoppers, ladybirds, butterflies and i THINK spiders if memory serves.
we have this in secondary school in ireland too!! i was in the red house caoineas...
Actually! Correction! The bug houses were infants school. Primary school houses were I think themed around the different planes? I know there were a red arrows house and yellow belly house. Idk the others.
In Australia we have the house system as well.
My primary school was based on colours (red house, blue house etc) and my secondary school had 6 houses that were based on famous past students, each represented by a colour as well.
It irks me a bit that in the USA they think that these sorts of things come from fantasy, there's such a limited knowledge of the outside world.
Same with "the f word" they talk about. Here in Australia, it's actually a slang term for a cigarette as well (coming from the Italian word for cigarette). Not everything is offensive everywhere.
We had them at my American middle school, too. Sixth grade they were biomes, then big cats for seventh, and types of storms for eighth.
Hey, I'm early! I'm still up to date with the manga and it's so much more gritty and dark compared to the anime. Especially when established side characters actually start DYING. the current arc is long AF but it's definitely the actual story that everything else has been building up to.
Also, the current arc is so freaking long the community has begun subdividing it, it's great yall, and puts spotlight on all the side characters we have. My current favorite chapter is 183(?) where it talks about Baldroy's background, both the story and the art really was just A+. Trigger Warning, there are corpses and attempted cannibalism though.
I’m on book 32 and I have to say that the reveal *blew my mind!* when I first read it!
I know that the school arc is going to be animated and it will be forever after the Emerald Witch Arc, but I am SUPER excited for when they get to the Blue Cult arc being animated too.
The "demon of a butler" and "hell of a butler" translation is just the result of trying to carry over a Japanese word play. In the manga he says "akumade shitsuji desu kara", and that translates to "I'm simply a butler". If you say "akuma de" instead of "akumade", it becomes "I am a demon butler". They sound almost the same out loud, but in writing "akumade" and "akuma de" are very different in Japanese, and they flip between the spellings depending on the situation.
I think the reason the manga arcs seem so segmented is because Toboso using one arc to set up another arc way later down the line
OH MY GOD THANK GOD SOMEONE FINALLY DOES A VIDEO ON THE MANGA AND ANIME
You cannot understand how grateful I am that you tackled the Black Butler anime fiasco and decided to read the manga and make a video about it! I’m so happy that you saw what I saw when I started reading the manga 7 years ago! It truly is a wonderful work and it deserves more recognition! And this is another reason to be upset with the first 2 seasons of the anime. Because it made it so difficult to get people into Black Butler!
So yeah…a big big THANK YOU!
correction: at 29:45~ ish, you say Ms. Nina has never been mentioned before now
you already brought her up at 6:55- she is the one who designed the staff's clothes and she regularly designs for ciel,,, [like the iconic Robin dress! And both Ciel and Lizzy's matching easter outfits!)
i think they meant that in the video they didn't directly address her before that point
I didn’t think I missed this much of the manga. As an old fan of Kuroshitsuji who stopped reading in like 2014, that last arc had me SHOOK.
It’s very fynny, since to me the green witch arc is by far my favorite, I love the “magical” mystery and was even morE hyped when it turned out to be a chemistry related mystery. (Sully is a stem girlie frfr and I love her)
The scene where Sebastian almost ate Ciel is also one of my favorites. Firstly it broke my heart how Sebastian just threw Finny out and Ciels hallucination tells us a lot about his internal struggle with survivors guilt and we get to see how much of a toll all the traumatizing things took on his psyche (though at that point we didn’t know is was about his guilt for sacrificing Ciels soul)
On another note it is another sneak peak into Sebastians true personality and not his crafted persona, which is extremely funny and enjoyable so even the reader sometimes forgets what he actually is, so these moments make Sebastian also an even more interesting character to me
However there was a lot off with the historical representation of Germany at that time, but who am I too complain about historical inaccuracies of a dark fantasy manga
*trembling severely after years of consuming black butler* oh y-yeah I'll definitely read the manga... *Praying for the 15th of this month for another chapter update*
Pls the monthly updates kill me 😭 and the chapters are getting shorter that I legit let the manga marinate for *3 WHOLE YEARS* and I managed to read through all the chapters accumulated within the span of 2 hours (of slow reading), I'm sobbing
FOR REAL I HAVENT READ THE MANGA IN 2 YEARS BECAUSE I WANTED TO WAIT FOR MORE @@bunishrimp
@@bunishrimp Hoho, I have now successfully waited 10 years for it to accumulate! And now after finding this video, it is time again to catch up.
Oh yeah, and if you're ever interested in more Yana Toboso work, get into Twisted Wonderland! It's directed by sensei and a lot of characters share similarities to the black butler characters.
Yes please!!
Yooo, thank you for covering thiiis! I'm one of the translators for the fan-made English patch for the DS Game "Phantom and Ghost" and I never actually played the whole thing after it was complete... Would TOTALLY love to see you play it! (different name in the credits, I'm the one with the Finny icon)
Holy effin sharks, that was work I did in early-to-mid 2018... That's 6 years ago :X
So I stopped the video after the emerald witch arc because that’s as far as I read in the manga and don’t wanna get spoiled haha, cause oh my god your analysis of black butler has me wanting to get fully back into it again 😭 love your videos, keep up the great work!
Good luck 👍🥲👍
Great time, new chapter takes awhile since it’s released monthly but there’s a decent chunk to read after emerald witch to the current arc. Highly recommend it, happy reading!
8:54 I mean Yana has stated that Sebastian IS the main character of the story
Wait fr?
well the name of the manga is Black Buttler, so I think that's acceptable.
Does this indicate that O!Ciel will die in the end (reaching the end of their contract) and Sebastian was just telling the story of his past contractor? ... that would make me cry and probably not be able to move on for a year T^T
I always viewed them both as main characters. They always move together anyways in the plot so it's really quite convenient, and this won't change even if Ciel actually dies in the end (bc by then the story itself will be over)
@@_urmimi
That's what I thought
Until ciel became a demon and forever bind Sebastian as his butler
In the shitty anime that is
I can’t wait for the Public School arc to make its anime debut. It’s my favorite arc in the manga, and Violet is my favorite character (followed by Snake and Cheslock). The manga is so good, and it really is a shame the anime went off into left field. Toboso is probably my favorite mangaka purely because of how awesome the BB manga is. The anime has its good points, but still.
Now that you’ve gotten into Black Butler, I’d recommend checking out Twisted Wonderland. It’s Toboso’s teamup with Disney, and there are major similarities to the Weston College setting and characters but it also has so many of its own unique features. Toboso is a self-confessed Disneyphile, and she made the artwork and the characters, and wrote the story for TW. The eye candy is very present here, as are the darker story content and the off-beat humor we love from BB. Also, if you think Sebastian is hot, wait until you see Malleus!
I love violet, he looks like a great great grandfather of L from death note. Which would be possible actually XD
Well in the southern US I’ve heard it called “slave week.” Yeah I don’t think they can use that one either.
YiKES! I guess lackey is the more appropriate word then
Whether or not you review up to the current release, you should definitely keep reading! Fugitive!Ciel v. Undertaker's!Ciel is fascinating, and there's a lot of good character and plot development, especially for the side characters. Ran Mao and Mei Rin have a fun and productive mini-arc, and Baldo gets more depth as well. I have been genuinely shocked and moved to tears by the manga - Agni's fate left me reeling for days, and Lizzie's torn loyalties... I wonder how much of her being with the original Ciel now is out of obligation, and whether she has any regret over seemingly betraying the Ciel she's known since the fire. The one she's doted on and bonded with and shown her true self. I feel for her so much.
The manga, I feel, is the superior version, but I do love Grell in the anime. Both the Japanese and English voice actors do an amazing job with her character (and I love the safety-scissors gag so much) that it's easy to see why she's a fan-favorite. I have a plushie of Grell in my classroom, behind my desk, and my students who recognize her are always excited to find out I love the series. The student who gave her to me originally also gave her a little trans-flag keychain to hold, and she holds it to this day.
Small funfact of a German reader who coincidentally is from the area the emerald witch arc takes place. I come from a neighbouring city of Nuremberg and in my city we have a place that is just as the place Sieglinde Sullivan rules over called "Wolfsschlucht". It's really a tiny ravine we have there where nowadays a chruch stands and a narrow path leads through that connects to city parts more directly for people on foot or bike. I don't know if this is what Yana Toboso referenced. It would really surprise me as most people in the city except for the people who live around there don't even know that name but given what crazy research she does maybe she did stumble upon it.
If it is that though I gotta "complain" a bit on behalf of my city though. We are not some place on the outskirts of Nuremberg. My city is factually older and the mother city of Nuremberg. The two have close history with even the first train in Germany travelling back and forth between them. Today the grew so much together that the only things that remind you you are going to a different city are signs and the metro station "Stadtgrenze " (tranlation: "city border") indicate now that they are two cities.
Hope ya'll have a nice day and enjoy the manga as much as I do ^^
This actually has me interested in black butler now. I had such a different view of it when I was younger. I don’t have much time right now in my life to read manga, I use to read a ton, but when I do again I’ll make sure to pick this series up. When more novels do come out and the story is expanded even more I would love to see another video
As someone who's only seen seasons 1 & 2 of Black Butler, I always cringed when remembering it. Like "Oh, Black Butler (derogatory)" lolol But after watching your videos, especially this one on the manga... it makes me wanna get back into it.
Omg ME TOO!! Its why the circus ark in the anime confused me so much I stopped watching. I had no one around me who was big into the manga side of otaku culture, so I only had the anime to go off of and got really confused after season 2. It was a really long time ago, but I have a vague memory about seeing fans online up in arms mad about season 2 and the second half of season 1, but I don't remember hearing/reading the reasons for it. Guess now after all these years I'm learning just how bad the anime dropped the ball on the story.
The anime REALLY botched this story and neutered it beyond belief. The manga is SO freakin amazing and engaging to read
They didn't even actually take from Harry Potter, school houses, with house masters, a house cup, and all of that, is just an ACTUAL British thing, in retrospect Rowling didn't actually do anything original with that series.
Exactly, and Yana actually was more accurate about it giving them even different dining halls for each dormitory.
the mirror imagery in the black witch arc where you as a reader originally think Ciel is comforting himself with his reflection in a mirror, but is really imagining his brother drives me INSANE INSANE INSANE. WILD stuff. I should have caught on sooner, maybe, but when RealCiel was revealed i was simultaneously SHOCKED and also SOOO SATISFIED because now everything made sense. Some panel framing in flashbacks that I thought were inconsistencies now all just clicked into place... phew! Good manga. Great manga.
Weird fanservice? yeah in a few panels. but I think the manga does a lot of work recontextualizing these scenes as... trauma... rather than just fucked up shota-bait. by contrast, fucked up shota-bait is what all of s2 felt like lmfao
HECK YEAH, THE MANGA VIDEO !!
Longtime reader here... THANK YOU FOR COVERING IT ❤
SPOILERS FOR THE VIDEO AND THE MANGA FOR VIEWERS
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I've read the entire manga. When you put the messages in that evolved from "No he's not." which got a chuckle out of me to "That's not Ciel." and then the CHILL of "That is Ciel" even though I already know that. That is editing artistry. It's a beautiful blend of comedy transforming into dread-horror. I absolutely loved it. I'm so glad to see that you've come to enjoy the manga especially enough to dedicate that little bit of art there to it. Thank you.
listen, that lil drawn character you have for urself going on? adorable. i support it
I'm kinda glad you ended the video where you did - you refreshed my memory up to the point where I stopped reading a while back (life stuff happened) and I've been meaning to go back and pick it up again. Having a refresher is nice, so thank you!
Edit: For anyone wondering, the video ends around Chapter 144-ish and there's currently 209 chapters as I'm writing this comment, so....... plenty to catch up on reading. I do recommend reading the manga all the way through though if you haven't, cause the story is worth taking in the details. The murder mystery is still one of my favorite arcs honestly.
“They had to know what they were doing.” Vincent Phantomhives bookmark joke: 💀
The panel at 33:51 is just magnifcent.
Ciel making a contract with a devil where the body visually on the table is a three-part price.
Physically and metaphorically, Ciel has paid through his brother; his other half. Symbolically, the body on the table is the protagonist as well, as Ciel himself is the final offer in this contract.
Honestly I would love it if you covered Twisted wonderland, another of
Yanas works. It’s currently ongoing but when you reach chapters 6-7 THOSE ARE GOOD plus all is the characters are really fun
I'm debating on rereading the mangas that have been on my shelf for a long ass time. You're really encouraging me to go back to middle school lol
The Green Witch arc is actually supposed to act as a foreshadow. Ciel cowering and refusing to change while he is surrounded by stars in the background, Sebastian revealing that HE is beginning to change, Ciel's non-reaction to Reapers, as well as the Reapers revealing one of the reasons why Sebastian, despite having a LOT of reason to, refuses to break the contract. This is also the time-frame that Ciel begins to over-compensate a lot.
Wait I don't remember the second part. *Can* a demon break a contract willingly? Obviously a human can, it's their wish and as soon as they give it up it will be a violation of terms. But a demon seems very physically compelled to obey the terms, and also their power in this realm seems to be tied to it (for example, the more obvious the place of the seal, the more power the human is given.) I don't believe that we were ever told what happens if a demon breaks a condition, like if they are punished, or expelled.
It's one of my favourties , reminds me of the movie " the village". Tho i as good as it was i will be forever sad we didn't got a "real"witch(fictiob fantasy version i mean), i would love to see them react to a human with actual magic powers of their own. But some of what sebastian says does seem to imply they do exist in the kuroverse.
@@landmerry_6742i think he can, he doesn't need it to eat the souls anyway, he only does it for entertainment.
@@nessyness5447 He probably does need to eat souls. Like the way u need to eat food.
I don't think it was ever mentioned in the full chapters but, during a side story when Ciel asked after BoA what would make Seb'd wounds heal, he said human food & drink & rest does nothing, only souls work. Stands to reason theoretically demons could starve to death.
@@landmerry_6742 he needs to eat souls, he doesn't need a contract for that, that's why the reapers and specielly william don't like to have him around, they are worried he will steal some souls from them. And Sebastian actually taunts William about it in Book of Circus, saying that if it's such a big job, maybe he can " help with all those souls". He also confirms he used to eat whatever soul he could get his hands into but grew bored of it and decided to opt for Faustian contracts so he could get some entertainment as well as to "spice up" his meal.
black butler is my best friend’s favorite series. once i started getting into manga i decided to read black butler too so i could better understand/ it was something we could talk about. i absolutely love the series and am so glad i started reading it (fully up to date at this point). i haven’t even bothered watching the first two seasons of the anime bc she told me how they didn’t follow the manga. i’ve watched most of the OVAs though and enjoyed them. can’t wait to see how they handle season 4
Overall, this was a good, basic summary of events that highlighted some obvious differences in the anime adaptation... Thank you for making this video. I hope more people start reading the manga in the future. As someone who is fond of theorizing about a few mysteries that have yet to be revealed within the story, and who has been a fan of Black Butler for a very long time I think you did a great job; It was clear to me immediately that you left out a few things on purpose as not to spoil everything. ;) 💙
Oh! To add on to my comment for the previous video, Twisted Wonderland also has a manga run. So far, arcs 1 and 2 have been fully published, while the 3rd arc is in the works. Worth noting, the character Yuu changes between arcs, likely as a reference to how in the games, Yuu is meant to be the player. I believe the books for the 1st arc have been translated into English, but I'm not 100% certain. Information about the Twist manga in general is kinda hard to come by.
Around 22:30 where you said the chara growth didnt do much, it was actually the moment when all of us started shouting about the theory that the other person ciel saw in his mindscape was his brother. We really came a lot far from that moment of epiphany to where we are in the story rn 🤧
I’m very tempted to read the manga now! Also, the school arc made me think of Boys Over Flowers with that four person group.
Yesss I think that's true because F4/P4 lmao
I mean this is indeed the video that got me into the whole black butler genre in first place. I am currently at volume 20 but I don't think watching the video ruined my experience any means! I LOVE THIS DARN MANGA!!!!! Sure, knowing that Ciel has a twin did twist my view a bit but I still go along by it and just see how this is gonna turn out.
When I see that term that starts with F in historical documentation and things written in the subject I usually prefer to use the term “factotum” because it encompasses much of the same meaning without being a slur, or “Bloods” which is a C.S. Lewis term he used to describe them as opposed to the alternative.
IM SO EXCITED. I WATCHED THE ENTIRE LAST VID AND IVE BEEN GOING INSANE FOR THIS VID.
The thing is, i got into black butler cause i watched my brother watch season 1 as a kid. I was so obsessed with frills and the aesthetic of it all (i still am) and when i turned a little older i started to read the manga. I binge read until the latest chapter at the time which was 136 (the twin pllot twist). At first i really hated it. It made no sense. I was like no way they used this dumb trope. I left the fandom for a bit (2 yrs) and came back last yr to reread when i realised it WAS foreshadowed. Every single recollection of Ciel's past is from a third pov. Which never made sense until u realise Ciel is watching Og!Ciel do everything. From the very first major arc (circus arc) every single memory, every single side story has foreshadowed this exact same thing. I was so mind blown.
I got spoiled on the Ciel reveal a few years ago after picking up a random volume and flipping through it. A that point the last thing Id read was somewhere in the werewolf arc
loooved black butler when i was 13, when my mum finally managed to buy me some manga as a xmas/bday gift it was whatever she could find on the shelves, and it just so happened to include the public school arc & beginning of the germany arc. i was mindblown at how gorgeous and thrilling it was to experience those!!!!! I immediately had to jump onto my crummy computer and find a site to continue reading for dayss. so good
im so excited to see the manga done justice, and soooo want to reread it all now . these videos are bringing back the hyperfix letsgo!!!!!!
[SPOILERS]
After learning the truth about o!Ciel, if you rewatch the Book of Circus anime, you can actually see foreshadowing of them being twins, especially during the episode where there's flashbacks of the party where the Orphanage owner met the Phantomhives
Not only that but also little hints like only o!ciel having asthma and lizzy looking at him suspicious when he started coughing in boa. Or lizzy bringing him a piece of "his favourite" cake strawberry and later that saame scene, sebastian brings him a slice of his favourite cake chocolate (which was his actual fav. They briefly touched upon it in the flashback about the twins fav flavours)
for some reason i thought it was obvious he had a twin brother in the book of circus
So glad I saw this get posted right away ❤ I just watched the anime black butler review you did and was hooked. It was such a cryptic series for me in middle school and I didn’t understand anything 😂 I really appreciated your full plot explanation! You have quickly become one of my fave channels 🥰
I binged & caught up with the manga beginning of last year. Before that I didn't consider reading it bc I prioritized other series. However when I noticed it was hitting 30 vols, I got curious like what could possibly be going on for it to still be going. I was spoiled about Ciel's biggest secret way before that, but didn't know the context behind it so I decided to read it. one night, I was on a big binge bc I couldn't put it down then I finished vol. 28.... I could barely sleep the next few nights after that 😭😭 I agree, I super enjoy the overarching storyline & the characters. Every wish we have, the author gives it to us like for example, Negative kept saying how the servants should get more development. Literally the next arc from where Negative left off, we get all the backstories and they're really good 😭😭 please read Black Butler.
8:53 Technically, Sebastian IS the main character, or at least he was invented to be that way, which was the main challenge for Yana Toboso when she first got the idea because usually, the butler is supposed to stay behind the master.
That's why the first volume features Sebastian and not Ciel.
I'm grateful that the anime introduced me to the world of black butler but the manga is so much better and i am happy that I read it right after and am now caught up. Eeryone needs to read the manga. He is not lying, it is sooo good.
Black Butler was the first manga I ever purchased a volume of, when I was 14. I was beginning to access to the internet around that age too, and I didn't know how to navigate it well, so I actually never found out about the anime until years later. This very well made video made me want to re-read it all again, especially since I happened to stop keeping up with it a few years ago so there's lots of stuff I missed. As a work and story it's still very special to me. I've always loved the setting and characters. Thanks for reminding me of it again! Will check out your other videos :)
I once again humbly request that you do a video on Twisted Wonderland. I made a more eloquent argument for it on the last video and this is more of a plea. It's such a good game and more people need to play it.
You should also talk about the Live Action film. It was the last movie that actor Hiro Mizushima starred in after leaving his agency to form his own.
I LOVE THE MANGA I read it in 2016 and have been following ever since, nowadays I catch up on the chapters like once or twice a year. PEOPLE REALLY NEED TO READ IT
you cant end me on a cliffhanger like that my friend, I've been meaning to read the manga and now I have to read it
I'm really glad you enjoyed the manga, black butler truly is a great manga so after reading the manga it's just such a great experience
And the green witch arc I'd say helps us the audience see a glimpse of how our Ciel actually is, and foreshadow the real Ciel
But yes, Yana Toboso is definitely a great mangaka, her writing, art and dedication are great :]]
I would still recommend checking out twisted wonderland as it also has an interesting story
when I first read & watched Black Butler around 10 yrs ago, idk why but it felt like darker Scooby Doo mysteries 😂 I've since then lost track of it (cos I got bored of S2 halfway) and only finished up to the zombie arc (go Lizzie!!!) w/ Undertaker's villain reveal (I felt so betrayed 😂). Since then I occasionally pass by random spoilers about the manga and it's insane 😂 It's so interesting but it's hard to find the time.
i loe thoe inbetween text cuts around 26:42 because i knew what they were refering to. i' a few chapter behind but the story got a lot better the further it went. I've been reading it for years, before the anime started to follow the manga again.
34:46 this picture of lizzy has been engraved in my mind since the fake jordans incedent
Black butler was my favorite anime as a kid (it was the first one i watched and finished i was traumatized and strangly hooked by it lol) I never really noticed how many plot holes the anime had or if I had I would just make a theory about it/ignore it, I tried to get into the manga because I heard the it was different but I never really could get into it as well as I got into the anime so i'm glad you made this review/mini video summary! I absolutely love how you point out the differences between the anime and manga and now im debating on rewatching the anime/reading the manga, Maybe when the new anime comes out :) Love your stuff!
Wow. Weston College Arc and Blue Cult Arc really melded together in my mind. I thought those were the same arc. I was so excited to see Blavat in the upcoming season.
Recurring characters will do that to you. I could’ve sworn the blood-draining idol arc happened shortly after weston college lmao
only 5 releases since I dropped the manga at the twin reveal ALL THAT TIME AND STILL NO RESOLUTION AHHHHDJBFSKKSKW
Unfortunately not
Only another major character death
I’m so happy you read this manga it’s my all time fave from the many I’ve read and holds a special place in my heart
Yeeeees .... Yesssss!!!! 2020s Black Butler content! More people discovering it! My favorite manga ever it just has EVERYTHING and our Ciel is a perfect character to me, for once I don't wish him to be any different, and SPOILERS
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.no matter how I scratch my head, I can't figure out what is Undertaker's plan with (real)Ciel... Yana is a master not only at drawing but at revealing information one drop at a time so that you don't notice anything until it all stares you in the face... I hope she does not end up like many overworked mangaka with health problems. I complain about the updates being so slow and only a dozen pages every month, but I've been patiently waiting for the paper release instead of reading the scans so I can get more satisfaction at once hehe. This video brought back my passion which is usually dormant between releases!!
I think undertakers plan with r!ciel is to fully bring him back to life so that he won't be reliant on undertaker or blood anymore. As for r!ciels current plan, there are speculations that his plan might be to seperate o!ciel from sebastian to save him since sebastian will take his soul someday (since r!cirl in the flashback was portrayed to be quite protective of o! ciel)
Also it seems that so far yana fortunately doesn't have any health problems which I'm really glad about. I need to see the end of this show
^ Agree with above. Undertaker has a really weird attachment to the Phantomhives, i don’t think he had anything to do with the Manor Massacre. He wants to “preserve” the bloodline.
One theory suggested “putting” o!ciel’s soul in real ciel’s body “uniting” them and maybe(?) fixing real ciel’s blood issue (aka infusing “life” permanently?) honestly i don’t have a definitive guess either lmao
@@ToscaTee omg I never thought about that, uniting them would be absolutely atrocious I hope Sebastian eats oCiel's soul before that can happen, that would be a true villain move from undertaker
I have heard theories that the undertaker was married to claudia and thus, the ciel's grandfather, which explains his obssesion with the phantomhive bloodline and why he carries claudia's hair in a locket.
ok I think I'm intrigued enough to maybe read the manga. I'm not a huge manga reader because I have low vision and those don't have a lot of contrast for me to tell what is going on. I'll fight my vision for that tho
It took me a long while after suffering through season 2 of Black Butler to even dare touch anything from the series. Even when I saw nothing but high praises about the manga, suffice to say the anime ruined the experience for me. But when I did get back into it during the pandemic after binging D.Grayman one too many times, I just fell in love again. It just had that flair and storytelling that I was craving and at the time when I was very much trapped in a bubble unable to see theoutside world, it was an escape.
Lets GOOO! So ready for us as a society to talk about Sigreid
She litereally invented mustand gas AND discovred blood types two of the most influential scientific discoveries in history, all before age 9? She dosent get enough respect cause like she has the most promising future. I kind of get the vibe that Queen Victoria wants to adopt her and pass on the throne to her. I think its unfortunate they havent done more with her character yet beyond like making a boring love triangle with her and lizzy. Because she hasnt been in any of the anime adaptations yet she just gets absolutely slept on like no one ever cosplays her when she should be a fan favouite character.
Sieglinde is her name. Not sigreid
I *hate* what they did to Elizabeth in the anime. She's just vapid and shallow. In the Manga she's just so much more interesting. She has actual depth and they show how much she actually cares about Ciel, but that she is also still just a child and prone to childish decisions. They did almost all the girls in BB so dirty.
Exactlyyyy, all the chapters which gave her a bit of spotlight were just skipped which were mostly those chapters between arcs
See, the funny thjng about Black Butler being shonen
Usually when a manga is part of a weird demographic, like how RWBY was designated as a seinen manga, or Cowboy Bebop being publisbed under a shojo magazine, there doesnt seem to be much question among native Japanese readers. But in the case of Black Butler, shonen readers in Japan very much did notice how out of place and this lead to numerous complaints.
watched this and the other video to go on a fun trip down memory lane, since i started reading kuroshitsuji almost 13 years ago, when I was 13 myself! I was far too young to be reading it (alas, those were rhe 2010s) which might have been why I dropped it a couple of times for very long stretch, the last time being halfway through the green witch arc. It's fun to see a work grow up with you and reread parts you didn't like as a kid only to find them your favourite!
Now I need to get caught up again. I guess I'm an unexpected demographic!
I stopped reading the manga around the same place you left this video lmaoo (I stopped just cause it was taking long to release) this made me want to resume it and see how the plot's been going
Please do, it's very interesting
Prepare tissues though
24:14 I will never get over black butler teasing insulin because she created the “sulin” that’s just crazy to pull out of nowhere 😂
I've been reading the manga, and the twin part was so satisfying. Due to a whole decade of theories supporting this. All I am waiting for now is to know our Ciel's real name. Like... What is his real name? But we are following Finny right now, so yeah
School arc just reminded me of the phone game Twisted Wonderland which the mangaka helped design the characters for.
Heheh here at the start, I'm excited to hear your thoughts 🤣🤣
This manga is amazing. Also I recommend Twisted Wonderland. It's also created by Yana Toboso and it's basically about traumatized teens looking up to Disney Villans. It's amazing and there's a really good story with lots of foreshadowing
i have 5 manga’s to recommend which might interest anyone who enjoys black butler, only 2 has a decent anime though. first two are by the same mangaka (jun mochizuki) the manga’s are pandora hearts and the case study of vanitas (anime is decent), d. grayman (more shounen and has an alright original anime), 07-ghost and devil x realist both are for anyone who loves some queerbating make relationships. i think all these have a simular vibe of black butler but they are amazing in their own right. i own all of jun mochizuki’s manga so i might be slightly biased but god i adore the artstyle. if anyone tries any of these then enjoy ! ❤
It's wild how a plot twist that could have come across as so cliche (he had a twin the whole time) instead felt mind-blowing due to the execution. The fact that Yana Toboso had the patience to sprinkle in hints over the course of nearly a decade still boggles my mind. I remember discovering the twin theory and looking at all the evidence so far, and even when I was convinced that it was true it still kinda felt like a tin foil hat theory, haha. When the reveal finally happened, it was amazing. Definitely one of the most memorable plot twists I've ever experienced.
I haven't read the manga in a few years, but I should pick it up again. Thanks for the great video! :)
I thought Black butler was just some shotacon BL manga so I never bother looking into this series since I prefer yuri a lot more but holy you talking about the plots in this manga and the things that happens in it really made me want to read it now, lol. And while I still watch anime, Im in the same boat as you. I 100% prefer to read the manga than watch the anime of shows just because studios have a habit so changing things that makes no sense and it gets annoying but sadly anime only fans just eat it up. (im looking at you School-Live!)
I've loved black Butler for so long but because of the way the anime makes it look (like a weird shota bl) people refuse to give it a shot 😞 I hope you enjoy reading the manga lol
@@Kekekekenn i was one of those people before, it didn't help that i first heard of black butler from a friend who was a fujoshi at the time
nothing wrong with bl but the blatant fetishization of gay relationship wasn't very appealing
(also im not sure if this was a thing in english but in spanish a lot of fujoshi groups had adopted r*pe as slang for sex and that gave me the ick)
@@Xxth3_murder5cenexX I don't think that's a thing in English but damn that would definitely not make me want to read something 😭
A friend of mine loves religious horror/dark fantasy and this manga is her favorite. So while I trust her, did some other fans creep me out, which she said was understandable. But now I may give it a try..!
Fanservice does happen in the manga, it’s mostly for comedy and is never taken to the extreme. It’s both sad & funny to me how tainted black butler’s image was because of the (very) vocal fujo/shipper fans, (from the false “black butler was originally intended to be yaoi” rumor and rampant sebaciel fanart) it really sucks seeing it ridiculed when it’s a genuinely good story & very fun reading experience. I’m glad you’re open to trying the manga out. I can’t say whether it’s up to your taste or not i just wanna say it’s totally different and so much more than your initial impression.
Everything yana taboso touches just drips in Victorian gothic high fashion. Honestly the reason I’m so invested in twisted wonderland
thank you for these great videos! They make my day :)
I am so glad I stumbled across this and the previous videos as they served as a great reminder of all that took place. There are some events that have happened so long ago that I forgot about them. It is a shame you did not go into detail about the current arc, as it is extremely good and we are exploring the servants in depth.
I wouldn't call it the safest since it has a lot of really dark themes such as sui****, sa, gore and other stuff but I definitely agree on the interesting part. It just gets really good and even though it's quite slow and takes its time like you mentioned in the other video, it fortunately stays in quality
A lot of people hate the recent twist but I personally find it very good and necessary for a specific character (I'm not talking about the twin thing here btw)
I'm late to be replying but I remember that one post in Tumblr pointing out clues on Ciel having a twin. Almost 10 years ago! I was completely dumbfounded after that theory came true, really incredible. I love this fandom so much.
There’s a manga scene way back at the beginning in a billiard room, and everyone in this background scene is an important character. In fact, the Italian mafia guy from that arc is the least important person there. A decent test of a manga fan is if you can identify everyone.
I've left very long comments in community posts ajd other videos on this so I wont write it all out again but I greatly appreciate this glowing review :DDDDD
Ive been reading the manga for sooooooo long I cannot remember where it was when I started.
I had to watch this twice (once for learning more about Black Butler since I only ever watched the anime and couldn't afford to get the manga at the time I've watched it. And twice for comparisons) so i could see how Yana illustrates the world of Twisted Wonderland. The public school arc has the most similarities between Black Butler and Twisted Wonderland. And, of ciurse, i have to mention so many of the characters in Black Butler are obvious inspirations to the characters pf Twisted Wonderland. For example, Riddle's inspired by Ciel and Jade's inspired by Sebastian (that part's obvious). I had to whip out my Twisted Wonderland mangas to confirm my observation. There's still some similarities to point out between the two but it'll only turn into a rant😅
I think the most obvious are idia and gregory violet though (one of the prefects)
So much of this video has simply been me sitting here like "yea that was also explained in the anime"
Like I hated the last video deeply because so much of the point was missed, only for the EXACT SAME SCENES to be given much more grace this time? Has been insane to see.
Absolutely favorite was talking about Ciel's revenge and using the exact same phrasing the anime used previously.