Is Black Butler worth a firsttime watch today? Probably Not Unless Disclaimer where one is due: This is review is much more subjective than it is objective. My approach to recommendations is based on personal experience and how much I enjoyed a work rather than a critical rating. This review is also less about analyzing specific qualities so much as outlining what to expect from Black Butler for the uninformed. Anyway... Overview: To me Black Butler will always be the epitome of a middleschool anime a show that is easily digestible enough for a younger audience while darker themes serve as a point of intrigue. The ideal time to watch Black Butler is as a young teenager with chipped black nails and a plastic choker. All that is to say that any presentday enjoyment of Black Butler has much to do with indulging nostalgia. I feel that the modern culture around anime has grown past this silly show as the anime community expects media that is not only entertaining but a genuinely good story besides. Black Butler is much more the former than the latter. This is not a show I would recommend to anyone looking for something substantially meaningful. If you start with high expectations you will be thoroughly disappointed. But I cant in good conscious fully disparage Black Butler without outlining why I will still find myself sneaking in rewatches like a midnight cookie. Problems: Black Butler is a ridiculous show and it knows it most of the time. I would call it campy if it did not in the same breath want me to take seriously some truly outrageous melodrama that resorts to child sexual abuse to shock the viewer. Oh yes that is indeed here though much more egregious in later seasons than the first. Black Butler has a habit of using shock value both in gore and abuse. This is not to say those things cant exist in shows and be portrayed well but Black Butler is not that show. Even if its handling wasnt so clumsy the abrupt tonal shifts of the casts looneytunes antics would give the watcher a whiplash like no other. Black Butler has no shortage of slapstick humor and the like on the other end of this shows spectrum. This is no problem on its own but as stated before can be a bizarre dissonance. One of Black Butlers most significant objective flaws is the Flanderization of its cast. Many side characters introduced with intrigue Grell being a prime example are later relegated to these onenote gags stuck on repeat any time they are on screen. It is not nearly entertaining enough to not get old and could potentially bastardize characters you might want to care about. If you think this would bother you Black Butler is not your show. The series also has an often...uncomfortable portrayal of adolescent boys with Ciel the shining star. We all know that anime has its problems with sexualizing very youthful characters. Black Butler teeters on the knifes edge of what could be seen as acceptable. This does not even have to do with Ciels penchant for gothiclolitalike fashion and crossdressing I couldnt care less instead the show lives on its boyslove baiting between Ciel and his veryadult demon butler. Prepare for plenty of scenes like Ciel Phantomhive in his barely buttlength nightshirt being tucked into bed or a gag where were shown a closeup on Ciel moaning Sebastians name only to pan out and see him struggling with a tight corset. I am far from a prude but I think its important that prospective viewers know about this aspect of Black Butler before they watch it. There is of course the part of Black Butlers audience that lives for this sort of thing but I would rather not think about them. If you think this would bother you Black Butler is not your show. Black Butler is also not a very narrativelycomplex series. I would best cast it as a hottopic victorianEngland soap opera given anime form. It is some of the hottest trash out there but you might enjoy this particular strain of garbage if its to your tastes. Youre not going to get anything beyond a demon butler and the boy of English nobility who bosses him around the cults they dissect and the different supernatural beings they face. No battle hype no breathtaking animation the quality is like downright cardboard sometimes. The premise is to be fair decently intriguing one about a child orphan forced to grow up too fast and a demon preying on that vulnerability by becoming a servant in exchange for consuming his soul after death. But if you want to see his concept at its full potential you will have to imagine it yourself. It often amounts to not much more than set dressing. Now For What Black Butler Does Right: If you are someone who enjoys watching something stupid and comfortable with this stupidity Black Butler might be for you. Its lowbrow anime edge at its finest but with a certain je ne sais quoi that sets it apart. Somehow its iconically eclectic cast baffling tonal whiplash peculiar alternate history and occasionally genius art direction have by working together endured to me what would otherwise be just a bad show. I cant help but feel affection any time I see Ciel or Grell out in the wilds of the internet or a fourteenyearold in a busted Sebastian cosplay at an anime con. Black Butlers charm is linked with nostalgia yes but that nostalgia would not exist in the first place if there wasnt a little something to earn it. Final Note: In my opinion the ideal watching experience would consist of nothing beyond the first season and if you truly want more perhaps the Book of Atlantic movie which gives a lot of love to the oftenneglected side characters such as the Shinigami and even beyond that is a lot of dumb fun for anyone who ever wanted to see what would happen if there were zombies on the Titanic. Yes the actual Titanic. What did I say about guilty pleasure? I absolutely mean it about not touching the later seasons though... I would mark those as the point where Black Butlers flaws far outweigh its charms. Thank you for reading This is my first review on this site and its a bit all over the place I know. All the same I hope it could be helpful.
55 /100
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