This is going to be a long review. Let's get to it.
Story
The story follows our protagonist, Ciel Phantomhive, a 13-year old egotistical and business-savvy boy, who is at the head of the Phantomhive family and the Funtom company - a manufacturer of toys and goods - after the death of both his parents. He lives in a large mansion together with his 5 servants, in the Victorian-era Europe (when Queen Victoria was the queen of England). The Phantomhive family is a secret executive agency, controlled directly by Queen Victoria herself and has a lot of influence, as it has served as the Queen's Watchdog for generations; their task is to eliminate criminals, solve cases and hide many dark secrets of the country and the royal family, while remaining in the underworld. By itself, this is pretty interesting and promising. I mean, something like that must have happened in real life, too. The whole environment and atmosphere of the show fits perfectly with that time; and to choose Victorian England was, I think a very good decision; especially since I find this era very interesting and mysterious.
Back to the plot, Ciel has a lot of power thanks to his rank. However, he is not just any 13-year old boy. Aside from his rank, he has something that certainly not many people have: a demon. Yep, a demon. One of his servants is Sebastian Michaelis, a demon disguised as a butler. With the death of his parents and due to some more unfortunate circumstances, Ciel made a contract with Sebastian Michaelis, which consists of the demon to help him take revenge on the people who harmed him and his parents. As a result, Sebastian disguised himself as a butler, and serves Ciel; on a masterwork level. However, the contract has something in return: in exchange for Sebastian's help, after the revenge has ended, Sebastian will eat Ciel's soul, killing him in the process. This, by itself, is very interesting. Ciel's right eye is covered by a black eyepatch. On that same eye, is the seal that proves the contract between Ciel and Sebastian. When Ciel is in trouble, he activates the seal and Sebastian will quickly come to the rescue.
For about the first half of the show, the story resolves around the different important characters, and Ciel accomplishing missions and solving a few mysteries. It also has a lot of comedy, some of which some people will not enjoy, though. Most of it resolves around the goofy failures of three of the servants, the very common food-shots and another character named Lao; out of which the most annoying for most people, is the food part. For quite a while, when the characters are talking, at a moment or another, they will focus on the food and the drinks, describing what each of them is. I personally didn't mind it, even if it was becoming a little boring after 4-5 times. The other comedy relief however, is good.
As the story goes on, it slowly becomes darker and darker as more secrets are revealed, both on Ciel's past and royalty affairs. The characters have to face off these revelations and it's not always easy; and it doesn't always end well. I won't say more, otherwise it would be major spoilers, but I can't ignore that it becomes even better than it was in the beginning, especially with the atmosphere that follows the darkness of the story.
Finally, there are a few filler episodes in the first half. They weren't great, but were still enjoyable. I do have one problem, though: the random changing serious-comedy. They were some moments when it was all-around serious, and then suddenly, they added a comical situation, coming out of nowhere. It annoyed very quickly. Stick with seriousness or comedy, but don't switch between them constantly, damn it!
Overall, it is very good and has enough unique and interesting traits to make it worth watching.
Characters
The characters of Black Butler are, in my opinion, another strong point of this anime, even if there are some problems, that I will mention later.
First, we have the protagonist, Ciel Phantomhive, this serious, egotistical and proud 13-year old boy, who is at the head of the Funtom Company. He already acts like a businessman and is merciless when dealing with enemies and competitors. He is mischievous, clever and competitive, doing whatever it takes to win a match. His harsh personality is due to his past misfortunes, but he will sometimes still display the side of a child, as he is fond of games and sweets, and gets annoyed when treated like a kid, while he thinks he is on the same rank as adults. While he got a bit on my nerves at first, I steadily liked him more, as we learned more about his past and everything he had to go through. He is also a character who views everything very realistically, even to a point of pessimism, which however is not totally wrong considering all the existing dark sides of the world.
Then we have Sebastian Michaelis.
<Wave of fangirls screaming>
So Sebast...
<2nd wave of fangirls screaming>
SHUT UP!
Sebastian Michaelis is the demon with whom Ciel made a contract with in order to fullfil his revenge upon the ones that harmed him and his parents. Now, I have to admit: Sebastian is really a very cool and handsome character. Everything he does reaches a level of perfection, from housework to taking care of thieves and murderers. He is bound to Ciel via that contract and he will obey to every single order of his, his primary mission being to keep his master alive. To put it simply, if Ciel and Sebastian are in the same room, there is absolutely no way Ciel will die. [...] While having this handsomeness, he also gets some comical moments, but most notably, he emanates a dark presence (pretty normal for a demon) and can sometimes be a bit creepy. If you are against him and he's smiling, then you are fucked.
Another important character that has to be mentionned is Grell Suttclith, a red-haired Grim Reaper. Here come the problems I mentionned earlier: in the form of Grell. This hot-chick looking dude is very annoying. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed him. His personality though is both to be enjoyed and to get annoyed. He is ruthless, crazy, bloodthirsty, cunning and sometimes sadistic, and he is also a very good fighter, being able to hold on his own against Sebastian. The problem is not there; actually, these are pretty great, but... the problem is his role and appearances in the story. The producers were constantly switching his role between a creepy, crazy and strong Grim Reaper, and an overly stupid comical relief. This switching is 5 times more annoying than the food!!! They completely wasted the potential of this character! Making him have a gay crush on Sebastian and transforming him into a potential yaoi material in the most annoying way imaginable, is definitely wasted potential, when he could have been more serious and creepy, adding more dark elements to the story.
Rest of the cast include: the 4 other servants of Ciel (mostly used for comical relief); Elizabeth Midford, the cousin and fiancee of Ciel (she is kinda annoying, but I didn't dislike her); Madam Red, the aunt of Ciel; Soma and Agni, an Idian prince and his very powerful and skillful servant (equal to Sebastian); Angela Blanc and Ash Landers, who are...quite something; and my two favourite characters of Black Butler: the Undertaker (6th favourite male character) and Lau.
The Undertaker, whose real name is not revealed in the anime, is a former Grim Reaper, who is now a funeral director who is a little bit too obsessed with his job. Whenever I saw him, I never really knew whether I should be laughing or scared. He has a very strange personality, making him very mysterious and unpredictable, ans also funny and creepy at the same time; and THIS is a good example of taking advantage of a character. The producers used his crazy nature to slowly introduce new dark matters to the story; he was almost a sign of misfortune everytime he appeared and I loved that.
Lau is a Chinese nobleman and a friend of the Phantomhive family, who, behind his title of president of some Chinese trading company, is the head of the Shanghai Mafia and runs a large opium den. He serves as a big comical relief, with his carefree and easy-going acting, and as he agrees to do things even before he knows what is happening, later stating he has no idea what is going on. However, there are a few times, where he is seen to be coldblooded and uncaring. He is always with his personal doll-like girl assassin, Ran-Mao, who I like simply because she is a beautiful, cute and silent character.
Overall very good characters, who are very balanced (except Grell).
Sound
The sound in Black Butler has many dark soundtracks of different sorts, that add to the already dark atmosphere of the show. It also has a few easy-going soundtracks for the comical moments, but the best part is definitely the dark ones. "The Dark Crow Smiles" is right now my 10th favourite anime soundtrack. Aside from the very dark tone of it, a big reason I like it, is the same as in "Sis Puella Magica": it has latin in it... more epic! The opening theme, "Momochrone no Kiss" by Sid, is simply amazing! It is one of my favourite openings; every single moment of the opening matches the series. Something interesting is that, in fact there are 2 openings, but for both they use the same song. The 1st opening uses the first half of the song, while the 2nd opening uses the second half of the song. I personally prefer the 2nd one, both in song and video. It fits very well for an action anime, while having a certain dark tone to it. The first ending theme, "I'm alive", by the american Rebecca Hollcraft, is quite energetic and catchy and the video shows the daily activities in the Phantomhive household, where the characters are chibi-ed. The second ending theme is "Lacrimosa" by Kalafina. I really like her songs, and this one is no exeption. It has an dark and somewhat... hmmm, let's say "ecclesiastic" and ancient tone... Anyways, it matches perfectly with the atmosphere of Black Bulter.
Animation
The ones in charge of Black Butler were A-1 Pictures studio. Black Butler was their first big production... and they handled it perfectly! The environment is very realistic and I felt fused with the Victorian-era. I give them a lot of credit, as it wasn't a very easy task to make 19th century England look so nice and realistic. Most of the animation is quite dark, but there are also some other lighter styles of animation used, which added diversity and richness, mostly used for the comedy parts. There also put a lot of effort into the details and items around the places, and the characters as well, both in action and their expressions.
Final Verdict
Story: 9.3
Characters: 8.7
Sound: 8.9
Animation: 8.7
Enjoyment: 9.3
Total: 8.98
Despite its name "Kuroshitsuji", it's far from being shit. It is an extremely good anime, with a great story with many dark elements, amazing characters, beautifully dark animation and has some very good soundtracks. Some may not appreciate the fillers and sometimes random comedy - either by the food or Grell - but you most probably enjoy in one way or another. Its unique setting and the era in which the story takes place, adds to its greatness.
Remind that this was a review of the 1st season ONLY.
This ends my 9th anime review. I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to comment in the comment section below, if you want to express your opinions on this anime. Thank you for reading.
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