Black Butler Season 2—Anime Review

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly?

Black Butler Season 2 Review | Pinnedupink.com

Black Butler is one of the most beloved—classic anime franchises loved by a ton of anime fans inside Japan and worldwide. But that is not to say that the franchise has no flaws. There are many fallacies and mistakes in Black Butler, and here it would not be wrong to say that a considerable portion of those blunders come from Black Butler Season 2.

Black Butler Season 1 was a treat for anime fans all around the globe, as it not only delivered a satisfying ending but also gave the anime community one of the best, well-thought-out Victorian-style anime with all the mysteries and supernatural that comes with that type of setting.

Black Butler Season 1 tied almost all the loose ends that the story had in its 24 episodes and conclusively gave the anime fans a well-rounded anime.

But, from Black Butler Season 1, you can easily conclude that there were no plans to make a sequel for Black Butler as it ended with a conclusion, even though it was a bit ambiguous. However, the anime was exceptionally well received, and fans clamored for more. So, it was finally decided that the franchise would continue for a second season.

And that is dangerous, especially when they concluded the story in Season 1, albeit in a messy manner. But A-1 Pictures did not let that faze them, and they just decided to introduce new characters; another young Earl, a Demon Butler, and for the spice, some more demons.

The Trancy Household, just like the Phantomhive Household, takes direct orders from the Queen to do all the messy work that cannot be fulfilled through legal channels. The 14-year-old Alois Trancy, his butler Faustus Claude, the Maid Hannah, and triplet demon Servants make up the Noble House.

Already, the Trancy Household looks like a parody of the Phantomhive household, and of course, here, for some reason, the young Trancy Earl and his Butler have a bone to pick with Ciel and Sebastian.

Ciel Survived?

Yes, Ciel survived season 1, despite the ending concluding that Sebastian had consumed his young master's soul. In Back Butler Season 2, it was revealed that just when Sebastian was about to consume Ciel, Claude steals away Ciel's Soul and starts the long-trodden conflict with Sebastian over the soul of Ciel Phantomhive.

And this is where the problem starts. While the Black Butler Season 1 did diverge from the manga halfway through the anime, it was still manageable and kept up with the mystery that fans had expected from Black Butler.

Black Butler Season 2 Review | Pinnedupink.com

But, in Season 2, everything was so open that you would wonder why anyone else didn’t accidentally stumble across demons and just how everyday citizens did not know of the demons plaguing their society for centuries, for that matter.

And to add, according to the Black Butler Season 2's world setting, anyone with enough hatred has a chance to call upon a demon. And this is just the start of the hollow premise.

Where it Falls Apart:

In Season 1, anything and everything that Ciel did had a cover-up, and Sebastian would even take extra precautions to make sure that nobody could ever uncover his true identity.

That was just thrown out by a long shot in Black Butler Season 2, and to add salt to the wound, Black Butler Season 2 was not subtle about its mysteries.

In the prequel, for the most part, Sebastian's life in the Demon realm was a mystery. He would drop subtle hints here and there, but he never gave out anything too conclusive about himself, and that was the same for Ciel, and almost all the other characters had somewhat mysterious pasts.

In Season 2, all the mysteries and subtleties were nonexistent, and everything was clear cut and put on out there for the viewers. But A-1 pictures tried to maintain a sense of mystery, but that led to a lot of confusion for the fans and made Black Butler Season 2 mediocre with excellent animation and soundtracks.

It felt like the anime was following someone else's story, where Ciel and Sebastian were side characters, and the only they were included was to draw out the viewers.

And in the end, it was also revealed that the only reason Ciel's soul was stolen was that Sebastian was falsely accused of destroying Alois's village, and the real culprit behind the massacre was the maid, Hannah. Claude had no interest in Alois and was using his contract with the young Trancy Earl to get his hands on Ciel's soul and consume it when it was ready.

And Sebastian also wanted to consume Ciel's soul because of his contract, alluding to a more so fan-made story rather than a well-thought-out premise with a proper deep setting.

All and all, black Butler Season 2 got rid of all the depth that made Black Butler enticing to many anime fans and gave away the main feature that made it famous. It even went as far as to reveal the demon world and what it means to be a demon on a very shallow premise.

This is a shame, considering how good the animation was for Season 2. But however harmful it may be, this was not the worst way to continue the story. Still, it can be argued that they should have just continued with adapting the original manga.

Where season 1 diverged after episode 15, The second season could have gone back to the source material like the Book of Circus, Book of Murder, and the book of Atlantic. A better choice than disappointing fans with a fan-made superficial story/ Season Two made the Black Butler Franchise turn for the worse and follow a messy, confusing conclusion.