Kuroshitsuji-Black Butler

Set in Britain, it has an overall dark and gloomy setting, different from other manga and anime. The show is revolved around a boy who made a contract with a devil. His goal is to find the people who humiliated him and make them suffer. The episodes are majorly about Ciel solving cases for the queen.

Ciel Phantomhive
He is the young Lord of the house who has been through some traumatizing event. As a result, he has turn more cold and cunning. He is really one who is useless with only using his brain. But will do anything to accomplish his task. He is vicious despite his size and cute appearance.

Sebastian Michaelis
The perfect butler, that is capable of the impossible: making the best sweets and tea, doing everything in the household, etc. With no flaw, it would probably be the fact that he is obsessed with cats. Always faithful to Ciel, but his main goal is something more sinister.

These two are seen in all the episodes, but Ciel has other pawns at his dispense. But his pawns are all interesting characters that provide some comic relief throughout the show. But beware, the anime does introduce characters that are not mention in the manga, same with the manga. Also this show does not have a whole lot of character development, its more about revealing who they are.

The story for the show was decent in the beginning but the later is...not that great. Lots of twist and turns but not something I want to watch multiple times. However, there are some surprisingly funny moments that made the show more enjoyable. Especially with his pawns, even Sebastian is humorous. However, the show is meant for a more mature audience, showing some violence and gore.

The character design in more vivid in the eyes, specially Ciel with his blue eye?s. However, Ciel is overly feminine looking for a male boy. The clothes are also well done, fitting in the time period, 18th century frills and puffy dress. Don't expect any provocativeness from the females, really there are no boobs or "bubbies" line and sculptured abs.

The songs are well done, from the opening and ending. It really does fit with the dark theme of the story, from rock to a lullaby sort of genre. I love how there is an all English ending song, not a Japanese group singing just English but a true English singer. RARE. Also the music played throughout the show is decent. Playing dark to playful, to even Indian music. However, some of the music can be a bit random or not fit the story that well, like a random trumpet music.

Again, the voice actors are great. The voices overall match the tone and vibe of the characters. Even the English dub is ok, not found with some of their voice dub. But what makes the dub decent is they are speaking in accents. RARE. However, there is scene where the mouth and sound don't match. This can be seen also in the Japanese dub, where they are singing to the queen. First for a Japanese dub of this caliber.

Manga difference are too numerous to count. A little in the beginning, a few in the middle, and a whole lot in the end. I prefer the manga, since the manga has new plots which are so amazing and interesting. The manga has an arc about Titanic, Sherlock Holmes, and Harry Potterish. All amazing and just awesome. Only downfall is that the manga seems to come out once a month than weekly.

However, the overall message of the show is revenge. You can trust no one, everyone is a pawn. Even though Ciel says that it is not grand as revenge, but its still revenge. I see this attracting more female audience due to Sebastian, but guys can enjoy this show as well. There is also a Black Butler season 2, but that is whole different story on its own.

But one needs to remember that revenge does not lead us to relief but into destruction, Just like how Ciel is driven to his death or demise in the end. Instead of moving on we are in a stagnate place with ourselves.

SO end critique of this show: has some history components mix with fantasy and occult. However, a good anime to watch if into a cute boy, devilishly handsome butler, and Gothic theme.
People who should avoid this show is probably overly religious people and people that don't want to watch anything depressing.