Black Butler: Well-done mystery/fantasy/comedy with historical frame

Written by Little_Wolf-18 on March 4, 2012 at 4:14 PM

First off, the whole series in better quality can be found under its Japanese title, "Kuroshitsuji" (http://anime-access.com/anime/K/Kuroshitsuji_%28TV%29).

Story: Mainly a mystery-fantasy with a historic frame, fast paced but easy to get into and easy to follow. Dark and rather serious background plot with some (more or less) unpredictable twists, some action and humour. The end, though predicted, is untypical and concludes the anime well without leaving plot holes.
Characters: Beautifully designed, both visually and psychologically. Perhaps a bit over-the-top but with many secrets, lies, and mysteries between them. Character dynamics and development are well done for a series of 24 episodes.
Dialogue: Flows excellently; dry humour, serious dialogue, and action are balanced well. The seiyuu are doing a great job on this anime, too.
Animation: Amazingly detailed, smooth, and quite realistic artwork. Do be warned, either the OP or ED song WILL get stuck in your ears.
Entertainment: Lots of comedy, some ROFL-worthy sarcasm, over-the-top characters that are just lovely. Some of the humour's rather dark though. Since it's not entirely twisted, I could deal with it easily, but you might want to consider that point.
Definitely a change of pace from the generic stuff overall. Perhaps geared towards the female audience, but Black Butler is a mystery/fantasy/comedy definitely worth the watch IMO.

(My complete review for this series can be found here: http://anime-access.com/anime/K/Kuroshitsuji_%28TV%29/reviews/id/18057#review, but I think I've made my point. ^^)