Black Butler: Complete 2nd Season (Limited Edition, Blu-ray/DVD Combo)

Black Butler: Complete 2nd Season (Limited Edition, Blu-ray/DVD Combo) Overview
When last we saw dear Sebastian, he was poised to feast on the ripened soul of his young master. Unfortunately for the debonair demon, there’s a new butler in town…
Enter Claude Faustus, a malevolent manservant uninspired by the drab flavor of his own contracted master, Alois Trancy. This pedestrian lad holds no allure for Claude, so the bespectacled butler sets his sights on a finer delicacy from the menu of the damned. None other than Ciel Phantomhive. And so begins a devilish dance of death starring crow and spider. The demonic duel rages beyond the limits of good taste, culminating in a debaucherous maze of madness pitting butler against butler. Sebastian and Claude: two ravenous rakehells filled with the power of darkness and locked in a macabre battle for the soiled soul of the young master they so long to savor/devour.
Black Butler: Complete 2nd Season (Limited Edition, Blu-ray/DVD Combo) Specifications
The sequel to the dark fantasy-adventure,
Black Butler II (2010) takes place 15 months after the conclusion of the first season. Ciel Phantomhive and his demon butler Sebastian are still bound by a contract that will eventually allow the servant to devour his young master's soul. Sebastian's position as Queen Victoria's "guard dog" fighting supernatural crime takes a backseat to a weird rivalry with Alois Trancy and his demon butler Claude. Ciel may be arrogant, imperious, and unlikable, but the viciously sadistic Alois makes him look downright endearing. The story is a hopeless tangle of plots and counterplots and counter-counterplots as Sebastian and Claude vie for Ciel's apparently highly desirable soul.
Black Butler II has a considerably darker tone than the original series: Ciel's slapstick staff disappears for several episodes and the viewer is treated to such dubious pleasures as Alois poking out a maid's eye because he disliked the way she looked at him. At times, the filmmakers seem less interested in the contest between Sebastian and Claude than in out-grossing
Elfen Lied and other gore fests. The American cast continues to offer ear-rasping attempts at English accents.
Black Butler II ends inconclusively to allow for possible future sequels. The tone of the OVAs shifts radically:
Welcome to the Phantomhives and
The Threads of the Spider's Story play like episodes of the series, with the jiggle scenes and homoerotic elements well to the fore. The animated making-of is a faux documentary with the characters appearing as actors playing themselves--and the filmmakers congratulating themselves on creating "a global phenomenon." The choppy, multipart
Ciel in Wonderland borrows elements from Lewis Carroll, which is a bit like the cast of a Peckinpah movie putting on an elementary school pageant. (Rated TV MA: profanity; nudity; violence; violence against women; child abuse; potentially offensive religious, ethnic, and sexual imagery; grotesque imagery; torture; alcohol, tobacco, and drug use)
--Charles Solomon (1. Clawed Butler, 2. Solo Butler, 3. Wench Butler, 4. Terrorist Butler, 5. Beacon Butler, 6. Bedewed Butler, 7. Deathly Butler, 8. Divulging Butler, 9. Hollow Butler, 10. Zero Butler, 11. Crossroads Butler, 12. Black Butler; OVAs: 1. Ciel in Wonderland, Part 1, 2. Welcome to the Phantomhives, 3. The Making of Black Butler II, 4. Ciel in Wonderland, Part 2, 5. The Threads of the Spider's Story, 6. The Story of Will the Reaper)
Post @ Jun 08, 2012 21:57:09