Black Butler (Season 2 + extras)

Genre: Drama/Action/BlackButler
Age Appropriate: Older Teens
Emotional Response: really? and LOL
Notable Features: Victorian England, butlers, reapers, demons
Language: English
Length: 1 season, 12 episodes; extra episodes
Overall Recommendation: Pretty Good

"You surprised me." - Ciel

Black Butler's second season follows a strange turn of events. Alois and Claude are the new lord/demon duo of the story. Alois is a strange, twisted young man who made a contract with Claude and it includes kidnapping Ciel Phantomhive and causing Sebastian excruciating pain. Shockingly, the original pair return to the story with a few extra twists and turns. Apparently, Sebastian has lost Ciel's soul due to a mishap and now must find a way to retrieve it. Ciel returns without his memory intact, due to his lost soul, and finds himself in a twisted battle with Alois, whose jealousy over the demons' desire for Ciel know no bounds. There are duels between the butlers, and the masters, over misunderstandings and deceit between everyone that end in a very interesting manner. As the season is much shorter, and preceded by enough back story, there isn't much to add to the synopsis.

There were a few extras available to me for the series. In the first series, there was an extra that was commentary-style, starring the three servants. There is a filler episode which included the cast doing a play for children. After the second season, there were new extras which included a version of Alice in Wonderland, but with Ciel as Alice.

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The second season doesn't much do the first justice, but that is the way of most sequels. I actually found moments where I wished that they had originally ended it with the first, but I did enjoy the extra time with Sebastian quite a bit. I have no love for either Claude or Alois, and also wanted to punch either of them in the face on multiple occasions. An additional twist in the emotional feel was my complete sympathy for Sebastian. In the first season, I felt more connection to Ciel, but Sebastian really dominated the second for me. It had nothing to do with my love for him in general, but more about how he got screwed.

The extras were definitely worth a look. For the first season, there were more of a diversion after a few intense episodes. They certainly weren't necessary to the story, but why not? After the second season, I really enjoyed the adaptation of Alice in Wonderland with Ciel as Alice. After the second season, which really was quite good, the Alice episodes tickled me enough to forget any real complaints I might have had about the continuation of the series. On the hilarious side of things, there is nothing better than watching the ever popular Black Butler running around as the White Rabbit. Don't miss it. Still, there is no better extra then The Making of Black Butler 2. Seriously. Druitt is such a drama queen.

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Sadly, we must move on: Gravitation