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REVIEW: Black Butler Season 2 Blu-Ray + DVD


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crosswithyou



Joined: 15 Dec 2007
Posts: 2892
Location: California
PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 11:04 pm Reply with quote
How does the BD video quality compare to the DVDs'?

I purchased this set but won't be able to bring it back with me til I visit home next month and am curious.
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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 11:24 pm Reply with quote
Personally, I liked the first season of Black Butler compared to the second season as season 2 had fewer opportunities for plot holes, and the frequency ratio of random twists had dropped down.

Still, this season did have its own nature imo and thought was put in. Like Carl mentioned though, there's not much enthusiasm. That and the fact that it strayed off from the manga doesn't help much there either when I watched it. Oh, I did enjoy the great art and music but my overall enjoyment of the 2nd season just didn't seem to click as much as I did for season 1.
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walw6pK4Alo



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 9322
PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 11:36 pm Reply with quote
The delicious dark-skinned demon maid was underutilized in favor of ugly shotas. That's a massive crime, Hannah had a ton to offer the series but nothing ever occurred.
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JacobC
ANN Contributor


Joined: 15 Jan 2008
Posts: 3728
Location: SoCal
PostPosted: Tue May 01, 2012 1:20 am Reply with quote
Second season? What? There was no second season...

Yeah, I distinctly remember season 1 ending with spoiler[Ciel's soul being slowly and painfully consumed by Sebastian to fulfill their contract, the servants' fates left up in the air, and Ciel's thirst for revenge gone tragically unsated, but hey, he saved all of England and Sebastian got his meal, so it was a nice and fulfilling take on the whole Faustian thing. You know. THAT ending.]

Because when I was watching all of that, I do NOT remember seeing a spoiler[spider...NAMED Faustus, because subtlety is for losers...hiding BEHIND Ciel who swoops in, steals him away and engages in 7 or more episodes of BS and fanwankery to give the show an ending the fujoshi wanted even if it makes absolutely NO sense thematically.] That didn't happen. What are you talking about? Second season. Black Butler was clearly meant to end in 26 episodes.

. . .

Some people just gotta go and ruin a good thing, grumble grumble. =W=;
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Dagon123



Joined: 01 Jul 2010
Posts: 194
PostPosted: Tue May 01, 2012 3:19 am Reply with quote
walw6pK4Alo wrote:
The delicious dark-skinned demon maid was underutilized in favor of ugly shotas. That's a massive crime, Hannah had a ton to offer the series but nothing ever occurred.


This^^^

Now I know who the main demographic who watches this is, I'd be stupid to think otherwise. But Season 1 did a fantastic job of keeping the plot upfront, throwing the foodies a bone, but not having it as overbearing as say Queens Blade is to Otaku, and that very much impressed me, as a result, I loved it. The ending was perfect, literally, the show really should have ended on one season, but that' a no brainer right?

and then season 2 which makes me use words I'd rather not, on character archtypes I was hoping I'd never see, in a plot that already broke itself right out of the gate.

So yea, mid C range is about the best I'd give Season 2 on a good day, lol
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st_owly



Joined: 20 May 2008
Posts: 5234
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
PostPosted: Tue May 01, 2012 3:28 am Reply with quote
I just read the manga and pretend season 2 never existed.
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rizuchan
Collector Extraordinaire



Joined: 11 Mar 2007
Posts: 974
Location: Kansas
PostPosted: Tue May 01, 2012 6:25 am Reply with quote
Dagon123 wrote:
walw6pK4Alo wrote:
The delicious dark-skinned demon maid was underutilized in favor of ugly shotas. That's a massive crime, Hannah had a ton to offer the series but nothing ever occurred.


This^^^

Ugh, not this!

Haha, I actually thought Hannah was overused. She showed up to fight most of Claude's battles, seemed to be. But maybe it's just demographics speaking here... I'm a girl that wants to see cute shota boys and hot (male) demon butlers so random GIANT BOOBIES and hands down a chick's throat are a bit off-putting to me. I felt the same way about the later part of the first season.

I have a complaint about the Blu-rays themselves, though. When I watch dubbed series I prefer to keep the subtitles on as well. For whatever reason, you can't do this on the the blu-rays, so you also can't change audio/subtitle options during the show. You have to go through the menu. It was annoying enough I preferred watching the DVD versions, which don't have this problem. It just seems weird because I have lots of blu-rays, even from Funimation, and none of them have the same issue.
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publicenemy333



Joined: 21 Feb 2011
Posts: 563
Location: Los Angeles, CA
PostPosted: Tue May 01, 2012 11:22 am Reply with quote
I kinda bought this on a whim after watching the first season on Netflix. And yeah, I kinda regret it.

I think it coulda worked if Ciel was not in it, or if it wasnt a sequel. Maybe it could take place during or before the first season, but not AFTER just so we could have a forced sequel. Ciel shouldnt have been the main character, it should have been the blonde kid and Faustus, they actually had an interesting relationship that contrasted with Ciel in Sebastion.

All in all, Im pretty disappointed I decided to by this. I'll probably sell it on ebay later
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Angel M Cazares



Joined: 23 Sep 2010
Posts: 5406
Location: Iscandar
PostPosted: Tue May 01, 2012 11:39 am Reply with quote
I agree with most of the review, and I am glad to finally read a review that points out that the second season of Black Butler is missing some of the best elements from season one. I like faithful manga adaptation, but I don't have a problem with season one of Black Butler because they creators did a good job combing original source material and their own story line.

But season two: WTF spoiler[ who's idea was to turn Ciel into a demon? Wasn't the fact that Sebastian was a demon potentially preying on the frail Ciel the great dark undertone of season one?] I am okay with the silliness in season two of Black Butler, but the ending killed the anime franchise for me.
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opn



Joined: 23 Dec 2010
Posts: 904
PostPosted: Tue May 01, 2012 2:07 pm Reply with quote
honestly i liked S1 of black butler...but season 2 was just yaoi fodder for the fan girls spoiler[dont get me started on that ending Rolling Eyes] i have been meaning to start the manga for awhile now but i haven't gotten around to it yet maybe after i catch up on zetman. Razz
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neocloud9



Joined: 06 Oct 2008
Posts: 1178
Location: Atlanta, GA
PostPosted: Tue May 01, 2012 2:20 pm Reply with quote
Pretty spot-on review as far as matching my own general reaction. It drove me crazy how long they took to explain what was going on with Ciel and his soul... And I really wish they would have explained why spoiler[Claude had convinced Alois that Sebastian was Luka's contractor/murderer when he (Claude) should have already known that it was Hannah. Did he have some kind of grudge against Sebastian or something? They never tell us! Claude and Sebastian hadn't yet decided to make Alois the scapegoat for Ciel's revenge yet, so there really doesn't seem to be any clear motivation for this deception...] But I did wind up finding Alois to be genuinely pitiable once his backstory was revealed. And I'll admit to loving the "twist" ending.

All that said, I still really enjoyed the dub/accents in this season, so that and the reaper OVA made this set well worth my purchase. I'd love to see a spinoff series focused entirely on the reapers, to be honest...
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machetecat



Joined: 06 Jan 2010
Posts: 396
PostPosted: Tue May 01, 2012 3:57 pm Reply with quote
I had mixed feelings about season 2, but overall I wound up adoring it just for that ending, because damn if that wasn't the BEST way to give everyone their comeuppance.

That being said... I was highly disappointed by the limited edition of season 2. As someone who bought the limited edition of season 1, the fact that season 2's collector's set leaves a giant gaping hole so people will buy/re-buy the bluray version of season 1 to fill the hole just really irks me. Even if I would have kept the filler insert, it still leaves the box prone to injury if something kinda heavy is placed on the box or someone trips on the box or whatever. As a result, I have to wait for the regular edition, which also makes me upset as I love the return of the chipboard boxes.

Darker than Black 2 also had that problem for me, but it was more understandable as the original season 1 was one of the last series to be released in singles, so I expect more people have the box sets. To do this with season 2 of Black Butler, though, makes NO SENSE. They might as well have released the blu-ray version of season 1 in that chip box, and left season 2 without a collector's edition if they thought people would want to go that route.
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neocloud9



Joined: 06 Oct 2008
Posts: 1178
Location: Atlanta, GA
PostPosted: Tue May 01, 2012 5:23 pm Reply with quote
machetecat wrote:
As someone who bought the limited edition of season 1, the fact that season 2's collector's set leaves a giant gaping hole so people will buy/re-buy the bluray version of season 1 to fill the hole just really irks me.


Ah, I was wondering when you'd chime in with that. Hear, hear!

...Though I totally re-bought the season one blu-ray just to fill that empty bit of the box like the corporate tool I am. But hey, now I've got two fancy chipboard boxes on my shelf! This happens to be one of my favorite shows, though. I probably wouldn't do that for too many other things, so I hope they don't make a habit of this. You should be rewarding the fans who buy the limited editions, not punishing them.
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machetecat



Joined: 06 Jan 2010
Posts: 396
PostPosted: Tue May 01, 2012 5:32 pm Reply with quote
neocloud9 wrote:


Ah, I was wondering when you'd chime in with that. Hear, hear!

...Though I totally re-bought the season one blu-ray just to fill that empty bit of the box like the corporate tool I am. But hey, now I've got two fancy chipboard boxes on my shelf! This happens to be one of my favorite shows, though. I probably wouldn't do that for too many other things, so I hope they don't make a habit of this. You should be rewarding the fans who buy the limited editions, not punishing them.


Saw the article this morning, but I couldn't put my 2 cents in until after work. XD

As someone who fully intends to buy Oreimo again once the regular edition comes out, I can totally relate to the corporate tool. XD Unfortunately I didn't love Black Butler as much as I love Oriemo, so at the moment I'm just sitting around waiting for the Limited editions to sell out so I can buy the regular box set of Season 2.
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SereneChaos



Joined: 14 Oct 2011
Posts: 384
Location: Middle of Nowhere, USA
PostPosted: Tue May 01, 2012 6:42 pm Reply with quote
I completely agree with this review. I really liked season 1, but 2 was just a let down. The only things I really liked from season 2 was the music and the idea behind the ending. I liked the idea, but not how they executed it.
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