I love how people are joking that our!Ciel is The One Who Shall Not Be Named, when in reality
Claudia
is.
Because okay sure we know her name, unlike our!Ciel’s, but damn if we ever find out about anything else when it comes to her in the plot.
She’s looming behind the truth of a big part of the main plot, or at least that’s the impression Sensei is giving me (oh yeah I’ll bet you anything that she’s very significant), but no real mention yet about anything besides her name.
sensei when
our!Ciel we know everything about and we have followed but don’t know his name.
Claudia, we know her name but almost nothing else.
There are so many other characters that I want to know more about, like Francis, Undertaker, the Shinigami’s, Meyrin and Baldo. I want to know what makes them who they are!!!
Since Mey is Chinese, I’m guessing her arc will also be related to whatever Lau & Ran Mao’s arc we’ll be getting? Just guessing though.
As for the recurring Shinigamis, like Grell and the others, there is no guarantee but I’m guessing that when we learn about how the organization works exactly (and what’s up with those superiors), we might find out about some elements of their past.
Finally, for Frances, UT, Tanaka, Claudia and even Vincent I’m guessing this will be more or less addressed through the same discussions/answer moments and since this is main plot material, it can’t be helped that Sensei is taking her time.
I mean, we have Othello who made a comment that might be implying he met Claudia when she was a little girl 50 years ago + Othello knew UT as a Shinigami, so I think he’ll be doing the honors at some point during this arc, maybe giving Ciel a few answers, which will hopefully lead him to ask for more to anyone who might be aware of what UT did after his desertion.
These people, besides UT himself (in case he may not feel like talking, as we saw in ch141), are most likely Tanaka and Frances, that is at least what seems to be making the most sense (considering they also both knew Claudia) and anyway they are fishy too, at least as far as the current narrative goes.
=> Tanaka because he joined the Phantomhive family when Claudia was the Watchdog so he is bound to know quite a lot about her death and some circumstances behind Vincent’s death too…
So it’s not like Sensei can avoid to eventually answer all of this. TBH though, I just wish the pacing wasn’t so… slow.
I mean, I get building the plot and wanting to focus each volume around certain developments but :// well, this is killing me. 3 years on this arc and we still don’t know how the blood transfusions came to be, how real!Ciel is so perfectly undead and if UT is truly alone behind the sect. Amongst other things.
The hopes I have is that once we get past the chess game between the twins, we will find out about the Phantomhive family, Claudia and UT, but until we’re there, 20 pages/a month is haaaard because it’s making the wait so much longer.
I can’t blame Yana though: since Claudia was made to be so mysterious ever since volume 8, giving answers about her is very probably giving out big big hints towards the main plot and the target of Ciel’s revenge (to us and to Ciel himself), so she gotta build it up as much as she finds it necessary.
Back when I started drawing Kuroshitsuji, I couldn’t bring myself to like this shape of the maid hat, so I changed it to a headdress, but nowadays, I actually find [the actual Victorian maid hat] cute! Though, even though I checked the materials thoroughly, I still don’t understand how to wear it. –Toboso.
By the way, is there a “Butler’s Day”, too? –Toboso.
Yana’s notes: “If I had [started drawing Kuroshitsuji] now, maybe Sebastian would have looked like this.. or maybe not… yeah, probably not…”
Yana (tweet): It’s middle of the night, but I want to eat pancakes.
Grell: Sometimes I have a real craving for pancakes~ It’s woman’s nature, you know~ *burp* Ronald: Ehhh… I see… Text next to Ronald: As the “gourmet food navigator” in the collection divison, he was forced to take [Grell to a good pancake restaurant].
Yana (tweet): I tried to distract myself by making doodles, but my craving for pancakes just won’t calm down. Calm down, please. Yana (doodle): I want to eat pancakes.
Yana (tweet): My thoughts have jumped from “I want to eat pancakes” to “Waitresses in American diners look great”. Yana (doodle): I [really] want to eat pancakes…
Yana: I was working on a very detailed illustration, so I needed a break and let off steam [by making doodles]. I’ll go back to work now……. Pancakes… *sobs*…..
Bonus:
Yana’s editor K-san made this psa post to save poor Yana:
Editor K: If you know a good pancake restaurant that is open past 1 AM, please let us know~
Update:
2018/01/31
Yana (tweet): I’m groaning, still craving for pancakes.
Grey: Is my [pancake] ready yet~? Phipps: No. Yana: I want to eat pancakes.
2018/02/01
Yana (tweet):
*pancake emoji*
Snake: It’s delicious!! Emily: Don’t eat in a hurry. Yana: Tomorrow, I will definitely eat pancakes.
What I didn’t get about Black Butler fans and their relationship with some of the women like Meyrin/Lizzie is that they only liked them after they found out they were badass.
“Oh well I used to hate Lizzy, but now after the Campaigna arc she’s totally awesome!” “I hated Meyrin before I found out how badass she is!“
Really?
Now this may just me, but I always have a firm belief that a character is introduced for a reason. Of course the Phantomhive Servants had to be at the manor aside from their main job, because they were so horrible and they’d have been fired by now.
Meyrin seemed to have an enigma about her anyways, and it didn’t really surprise me when they revealed her to be ‘badass’. Which don’t get me wrong, she is-but that’s not all she is. Meyrin is super sweet and super loyal to her friends and her young master.
She tries her best to do what she needs to do, even though she messes up. She doesn’t let that deter her either, and it’s sort of sweet in a way because you know that the intention is all good.
Also a lot of the hate Lizzy gets to me seems so….misogynist. If I may be bold about it for a moment.
I said this on my Bard account [or maybe somewhere else, I think on my previous blog] but Elizabeth only reacts to Ciel in a bratty and horrible way in one chapter. Afterwards she was extremely regretful, and she’s always trying to do things to help Ciel.
She wants to protect Ciel, she wants to protect everything about him and that includes his dignity. She wanted to be able to let him protect her, but she wouldn’t allow him to get hurt if she could help it. Even if it meant shattering her ‘cute’ image that she had.
Lizzy is the most honest and sincere characters in Black Butler, and the amount of hate she gets stems that people think she gets in the way of their yaoi ships. [mainly sebastian/ciel, which I hate-but that’s another story]
She’s also a teenager, who gave up wearing a lot of the things girls her age to make herself seem childish so Ciel would be able to feel more adult. She sacrificed a lot for him, and god damn he doesn’t even deserve her. [oops]
Meyrin and Lizzy were great characters before they were found out to be badass.
Women don’t necessarily to be ‘badass’ and conform to your ideals for them to be good characters.
thank you.
Agreed. Kindness, sincerity, and unconditional love are just as impressive as physical strength.
“Women don’t necessarily need to be ‘badass’ and conform to your ideals for them to be good characters.”
Imma be a bit bold right now, but yes to this whole post because I’m tired of this nonsense:
If a character is too “girly” and not badass enough, they’re uninteresting.
And if a character who can fight and take care of herself ever since day one fights against one dude at some point in the series, then the whole “they’re abusive/problematic” speech will somehow come up.
This post is dedicated to Kuro though, so I’m not going to ramble about any other series, but I have to say, fans of Kuro should be grateful to have a character like Lizzie, who’s not only girly because she definitely likes cute things but who can also punch many men from the series in the face, if she so wishes it, because she’s just that capable.
While we’re on the subject, Mey Rin doesn’t need anyone to hold her glasses while she shoots someone in the forehead and fantasizes about Seb, Sieglinde doesn’t need anyone to carry her to create stuff while she thinks about sexuality, and I’ll bet you anything that Ran Mao doesn’t need Lau’s permission to do what she wants.
Really, it’s funny how Frances and Nina are actually the ones who hardly ever get any shit thrown at them for being who they are, simply because they can give Seb cold sweat whenever they open their mouths (although in Ran Mao’s case, the lack of commentary is probably because she’s not around too often).
I could mention Rachel, Ann and Claudia too, but honestly I just want to send kudos to Yana because, even though Kuro isn’t an absolutely perfect story, she managed to create a good cast, be it for male or female characters, with enough differences between all of them that they all deserve to be called interesting. ❤
I’d have assumed he’s in his late 60s or early 70s, if it hadn’t been for the short story “With father!”.
The thing is that Vincent calls Tanaka “Jiiya“ (Engl: ‘old man’) which is the way small children of a noble family affectionately call their old male servant and Tanaka calls Vincent “Bocchan” which is the way servants affectionately call the young (small) son of their master. So… say Tanaka was in his 50s when Vincent was a child, this would mean that he’s in his 80s now.
80s.
80s…!!???? Σ(ﾟДﾟ)
Bonus info:
The order in which the servants joined the Phantomhives is
midnight-in-town 