Review of Black Butler

Anime has such a lack of original and really great characters. So many cookie-cutter types out there. Super serious, spikey haired, bad-asses. Tough and heavy chested tomboys. Magic girls. Yada yada yada. "Black Butler" comes along and gives you a good show with a great character in the lead, Sebastian Michaelis- the titular black butler and an original concept to go with it. Setting in Victorian, turn of the century, England, "Black Butler" gives us a great enviornment of stately mansions, the streets of London right out of Sherlock Holmes, and all the mystery and intrigue one might expect of such a location. Throw in asupernatural element involving a demon butler, reapers, angels, and Faustian covenants (that's fancy talk for a deal with the Devil) and you get one helluva an Anime.

The art is pretty impressive at times and the soundtrack is full of classical-derived tunes and melodramatic, dark, choirs. They throw in humor, action, horror, drama and mix it all together for a splendid time in 24 episodes. Sub vs. Dub is a big fight here. The Japanese cast does the best job, but the English cast (doing their best English accents) gives the show the most authenticity. Daisuke Ono and J. Michael Tatum both own the role of Sebastian in Japanese and English, respectively. Honorable mentions go to Daniel Frederick as Grell Sutcliff (absolutely hilarious) in English and Junichi Suwabe as Undertaker in Japanese. Some really good performances on both sides here.

I really enjoyed this show. Sebastian Michaelis stands out as one of my favorite characters of all-time. I love the time period and everything that goes with it. It's a really great show and very unique. Anime fans should consider this a must-watch.