This isn't necessarily a bad thing though, as over the top insanity can be quite refreshing at times and the movie ends up coming off as being a kind of 'action/thriller with a sprinkling of dark comedy'. The plot lines get so cheesy and convenient that they do become quite humorous at times, although it is unclear how seriously the movie want us to take it and how intentional some of the humour is. It starts to become comical towards the end how the movie frequently stops mid action sequence to make sure we understand what's going on, and a good thing as well, as the plot to this movie is unnecessarily complicated, jumping from human trafficking to bio-terrorism and bitter revenge plots that don't make that much sense as a matter of course. Among the films other problems it also suffers from 'well i could kill you now, but first let me explain the plot' syndrome removing some of the potential for tension quite quickly (while the protagonist having a gun to her head seemed like a big deal in the first twenty minuets, by the end you know the exposition will last just long enough for demon butler Sebastian to swoop in and safe the day). This is mostly likely due to the fact that the movie feels the need to explain absolutely everything, just in case you zoned out for a second or have the attention span of a squirrel. Our other main character Sebastian, seems to have been left unchanged (as far as I can tell) He's a demon who formed a contract with Kiyoharu in which he must obey her every command in exchange for her soul after she dies.Īlthough the movie makes it pretty obvious from the start that Kiyoharu is a girl, frequently showing her flashbacks to when she was a child and clearly female, the movie treats this at the end as a though it's a big twist, expecting some kind of reaction at the BIG DRAMATIC REVEAL. Black Butler is no exception to this rule as our 12 year old male protagonist 'Ciel' is replaced by 17 year old Kiyoharu, (edit: apparently a distant relative of Ciel, i don't know) who is merely posing as a boy in order to inherit her family estate, as tradition inhibits her from doing so otherwise. I will also try to keep this review spoiler free ^_^Īs with many Japanese film adaptations that reach western audiences, characters do not always emerge with their genders intact, a notable example of this would be Ashitaka and his daughter Yoko from the cult classic RING.
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