Ranka, disturbing shinigami style?
Hypothesis: This episode is likely to suck because the last episode is so awesome that they have to blow it up.
Result: The hypothesis is not supported. Episode rocks.
Nuff said. On another note, Hinano moved to this place. Thanks to Pat for informing me about this.
Episode summary
Elizabeth came to give Ciel a gift she bought for her birthday. However, she saw the ring that she broke totally untarnished, and Ciel told Elizabeth Sebastian fixed it. When she realized that, she made an excuse that ladies should not give presents freely and ran off without giving the present. Sebastian suggested that it is probably for his birthday, and asked whether to make a party. A flashback showed the happy past of Ciel and his parents, only for the burning flame to kill everything off. The end of the flashback was with a cult who left a deep scar on Ciel. Back to the present, Ciel said it was a worth of time.
On her way back to the house, Elizabeth asked Paula how she can be so cheerful. Paula apologized for that, but Elizabeth said that she was just admiring her. Paula started muttering to herself, only for Elizabeth’s ring of hope to shine. The puppet then appeared with the tune of “London Bridge is falling down.” She chased the puppeteer to a doll store in a back alley. The puppet said that she was not the rightful owner of the ring, but she had beautiful eyes. However, he said those eyes were filled with sadness. She told the puppeteer about Ciel’s incident. The puppeteer said Elizabeth can choose anything in the room as a gift. However, he corrected himself by stating that a gift to someone important had to be special. He then told Elizabeth, “How about giving yourself to him?”
Ciel was informed of Elizabeth’s disappearance. It seemed that the case of the missing girls was linked to the Ring of Hope because they were given that ring of misfortune. The puppeteer asked his master what he should do to the “latest doll”, and that man simply sang, “Follow what the master wants, do it now, do it now. My fair lady” in that creepy London Bridge tune. Ciel told Sebastian to accomplish everything in three hours, while he had something “unimportant” to do. As they reached the place where Elizabeth was reported to be missing, Ciel was somewhat slighted over bringing Pluto. Sebastian told Ciel to bring Pluto, so he could escape.
Ciel asked Pluto to sniff Elizabeth’s gift to track her. Amusingly, Pluto ignored Ciel’s commands and was having horny rushes toward a female dog. A voice then resounded out about Pluto’s behavior and his love for redness. It was Grell. Grell mentioned how he no longer had a master, and he was restricted due to the Madam Red incident. Grell described how William was a total bastard, but he loved his cold and sadistic look. Grell asked if Ciel wanted revenge, but there was only a dog and a child. Pluto charged forward and growled. Grell thought that he was going to be attacked by the hot “man” and was ready, only for Pluto to run ahead of him. They have found that doll place, and a doll strongly resembling Elizabeth was on the display counter. At the back door of the doll house, a creepy looking castle loomed. Ciel realized that Elizabeth must be in the house.
Ciel asked Grell to protect him, and he would accept any request. Grell said he was not a filthy woman that could be bribed with money. However, Grell readily agreed when Ciel promised to give Sebastian to him for a day. Grell asked if he can do anything like a kiss, even below the waist (Impz: I wasn’t in time to cover my ears), and Ciel agreed. Obviously, Grell accepted the proposal. The puppeteer was hymning with an unconscious body of Elizabeth. Entering the castle, Ciel was assaulted by a “doll” resembling one of the missing girls. He was strangled, and he tried to seek help from Pluto. However, Grell said that Ciel was looking for the wrong person to protect him, as he broke the doll’s hold. He explained that his chainsaw was confiscated, as he only had scissors. Grell happily cut through the doll with his scissors, despite Ciel’s warnings that it might be human. It was really a doll of clay.
The puppeteer said that it was a failed product, and sang that it would be better to make dolls of steel. Ciel gave Grell and Pluto orders to play with the steel dolls, while he moved on ahead. Grell said that Ciel was heartless, but Ciel said he did not want to hear that from a death god. Ciel was worried because he feared that Elizabeth would become a doll like those beings. The puppeteer said a special person like Ciel deserved a special doll. Ciel asked about Elizabeth’s whereabouts, but he was ignored. The puppeteer continued and said that he would use a gold alloy for the doll. Ciel rushed to find Elizabeth, only entering a room with speaking masks. At the end of this room, he opened a door just to see Sebastian at the window, with the symbol of the cult on the floor. Sebastian said that Ciel’s birthdays always reminded of death… Elizabeth was going to die in his birthday.
Thoughts
Ok, for all the dark feel in this episode, I strangely only remember the comedy sections of this episode. For the first thing I will mention, it is the welcome return of Grell, the disturbing and disgusting piece of crap that generally illuminates the show with his appearance. I mean, who can tolerate the fact that he explicitly mentions what he wants to do with Sebastian.
My eyes and my ears were too slow to react as I absorbed the full impact of his sexual profligacy. I laughed so hard when he describes whether he had the approval to go down there too. I nearly died of laughter due to the obvious yaoi vibes that were made to sound so damn stupid.
Also, who in the living hell managed to make Pluto stupid enough to be funny? I applaud you for doing that because I am totally amazed how the dog’s natural behavior is funny enough to make me laugh. Maybe it is because it managed to tick off Ciel so much, and the chibi scene with Sebastian just ups the factor in why I loved Kuroshitsuji so darn much. It is the nice mix of humor and rather dark gothic themes that make it brilliant. I am glad that the series is returning to its very roots to fix the shit they gave us in the middle episodes.
I personally think that the three servants are a detriment to the series, and I mean it that way because they do not even contribute to make Sebastian awesome. Since Sebastian is already awesome, there is almost little need for them to be there. Other than Takada who really provides decent comical relief, the other three just grates on annoyance to outright useless paper-thin characters that offers nothing to the Kuroshitsuji plate. It is of little surprise that the better “filler” episodes of the series did not involve them at all. I hope to hear some arguments for them, so I might understand the situation better.
On the issue itself, it sounds like Ciel’s parents were killed by a cult that hated them. I do not really understand it since it is mentioned so rarely and in an arbitrary way. I do hope that they give some happy ending for Ciel at least because it will be a really haunting thought for Ciel to suffer another painful loss. He already lost so many loved ones, and I really do not wish that Elizabeth will become a doll.
The problem is that the show has proven that it has the ruthlessness to kill off main characters if they wish to. I cannot assume that Elizabeth has the main character protection. If the doll appearance is any indication, we might speculate that Elizabeth is already dead by now. I hope not, because I love a happy ending for Ciel. I know that his eventual ending is one of eternal hell, but I wish for him to be happy at least once in his birthday.
To end off, what do you think about my comment of the three servants of Phantomhive? Is it justified or mere petulance on my part? ^_^
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15 Comments
Looks like its time for me to start watching this anime again. I stopped reading the manga after chapter 15 and I didn’t watch the filler at all so I can’t really give any thoughts as to whether you are justified or not.
I guess we won’t get any manga original content animated here
Oh well, at least it sounds good- I’m kinda waiting for the english subs to come out since i’m too lazy to read the chinese subs ><
I found Elizabeth some what annoying but now I feel like screaming ‘don’t kill her off!’
Hmn does
“Hypothesis: This episode is likely to suck because the last episode is so awesome that they have to blow it up.
Result: The hypothesis is not supported. Episode rocks.”
this mean that Kuroshitsuji is going to end next episode O.o
I don’t know why, but there is a great likelyhood that she will die.
The comments about the trio servants would be called for since they play a greater and unneccessary interaction with the other characters. In the manga you would mainly see them in the background partaking in the activity, yet having no real dialouge and adding a little humour with their unique abilities like finnie’s strength, the maid’s klutziness and bards overdoing it. Here the are like in your face and that spoils them cos it doesn’t allow the viewer to watch them naturally screwing it up while Ceil or Sebastian is doing it perfectly/gracefully.
Grell and Pluto seems like an odd couple and in the screenshots i thought it was the undertaker for a moment. Grell is demoted to only having scissors, funny thing, but it can still get tangled in wool hahahaha.
So they decided to end things with Ciel and Sebastian contract. Kinda thought so, though in the manga it’s short, here they should give a more detailed explanation of why these people decided to target the Phatomhive family.
Ughhh, hurry up subs! umm no offense to subbers ^^; This really looks good from your summary and comments, i’m very excited now to see this episode.
I’m glad that pluto has been useful this time. Does he still run around naked? ^^;
Haha, i’m always amused every time you say how much you despise the three servants, but don’t worry, it’s pretty much justified. And with or without them, sebastian is awesome and that won’t change.ever.
I really hope elizabeth won’t die next episode. I still need to see the part in the manga where her mom visited Ciel, that was pretty funny. I actually didn’t like elizabeth the first time she appeared in the series, but i started warming up to her on the trap episode, and before i knew it, i started liking her a little. I hope she lives to marry ciel, lol.
@ bamboo
this series will have more than 12 episodes ^^ it’s pretty much confirmed with the new ed song and summary of later episodes in some magazine, the title of which i forgot. Good news isn’t it? ^^
Please update your blogroll ;_;
Kuroshitsuji is back to being awesome?!!! THAT’S IS AN EXCELLENT NEW! I might as well cry right now……
Hopefully, now that things are improving, this series can end with a bang, and reminds us why we start watching it since the start.
I also have some feeling that Elizabeth might die because she is important enough as a character to have impact on other characters (especially Ciel) yet she isn’t totally the main characters like Ciel or Sebastian. Lesser characters are probably well off. The three idiots wouldn’t die for sure since they aren’t important enough to be killed, I’m sorry for you Impz.
I hear that the three idiots get to work in Ciel’s house because he picked them up, so I guess their characters are to show another side of Ciel. According to the filler episodes, it is likely that these idiots have some dark past behind them and leave them no hope until Ciel pick them up and (kinda) raise them to be the happy idiots nowadays. That’s my guess thought.
I’m a bit happy to see William mention in this episode, but I am sad because he doesn’t appear in character… Damn, it is a bad thing to like a very secondary character. Sigh. (Hopefully, he might appear again before the anime end, or at least have some more roles in the manga’s future chapters)
*Edited after reading some comments* This anime will have more than 12 episodes???!!! That’s good news!!! So we might get to see the Indian arc!!!
@Elva: Yep, it’s actually worth watching after the bullshit that I got through the crappy fillers. This is how it should have done with very good quality jokes and a dark overtone on the story. Good job for these two episodes.
@Bamboo: Oh, I mean the previous episode. Sorry for being misleading. Actually, Elizabeth was rather annoying at the start of the season but she gradually became more palptable to me. Maybe it is my intense hatred of the three idiots that made me like every single character that is not like them.
SIGH! MY HATRED OF STUPID CHARACTERS WITH ZERO VALUE CANNOT BE QUENCHED!
@Cheru: Which is sad, right? For most of the typical shows out there, you can be very sure that the main character will survive through plot powers, but Kuroshitsuji makes you feel that the other main characters of the series is very likely to die when they face a death or alive situation. I guess that is the attraction of Kuroshitsuji because it keeps you on your toes.
I do hope for a happy ending though for Ciel and Elizabeth because it will be a very sad end if Elizabeth is to die. Ciel will really be alone, and left with the four retards. God save us all.
Grell is just a total joke and a pervert. My poor ears.
@Eipu: HAHAH, it is very nice because I actually laugh out loud when Grell appeared with his rather perverted comments. I guess it does take quite a bit for me to laugh, and I cannot stop laughing when that happens. It didn’t happen in any of the previous filler episodes, so I can assure you that it’s worth the watch.
The trap episode…is the episode Ciel….*nosebleeds*
@Hinano: Crusader did. Are you staying in that wordpress?
@Kaitune: Yes, it actually did. Well, at least I felt that it returned to being awesome because the jokes and dark feel of the show came back. I feel that the series can end with a good climatic conclusion, but I really hope that Elizabeth will NOT DIE. Ciel already lost most of the people that he cared about. He cannot lose another character from this.. I gonna pray hard for Elizabeth’s survival here.
Yes, the three idiots are here to stay, As much as I wish to reject that notion, it is true that killing or keeping them makes no difference to any shit because they are just practically wafer-thin characters of useless material. Sigh. my hatred is so great for crap characters.
Arr, whatever it is, they should have been sacked or fired already. They are practically useless but I guess Ciel just cannot forsake anyone who is abandoned. He is the one who knows the pain of being abandoned by everyone who loved him, so he will never let anyone else suffer.
I don’t think that William might appear. There will be more than 12 episodes? The link perhaps for confirmation???
Yea we are, btw our blog is called “Minaide! Hitorigoto” now
@Impz: here you go, proof of more than twelve epis.
Exhibit A. New ending theme. Don’t have a link to it but the jist of what I read was “The new ending theme for Kuroshitsuji will be Lacrimosa by Kalafina” and Kalafina is a new project by Yuki Kajiura
Exhibit B. Prince Soma mentioned in the episodes 12-24 summaries: http://community.livejournal.com/kuroshitsuji/205221.html
I like reading your blog for the plot summaries, but you’re such an intolerant bitch (not to mention grammatically retarded) in your comments section and a bit throughout, that it’s kind of hard to.
@Impz Regarding to Count Druitt in the last episode, it seems in the manga he manages to avoid jail. Presuming the indian arc shall commence we shall see more of him and Ciel being creeped out.
I hope that wasn’t spoilerish, just saying that it is possible for him to appear in the last ep.
Thank you for the episode summary.
Let me see if I can help justify the existence of the idiot brigade to you; at least, they have meaning to me, and I’ll explain it so that you might understand them a little better.
I think Ciel seems like a very cold person, since sometimes he has a bratty and selfish attitude even though he’s so young. I know it’s because of his past, but I think this might make him difficult to like for some people. However, he still has the patience to keep those three employed in his manor. Why do you think he does this, since he could throw them out whenever he wanted to? I think the fact that they’re still there kind of help us see that Ciel still has a kind and caring attitude, deep down… I think in the manga, it started explaining a little bit about their pasts and how they couldn’t live so well before (Finny wasn’t allowed outside, Bard is apparently impatient because his life wasn’t so peaceful before)). So maybe Ciel just doesn’t want to see other people suffering like he had to? He probably feels sorry for them. So I think it’s good that they’re there.
Sorry if my comment is a little long or unclear ^^; I just wanted to give my opinion on why I don’t think those three are useless. I really like them all, so… yeah :3
Nice episode. I love how they made this filler arc. Did they change the director or what? = =’
Seeing Grell here is great. He’s became a comic relief character now, hahaha. ( oh yeah, lol @ your first pic and description) Everytime he makes his post, it always make me thought he’s going to turn into Mahou Shoujo Grell or something… and he got himself a pair of scissors now! hahahahaha. They look just like your very common scissors and that’s why it’s funny! Good news for cosplayers then, they don’t have to spend time and money if they’re going to cosplay him now.
Somehow when the puppeteer came out to meet Cial & co., I felt that maybe Elizabeth was already….. hope it’s not = =’ There’re only Elizabeth and Tanaka now that are people he has known from the past, and they are like his family.
That’s good news if the Indian arc is going to be animated (still waiting for more confirmation too). But I doubt if Impz will like Prince Soma
@Hinano: Nice, got to tell gf about it so that she can update her bookmark. She follows your blog faithfully.
@KKJ: Bitch? LOL, you mean bastard because I am clearly male. Heh. Nice try.
@Cheru: No worries! I do read the manga at times, but not too much.
@Kira: Yep, that is the only reason and I think it is a reasonable explaination if they are not that useless. I think that being kind and caring (especially those that are abandoned) is part of Ciel’s trade because he knows how it totally feels like to be left down by the world. So, that is why they will be protected.
However, someone who is abandonded does not have to be so absolutely useless that they are just there to be flower pots. I definitely do not mind if they are sub-par. I mean, there are many such comical relief characters that cannot do their job well, but at least they have either appealing characters or strengths in their job. They really have zero redeeming qualities, and they could have been slightly more awesome like Takada. Then, I won’t be so annoyed.
Hah, ya, I just don’t like them too much since I hate useless characters…and also useless people in real life. T_T
@Blist: Grell is really fricking awesome since I am really hoping that he will one day wear a skirt and then do a transformation dance. Yes, it will fricking scar my eyes and mind forever, but I think it will be more than worth it!
Yes, the Indian arc will be animated. Kuroshitsuji is written in ANN to be 26 episodes. I was not able to see anything on the official Japanese website though. I wonder why it is not in the news, but maybe it is my weak grasp of Japanese that makes me fail to capture the news.
So there will be even more fillers, huh? Even though you say this episode is good, being a person that doesn’t like animes that stray from the manga, I doubt I will like this. This episodes makes it sound like Elizabeth is actually having a hard time; Somthing that sort of ruins her character from the manga, as she is portayed as a very carefree person without any worries at all. So far she as only appeared once after the ring incident and hasn’t shown any regret what so ever in the manga.
When it comes to the servants I don’t really like them either especially not in the anime.
Right now i’m just really scared, because it looks like the anime is going down a completly different path away from the original story. And if Elizabeth gets killed off it’s definately going to be different. Bringin Grell in already also annoys me as that may ruin the plot in the future.
I liked the summary, but as for the anime I’m not really sure If I want to continue watching it. The fillers as really raped the feel of the manga and that of the anime in the earlier episodes.