Kuroshitsuji
Black Butler

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I truly cannot believe I hold the honor of being the first person to ever write a negative review of Black Butler, given how controversial this manga can be. Black Butler has been the subject of quite a bit of discourse, and that’s for one reason:

Black Butler is a story that is jacking itself off at all times.

There are multiple things I mean by this. Firstly, the fanservice. The fanservice is the most controversial part of the series and all anyone seems to talk about. However, this is for good reason. Black Butler so painfully obviously panders to the fujoshi and shotacon demographics, which squicks ... a lot of people out.

And here’s the thing, I normally don’t care all that much about uncomfortable fanservice. Uncomfortable fanservice is just part of anime so if you don’t like it, ignore it. However with Black Butler you can’t do that. Black Butler doesn’t have fanservice, Black Butler is fanservice. Black Butler is written by a yaoi author, so everything she writes is with the viewer’s titillation in mind first and the plot second. This isn’t to say that Black Butler wouldn’t be interesting without fanservice, but rather that there is no world where Black Butler could exist without fanservice.

Everyone I know who used to like this series (keyword, “used,” because this series mainly attracts middle schoolers) have told me they liked it because they thought the characters were hot. I have never met anyone who likes it for the plot first, or likes it in spite of the fanservice. They like it for the fanservice and the plot is a bonus.

If you ask me, relying on fanservice to draw in readers is cheap and lazy. I would say “do you not have faith in your own storytelling?” Except this mangaka doesn’t care about telling a good story. She cares about providing fanservice coated in as much drama as possible which she calls a plot.

Do you know what else is cheap and lazy? The way rape is utilized in the story.

Rape happens. There is nothing wrong with writing about rape and no topics should be taboo. However as with everything, there are way to write it well and ways to write it poorly, and rape is an easy thing to do poorly. Honestly though? I don’t even think the author is trying to write it well.

The main character of Black Butler is a 12-13 year old boy who frequently finds himself ogled, manhandled, put in some form of sexual danger, and has sexual abuse written into his backstory.

Here’s the thing. When it comes to writing literally anything into your story, you need to ask yourself this question: is it necessary? This applies more heavily to some topics than others, though, and sexual violence is one of them.

Include sexual violence if you have a point to make about it, if you want to write a realistic representations of the horrors of man, if you want to include a character arc about healing and overcoming trauma, or for whatever other reason. But Black Butler includes sexual violence for no reason that won’t fall apart with the counter-question: could you not have said this without sexual violence, though?

Black Butler is full of sexual violence and never uses any of it to actually talk about it or really break down the effects of it. It’s just there. Why? Because it’s easy drama.

Sexual violence is included in Black Butler because it’s an extremely easy way to add drama and up the stakes, and that is an extremely lazy and cheap way to do it. If you cannot up the stakes or create drama without including otherwise pointless sexual violence, you are not good at writing.

I also think, though, that the author has included all of this sexual violence particularly against her child protagonist because she likes it. In fiction, she thinks it is entertaining to watch bad things happen to little boys.

Have whatever fetishes you want, but the moment it creeps into your story that takes itself 100% seriously is the moment I cannot take it seriously at all. Inserting your fetishes into a serious story will always seem jarring and out of place.

If you're wondering if there are any positives, I will say that at least the story is coherent and interesting enough to follow, and the author’s passion for other asian cultures and victorian fashion really shines through and is nice to see. None of this saves it though. I straight up would rather read actual shotacon rape hentai because at least it wouldn’t be trying to lie about what it is and hide behind a “plot.”