The enjoyement I and the other fans get from reading Kuorshitsuji overshadows all the mediocre elements of it, making us see it through a pink lense. Still I'll try my best to show my view point properly.
The story is what gets the lowest score on this review. At the surface we have a typical revenge story, where the main character wants to avenge his parents death. Nothing new, right? But as the story unfolds it reveals a lot more at it's core. The 'main' plot as you will is very complex and interesting and would deserve a 9. The problem are more with the actual things happening. With almost every arc we get a set of new characters, mixed with already known ones, and some kind of mystery our main characters need to solve. And at the end we find out more about Ciel and Sebastian, or some other important character. That in itself isn't a bad concept, the problem lies within some of these plot lines.
Whilst some arcs, like the titanic arc and the circus arc, are very interesting some are just plain boring. Also the tone shift of the manga from funny to dark is sometimes very interesting, but the latest arc, which featured a boy band contest at it's centre, just seemed ridiculous.
Because the arcs are so inconsistent I have to give the story points, the core plot 9 and the subplots 6.
The art is a very interesting aspect of the manga. It changed and improved so much in these more than 10 years, that this is a reason alone to read at least a few of the chapters. Especially in the newest chapters (we're currently at 136) the direction the mangaka's art takes is really pleasing. We're at a very dramatic and important part of the story and this shows in the art very well.
Ciel and Sebastian are our two protagonists and their relationship is one of the core elements of this manga. Ciel is 12 at the beginning of the story, which you really couldn't've guessed from the way he acts. So already there is an obvious hidden backstory to this grim looking boy, living in a gigantic mansion with only a handful of servants around him. And the more we find out about him, the more interesting his personality seems. Ciel is an incredibly complicated character who walks in a moral grey zone. He does things hero don't do. But still the reader roots for him, not because he is a good guy, but because he is just so damn interesting to watch. And also because it's hard not to wish him the best, when considering his oh so happy life.
Sebastian is a thousand year old demon, who is such a veteran that he is bored of normal souls. So he waits for Ciel's soul, whilst trying to drag him deeper into the darkness as to better it's flavour. At times Ciel and Sebastian's relationship seems like a typical servant - master one, then sometimes a hunter - prey one and rarely it even shows facettes of friendship.
The two characters compliment each other perfectly and have an amazing dynamic together. It's hard to grow bored of them.
There are other important characters as well, which range from very unique to extremely clishee.
Some honourable mentions are the undertaker and the queen, both characters who influence the story in the backround very strongly. The female characters in this manga generally aren't very interesting though. Lizzy (Ciel's fiancee) shows some different colours as the story progresses, but the lack of chemistry between her and Ciel doesn't make reading about her very enjoyable. The same goes for the later introduced Sieglinde. Both seem to be excuses for Yana to draw cute dresses and show Ciel's more lovable side, which I don't mind that much, but lets just say that I'm quite happy that neither Lizzy nor Sieglinde appear very often.
Other than these we have a wide and very colourful cast, both in personality and nationality speaking.
If you do not enjoy one of the side characters this manga should still be enjoable, but if you strongly dislike Ciel or Sebastian (why would you though) it might be hard to read this.
As mentioned the enjoyement in this manga is at times very high. The main characters are very captivating and in the better arcs finding out about the mystery at hand is also very interesting. Eventhough the more psychoanalytic parts are what sells this manga for me, the action scenes are also often very entertaining- they range from very swishy and fun to very dark.
This manga handles a lot of dark themes, and eventhough it never really gets graphic, some scenes might be disturbing to some, so be cautious.
I highly recommend this manga, mostly because it is very dear to me and it might become very dear for you as well. It's an amazing character study with sometimes messy, but overall good plot lines, packaged in Yana's great art.
