Kuroshitsuji II is -- guess what -- the sequel of the anime Kuroshitsuji. Unlike the first season, this one is a completely original story, featuring 3 important original characters. It has nothing to do with the manga, since it starts where the previous series ended. If you've watched Kuroshitsuji I you probably know that it's no easy feat to create a story from *that* ending. Yet they managed to do it.
I think it's impossible to write a review without spoiling at least the second half of the first episode, but if you're a fan of Kuroshitsuji you will probably already know it, and if you aren't you won't even care. I won't spoil anything else, though.
The creators of this anime majorly trolled the fans 6 months before it aired. About half a year after announcing the production, they showed the first trailer of the new season at a special event (the "Red Valentine" event, it's available on DVD). The trailer only showed the two main original characters, Claude Faustus and Alois Trancy, and so did all the pictures and interviews that came out in the following months. All of this led the majority of the fans to believe that they would be the new main characters, substituting Sebastian and Ciel. Needless to say, the production staff and even the author of the manga received loads of harsh criticism for leaving out the fans' beloved characters from the show.
Eventually, that was not the case.
As everybody realized after watching the first episode, Sebastian and Ciel (together with the rest of the cast) were still there and were still the main characters. Claude and Alois are still essential to the plot (I wouldn't call them "villains" though), but knowing that the characters you know and love are still there makes the new additions appear a lot less offensive. You can actually get to like them.
I used to think that they were just stupid clones created to reuse the "demon butler + young master" setting, but watching the anime you can clearly see that they have very different personalities (definitely better planned that the lame characters of season 1 if you ask me) and totally deserve to have a part in the story.
Compared to the previous series, season 2 is half the size, being only 12 episodes. The first few episodes apparently look like fillers and you are left wondering why they are losing time even though the series is so short, but then you realize that everything -- or almost everything, at least -- has a purpose and is leading to something. Or it's just there to troll you, but that's a purpose too I guess. After these few episodes, though, you finally learn "the truth", which also solves most of the doubts you were having, and from that point on the series becomes fast-paced, with lots of story packed into each episode, all bringing to the final, quite shocking climax.
I followed this series "live", week after week, and I must say it was extremely enjoyable. Every time you were left craving for the next episode, with the previews (the "next episode" previews) only serving to deceive you, since the scenes where always mounted so as to make you misunderstand what would happen.
The art is outstanding, the animation is nice and smooth, the music is maybe even better than in the previous season (a special mention goes to the insert song "Kagayaku Sora no Shijima ni wa" by Kalafina, beautifully sad and perfect for the scenes they used it for). The seiyuu are of course the same as in season 1, with the addition of a few quite popular names to play the original characters (well-known seiyuu as Takahiro Sakurai, Nana Mizuki and Aya Hirano). The author of the manga, Yana Toboso, once again took part in the production by designing all of the clothes, original characters and even objects that appear in the series (she asked herself to do it, by the way). She also had a say in some of the decisions regarding the plot, though of course it was written by different people. It's quite obvious that they put lots of efforts into this anime, and I personally think that it shows. I realized that, as much as I love the Kuroshitsuji manga and think that it's better than the anime (story-wise), I can still appreciate a Kuroshitsuji original anime if the story and the characters are good enough.
Of course, this series is not 100% perfect (otherwise I would have given it 10). The plot holes are to blame for it. The story that we actually see is carefully planned, so the "present" is mostly OK. The past of some characters, however, ranges from vague to outright unknown. Some characters are there but we don't really know how they managed to be there, some characters' motives are never explained yet you would think that it's important to show why they act like they do, even though it's not necessary to bring forward the plot that we see. The series composer, Mari Okada, said in an interview that sometimes it's nice to leave some "gaps" that the viewers can fill in how they want, but I still would have liked to be showed a bit more of the characters' past. Also, since the anime is only 12 episodes long and many of them are very fast-paced, you have the impression that the series ended right away and it's a pity that for once that we have interesting original characters we get to see them so little.
Nevertheless, despite the flaws, I've really enjoyed watching this anime and I missed it after it ended. The original characters, that I used to dislike because of the creators' trolling, grew on me very quickly, to the point that I'm somewhat sad that we won't see them anymore (well, probably) and that I was disappointed at them barely showing up in the OVAs that were included with the DVDs.
If you liked Kuroshitsuji I, then I recommend Kuroshitsuji II. If you disliked the anime but like the manga, I still recommend Kuroshitsuji II. I personally think that if you adapt the manga into an anime then you have to make it faithful to it. If you don't want to make it faithful, I'd rather see something completely different than a bad adaptation of the manga. Kuroshitsuji II managed to be the latter. Do not let the original characters turn you off. Give a chance to this series, because in my opinion it's very much worth it.
