When I first heard of the Public School Arc, I was slightly confused, as the story was clearly taking place at a private academy not funded by the government. From what I’ve been able to gather, there’s a language difference here between European and American English. “Public school” to me means government-funded schools where there are no uniforms and literally anyone from any income bracket should be able to join.
In Ciel’s time, apparently, a privately funded boarding school was known as a “public school.” Any boy could enroll as long as their families could afford to pay their tuition and boarding fees. Uniforms were sometimes mandatory. It still makes little sense to me why it would be called public, but that’s probably something to do with the historical context or language difference. Anyway, let’s review this humorous season of Black Butler.
Contents
- Story
- Visuals
- Audio
- Characters
- Personal Enjoyment
- Overall Score
Story
Score: 7/10
Black Butler has a simple but compelling story. It follows Ciel, a boy who made a deal with a demon, as he solves mysteries for the Queen of England. While solving these cases, he’s also tracking down the people who killed his parents and tortured him. Once he has his revenge, Ciel will have to surrender his soul to his demon, Sebastian. In the meantime, Sebastian serves as Ciel’s butler, frequently using superhuman abilities to help solve the mysteries.
That’s the overall story of Black Butler, and it’s pretty solid. However, what about the story for this arc in particular? That’s what we’re talking about here. Compared to other arcs, the plot of Public School Arc was slightly underwhelming, but still entertaining. Ciel is sent to enroll in “Weston College” to figure out what happened to a handful of missing students. The four houses in Weston are ruled by four powerful and beautiful boys – and they seem to be hiding something.
This is a fairly strong story premise, but in execution, it had a few issues. Some viewers think the Public School Arc is too goofy to be taken seriously, but I don’t consider that a major problem since Black Butler has always been a little silly at times. The main issue was the pacing. The progress of the mystery was compelling early on, but then nothing happened until episode 8 – other than the boys’ cricket tournament. It was sometimes difficult to stay invested in that stuff. Still, the story was good overall – and episodes 9 to 11 were great.
Visuals
Score: 7/10
Unlike previous Black Butler anime arcs, Public School Arc was animated by Cloverworks in cooperation with Crunchyroll. You might know Cloverworks for producing series like The Promised Neverland, Spy x Family, and Rascal Doesn’t Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai. The highlights of this arc included the colorful character designs for the boys at Weston. I love them – especially Violet from the Purple House. The visuals are not stunning, but are adequate for this arc. The slight style change didn’t bother me.
There were many still-shots used for important moments, and they look excellent. The actual animation isn’t particularly smooth or dynamic, and there were few action sequences. I liked the sparkles and bright lighting used in certain shots to highlight the innocence and pleasant lives of the schoolboys. Sebastian’s disguise as the teacher, Mr. Michaelis, was also visually appealing. The art and animation for this arc are definitely up to the mark.
Audio
Score: 8/10
The music, songs, and voice-acting are all impressive. Ryou Kawasaki was the composer for Black Butler: Public School Arc. The instrumental music was perfectly matched to the feel of the fancy, pompous Weston College. Besides the instrumental music, the songs were also great. The opening is “The Parade of Battlers” by Otoha and the ending is “Shokuzai” by SID. Naturally, as a SID fan, I liked the ending song the best.
Black Butler in general has an all-star cast of talented voice actors, not even including any of the new characters from this season. Daisuke Ono is the amazing voice-actor behind Sebastian Michaelis. He’s also known for iconic roles such as Jotaro Kujo (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure) and Erwin Smith (Attack on Titan).
One of my top three favorite female seiyuu of all time, Maaya Sakamoto, is the voice of Ciel. She plays the role perfectly with her androgynous voice. Sakamoto has been voicing girls and boys alike since the 90s. Other stars in the Black Butler core cast include Emiri Katou (Meyrin), Yuki Kaji (Finny), Jun Fukuyama (Grell), and Junichi Suwabe (Undertaker).
There was also some good voice-acting in the new cast members from Public School Arc. Junya Enoki always impresses me since I first heard him as Yuji Itadori in Jujutsu Kaisen. In Public School Arc, he played Lawrence Bluer. Toshiki Watanabe did well as Edgar Ramon and Show Hayami performed perfectly as Johan Agares. I’m not very familiar with the former, but Hayami is well-known for his deep, majestic voice. I think I’ve gone on long enough about voice-acting, so let’s move on the next category.
Characters
Score: 7/10
First off, let me admit that I’m extremely biased toward liking anything that features the core cast of Black Butler. Simply because they are involved, I would give the character category a generous score. Sebastian and Ciel are both well-written and entertaining protagonists. Beyond that, the character category was nothing amazing. There were brief appearances from recurring characters like Lau and Kadar, but they were mostly for comic relief.
The four prefects and other supporting characters at the school were not bad, but they were less developed and often fell into one-dimensional character tropes. For example, Greenhill was the muslcehead, Lawrence Bluwer was the introverted glasses character, and Violet was the emo boy. The principal, Johan Agares, was a hilarious and mildly interesting character. I was also interested in Derrick Arden. His story, though brief, was intriguing.
Personal Enjoyment
Score: 7/10
Even though I enjoy Black Butler overall, it’s not without a few issues. Many fans of this series ship Sebastian and Ciel, which is their right. Personally, I find that gross and problematic. The narrative of the show itself doesn’t support a canon romance, but it does occasionally sexualize Ciel or make jokes about the two of them being together. In addition, Sebastian is canonically interested in preying on human souls, and often uses his flirtatious charm on children as well as adults. Frankly, it’s creepy.
Sebastian’s antics are always a little off-putting, but otherwise, I really enjoyed this season of Black Butler. The music was nice and Cloverworks studio did a good job with the art style, colors, and characters. Much of this season was very amusing to me. The pompous, over-the-top nature of Weston College was so funny. Everything also seemed humorously gay in that school. I giggled at how the “brotherly relationship” ceremonies mimicked weddings. There was definitely a lot of goofy stuff to enjoy.
Overall Score
Score: 7.2/10.0 “Good”
I calculate the overall score by taking the average of the five scores of the categories outlined above. Anything in the 7s range is solid/good, though not excellent/great. Black Butler: Public School Arc impressed me, so I’m glad I watched it. You should also watch this season if you’re a fan of Black Butler. Unlike much of the second half of the 2008 Black Butler, this arc is all canon and based on the manga. That’s all for today, so sayonara until next time.
~Thanks for reading~
Written by 7Mononoke
