Manga Review: Black Butler, Volume 6, by Yana Toboso

3.5 of 5 Stars

Publisher: Yen Press

Goodreads Synopsis:

Just a stone's throw from London lies the manor house of the illustrious Phantomhive earldom, its master one Ciel Phantomhive. Earl Phantomhive is a giant in the world of commerce, Queen Victoria's faithful servant...and a slip of a twelve-year old boy. Fortunately, his loyal butler, Sebastian, is ever at his side, ready to carry out the young master's wishes. And whether Sebastian is called to save a dinner party gone awry or probe the dark secrets of London's underbelly, there is practically nothing Sebastian cannot do. In fact, one might even say Sebastian is too good to be true...or at least, he is too good to be human...

Review:

I haven't been totally loving this series yet; it's mostly been entertaining at some point, and I've been hoping for it to get better. This volume was much better than the previous ones, and I found it kind of hilarious.

The whole volume mostly focuses on the circus. They have a case pertaining to missing children, and think that the circus has something to do with it. They visit the Undertaker in the first chapter, and he hasn't seen any of them, which means that it's not underground type of stuff doing it. I like the Undertaker. He's interesting, and odd, and I wouldn't mind seeing more of him. After visiting him, they go to the circus, to which Sebastion gets called up, and they end up joining it undercover. They try investigating, only they aren't allowed past a certain point because they're rookies. And we see 'Suit' (I can't remember his name from the previous volume he was in...), who's a grim reaper, and Sebastion's roommate, and they don't get along very well. Ciel also has a different roommate, 'Freckle Face', who I don't believe we actually learn his name, but who is quite adorable.

During a performance in the last chapter, Ciel starts sneaking around, and at the end he appears to have been found by one of the circus members. I'm not anxious to find out what happens next, but I am eager to read more.

There's a lot of small, funny moments throughout the book. Like Ciel has to do something for the Undertaker to make him laugh, and when they visit the circus, Sebastion gets bitten by a tiger, only he likes cats but Ciel is allergic to them. And there's a lot of them after they join the circus, with Sebastion being very impressive with all he can do, and Ciel not being very useful since he's a Phantomhive, and doesn't know how to do any tricks or housework. And they call Ciel 'Smiles', which is funny all on it's own. I'm really glad that I found this to be as funny as I did, because it hadn't been as fun before, and I hope that the next volumes are just as good as this one.

Despite the funny, though, I do feel a little bad for Ciel at one point. Just cause he's having such a hard time, and he's so cute...

Also, the circus members. It appears that there's something not right going on with them, or at least a few of them, but I hope that not all of them have to do with the missing children. Because I really like them, actually. They cause a lot of entertainment, especially with Ciel, but also with each other.

The artwork is very pretty. It's kind of eccentric, but that might be partly because of the time period the series is set in. But I love all of the clothing; the costumes are so pretty. Especially with the circus chapters, because they have such flamboyant outfits, and they are done so very well.