Be warned: if you haven’t kept up with the Black Butler manga, or if you’ve only been following the anime adaptations, this volume contains perhaps the biggest revelation to date. It’s impossible not to bring it up, but sufficed to say, this volume is a game-changer, although the main twist has been hinted at for quite a while. If you’d rather not be spoiled, just stop reading right now and go run to your favorite manga shop and buy it.
Seriously, this is major.
Before we get into that particular development, the manga checks in with Soma and Agni. The last volume showed them being ambushed, and now we see their struggle to survive the attack. Sebastian and Ciel eventually arrive to a bloody mansion — and the scene of a murder. The volume opens on a dramatic note, and the tension is only revved up as the author confirms what readers have long since suspected: the Ciel we’ve known is not the true Ciel.
For me, the question has been just how are the Original Ciel and the Current Ciel connected. Considering Current Ciel had to have looked like Original Ciel for no one to question his return, being twins was the most logical outcome. One being hidden from the world would make sense considering in some cultures, twins were considered bad luck. But we knew that Current Ciel had to train hard before officially becoming Earl Phantomhive, so him being a doppelgänger that was picked up was certainly a possibility.
Well, with the two Ciels coming face-to-face, it’s time for the full story to be revealed via flashbacks. The volume ends before we see the Ciels get captured, but the manga is slowly building toward the eventual contract with Sebastian.
That’s probably the one downside here. When I got to the end, I was like, “Ugggh, come on, we’re so close!” It was necessary for Toboso to show the happy life the Phantomhives had before the tragedy, and connecting the mystery of the cult to Ciel’s personal history makes for an intriguing development. At the same time, with even bigger developments just tantalizingly out of reach, it makes the sections after Soma and Agni’s attack but before Original Ciel’s debut as well as the happy childhood days at Phantomhive Manor feel a bit slow and dull in comparison.
Still, it’s hard to be disappointed. The art continues to be amazing, including when Toboso throws in some two-page spreads with minimal-to-no dialogue. These would probably be better in the digital release, as you wouldn’t have the binding affecting the layout. Black Butler continues to include some graphic scenes, and it’s almost hard to believe that just a little while ago we were seeing a boy band perform. Current Ciel in the present time doesn’t have a lot of page time overall, but it’s been a long time since we’ve seen him so shaken to the core, a stark contrast to the childhood we see in the final chapters of this volume.
In short, this is an important volume of Black Butler, and it’s a good volume of Black Butler. For many characters, the world as they know it has changed forever. Readers are going to want to keep rereading these chapters during the long wait for the next volume and beyond.