Hopefully this all doesn’t end up like Ciel’s last undercover mission.

——

In this chapter, we get another new character added on to the list: a pretty boy named Maurice who feels that his position is threatened by Ciel and tricks Ciel into unwittingly disrespecting the P4’s. The whole ordeal feels a bit like a soap opera with Kuroshitsuji’s infamously mild shounen-ai flair. Maurice is clearly unhinged and Ciel vows revenge for ruining his ingenious plan. How Ciel will manage to fall back into the P4’s good graces will certainly be interesting to see, but I still can’t shake this feeling that Ciel and Sebastian are going to torch this place down by the end of the arc. Again.

The inclusion of Lizzy’s brother, Edward, was a nice touch. With the sudden onslaught of new characters it’s nice to see a familiar face and personality that has already been established. It makes the reader feel more emotionally connected when we see how Edward praises Ciel (for once) and then his angry disappointment when he thinks Ciel has betrayed that trust. But it also adds another obstacle. Ciel is working undercover to reveal some huge, and probably dangerous secret so having a close acquaintance who doesn’t know what’s going on is a serious handicap to his future actions, especially since it’s Lizzy’s brother. 

One aspect I enjoy about Kuroshitsuji is how it has the readers and Ciel on the same page in terms of information, and then showing the clueless support characters in tandem. It’s this whole balance act between Ciel’s façade as the new talented transfer student and his true face as the Queen’s dog investigating the school, while showing the supporting characters and their cluelessness, that makes the reader feel like the hold all of the information in their hands. That is until the mystery starts coming together and then we question everything we thought we knew. This is something Kuroshitsuji does very nicely and is hopefully what we will start seeing soon.

Overall, it’s a good chapter. Sebastian’s constant trials with Ciel’s chores never fail to amuse, especially when he does it with such decadence. But I found Maurice’s two-faced nature a bit too easy to predict; the author all but threw it in our faces. In terms of events, nothing too special happened. The aftereffects of Maurice’s misinformation ploy only took up the space of the last several pages, and the rest was just them talking. This arc is moving pretty slowly with a bit too much attention being focused on the four house prefects than the mystery surrounding them. But it ends on a positive note that Ciel is going to begin his counterattack. I, for one, can’t wait for him to end this charade and for the series to take on that dark, edgy tone it’s so good with.

GO Rating: 3/5

[mangahere]