Yes I was disappointed. But as soon as i found out the main was Gouriki I knew what I was in for. Are they just casting her because she is the only girl they know with short hair? Because wigs people! Wigs! Please stop casting her in things I should love by rights, and turning my beloved TV into pig swill. I don't care that she was absolutely amazing in Otoko demo onna demo nai sei, she sucked in EVERYTHING ELSE. And when do I ever use caps on this blog.
Cast:
Mizushima Hiro - Black Butler Sebastian
Gouriki Ayame - Genpo Kiyoharu / Shiori
Yamamoto Mizuki - Maid Rin
Yuka - Hanae Wakatsuki
Ohno Takuro - Matsumiya Takaaki
Kaito Ken - Genpo Arihito
Maruyama Tomomi - Akashi
Yuu Shirota - Charles
Yasuda Ken - Tokisawa Ichizo
Hashimoto Satoshi - Aoki Munemitsu
Ibu Masato - Kuzo Shinpei
Kishitani Goro - Nekoma Saneatsu
Kurihara Louis - Jei
We have another Horikita Maki on our hands with Gouriki. At least with Maki she is likable, she's as bland as all hell but at least she is likable.
Gouriki has no redeeming features so far and I'm annoyed that she keeps cropping up in things I would usually love.
She had a flicker of nice acting for a couple of lines she spoke right at the end ^ but other than that I got nothing.
The rest of the cast was really great - the cutest maid ever Yamamoto Mizuki really should have been the main but as I am not queen of the world this did not happen.
Plus I dont think anyone would believe she was a boy.... But they still had Gouriki wearing f*cking eyeliner so go figure.
You might be able to tell from my tone and less than linear speech flow that I was annoyed with this movie.
Poor Mizushima Hiro was doing his best Kamen Rider cheese acting and all the emotional eyes acting that he could muster but was met with bird faced Goubiki (beaky / biki - counter for birds - see what I did there? No? well yeah I guess that was super lame) - Oh just seriously her acting is so boring.
Kuro Shitsuji is supposed to be dark and broody, instead we got flat and uninspiring, it should have been sickly humourous, but instead we get a one sided charisma show from which we can only feed from the butler - nothing from our dear master at all.
The story was interesting - the subject matter could have been really described well by a dark more sinister tone, but instead it felt like watching a mystery drama.
No sense of urgency even though everyone is on the brink of war death nasty future kinds of evil.
I dont know what the hell they were thinking making the movie this way. It had so much potential and a budget they could play with.
Yuka (Akumu chan) was fantastic - really seriously putting Gouriki to shame - if you hadnt already spied the distance in skill level between her and Mizushima then watching Yuka go crazy at the end should put the nails in Gouriki's crappy cardboard coffin.
There is nothing raw about her. She doesn't bring anything out of the characters she plays which makes them appealing. I wanted so much to be surprised by her, but she pales in comparison to her fellow actors. And it really winds me up.
As with most things that I watch, I tried to put all that aside and just watch, and let myself just get into the story.
I think Mizushima helped convey all the subtle weird things that go through the black butler's mind very well.
His character was described by all the slight movements of the eyes, narrowing and widening without changing the tone of voice, he is king of that.
Smiling with his eyes but not a flicker in the mouth - he really is super king of that.
The black butler is a demon, this kid makes a deal with him so she can take revenge on the people who killed her whole family.
The black butler wants her soul in return for his aid and protection, but the more twisted she becomes by her desire for revenge and hatred and mistrust of humans, and the more darkness she falls into, the more he happy he will be to take her soul. 
There is a conflict within him, caring for her all those years but also wanting her to die, it leaves him almost in love with the internal struggle they both have. This is all shown very very subtly through this movie and you might miss it if you didn't know it was there - or if you weren't paying constant close attention to the butler's emotional eyes.
The young master is a little more simple to deconstruct, she is just a vengeful human, but spending so much time entangled with a demon who wants her to ultimately die for him takes its toll on her - her personality is darkened by this even more. Not that we see that. Goubiki just looks like someone stole her biscuit.
On the hunt for a killer who threatens society in a unexpectedly huge way, they realise that the master's history is linked to this case, and so things explode in a mass of treachery and deceit around her.
I think my description does this movie a little too much justice - I made it sound darker than it was - as dark as it should have been.
There were some great moments, dont get me wrong. I just think it fell a little flat. It could have been amazing but it felt cheap and standard.
Still, Mizushima looked fantastic. That's pretty much all anyone is going to watch this for.
~
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