Black Butler (manga)/YMMV

• Alas, Poor Villain: Madam Red.
  • Joker as well as the other members of Noah's Arc circus.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: The manga intentionally leaves some things open to interpretation to maintain the suspense. This isn't to say that some interpretations aren't just wrong.
  • Sebastian:
    • Someone who is kind of evil but not that bad really.
    • A cruel and evil demon, but Even Evil Has Standards.
    • A Complete Monster with a pretty face.
    • A wholly emotionless demon who only exists to feed, like a shark.
    • An entity without a fixed self whose current personality was formed to suit Ciel's needs.
    • A lonely demon with the emotional understanding of a toddler.
    • Just kind of a dork.
    • A decent guy who happens to need to predate on humans to live, but that's just life and all morals are relative anyway.
    • Every girl's ideal boyfriend.
  • Sebastian as a butler:
    • Losing himself to his butler persona and becoming more human and less cruel.
    • Remaining the same cruel demon under his disguise.
    • Experiencing genuine character growth from things such as having friends for the first time.
  • Opinions about Ciel form a smooth continuum from a sweet, kind, shy boy forced to a dark role to a sociopathic Complete Monster who murders children for fun and was probably bad from the start. Just about everyone would agree that Ciel is a Magnificent Bastard however.
  • Some people consider Ciel to be asexual, but other fans think he is gay or bisexual.
    • There is more evidence for him being straight. For example, we see him blushing in presence of girls.
  • Opinions about Elizabeth range from a selfless saint who gives her all to make other people happy to a future domestic abuser with the Borderline Personality Disorder who doesn't see servants as people and has sadistic tendencies.
• Anti-Shipping Goggles: Some people are convinced that Sebastian has no emotions at all, feels nothing for Ciel, and only sees him as food. This is despite how Sebastian having a wide range of emotions is firmly established by numerous scenes. Some of those scenes show indications of warm feelings for Ciel - if not love, then at least fondness and admiration.
  • Many people mentally shut out the evidence for Edward being in romantic love with his sister Elizabeth.
• Broken Base: Does shipping Sebastian/Ciel make someone a horrible pedophile and total scum?
  • Does shipping Ciel/Elizabeth (who are cousins and engaged in the canon) make someone an incest supporter and also a horrible pedophile?
  • Does shipping Grell/William glorify abuse?
  • Does shipping Sebastian/Grell glorify abuse?
  • Is Grell trans? Which pronous should be used for Grell?
  • Is Elizabeth a paragon of goodness and light or a shallow and annoying little girl, even after her character development? Could she and Ciel be happy together or would she make him miserable? Or is she maybe too good for him?
  • Can you be a real fan and not buy the digital downloads that are, among other things, only available in America?
• Complete Monster: Baron Kelvin and the Doctor would be agreed to be this by most people/basically everyone.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Arguably, nearly all the characters people care about are subject to this, given the prevalence of more or less evil characters in the canon. Prominent examples include Sebastian, Ciel, Grell, Undertaker, and Vincent. Even cute little Elizabeth can be seen as an example of this and a particularly widespread one too.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Grell. His popularity is hugely disproportionate to his screentime, at least in the manga.
  • Ronald Knox can now be this.
  • Undertaker as well. Then when the reveal about him happened in the manga, his popularity soared even higher.
  • Madam Red too.
  • Vincent has become highly popular despite having only appeared in a few flashbacks.
• Epileptic Trees: The series, because of its mystery aspects, provides fertile ground for fan theories.
• Evil Is Cool: Sebastian. And Ciel, on some level.
• Evil Is Sexy: Again, Sebastian.
• Fan Disservice: One particular scene comes to mind: Sebastian and Ciel bathing together. Naked. With skins touching. With severe chemical burns all over their bodies and Ciel on the brink of death. And then Ciel in his already-fragile state gets his PTSD triggered so hard that the flashback sends him into Angst Coma. That's not so romantic.
• Fan Dumb: Found on Tumblr in particular in vast amounts.
• Fan Nickname: The series itself is referred to as "Kuroshit" by detractors. (And by sarcastic fans.)
• I Knew It!: Bound to happen when there is so much speculation going around.
• Jerkass Woobie: Ciel can be seen as this, since he doesn't mind killing or hurting anyone who gets in the way of his plans, but at the same time, he is portrayed very sympathetically, usually because of his horrible past.
• Like You Would Really Do It: As if a poker to the chest and a shovel to the head would actually kill Sebastian. Guess what, it didn't.
• Mary Sue: Various characters have been accused of this.
  • Sebastian is incredibly powerful and sexy and great at just about everything. However, as the story goes on, we see that he in truth has quite a few flaws and doesn't always succeed.
  • Ciel is a rich Teen Genius Magnificent Bastard with a Dark and Troubled Past who leads a life of luxury and has a glamorous-sounding job. Nevertheless he sometimes makes painful mistakes and has to deal with the consequences of his actions.
  • Elizabeth got some of this after her character development. For the majority of the people, she was Rescued from the Scrappy Heap.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Deer-head Sebastian.
  • Sebastian's hooker boots.
  • As of chapter 57, Elizabeth Middleford, zombie slayer is fast becoming this, along with a healthy dash of Memetic Badass.
• Memetic Outfit: Many cosplays of Ciel are of that pink dress.
• Memetic Sex God: Sure, everyone loves to get touchy-feely on Ciel, who has had his own Stalker with a Crush since he was seven years old, but if you are in-universe and don't have a thing for Sebastian, you don't have a pulse.
• Moe: A lot of characters, in both male and female varieties.
• Moral Guardians: A section of the fandom cares very much about policing other fans' fanfiction and fanart and even interpretations of the manga.
• Moral Event Horizon: A minority of fans believe that Ciel crossed it when he ordered Sebastian to burn down a building full of children, and then ordered him to kill Doll.
• No Yay: Some people in the English-speaking fandom really hate the idea of pairing Sebastian and Ciel together and prefer to pretend that the fanservice about them doesn't exist.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: Sebaciel, Cielizzy, Grelliam...
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: A lot of fans didn't like Elizabeth for being a Shallow Love Interest. Then it turns out that she was Little Miss Badass all along....
• Shipping Goggles The fans of Sebastian/Ciel see proof of romance in vanishingly tiny things. A popular example is the way Ciel has his hand on a doorframe when at one time he goes to talk with Sebastian.
  • Shipping Goggles also make fans of a pairing not see things, such as Elizabeth being unstable, violent, and controlling behind her Kawaiiko exterior, which aren't ingredients for a good marriage with Ciel.
• Shipping Wars: Sebastian/Ciel is attacked from both sides by fans of Ciel/Elizabeth and Sebastian/Grell. It gets vicious.
• Stoic Woobie: Ciel. Overlaps with Jerkass Woobie. Despite the things he has been put through, he usually doesn't complain about them and always tries to keep moving forward. Though, on infrequent occasions he does break, hard, but then he puts himself back together.
  • Snake.
• Squick: Baron Kelvin is made of Squick. A small minority of the fans also find that the Fan Service about Ciel crosses into Squick territory.
• Toy Ship: Ciel/Elizabeth is a borderline Canon one, considering the fact that they're engaged. It gained more credibility among fans thanks to some much needed Character Development.
  • Ciel/Sieglinde. Sieglinde has expressed romantic interest in Ciel in the canon too, though Ciel to date hasn't reciprocated.
• Unequal Pairing: Sebastian/Ciel can be seen (and is derided) as this. However, both Sebastian and Ciel have the upper hand in different ways. Sebastian has vastly more raw power than Ciel, but Ciel can command Sebastian's absolute obedience. Sebastian is much older than Ciel, but Ciel has more common sense than Sebastian. Sebastian can do just about everything by himself, but Ciel can command true loyalty. In the manga Sebastian and Ciel are constantly jostling for the upper hand.
• Values Dissonance: Sebastian/Ciel has a very vocal hatedom in the English-speaking fandom while the Japanese fandom has no problems with the pairing. The Japanese fandom also doesn't obsess over whether or not Grell is trans.
• What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: The series has Seinen written all over it, but is published in a Shonen magazine. To elaborate, it includes violence and gore, murder, child abuse, sex, pedophilia, and questionable dialogue.
  • Some fans have said that they don't think the manga is suitable for anyone under 18.
• The Woobie: Madam Red fits this trope to a T.
  • Honestly though, her deeds as Jack the Ripper kind of nullify her Woobie status. At the very least, they push her into Jerkass Woobie territory.
  • Soma, to some.
  • Almost all of the circus performers.
  • Even Lizzie to some.
• WTH Costuming Department: Sebastian. In his demon form, he wears tight leather pants and sharp-pointed stiletto heels.
  • A few covers have shown Ciel in ballet boots, confusing many fans. In general Ciel can wear some very unusual and even fetishy things on chapter covers. One particular outfit got referred to the "sexy turkey".
  • Then there is Sebastian's Elvis jacket in the Costume Test Montage. It's clear why the outfit wasn't chosen, but not at all clear how come the outfit even existed.
• Yaoi Fangirl: Seemingly the most common type of fan, despite the series not being Yaoi.

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