Black Butler 115 Review: The Butler, Heeding

The Butler, Heeding picks up right where the last chapter left off, with more tidbits about our new mysterious reaper Othello.

The Butler, Heeding doesn’t linger long on Othello, but we do learn that he’s in forensics and has been sent down to Earth on some sort of special mission.  On top of the fact that he’s sort of condescending to poor Grelle, he’s also quite helpless when it comes to the main functions of being a reaper.  His scythe isn’t customized and he wants to rely on Grelle for protection, even though he keeps insulting him by basically saying he’s not smart enough to understand Othello’s important purpose down on earth.  What is it with reapers and their total lack of tact?

We bounce away from the reaper subplot quickly, though, and refocus on our dynamic duo – Sebastian and Ciel.  The pieces of the puzzle are slowly falling into place.  They theorize that Sphere Music Hall is engaging in some sort of blood transfusion experiments and slowly draining their attendees to death.  The conspiracy is vast, possibly involving people from the military, the House of Lords, and Scotland Yard.  They share the information with Abberline, but he can’t do much from his official position with the Yard.  The duty once again falls on Ciel and Sebastian to solve the case.  This leads to my favorite panel of the chapter pictured to the right.  Can we talk about that panel for a moment?

Where do I begin here.  Ciel’s clothing?  Yes, let’s start there.  Yana Taboso is going to kill me with the adorable outfits she keeps putting Ciel in.  That coat.  That tie.  Look at that sassy hand.  Okay, so the hand isn’t really part of his clothing, but man that sass pulls the whole outfit together.  Sass.  And then let’s look at Sebastian behind him, not even hiding his pride at Ciel’s sassy pride.  He could be stuck in a contract with some boring jerk, but he’s got this hugely confident, intelligent, and entertaining thirteen-year-old who doesn’t take crap from anyone.  That demon is clearly enjoying this contract, no doubt about it.

Okay, I’m sorry, there is more to this chapter than Ciel’s totes adorbs outfit and Sebastian’s amused expression.  Like, I’m sure there’s a plot here.  Right, plot…

We drift from focusing on Sebastian and Ciel’s plans to infiltrate the cult and return to our Victorian Era One Direction wannabes who are hard at work on a new routine.  Bravat is not an easy instructor to deal with and he’s working the Weston College Prefects to the bone.  I would feel bad for them, but then I remember how terrible most of them were in the Weston College arc and nah, I’m not really feeling so bad for them anymore.  I was kind of glad we’d finally moved on from them, but then here they are again doing weird exclusive things and making themselves essentially be the center of attention.  I kind of don’t care.  Except for Violet.

I do care about Violet, but our gothy art student sees to be in some trouble as the chapter wraps itself up.  Bravat tells him that “the Light of Lord Sirius is growing dim” and that he needs to “share some of his radiance” with him.  Given what we’ve learned so far, we can surmise that this is some sort of blood letting ritual.  Why Violet seems to be hand picked out of the Weston College Prefect, I don’t know, but I’m eager to find out.  I only hope it doesn’t end in Violet’s death because, besides the blatant fanservice between Sebastian and Ciel, Violet was the only thing that came out of that arc that I enjoyed.

Author: Angel Wilson

Angel is the admin of The Geekiary and a geek culture commentator. They earned a BA in Film & Digital Media from UC Santa Cruz. They have contributed to various podcasts and webcasts including An Englishman in San Diego, Free to Be Radio, and Genre TV for All. They identify as queer.

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