Black Butler Volume IX is the beginning of yet another major arc, this one involving two interesting visitors. In 1889 England, the Queen herself has sent her two butlers to inform the Earl Ciel Phantomhive that he shall be hosting a dinner party honoring a certain German person who is a distant relative to the Queen, herself. The other visitor is an impoverished occultist and writer, through whose eyes we see the events of this arc. The Earl, Ciel Phantomhive, is of course but a boy, and his esteemed butler, Sebastian, is a devil from hell. They are both quite capable and knowledgeable in all matters, and their longstanding guests, the prince, Soma Asman Kadar, and his servant, Agni, test their patience at every turn.
I can't believe that it's been a year since I read this title even though I had Volume IX through Volume XIII sitting on my shelf. Yana Toboso knows such a wide variety of topics and is able to incorporate them into Black Butler so seamlessly. I still have fond memories of the curry cook-off between Sebastian and Agni. In Volume IX, not only is a lavish party with famous guests from the 19th century effected, but each guest has something to add to the conversation. It is all so nice; however, it comes as no surprise when the first murder occurs. This is a dark tale.
I'm glad I started this new arc; quitting a favorite comic or manga is easy when an arc ends, starting again, hard. I haven't read One Piece in nearly as long, and I've only read a little bit of Hunter x Hunter, Monster, Master Keaton, 20th Century Boys, and Akira. Those are the series I used to read regularly, and when I started buying more Marvel, Image and single-issue/floppy comics, my consumption of manga waned. I need to make a concerted effort to read more Japanese, European, and South American sequential art. There are great people working on American and Canadian comics, but it's simply not good enough to ignore the rest of the world.
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