Black Butler, Vol. 25

黒執事 [Kuroshitsuji] #25

by Yana Toboso

(Vol. 24)A mysterious cult mesmerises legions of spectators with glorious rituals of song and dance. But the unbridled passion it inspires in its followers gives Queen Victoria cause for concern, and she urges Earl Ciel Phantomhive and his expert butler, Sebastian, to do some digging. Ciel has his own reasons for taking this lot to task, but the discovery of the cult's penchant for blood means the Queen's watchdog must make an immediate move. And when Sebastian goes probing behind the stages and into the shadows, he's met by a girl standing in his way, her sword ready to meet him head on...

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Mystery, Comics, Graphic Novels, Young Adult, Supernatural

178 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 27, 2017

About the author

Yana Toboso (枢 やな Toboso Yana) is a female Japanese manga artist born in Warabi, Saitama Prefecture, Japan and currently resides in Yokohama. She is best known for Black Butler (黒執事 Kuroshitsuji), a popular shonen manga series.

She has also written yaoi under the pen name Yanao Rock (簗緒ろく).

Appearance
Yana Toboso draws herself as a devil with a black body and horns, a white head, and a pointed tail. She has never uploaded a picture of herself, so her actual appearance is unknown.

Reviews

[Victoria]

The art in this series is just amazing, I'm not a massive fan of this story Arc but the art makes me keep reading through!

[Laiky]

DAMN you, cliffhanger! It'll be like 6 months until the new issue :'(

[Rod Brown]

I was on the verge of dropping this series with the last volume, but when the protagonist explains his plan to stop villainous phlebotomists with a rival prefab boy band using power point illustrations and math I was drawn right back in. The cliffhanger at the end is also top notch, making me grateful I have the next book on hand from the library already.

[tig :3]

wait i’m so scared

[Karissa]

This was the 25th volume in the series. It was a strange mix of light-hearted dance halls and bloodless bodies. It wraps up part of the Sphere Music Hall story arc but doesn’t completely tie up this story. It wasn’t my favorite Black Butler volume but it was still very good. It had a very “Ocean’s 11” vibe to it at the end.

I continue to really enjoy the illustration throughout this series; it is beautiful, highly detailed, and fun to follow.

The story was a bit slow, but started to move forward at a good clip towards the end of the book.

Overall a great installment in the Black Butler series. I really enjoyed it and look forward to future volumes in this series. This is one of my favorite manga series right now!

[Mahdiye HajiHosseini]

اپدیت ۹ شهریور ۴۰۰-
شروع اشوب ⁦(~‾▿‾)~⁩
استفاده خوبی از اون دو جلد حوصله سر بر داشت تا دوباره به داستان اوج بده. ریتم تندی هم داره که کاملا در اختیار داستانه و از مسیر خارج نمیشه. اون موقعیت‌های کمدی‌ای که تو جلدهای قبل بود هم به حداقل رسیده. در مجموع بالانس رو برگردوند به سیر کلی.
اخرشم با یه کلیف‌هنگر حسابی برای جلد بعد تکمیل شد.

[ollie]

I AM SCREAMING!! WHAT THE HELL?!? EACH SCROLL THROUGH THE LAST CHAPTER MADE MY HEART RACE MORE IN MORE IN TERROR WHAT THE HELL?! Screaming, crying, throwing up, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE NO NO THIS IS JUST A CRUEL CLIFFHANGER BUT EVERYTHING IS FINE RIGHT?! I am PANICKING, good grief!

[voresta]

AINT NO WAY BOY

ISTG IF SOMA DIES I’LL 😐🔫 CAUSE NAH. EVEN AFTER THAT WHOLE SPEECH ABOUT FRIENDSHIP

[DonutKnow]

Ooh what is Blavat’s final objective?

[Sharon]

HELP 😭😭

[✧desiree✧]

“You are the very epitome of a butler, Mister Agni.”

What if I just don’t read the next volume? I think that would be good for my mental health. But, since I’m rereading this series yet again (I’ve lost count of how many this makes it), I already knew what I was in for & I’ve done it to myself.

[Az life]

4.5 stars

[Alice4170 🌙]

4/5 ⭐️

[Cornerofmadness]

This was god awful. I accidentally had a few volumes past this and was about to donate the lot to the library without even bothering to see the volumes between the two. That's how bad this was. The only reason I didn't was the cliffhanger.

This wraps up the utterly insipid boy band arc. Yes it's as ridiculous as it sounds. Here's the thing. Yes the art is gorgeous and maybe Toboso wanted to do some boy band art but maybe save it for promotional stuff or an art book or something. Manga isn't just about the art. It has to have a decent storyline and this didn't have it.

It did reveal why Blavat built his theater and what he was doing. Ciel crosses a huge line (and a few people call him on it including Agni) in allowing a murder to happen to prove his point. (it was the only way, no there were literally dozens of other ways, you picked the easiest)

In fact Agni is the only good thing in this volume. He stands up to Ciel who treats him and Soma abominably. Agni does the intelligent thing, let's get out of here but Soma is wearing some rosy glasses which leads us up to the cliffhanger.

I used to really look forward to this but if this is an example of where the storytelling is going, it feels like Toboso is pumping a dry well. I guess it'll depend on what happens post cliffhanger

[Tabata 🫧]

AGNI!?!? NONONO PLIS PLIS

[Doc]

The Phantom Five are now the talk of many fans taking some of the crowds from the mysterious Sphere Music Hall. All is going according to Ciel's plans with the exception of whatever happened to good lady Lizzy who I am still more invested finding more info on then that bang up (hah) cliffhanger at the end of the book or who the mysterious boss really is (though I am sure it is important to understanding Lizzy's motivations.) Forced to take action for an already dwindling clientele death is in the air and panic is in the streets as the truth is exposed to the masses and top ranked officials are unable to hinder the Yard any more.

Revelations into Ciel's haunting past are hinted at and a familiar face to Prince Soma brings danger though we are not shown any of these except in looks of shock from glancing at a partially burnt photo and the glint of a revolver barrel threatening. It is a dangerous world when you hang out with the Queen's dog.

My favorite part revolves around how they were able to disband the P5 after Ceil's objected bore fruit. I would like to think Lizzy's mom would drag her off like that too if she knew where she was. :)

[Phantomº]

OH SH T ... THE CLIFFHANGER IS REAL
Sometimes reading a series late has its perks... I don't have to wait to read the next volume! Dear people how could you endure this? *rushes to the next one*

[Mila]

Exceptionnel comme d'habitude

[paula 🕸️๋࣭ ⭑]

Perdona, qué-

[Bailey Salinas]

PERSONA 5 MENTIONED

THE CLIFFHANGER????

[Reibekah]

I'm about to were I left off when reading online back in the day. Still excellent.

[Amber Scaife]

Ciel and Sebastian foil the plans of the mysterious music hall owner, who has been using it as a front for some sort of blood transfusion mad scientist lab. Or something. But there’s still work to do since Elizabeth is still under said music hall owner’s sway.

I’m interested to see how this arc gets tidied up in the next volume.

[nicole]

NOOOOOO

[Lara]

DIESER CLIFFHANGER WHY

[Vic]

Othello mówiący "Grellciu" ociepli serce nawet w najzimniejszą noc ❤

[cindy]

Lanjutan arc Music Hall.

Stlh kejar-kejaran gembong music hall sampai ke mana, eh ceritanya balik lagi ke London, dan... dueeeng, endingnya bikin nangis.

Arc berikutnya (akhir seri 25 dan nanti di buku 26, yg versi scanlation smp ch. 132) aku kurang suka. Kok maksa amat kyk udh kehabisan ide.

[Michelle Kobus]

The artwork is really astounding in this series, and it's the prettiest manga I know of (D.Gray-man is awfully pretty in later volumes, on par with BB, but BB is consistently nice to look at). It's funny to see what basically amounts to a Victorian-era battle between *Nsync and the Backstreet Boys (though I'm not sure how many Black Butler fans will even get that reference!).

*Note: I'm reading the Kindle simulpublished chapters, but thought adding them individually here was too messy, and didn't want to overly inflate my read count.

[Madhumita]

Finally caught up to where I last stopped reading! Honestly looking rereading these last few volumes I can see why I stopped reading back in high school, since this story arc wasn't as interesting. Now that I kind of know what's coming next I was able to make a couple connections about the cult's true purpose.

[Lanie]

This series is perfection. Enough said.

[Vintagebooklvr]

I liked Soma's analysis of of his friendship with Ciel.