Kuroshitsuji Fans: A Must Read for You

Image credit to Yana. She placed this image in the same blog post below.

Because of the confusion caused by the blooper spoilers regarding Kuroshitsuji II, Yana Taboso is so kind to post her apology as well as her explanations regarding what happened in the past few months.

Beware though, you have to watch Episode 1 first so that you can understand what she wants to relay to everyone.

So Kuroshitsuji fans, hopefully this will close the controversy this anime has endured until the day of its airing! I personally understand the reason why Yana and the whole staff did that, and they are not wrong. They got negative comments as expected, but the surprise it gave to everyone was really high! The excitement level for Kuroshitsuji really went up!

Credits to nayama at LJ for sharing this to everyone. Original entry of Yana is here. It's written in Japanese.

Everything for the sake of that person
by: Yana Taboso, as translated by nayama at the Kuroshitsuji LJ Community


The first episode of Kuroshitsuji II aired yesterday in the Kansai area and today in the Kantou (and others) area.
Thank you to everybody who watched the first episode!

1 year and 3 months have passed since the first TV anime finished. It was a long, long wait.
I hope that starting from now, for a few months, this second TV anime Kuroshitsuji will be able to entertain you and color your life in black, even just slightly.

The postscript contains spoilers for the first episode, so if you live in an area where it hasn't aired yet please wait to watch it before reading.

I'll be talking about what has happened from the time the first anime ended to today's airing, about what happened in this six months, basically about my state of mind.

Among the ones who watched the first episode, some of you might want to know what the original creator and the anime staff are aiming for with this second season. If you're one of them please read further.

It's six months worth of stuff, so it's pretty long.

Don't read if you haven't watched the first episode, ok?



Are you sure???





Let's dance with the devil!


*Click on the picture to see the original size! It's very big. Be careful.
[note: You can see this lovely picture clicking on the diary's title, it'll bring you to the original entry page. Yana doesn't want people to direct-link her pics, but they're otherwise free to view, hence why I posted the link to the entry.]


Let's start from the beginning.

I apologize to the fans for the ill feelings you had during these six months.

Since January 31st, the day the second season was announced, I've been receiving lots of...
Well yeah, an incredible number of messages.
The majority of them were more or less like this:

"Isn't it called 'Kuroshitsuji' because it has Sebastian and Ciel in it?"
"You're the creator and yet you're abandoning all the fans who are waiting for Sebastian and Ciel?"
"You don't love your characters, you fail as a creator."

Earnest complaints, angry words. What to say... I was beaten up pretty badly (LOL).
I even received messages of complaints directed to myself so long that the scrollbar of my mail browser had become shorter than 2 cm, sometimes I almost wanted to cry... (bitter smile)
I read every word of every single message, biting my lips, thinking that all the complaints and scoldings I've been receiving since the announcement show the size of the love you all have for Sebastian and Ciel. Thank you very much.
I'm sorry for not being able to give you an accurate answer at the time.
Consider this post an answer to all of your mails.

As you said too, Sebastian and Ciel's existence is essential to "Kuroshitsuji".

This fact is hard to change, no matter what.
I understand it very well.

I'm the original creator of the manga "Kuroshitsuji". All of you who love my work are very important to me, and the "TV anime Kuroshitsuji" that you loved is as well.
Same goes for the anime's slightly kind Sebastian and slightly naive and cute Ciel, they are also important to me.

I think that all of you who sent me angry emails wanted a second series exactly because you watched the first one and supported it.
It is because there was a first season that we can have a second one.
That's why, when I was told there would be a second anime, the one thing I asked as the creator was: "Please don't pretend the first season didn't exist".
To be honest, after that ending, "pretending the first season didn't exist" is a lot easier than "acknowledging it existed".
But creating a new series with the same name after such a short time and using the original manga for the plot, pretending the first season didn't exist, is not very good in my opinion.
To me the manga and anime are both "Kuroshitsuji", but I think the character you cried for and wanted to see move again is "the anime's Ciel", the one who in the first season managed to achieve his revenge after many hardships.
Still, their time stopped in the last episode of the first season.
The director Shinohara chose that ending, and I gave my approval.

After that, thanks to the incredible voice of all the fans (really, this is all thanks to your support), they decided to make the time of the anime Kuroshitsuji move again.
But for Sebastian & co.'s time to move again, for Ciel's eyes to open once again... and to not disappoint all of you who were sad and moved by the ending of the first season... the staff and me thought a lot, and the result of six months worth of thinking is the announcement that was made on January 31st.

We were sure that for some time all the people who were expecting Sebastian and Ciel would be sad.
We knew that we would probably be blamed and hated.
We also expected the new master & butler pair to be heavily criticized for at least some time, despite all the love the staff put into creating them.
We chose to announce it that way knowing very well what would have happened.
Of course we never had the slightest intention of making you feel bad, so that decision was actually very sad for us (bitter smile).
Even Claude's seiyuu Sakurai-san, in January's event, said: "It's terribly hard for me to go on stage, but I'll try my best...!"
He was very nice and resolute.

Right after the first season ended, Sebas' seiyuu Ono-san said:
"It's kinda hard to go 'I was jo~king, I'm not gonna eat you of co~urse' after this ending".
And it's exactly what we all thought.
After that last episode aired, I received all sorts of mails: praises, sadness, anger... Really, a huge number of messages, and while reading them I thought:
After that ending, making Ciel come back to life right away would be like making all his sufferings during season one useless. We cannot just have him back to life like nothing happened.

Nonetheless, we want to see Ciel again.

This is what everybody in the staff and all the fans said.
Thank you very much.
Thanks to all of you, we can now have a second season with Sebastian and Ciel in it.

Now, the story that will unfold in this second season couldn't be realized if you'd known from the start that Sebastian and Ciel were going to be in it.
If we had announced that at the time a second anime was decided, it would have been meaningless to create it and it would have been a pity, considering all of you wished for it.
At the beginning you'll probably think "??? What's this???" and have many doubts, but if you keep on watching you'll get a surprising answer to them.
I can't go into details now, but the questions "Who in the world are Alois and Claude?" and "Why was it necessary to hide the presence of Sebastian, Ciel and the other charas from the original work?", together with the rest, will be answered, so please look forward to the story's development.
This second season is not something we can talk about taking each episode on its own.
It's basically one big story as a whole.
Well, what else can I say... Anyway, please watch it until the end! If you do you will understand everything! This is all I can tell you (LOL).

But there is one thing I can say for sure. These six months are concentrated in the line that appeared on the sash of volume 7: "Well then... Young master, open your eyes." We worked six months to get there.
Six months to get to the post-first season timeline, together with Alois, Claude and the traveller (LOL).

Even in the Tabloid, there was this line:

"The truth was in your hands from the beginning. It's easier to see than you think."

And it's really like that.
Since the second season was announced on the cover of the volume, the answer has been written there.
"A second TV anime will be produced! Well then... Young master, open your eyes".
In other words, Ciel would open his eyes again.
After the official announcement, I got many angry emails from the fans saying:
"You wrote 'well then... young master, open your eyes'! You're a liar!"
I really wanted to reply:
"Yes, I did! I wrote that. I'm not lying. That's the answer. So please wait!"
Of course there were also a few people saying "I believe those words", and that gave me courage.
Thank you very much for having faith in me (^^)

The Kuroshitsuji master & butler pair defeated the mighty Queen+White butler pair in the first season. Their new rivals will be Alois and Claude, that is the Trancy family pair, and speaking of them, after talking it over we reached the conclusion that we couldn't just introduce them as normal enemies during the story, because that way they wouldn't have been able to compete with the reigning protagonist pair.
This is why this time we decided not to introduce them as "enemies" , but as "the new Kuroshitsuji master & butler".
To make people think "these are no ordinary people!" about characters that have no backbone we used Takahiro Sakurai-san and Nana Mizuki-san, very skilled seiyuu.
In a sense, we could say that the anime already started on January 31st.

Besides, in Kuroshitsuji II Claude and Alois aren't just "enemies".
As the director said too, they're "the other Kuroshitsuji pair", as essential to Kuroshitsuji II as Sebastian and Ciel.
The director, K and Shimizu P said this too in the Nico live streaming [note: the live streaming on Nico Nico Douga that was broadcasted at the same time as the first episode's airing on MBS], but well, if they had been a simple stalking-horse there would've been no need to go as far as we did (LOL).
As a matter of fact, the OP movie, the Tabloid and the cover of GF are dedicated to them.
Not even Sebastian and Ciel ever got this treatment! And there are no key visuals for the second season with only Sebastian and Ciel! (lol)
But Sebastian and Ciel got quite a few very beautiful ones during the first season, so we can say that they're happily even!!!
I really love the key visual drawn by Shiba-san with the two Kuroshitsuji pairs that was finally made public.

If we were to describe the two Kuroshitsuji pairs I'd say that
if Sebastian and Ciel are the main characters born from the manga,
then Claude and Alois are the main characters born from the anime.
To me both of them are an important part of "Kuroshitsuji", both very hard to substitute.
From now on those two pairs will cross the medias and face each other. If you want to know how the story will develop, please watch it until the end.
I really cannot thank enough these new master & butler and their two seiyuu for taking Kuroshitsuji II this far even before the actual show aired.
I'll be counting on them from now on too.

Also, I'll tell you one thing... Sure enough Sebastian and Ciel are characters born from the original manga, but... this time you shouldn't take for granted that they will win against the other pair!

Well, I bet that no matter what I say, many people will still think "Uh it's obvious that Sebastian and Ciel will win in no time" (LOL).
But please, watch at least until episode 4... no, 8... no, just watch it until the end before making your decision!
I'm pretty sure that you won't regret it.

Anyway... not being able to say anything was... very, very hard orz

Ahh I felt so depressed (LOL). King Midas has donkey's eaaaars!!! (By Shiba-san)

But I guess all the people worried that Sebastian and Ciel might not be back had it tougher than me.
Sorry very much. I'm back now.
I would really like to go and hug each of you for waiting this far.
I'm here~. Next to you~. I'm not going any~where~♪ (You can hear this in the full version of the 2nd season's ED song)
I've been often told "I'm tired of the stick, please give me some carrot". Don't worry, from now on I'll throw so much carrots at you that it hurts! [note: in Japanese it's not "the carrot and the stick" but "candies and whip". I guess candies sound yummier, lol 8D;]
We have a heap of funny projects in store, be careful not to miss them!
I've received many proposals, so I'm going to help with Kuroshitsuji II too, though my skills are limited.
First of all, speaking about something that has been announced already, the OVA "Ciel In Wonderland (first part)" that comes with the 2nd DVD!
I designed a LOT of clothes for the characters and accessories (LOL).
Only counting the charas' clothes and the accessories I've drawn so far for the second season and the OVA, it's over 100 full color sheets! There will be lots of changes of clothes in the second season too! (a little spoiler)
I've been working under the surface all this time...
Maybe it looked to you like I was procrastinating, but I was actually doing a lot (LOL).
Now I hope that I'll be able to show you all the work I've done so far, a little at a time.


In the February 3rd diary (the January 31st event report) I wrote:
"To bring you 'a new Kuroshitsuji', something that you've never seen before, the whole staff is uniting their efforts toward the airing that will start in July"...
Now I can finally tell you what "a new Kuroshitsuji" truly means.

"Not a reworking, not a rerun, a 'new Kuroshitsuji' with all new episodes that no one has ever seen before."

This is it!
Sorry for acting like Sebastian!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sebastian and Ciel, Claude and Alois.
The two pairs of Kuroshitsuji.
Please continue supporting "Kuroshitsuji II".
Whatever the reason, it's true that we made some people sad.
The only thing we can do to apologize is to create something good, that's why I'm sure the anime staff are doing their best. Of course I'm doing the same for the manga too!
It will definitely be a wonderful anime, with plenty of contents and action! Please support it!!

Do your best! Run all the way until the end, Kuroshitsuji II! I'll be running too!

Ah, right... Lastly.
The official HP, the official Twitter, past anime magazines, GF, Black Tabloid, the GF blog, Toboso's blog...
A long time ago I decided this:
"In official places I'll do like Sebastian, I'll never ever tell lies to the fans (in his case his master)!"
There's nothing but the truth written in the places I listed above, you can read them again to check.

I especially suggest that you reread the story Kuma-san wrote for Black Tabloid.

If you read it again after watching the first episode you will understand who the actual storyteller is.
The person who was "talking nonsense to himself" in a "dead forest surrounded on all sides by walls of steel" was actually "him".
The nonsense antonyms resembling Luis Carroll's Alice that you see at the beginning are actually the truth.
Personally, I find the line "I've always been alone with someone else." really superb.
"He" has always been alone in a dead forest, but he has always been "with someone".
Can you understand the meaning?
I contributed a few ideas too (kind of as a supervisor), but this time Kuma-san wins. Darn, I'm frustrated (LOL).
By the way, Tonchinkan [note: the triplets; they call them like that because it's the beginning of their names together] aren't the actual protagonists of my picture either. Take a closer look at what they're carrying!

Ahh, I'm really envious of my editor Kuma's talent with words.
Why is he working as an editor?
Why is he working as an editor for my poorly-drawn manga? It's a mystery (LOL).

Anyway, both in the illustration of the second season's new master & butler and in the picture I drew for this novel, I made sure to insert "him".
He's dozing in a dead forest, waiting for "someone" to come and pick him up. Try to look for him.

Finally, please watch "Kuroshitsuji" until the end to see what fate awaits the anime version of them.