Black Butler Forum

@FLStyle: I vote "yes." :D 
 
@kippy666: We'll see!

@RockmanBionics: FWIW, if I was giving a number to it right now, I'd give it a 4 of 5. It's just missing something to nudge it into that solid 5.

It's difficult to describe why I love this series so much.
But a translation note: even though they explained why in the back of the book, the "I'm a devil of a butler" thing just didn't sit right with me.  That may be a more accurate translation, but when I was watching the anime, someone translated it as "one hell of a butler," which...sounds better and makes more sense, in my opinion.
 
I don't know what the exact translation of Kuroshitsuji is, but as someone said...  Black Butler because he's a dark character and wears black...I guess.
 
And obviously those who have seen the anime (or read ahead in the manga) know that the three (four) servants are there for good reason.  Though of course, without that knowledge, they do indeed appear rather worthless.
 
For a first volume, it probably is a little weak.  The servants appear to be useless comedic fluff, the nature of Ciel and Sebastian's relationship is not actually explained (in regards to WHY they have a contract), and there's no sign of the central plot line to be found.  I imagine a lot of the sales are from people who are already fans (like me), though I admit I am rather surprised there are so many fans.  There is a lot to love there, though.  There's an element of effortless humor that colors the story quite nicely.

@Kris: That's fair, and I'm with you on the "hell of a butler" translation. I had other notes that I could have made-- there were a couple of random moments where they went with a sort of old-fashioned speech. It was Mey Rin (an odd romanization since it reads like fakey Chinese-- Mei Lin?), talking to Elizabeth in the second chapter. She says "I can see nary a thing without my glasses," while Elizabeth is running around squealing "CUUUUTE!" about things. It was a little odd. 
 
Kuroshitsuji does translate directly to "Black Butler," I just continue to have this mental image of someone seeing ONLY the title on the side of the book while it's on a shelf and being confused ;)

@gia
I was thinking, and I do have this to say about the servants:
There's no way a character like Sebastian, who is all about appearance and perfection, would ever let truly useless people like that work in the manor.  That should be enough for someone to pick up that there must be something about them, even if we don't know what it is yet.  Just a thought.
 
I did think the old fashioned speech slipping in there was a little odd, but it came across (to me) as being done on purpose to seem silly or comedic.  As if she was trying to sound more elegant on purpose, as a character, while talking to Elizabeth...maybe. Maybe I'm stretching that a bit.  :)
 
But then, this is Victorian England...and there's a character basically carting around a cell phone, and it appears that Ciel enjoys playing video games.  So there are several strange things.

"It's not as solid as I would've expected", I could say the same thing about the publisher.