Black Butler: His Butler, Performer

Clannadia Apr 27, 2011

7.5

This OVA works as a comical side story. You still have to watch the first Black Butler series in order to understand it. There is just a simple story. As a charity action, the Funtom company group decided to perform a play for orphans: Hamlet. But the Phantomhive lead didn't preview that he'll have to play in it. The animation is the same than the series one. No point to add. The sound is the same, with the same voice actors. I appreciated their funny side. The characters shine here. They just doen't make sense and it is quite plain hilarious. You'll have the opportunity to see the cast reunited on one same scene from Ciel  to Prince Soma passing through Ran Mao and Viscount Druitt and William T.Spears. Overall, this little OVA doesn't stand much on his own but is it quite an entertainement if you enjoyed the series and it's cranky characters. It definetely respect the vibe of the animated series. Score: 3.5/5. If you enjoyed the series, try this one out. Next! Tales of the Abyss and Darker than Black

FullmetalCowboy Apr 20, 2013

7.5

Critic's Log - Earthdate: April, 19, 2013. Supplemental Review: Black Butler (Kuroshitsuji): His Butler, Performer. The world is a stage and we are all merely players. Those that don't participate in the drama can simply sit back and watch and they can even evaluate after the performance is over if they want. What am I getting at? Here's my supplemental review of Black Butler. This is about the OVA "His Butler, Performer" The actors hired to perform Hamlet for the Phantomhive Company's children charity concert have encountered an accident over the high seas. With the actors unable to arrive at the event on time, Phantomhive's president, Ceil Phantomhive, must now take matters into his own hands and put on a performance worthy of the Phantomhive name. To accomplish this... Ceil, his friends, and his mansion staff take the place of the actors to salvage the concert. Among Ceil's friends that volunteered to aid in this performance are Undertaker, Prince Soma, Agni, Elizabeth, Grell Sutcliff, Lau, and Ran Mao, as well as all the regular characters.  a grand concert is performed through the efforts of Ceil and his butler, Sebastian Michaelis, because after all, you see...He is simply one hell of a butler. To be technical, this is a A-1 Pictures production and there really isn't much to say about this since well...This OVA came with the show and I already mentioned what I said about the animation in this show. The music is done by Taku Iwasaki and I already said enough on him during my review of Black Butler. The same goes for the voice acting but I guess I'll mention the seiyus voice actors again. Daisuke Ono is terrific as Sebastian, Maaya Sakamoto is also terrific as Ciel Phantomhive, Jun Fukuyama is drop dead fantastic as Grell Sutcliff and the Subtitled Version is a great listen. As far as the dub goes, J. Michael Tatum is still one hell of a voice actor as Sebastian, Brina Palencia is a solid listen in the dub as Ciel Phantomhive. Daniel Frederick is delightfully fun to listen to as Grell Sutcliff. Everyone else is a solid listen in the dub. The characters are the same memorable characters you know and probably love depending on if you're into the show or not. There's really nothing in this OVA that adds to the characters but this is a side story so I am not going to complain at all about lack of character development and all. This OVA is a side story after all so it is not even part of the main plot at all, the creators probably made this OVA just for fun and it sure paid off well (for the most part). I really enjoyed this and I really don't have much to say about this OVA since it's only 26 minutes long and not much needs to be said, I recommend watching this after the first season ends, if you are looking for it on the DVD's, It should be in the Special Features somewhere. Oh and stick around for the post-credits scene. I won't say anything about it because I want to keep this a surprise. The Black Butler OVA "His Butler, Performing" is available by Funimation and is released with Season One of the show. With all that said, This Black Butler OVA is a great addition to the Black Butler series, it has its moments and its laughs. It has good animation, fitting music, memorable characters, and all the good stuff that Black Butler has. I guarantee you that this little side story won't disappoint you if you are looking for some good laughs. I give Black Butler: His Butler, Performing a 7.5 out of 10, it is GOOD! Feel free to comment below if you wish. I shall be off then for now.

PoeticHorrorShow5287 Oct 31, 2013

5

The idea of using Hamlet as a basis for this story was intriguing, however, I wish they would have ran with it instead of playing it as a funny, over the top side episode. On the plus side, I loved the return of all my favorite characters especially Grell who is a treat every time he's on the show. Overall, the episode had its moments, but being a connoisseur of Shakespearian literature, I would have loved to see Hamlet acted out completely by some of my favorite characters. 5/10. Watched - dubbed