Greetings again fellow fanatical travelers of the great fantastical realms!
This news I bring you is dear to my heart, I have been, for some time, sitting upon it awaiting for the prime moment to spring my glee upon the world! I dearly wish I could have shown you a video of my fan-girl squeal that the youtube link within this article endued from me. I could not have been a more happier fan in such a delightful moment.
I adore Anime and Manga, I also adore that they are often the same stories told in very different formats and recently I am being thrilled with a new trend of bringing the genre of live-action story-telling into the umbrella. There are so many incredible ways to tell one story, with the same characters! It captivates an author such as myself, I simply cannot help but be enthralled in the tentacles of such fantasy. I will always be entertained by such wonders — thus — when I heard that one of my favorite anime/manga “Black Butler – Kuroshitsuji” (written and illustrated by Yana Toboso) was being transformed into a live-action film I was beyond excited; I was ecstatic!
This film is set three hundred and thirty years after original anime/manga, in the year 2020, in a city where Western and Asian cultures seem to freely intermingle. It would appear that though time has moved on, only males can still inherit the family titles and Shiori must don male clothes to lead the massive Phantom Corporation.
The story has been changed, morphed, some of the characters are different — and this has caused great unrest among many, many fans — but me? Hardly – seriously, to me, that premise actually sounds pretty interesting. And I love it that live action is another format to tell a story that I have adored and I simply cannot wait to see how it turns out. Looking at the tiny piece of footage offered thus far, it is going to be just as gorgeous as the anime itself.
Here is the teaser trailer – and yes folks, it is in Japanese.
The film stars Hiro Mizushima and Ayame Gouriki and is directed by by Kentaro Otani and anime creator Keiichi Sato and will premiere on January 18th, 2014. Thus I shall happily be awaiting with great excitement another live-action adaption of an anime/manga in a trend that I really, truly do hope will continue to tell the stories I adore in another format that I also adore.
Isn’t this just fantastic folks!
And now for the awesome poster.
Kylie Leane – Reporter
- Kylie Leane was raised on a healthy upbringing of old classic science fiction thanks to her Dad. Though being unable to spell or write, she was confident that with imagination by her side, someday she would be a writer! Which she is now, writing fantasy and science fiction while illustrating on the side. She has an unquenchable love of Anime/Manga and can’t stop buying books after this novel called Fellowship of the Ring changed her life.
How accessible is it going to be over in the US I wonder?
I’m not so positive about the changes. I haven’t read the manga, but I liked the anime. The thing is, what I really liked about the anime was the Victorian setting and the use of various mysteries and elements from Victorian history. I’m not sure how I would like it without those. Also, it doesn’t seem the same without the butler saying “Yes, my lord” in heavily accented English. 😉
I am not surprised at all that you’re not overly positive about the changes. Pretty everyone I talk to, and everywhere I go on the web, no-one is happy with the changes. I’m just an *overly* optimistic happy-chappy person who have faith in everything and I seriously *love* the fact that we’re now starting to see stories being told in different formats. The manga is a must read, it’s utterly gorgeous and much more robust in story-telling than the anime.
I do very much agree with however, that yes, it is the Victorian setting that appeals to me about the whole story, which is partly why I love the series so much. So I really curious to see how things would go. The voice actor for Sebastian is one of my favorite voice-actors in the industry, I do love his ‘Yes, my lord’ very much — after I watch the whole thing in Japanese and switched it to English I was so very delighted in their English voice-acting choices 😀
So I can see everyone’s concerns – but being the happy-go-lucky girl I am, I’m also really excited 😀
Thanks for reading and commenting Fionnuala. ^^
I’ve only watched it in Japanese and it was quite a while ago. It was one of the first animes I watched after InuYasha and Negima. I’m certainly not opposed to this reworking, just skeptical. 😉
On a side note, I’m going to be reviewing the animes I watch on my blog starting (soon) with The Book of Bantorra, which I really loved.
they made it into a love story its stupid EAT A DAMN SOUL DUDE!