Agni sacrifices his life protecting Prince Soma from the killers in Ciel's home. Ciel and Sebastian arrive too late. This is when the other Ciel arrives. It turns out that the Ciel readers have known since the beginning of the series is actually a twin, specifically the spare (who, unless I missed it, is never once named in this entire volume). Flashbacks show their birth and childhood. The spare Ciel (our Ciel) wanted to become a toymaker, while Ciel was going to be the next Earl Phantomhive. Spare Ciel was sickly and, although no one ever treated him unkindly, there were frequent reminders that one day he'd be on his own. This volume's bonus illustration and Black Butler AU: Black Santa.

Oh boy. Well, that explains why Lizzie said she couldn't come back. She realized that she's actually the fiancee of the real Ciel (aka Evil Ciel).

I'm tempted to go looking up interviews, because I find it difficult to believe that this particular twist was planned for the more than the past two or three volumes. I don't own this series and therefore can't go back to look inconsistencies, but I can recall multiple times in the past when Ciel met with people who knew his parents who should have said something about the information revealed in this volume. I mean, there's no good explanation for why they didn't. Why would they be sad about the parents but never once think about Ciel's adorable and sickly little brother, even if he wasn't destined to be the next earl?

So on the one hand, I'm looking forward to reading the next volume and seeing where Toboso goes with this. It feels like we might be nearing the series' endgame. On the other hand, this twist feels cheap and annoying. And if it's revealed that real Ciel had a hand in spare Ciel's abuse and near-death after their parents died, I'm probably going to get snarly. There's no sign of it in the way they interact with each other in the flashback, so the main reason why I'm worried this development is a possibility is because it occurred to me that the people who killed Agni looked an awful lot like the robed guys who kept Ciel (spare Ciel) caged.

My guess is that spare Ciel is going to have a bit of a breakdown as soon as the flashbacks are over, but hopefully he'll snap out of it pretty quickly. Real Ciel might have surprise and a bunch of killers on his side, but spare Ciel has a demon, so I'm betting on the spare.

Rating Note:

I feel like I'm rewarding bad behavior with my 4-star rating for this volume, but Toboso's efforts did have the intended effect of making me really, really want to read the next volume, so there's that.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )

A regular character dies!
Most everything we know about Ciel Phantomhive has been a lie?
Secret origin time?
Juicy! ( )

This is the 26th volume in the Black Butler series and it was a fairly emotional and startling one with some huge twists. I enjoyed it a lot and remain a huge fan of this series.

The book plunges us right into the action with the death of a major character….sadness. Meanwhile some of the side characters are still recovering from the music hall incident. When Ciel finally gets home after making sure Samos has the care he needs (he’s recovering from an mysterious attack), there is a huge surprise waiting both for Ciel and the readers.

This is an excellent installment in this series with some huge new twists and turns. Beautifully illustrated as usual! Of all the mangas I have read, this is one of the most beautifully illustrated ones and I love the characters and complex plots.

Overall this was an amazing installment in the Black Butler series that had me dying to read the next book in the series. I highly recommend this whole manga series, it’s just so well done. ( )