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amanuensis1They've greenlit a second season of Kuroshitsuji. My mixed feelings of "I so want more of this series" and "Nooo don't mess up a perfect ending" are elaborated a little behind the cut.
As the end of the first season approached I had two wishes:
1) I want more of this above all, but--
2) -- when it's time for an ending, do not fuck up the ending. Ultimately Ciel has to die.
The series gave us option number two, and gave it perfectly. Ciel, through the series, never shied from his duty or his fate. A debt was owed, Ciel meant to pay it, and never thought of cheating his death or his demon.
And no, the ending was not ambiguous. The entire second half of the last episode lays Ciel to rest; even for the "Don't believe it until you see the body" rule of adventure fiction, we got to see the body every damn time the end credits rolled for ten episodes. The intent is there, even if we don't actually get to see Sebastian chewing.
And now the announcement of a second season. Guys, I've decided I'm going to be happy about this. I love this series, despite its flaws; as odd and confusing as some of the episodes became, the characters are riveting. It isn't a jewel of coherent storytelling like Death Note or Code Geass, but I wanted as many stories about Ciel and Sebastian as this series agreed to churn out, because they're delicious, and peripheral characters such as Undertaker and Grell and Pluto are cracked-out eye-candy to flesh this mad thing out.
Possibly the second season will not contradict the ending of the first. Ideally we'll get a series of insert mysteries that fill the spaces between the other stories; even if that doesn't happen, well, I have had all the emotional impact of the ending of the first season, and no one can take that from me. The authorial intention seems too explicit, from the ending of season one: we were meant to have the emotional effect that Ciel died. So I can look at anything that occurs post-ending as fanfiction, if I want, and enjoy the hell out of it, and just be happy that Kuroshitsuji has proved to be so popular that the demand for more can't be ignored.
As the end of the first season approached I had two wishes:
1) I want more of this above all, but--
2) -- when it's time for an ending, do not fuck up the ending. Ultimately Ciel has to die.
The series gave us option number two, and gave it perfectly. Ciel, through the series, never shied from his duty or his fate. A debt was owed, Ciel meant to pay it, and never thought of cheating his death or his demon.
And no, the ending was not ambiguous. The entire second half of the last episode lays Ciel to rest; even for the "Don't believe it until you see the body" rule of adventure fiction, we got to see the body every damn time the end credits rolled for ten episodes. The intent is there, even if we don't actually get to see Sebastian chewing.
And now the announcement of a second season. Guys, I've decided I'm going to be happy about this. I love this series, despite its flaws; as odd and confusing as some of the episodes became, the characters are riveting. It isn't a jewel of coherent storytelling like Death Note or Code Geass, but I wanted as many stories about Ciel and Sebastian as this series agreed to churn out, because they're delicious, and peripheral characters such as Undertaker and Grell and Pluto are cracked-out eye-candy to flesh this mad thing out.
Possibly the second season will not contradict the ending of the first. Ideally we'll get a series of insert mysteries that fill the spaces between the other stories; even if that doesn't happen, well, I have had all the emotional impact of the ending of the first season, and no one can take that from me. The authorial intention seems too explicit, from the ending of season one: we were meant to have the emotional effect that Ciel died. So I can look at anything that occurs post-ending as fanfiction, if I want, and enjoy the hell out of it, and just be happy that Kuroshitsuji has proved to be so popular that the demand for more can't be ignored.
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no subject
Date: 2009-06-15 03:23 pm (UTC)That's just the thing. If they make this season two, and they DO contradict the ending to season one, they'll have just royally fucked things up. In a worse way, I think, than if they'd just given us a cop-out to begin with. (If they'd have just given us a cop-out to begin with, and then offered up a season two, I'd be all "Oh. They planned ahead. There will be more. Maybe THIS time..." But as it is, they're doing what I HATE MOST OF ALL-- ruining an already completed series by ripping off the "the end" and continuing it because it's popular.)
And yes, we'll have still had the emotional impact of the end of season one. But it won't mean much of anything now, will it? Because it was a lie. (
"Young Master, I'm not allowed to eat your soul until our ratings drop... So are you up for some more jolly ol' shouta-flavored adventures in Victorian England?" *holds up corset*) It will have cheapened all of the emotional intensity of that last scene... It will have cheapened everything the storytellers/characters/etc. worked for and succeeded in giving us, emotion-wise.I dunno. If they make this a pre-season one season two, or even a in-the-middle-of-season-one season two, I will forgive them. But until they make that very obvious, I am going to be cranky and pissy about this, because the best thing for some series is to just LET IT GO. And unfortunately, very rarely does that actually happen.
Stupid fans and their STUPID NOT GETTING IT.no subject
Date: 2009-06-27 11:19 am (UTC)Mm, no, not to me it won't. I can't expect everyone to feel that way, granted! But I can look at that ending and say, "This was their intention. They had no idea if they'd get a second season and their intention was to create an ending where Ciel does indeed die and give up his soul. No vagueness, no 'but it was over too quickly'--they gave it resolution and denouement and tenderness and tons of screentime, and they foreshadowed it with the damn titles, beginning and/or end, for every damn episode." The authorial intent was there, and even if they retcon it they can't take that from me. It won't be the same for everyone who watches this series in the future, knowing there's another season, but for me, I had my Grail, I drank from it, and I'll never lose the taste of its contents. (Metaphor Girl loves to belabor.)
( "Young Master, I'm not allowed to eat your soul until our ratings drop... So are you up for some more jolly ol' shouta-flavored adventures in Victorian England?" *holds up corset*) *laughs ass off* *quotes everywhere*
no subject
Date: 2009-06-28 04:09 am (UTC)My way of how I would have the second season would be: Them showing Ceil's soul in hell of something along those lines.
(Maybe even a bit of M&S in hell with are favorite Butler ^^;;)
Another way of the second season would be showing what happened or like another comment said "Sebastion and a new master" that would be intersting. What if it was a girl too? But then again we loose the beautiful chacacter Earl(Ceil)