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Where do I even begin with this anime?

I think I'll start off by saying, this anime is really only for people who are fans of the game. If you don't play the game or at least read/watch a walkthrough then you will be generally clueless to the characters or the way that gather evidence go. The anime skips a lot of key points when it comes to gathering the evidence.
Sixteen characters and thirteen episodes was never a good idea, giving each character a three episode arc, and then boom, they are dead. It is hardly enough time to characterize them. This leaves ... the watcher apathetic and noncaring towards most of them because we simply don't know much about them beyond the scope of what the anime entails.
The prime example is Leon Kuwata. There is a lot of characterization in the game that is missed in the anime. For instance, while he is the super high school level baseball player/all star, he desired to change his super high school title to rock star, and thus his appearance changed greatly.

This isn't even explained in the anime, and you get two different renders of his character. If you watch the first episode you merely think it's a generic baseball player even though the other characters are shown as they currently look. Nothing about Leon's character was explained. Instead of the character talking about his hopes and dreams and conflicting feelings between his super high school levels, he's delivered generic lines. When his trial comes (it being two of the most emotional trials in the game/anime in my opinion) the character has a mental break down, but we do not feel the same as watchers as we would playing the game because this information is left out. The delivery of emotion is simply not the same and the character looses value.

No one can feel sorry for characters they don't get attached to, no matter how emotionally impacting a trial is supposed to be.

This, like the original Variable Geo is a fighting style anime comprised of three OVAs. The music was alright, but nothing spectacular and the animation was also pretty average as well. There is a lot of fanservice as well as hentai...However, the subject matter may bother some as the losers of the fights are publicly raped. If you can't stomach rape then I really don't suggest this anime at all.

The fights are also mediocre and I prefer the fight scenes of the original Variable Geo, and the condensed plot leaves a lot to be desired and left me asking questions towards the ... end of the anime, like why was the cloning program in existence and who was behind it, and what were their motives?

All in all, this is your average, run of the mill fighting anime with fanservice and what is a plot device for sex or a cheap excuse to explore it's dark side.

Personally, I thought Variable Geo Neo was pretty alright, especially compared to some of the other stuff I've seen around. I give it a seven out of ten for an overall factor.

Being an avid fan of Kuroshitsuji, and seeing the entire first season, OVA as well as being an avid manga fan, I must say that I'm disappointed in this series for several reasons. This is merely an opinion, but I found myself hating the storyline behind season 2 entirely.

Below are the good, bad and ugly of this series:

The good

The series has amazing artowrk and beautiful sound.The animation was crisp and clear and the music was amazing, especially with songs coming from Yuya Matsushima and Nightmare.

The bad, and the ugly.

As several reviewers stated before, it does not follow the manga, but I don't consider that bad ... because a lot of anime follow this trend. The storyline had actually stopped following the original manga plot during the Drocell arc in season one.

Also, this series started off with a filler episode as the second episode. That is a big no-no for any anime. You start off the series by building up the plot, not doing a filler episode that, regardless of whether you watched it or not would still understand the story.

Out of character moments. There are several large out of character moments and things that were brought up and dropped. In one of the episodes, Viscount Druitt (who has a medical degree and offered to sell off the protagonist, Ciel Phantomhive in pieces on a black market auction) fainted at the sight of blood. It was rather vague on if he was extremely happy in seeing it, since he had sadistic reactions to the previous battle, or if it was because he was woozy but I found it very out of character. There are several other moments in Ciel, Sebastian and a few other characters that I found out of character.

Unexplained changes to characters. Several relationships and things about the characters were not explained or elaborated on, which made a very obscure plot and caused general confusion among fans who had been following the series faithfully.

Fan service. To be honest, in my opinion, and don't kill me on this, but this series was written like bad fanfiction and left many answered questions. There was also a huge amount of fanservice and hardly any of it was presented in a way that I thought was well thought out or tasteful in the slightest. The setting and time period for this show went from elegant to trashy and it caused the series to lose it's appeal.

There were also too many of what I call 'scenes of convenience'. Several characters had the opportunity to be interesting and have a good amount of spotlight but were disposed of in poorly executed ways. Viscount fainting was a poor excuse to get rid of his character during an important scene where he could have taken active role in the plot. He was actually promised a very good storyline with watching over Alois but it was disregarded shortly after wards, which was a let down to me, as a personal fan of the characters. Also, as good as the first episode was, shoving Ciel and Sebastian in it all too quickly, as if the say 'Look! They're still in this season!' Because the writers were afraid of fans not being interested was a poor decision in execution as well.

The show had overall poor execution and a lot of things were unexplained or left off. The episodes got more and more ridiculous after a moment in time and I couldn't find myself watching it after a while. It became a chore and not an enjoyment. As a Kuroshitsuji fan, I'm sorely disappointed in this season. As an anime fan whose critiqued anime for 4 years, this is the worst I've seen in a long time.

It's nothing but a case of bad fanfiction turned into an animated series. I expected a lot more from Kuroshitsuji. It only got worse as the series ended. If they make a season 3, I might not even give it the time of day. There are better anime out there, I implore anyone who reads this to stick to season one, or they might end up just getting angry.

If you've read the manga, then the anime takes some getting used to. Certain things about the characters have been changed, as far as reactions to certain events to and things of that nature.

The anime in itself is very good, but for a more mature audience and is based on real life situations more than it is a whimsical fantasy. Dub to sub transition is very well and the voices stay true to the original Japanese persona.

It's a quirky, fun, original take on a love story surrounded by fame and sex. Definitely a series worth getting in to and the animation is ... impeccable, but most anime that are put into motion by MadHouse do not disappoint.