Before making a single edit, Tropedia EXPECTS our site policy and manual of style to be followed. Failure to do so may result in deletion of contributions and blocks of users who refuse to learn to do so. Our policies can be reviewed here.
All images MUST now have proper attribution, those who neglect to assign at least the "fair use" licensing to an image may have it deleted. All new pages should use the preloadable templates feature on the edit page to add the appropriate basic page markup. Pages that don't do this will be subject to deletion, with or without explanation.
All new trope pages will be made with the "Trope Workshop" found on the "Troper Tools" menu and worked on until they have at least three examples. The Trope workshop specific templates can then be removed and it will be regarded as a regular trope page after being moved to the Main namespace. THIS SHOULD BE WORKING NOW, REPORT ANY ISSUES TO Janna2000, SelfCloak or RRabbit42. DON'T MAKE PAGES MANUALLY UNLESS A TEMPLATE IS BROKEN, AND REPORT IT THAT IS THE CASE. PAGES WILL BE DELETED OTHERWISE IF THEY ARE MISSING BASIC MARKUP.
Joker as well as the other members of Noah's Arc circus.
Alternative Character Interpretation: Happens a lot with Ciel; some people think he actually cares about others, and other people think he does not care at all about others or even hates them. Part of this is due to his extremely different personalities in the two canons (manga Ciel and anime Ciel have a lot of differences). This also happens with a few other characters, but to a lesser degree.
Despite there being no real proof, there are some people who genuinely believe that Sebastian is losing himself to his butler persona and becoming more human and less cruel.
This interpretation seems to be implied by the lyrics to Bird, the second season's first ending theme.
Some people consider Ciel to be asexual, but other fans think he is gay or bisexual.
Whether you're a shipper or not, he hasshown hints of romantic affection towards Elizabeth. It should be kept in mind, though, that despite his maturity Ciel is only thirteen and, similarly to most shounen protagonists, a romantic and/or sexual relationship is the last thing on his mind. Then there's hisdeeply troubled past...
Angst? What Angst?: Finny's backstory includes him being locked in a stone room and experimented on for an undetermined amount of time. The amount of times he complains about this? ZERO.
Pretty much every character with a Dark and Troubled Past is subject for this except for Ciel. Ciel's other servants are a mild example, as well as Madam Red and the circus kids.
Grell as well, to some. She's a MtF transsexual and pretty much everyone in the series is rude towards her. She doesn't seem to care at all, though.
Broken Base: Team Phantomhive and Team Trancy. Not to mention the manga lovers and anime lovers.
Episode seven of season 2 seems to have caused this for Ciel. Fans are divided between those who approve of his 'murder' of Alois, like him better for it, and feel it was perfectly in line with his character and those who feel he went past the Moral Event Horizon and either actively dislike him or can't decide how they feel.
Angela Blanc/Ash Landers in the latter half in the first season. They basically want genocide-even call it cleansing, and are responsible for the deaths of the Phantomimes.
Die for Our Ship: When it comes to pairing up Ciel, you either go with Sebastian or Elizabeth. Well, the anime gives you only one choice at the end. And guess what? This trope is inverted. Sebastian might have Ciel's soul and technically wins over Lizzie... but only because Ciel is dead.
At the conclusion of the second season, Ciel is alive, but as a demon, he leaves London, and Sebastian still wins...er...loses? as he is stuck as Ciel's butler for eternity-- which he never wanted.
Actually, judging from most of the discussions this troper has seen about the subject (Tumblr, Kuroshitsuji forums, etc.), many people are either welcoming of the Character Development to downright ecstatic (to the point of Memetic Mutation, see below). Though how far people's newfound respect for Lizzie reaches into shipping is still up for debate.
Draco in Leather Pants: Madame Red often goes through this treatment. While she has a rather sad backstory, most fans tend to ignore her rather brutal murders as Jack the Ripper and view her in an oddly positive light.
Grell. Many people seem to forget and even forgive that she was one half of Jack the Ripper, and that she murdered Madam Red.
Arguably, nearly all of the characters are subject to this. Sebasitian and Ciel are sometimes downright glorified in fanon for their dastardly deeds, and people seem to have forget the crap that Druitt pulled upon first appearance (though it's probably because he's become nothing much more than comic relief by this point). We can also add Undertaker and Claude to the list.
Ensemble Darkhorse: Grelle. Her popularity is hugely disproportionate to her screentime, at least in the manga.
Ronald Knox can now be this.
Undertaker as well.
The seaweed in the Hamlet OAV is an in-universe example.
Cosplaying as Madame Red can catch a ton of eyes in public, so it's very off-putting when one watches the anime to see that the humorous, cheerful, strong-willed, attractive and motherly aunt is revealed to be one of the villains and dies within that same episode very early.
The demon justification is completely jossed in the snime, whose second season includes a few new demons who are not perfect.
Ciel is also much more guilty of Suedom than Elizabeth, and yet the fans worship him and think he can do no wrong. Not even setting a bunch of kids on firecan fault him. Sure, he has a Freudian Excuse, but he's done some pretty awful things that don't deserve that justification.
The series itself is referred to as "Kuroshit" by detractors. (And by sarcastic fans)
Foe Yay: Grell attempts to have this with Sebastian in her first appearance in the anime and only (so far) appearance in the manga. Sebastian appears torn between being sick or requesting a restraining order.
Also between Sebastian and Angela/Ash.
And, as of Season 2, Alois Trancy to Ciel. Ciel is not entirely sure how to react to the former. Episode 6 of Season 2 shows enough between Claude and Sebastian to match up with the two.
Freud Was Right: Not as prominent in the manga, but the anime version of Ciel's subconscious definitely had some choice words for Vincent.
Harsher in Hindsight: In episode 9, Finny mentions the fact he accidentally killed his pet bird when he was younger. It becomes even harsher when we realise the bird was probably his only friend when he was used as a guinea-pig.
Hate Dumb: Go on Gaia Online and announce your love for this series. Go on, wedareyou. To clarify: The series gets a lot of angry (albeit semi-justified) hate due to the heaps of Ho Yay, Fan Service, and the Shotacon implications all throughout the series. Because of this, there are some people who won't touch it with a ten foot pole. Worse yet, there are also some who will insult and degrade you for liking it, marking you as nothing more than a mere Yaoi Fangirl who promotes pedophilia and even Satanism/Demon worshipping. Sadly, a lot of it is probably due to Hype Aversion/Hype Backlash, and some of it is probably due to some fans who have actually stated that they wish they could get tortured so that a handsome demon will come and "rescue" them, so it really works both ways in this case.
Het Is Ew: A large portion of the fanbase. Unsurprising, considering all the Ho Yay in the series.
I Knew It!: A vocal minority of fans spent much time attempting to reassure the rest of the fandom that A-1 were trolling the fanbase and that Ciel and Sebastian would return in full capacity, despite the announcement of the new master and butler. Guess what happened when episode 1 aired?
Some fans were guessing that Alois was cross-dressing to meet Ciel after a preview for episode five. They were right.
In the murder mystery arc in the manga, a lot of people speculated that Sebastian was not really dead; they were right. Some others also speculated that a snake would be used to commit one or more of the murders; they were also right.
It's the Same, Now It Sucks: The second season, after it was revealed that Ciel and Sebastian will return. A few fans would have liked it to be independent from the original duo.
Jerkass Woobie: Ciel can be seen as this, since he doesn't mind killing or hurting anyone who gets in the way of his plans, but at the same time, he is portrayed very sympathetically, usually because of his horrible past.
Alois. He has a horrible past, and as a result, the only person he depends on for happiness is Claude, who openly admits that he honestly does not care about Alois at all, and just stays by his side so that he can use him to obtain Ciel's soul, despite the fact that most of the horrible things Alois does to people is mainly just because he wants Claude to pay attention to and care for him. It gets worse for Alois in episode 7. "Hey... you look like you're seeing maggots squirming in a dung heap..." God knows what he's going to do now that Claude doesn't even pretend to care about him any more. And in episode 8, Claude says "A soul such as that...is certainly unfit to sustain me," referring to the fact that Alois actually feels love for him and Claude finds that disgusting.
At the end of season II, even Sebastian can count as this. That look on his face when he realized that he'd have to serve Ciel for all eternity and will never be able to eat his soul was absolutely disheartening for some fans.
Like You Would Really Do It: As if a poker to the chest and a shovel to the head would actually kill Sebastian. Guess what, it didn't.
Alois: Although he spends most of the series as The Chessmaster mostly because of his immature mannerisms, he graduates to this level when he makes a contract with Hanna detailing that she gets Sebastian and Claude to fight for the ownership for Ciel's soul. And the winner... will be screwed over when they find out that Ciel's soul can't be consumed because Ciel has become a demon.
Marty Stu: Sebatian could be considered this, but it's justified since he is a demon. Ciel sometimes wishes Sebastian would fail at something, purely for the humor of it.
Though the justification is for naught in the second anime, where all of the other demons are quite flawed. Except for Sebastian, of course.
Alois' outfit has more or less reached this status by now.
Memetic Sex God: Sure, everyone loves to get touchy-feely on Ciel, who has had his own Stalker with a Crush since he was seven years old, but if you are in-universe and don't have a thing for Sebastian, you don't have a pulse. Or Abberline. Anime-wise, even the dog and an angel want Sebastian.
Misaimed Fandom: There are a lot of people in the fandom who ship Sebastian and Ciel and want them to live Happily Ever After. This is despite how Word of God has emphasized that Sebastian is a demon who only wants to eat Ciel and that Ciel does not trust him. Still, with all the Ho Yay going on between those two, it's hard to blame the fans.
Some people took the infamous scene in which Ciel vomits and Sebastian lovingly cradles his head while smirking as a sign of love and affection on Sebastian's part and still rejoice in it to this day despite how utterly devastated Ciel was at that time. Because of all of the Fan Service piled onto this series, a lot of fans tend to not realize how pivotal some scenes really are simply because of the sexy factor.
Moe: A lot of characters, in both male and female varieties.
Moral Event Horizon: As of episode 8 of the second season, Claude has crossed it, for many people.
A minority of fans believe that Ciel crossed it when he ordered Sebastian to burn down a building full of children, and then ordered him to kill Flower.
Ruined FOREVER: Most fans were not pleased about the announcement of a second anime season that stars an original protagonist and butler. Then the fandom watched the first episode of season two. And there was much rejoicing. Later in the season, fans were calling this again for various reasons.
Ship Sinking: Done in episode 7 of the second season in regards to the Ciel/Alois and Claude/Alois ships when Ciel stabs Alois in the stomach and tries to stab him in the head but is stopped by Claude (though he struggles with Claude and Sebastian in an attempt to get back to Alois's side so he can kill him) and when Claude proceeds to completely ignore Alois's pleas for help after getting a taste of Ciel's blood. And in episode 8 Alois practically confesses his love for Claude who smiles and holds his face tenderly before crushing his skull.
Though, the Claude/Alois ship seems to be at least partially restored in episode 12.
Stoic Woobie: Ciel. Overlaps with Jerkass Woobie. Despite the things he has been put through, he usually doesn't complain about them and always tries to keep moving forward. Though, there was one time in chapter 34 where he appeared to snap.
Snake.
Squick: Lord Kelvin, Grell, and Ciel's tailor aside, it should be mentioned that the writers sometimes seem to go out of their way to add as much Ho Yay as possible between Sebastian and Ciel, especially in the anime. Unfortunate Implications, much?
Alois and Claude are heavily implied to have a sexual relationship. Alois /Jim has a rather squicktastic way of relating to the men in his life.
Claude kissing Ciel /Alois's foot.
Every. Single. Scene. Involving the Earl Trancy in season 2. "Another doll broke?"
Baron Kelvin too.
There are also way too many loving pans of Ciel's prepubescent body for some readers' comfort. Particularly in chapter 62, dearLORD...
Anytime someone shoves their arm down Hannah's throat. Those sounds...ugh.
Too Dumb to Live - Elizabeth, you don't follow a stranger who doesn't even act as if he was human, you don't go on a boat in a middle of a STORM just to find a dear, you don't follow your fiance just to make him eat a cake when he's with a gun and tells you to go back because it's dangerous.
Viewer Gender Confusion: Finny. Grelle as well, in both butler and reaper form. Alois is also fairly common, and Ciel for some, as well.
What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: The series has Seinen written all over it, but is published in a Shonen magazine. To elaborate, it includes violence and gore, murder, child abuse, sex (and in the anime, rape), pedophilia, and questionable dialogue.
The Woobie: Hannah could be considered this, due to Alois's treatment of her. Subverted when she is revealed to be a demon, and could easily fight back if she wanted to. It's implied she actually enjoys the attention.
Margaret Turner, the potential Jerkass Woobie. Sure, she's nuts, but seeing her put down so much, just for her weight, makes you wonder if she had a good reason.
It wasn't because she was put down for her weight, it was because she was unsatisfied with her marriage. Either way, there's no real justifiable reason for brutally killing innocent newlywed women.
Madame Red fits this trope to a T.
Honestly though, her horrific deeds as Jack the Ripper kind of nullify her Woobie status. At the very least, they push her into Jerkass Woobie territory.
Soma, to some.
Almost all of the circus performers.
Even Lizzie to some.
WTH Costuming Department: Sebastian--In his demon form, he wears tight leather pants and high heels.
YMMV • 
Radar • 
Quotes • (
Funny • 
Heartwarming • 
Awesome) • 
Fridge • 
Characters • 
Fanfic Recs • 
Nightmare Fuel • 
Shout Out • 
Plot • 
Tear Jerker • 
Headscratchers • 
Trivia • WMG • 
Recap • 
Ho Yay • 
Image Links • 
Memes • 
Haiku • Laconic • 
Source • Setting