About the Mangaka
Not a lot of info available on Toboso Yana, his only other work seems to be a single volume title called RustBlaster. He does have a rather snazzy website as well though, but it’s all in japanese.
About the Manga
I’m in two minds over this title. On the one hand I like it for what it is, but on the other I feel the anime does the series better justice (thus being one of the few where the anime is better than the manga).
I love the cover of the volume, though its marred by the title hehe. I would have loved to have a colour panel of it, on it’s own, unfortunately we don’t get one. What we do get is an odd three colour panel. It’s black and greyish green, with a few minor touches of red that really bring the entire panel to life and make it look amazing.
The small colour panel on the back cover is also pretty awesome, and would have looked pretty cool as a full panel, rather than just a small one on the back cover.
The art of the volume is pretty decent, not the greatest, but a lot better than a lot I’ve read recently. I was especially happy at how close to the anime the character designs were (or the anime designs were close to the manga ones 
). These designs all fit the characters we’ve seen so far perfectly, especially
As the volume progresses the art doesn’t change much, but it doesn’t really have to. Sebastian is perfect from the outset, with a well designed character, and his expressions are both creepy and amazing as they’re needed. Ciel is a little different though, as I’ve never been overly fond of his character design in either it’s anime or manga form. Something about a twelve year old heading a family and a multi million pound business just looks wrong to me.
The rest of the Phantomhive staff are pretty well drawn, and I have to admit I liked them. Mey-rin is my favourite, her personality so fits the character design, and she’s just so damned cute!!
Story wise, this series is also well developed and structured from the outset. The thing I noticed however is that the series feels a bit on the fast pace. The first volume really just introduces both Ciel and Sebastian, and sets the stage for the future volumes.
However if you’ve seen the anime a huge chunk is missing from the manga that was in the anime. It deals with the Italian Chlaus. The manga and anime versions go together fairly well, until the dinner, the manga stops there where as the anime takes it a bit further. The anime version is a bit better IMO as it introduces Sebastian a bit more early, as well as gives the show it’s creepy feel a bit earlier.
I have to admit though, that I do like the manga for what it is. Especially since that was the only bit of the anime that was missing, the other aspects included (including Ciel’s bondage) is all there and done really well. I’m looking forward to seeing how the rest of the series plays out!
Once again Yen Press pull off another awesome release, with only one minor quibble, which I’ll get to.
The translation is smooth, flows really well and doesn’t feel forced and haggard. The editing has been done really well, though the copy I have does have some minor guttering. The choice of fonts was perfect, they were easy to read, and perfectly matched to the the atmosphere, and what’s going on.
My only quibble I have is close to the end, Sebastian says “I am a devil of a butler”. The translation is correct, but apparently in the original it’s a play on words, which doesn’t really carry across to english well. I have to admit I prefer the way it was doe in the anime, where he says the same thing, but it ends up translated as “I am a hell of a butler”. While the last isn’t strictly correct, it’s better than the official version since it fits the scene, setting and feel better.
I’ve no doubt though that this will be one to make it onto my Essential Read list, if the next set of volumes are as good as this one that is.
Where to Buy
There are several scenes in vol 1 where sebastian is using a mobile to talk to ciel. In the anime this was altered slightly to a more victorian style rotary phone, but it was still a mobile.
February 21, 2010 @ 13:39.
I still have to finish the anime series but I am curious about the manga version.