The first third of the book is devoted to reiterating the new status quo before swerving into a Mey-Rin and Ran-Mao super-maid team-up adventure that promises to lead into an origin story for Mey-Rin next volume. A solid outing for a series that seems to be course correcting after floundering for a while. ( )

Series Info/Source: This is the 29th volume in the Black Butler series. I bought this book.

Story (5/5): Ciel continues to be estranged from Phantomhive as his older brother takes over it. The Undertaker seems to be the one pulling the strings and Ciel will stop at nothing to stop the Undertaker. However, the Undertaker’s craft of raising the dead isn’t perfected and he requires certain resources to keep his creations moving which may be his downfall. The story makes a lot of progress and I really enjoyed where it was going here.

Characters (5/5): I love these characters, they are so well done. We get to spend more time with Ciel’s former servants in this book and also get to watch some humorous scenes with Ciel and Sebastian working in an opium den.

Setting (5/5): I continue to love the Victorian setting here, very well done and never gets old for me.

Writing/Drawing Style (5/5): The whole book is just as beautifully drawn as all of the previous ones. I really enjoyed how the story is tying into so many elements from earlier in the series. I absolutely love both the drawing style and the story here.

My Summary (5/5): Overall I absolutely loved this book and continue to really enjoy the series. I felt like the last couple books were a bit transitional, but this book gets us back into a solid story and really expands on a lot of story elements introduced earlier in the series. This continues to be beautifully drawn and really well put together. I highly recommend it if you enjoy Victorian paranormal types of series with a lot of demons and humor!