Not gay, merely fabulous.

Amidst falling white feathers, a naked boy (Covered in cloth of course, to hide his dingy) forms a contract with a disembodied voice. When he does, the feathers turn black, and hey look, the opening.

If you know what he means.

The boy is Count Ciel Phantomhive, current head of the Phantomhive estate following his late mother’s death. He is taken care of by a very talented butler named Sebastian. Sebastian has lightning-quick reflexes, acute awareness of his surroundings, an ever calm demeanor, is a good cook, and of course, an air of fabulousness.

Among the other staff at the Phantomhive mansion are Bard, Finian, Meirin, and Tanaka. Bard is the incompetent cook, Finian the incompetent garderner, and Meirin the clumsy, megane, incompetent maid. Tanaka sits there and drinks tea.

With the imminent arrival of an important guest, Bard, Finian, and Meirin scheme together to try and faze the unflappable Sebastian. As such, Finian completely ruins the garden, Meirin drops all the dishes, and Bard scorches all the food. (More like doing what they do best, right?) With Sebastian’s guidance, however, the situation is somehow rectified by the time the guest arrives.

Ciel needs some love. And I know just who should give it.

Mr. Damian, the guest, is more than entranced by the zen stone garden and dinner of beef tataki-don. However, Ciel thoroughly rubs the man the wrong way, insisting on playing a depressing board game with Mr. Damian. That’s okay, though, since Mr. Damian is actually not a good guy because he is trying to launder money from the Phantomhives.

Evil people smoke cigars. Only when they’re being evil, of course.

Later that night, Mr. Damian begins to see visions of a phantom mask, especially linked to the foyer painting. (It is of Ciel’s late mother standing with a butler who looks remarkably like Sebastian, save the lack of facial features. Ciel requests that this painting be removed from the foyer during this episode.) He becomes terrified and falls down the stairs, breaking his right leg. Delusional, he finds somewhere “safe” to hide: an oven. Sebastian fires up the oven, taunting the terrified Mr. Damian. The “prophecy” of the board game is fulfilled, since Mr. Damian “loses his legs in the Forest of Confusion” and then is “burned by the crimson flames”.

Mr. Damian survives though, as he is seen limping away from the mansion crying, “Mamma mia!” The episode ends with Sebastian seeing some sort of memory with Ciel as a small child, together with Mr. and Mrs. Phantomhive.

Thoughts:
Ciel, I noticed, seems to view Sebastian with some resentment. I suppose it might have something to do with the contract in the beginning. I think Ciel could use some nice Sebastian loving, if you know what I mean. Ciel’s right eye also appears to contain some Geass special power, according to the opening.
One thing I don’t get though, is why they bothered treating Mr. Damian so nicely to begin with if they knew he was a fraud and were going to bake him anyway? Half the episode was Sebastian fixing the other staff members’ messes and it really seemed aught for naught.
Well, this certainly turned out darker than I imagined. I’d expected something relatively comedic, considering the fabulous presentation of Sebastian. I’m might waver [about blogging] on Kuroshitsuji, because I don’t really like it when an anime is comedic in one scene and too serious the next. However, I will probably continue watching it to get my fill of fabulous.

Other stuff…
- Bard wears aerial goggles, and can’t cook. Hmm.
- Meirin is a typical clumsy megane maid and she swoons over Sebastian. (I’d swoon too.)
- Finian looks like Mako-chan. Is this awesome Y/N?