#kuroshitsuji props

[seekers-who-are-lovers]

I wonder if this is Yana T’s reference when creating that brass beam weighing scales and the corresponding weights.

[seekers-who-are-lovers]

I wonder if the Victorian butlers and their masters did have a matching design on their coats. Sebastian and Ciel’s matching embroidered skull with horns look something else though. But we know that Yana Toboso is anachronistic and she has a damn plan. But darn, the details on them. And the pins on Ciel’s breast seem to represent the manga’s arcs. ( x )

[seekers-who-are-lovers]

Details, details

Florence Nightingale; vintage nursing poster with her popular quote; and one of Ms Nightingale’s lamps; also Chapter 185

The devil is in the details. Technically speaking. Yana Toboso, a stickler for historical details (except for the costumes and hairstyles, not all the time at least), strikes again.

The quote “How very little can be done under the spirit of fear” has been attributed to Florence Nightingale. It was her personal ethos when she decided to help the wounded soldiers during the Crimean War and founded a training school for women to be future nurses.

I get that Ada would be disenchanted when her peers never believed Nightingale’s ways. If you are different from the norm, you’d be branded as a troublemaker. Take for example, Ms Nightingale’s contemporary, Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian-German, who lived in Austria. She and Semmelweis were two of the few early proponents of hand-washing when treating wounded patients and pregnant women. Semmelweis, who was ostracised when he was still alive due to his findings concerning practicing hygiene on maternity wards, was honoured posthumously by the next generation of doctors and scientists after they found out that Semmelweis’ studies concerning the correlation between germs and unwashed hands were true. He died in an unexplainable circumstance at the Niederösterreichische Landesirrenanstalt after suffering from mental breakdown and violent punishments from the sanatorium guards.

Interesting that it seems to be the same quote that has driven both Bard and Ada to sort out their lives. To live in fear is to feel death at the door. Fight for your life, to what you strive for, is the order of the day. Both of them suffer from survivor’s guilt that they will carry on until their last breath, the thirst to help others before their own.

Unfortunately, for Ada her fate has somehow gone haywire. Had Aurora Society not connected to Undertaker and his wicked scheme it would probably be another story that could change the course of her life.

The question remains if her name and Bard’s are really on Ronald Knox’s list. The previous mission with Mey-rin and Ran-mao ended without casualties except for Baron Heathfield (and his cohorts), who suffered from loss of teeth, swollen face and the wrath of women he victimised. But the difference is there’s no grim reaper that was waiting for the two women.

I fear for Bard’s safety. Surely, Yana T showing us his arc, of what he’s been put through is not a preparation of what’s to come and not a sign that the readers must be ready to grieve again. It wouldn’t make any sense. Or would it?

[seekers-who-are-lovers]

Undertaker and his “fetish boots”

More than half a year of reading and watching Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler I’ve known Yana Toboso as anachronistic.

It is interesting to note that Undertaker’s thigh-high boots already existed in early 1900s. Perhaps not with buckles but with metal studs. Either way, renowned Belle Époque shoe designer Maniatis Bottier, born Greek who had a shop in 9th Arrondissement in Paris “near the Pigalle red-light district,” created these boots not for mass consumption. “Fetish boots” they were called.

The tendency of fashion to co-opt taboo and exotic elements from other periods, cultures, or, as in this instance, the demimonde, (boldfaced mine) is one strategy employed for its constant reinvigoration. (From @fashionfromhistory x )

He did custom-made shoes for such luminaries like Jean Gabin and Cary Grant. Yana as a shoe fetish/fashionista, I assume, knows this.

[seekers-who-are-lovers]

See what Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler has done to me. So inspired, I found myself visiting the military history museum. I haven’t seen so many weapons concentrated in one place. The phallic symbols are too much. Many of the exhibited firearms and cavalier pistols are from the 17th and 18th centuries used by the Austrian army. The lone cavalier pistol was from France. The sabres are from the Hungarian cavalry during the time of Holy Roman Empress Maria-Theresia and her father, Karl VI. Whereas the maces and halberds dated back from the 15th and 16th centuries. The museum is divided into different eras starting from the Renaissance. It is both extraordinary and terrifying how the weapons evolved throughout the centuries—from the size, weight, and their corresponding ammunition. And to see these weapons in person, which Yana T and her staff lovingly illustrated detail by detail, was simply astonishing and overwhelming.

[seekers-who-are-lovers]

I never wear glasses now, but I’d like to have one of them please! ( x )