#with father

[theinvertedwomb]

[abybweisse]

Why is Rachel considered a masculin charecter?

Rachel's "masculine" character

That seems to be a common misunderstanding within the fandom, which I also fell victim to for a while. I think it stems from the English fan translation (perhaps even the French licensed translation?) about her in the Character Guide.

Yana-san tried to clear that up a while later, like in tweets or something, but it's still a pervasive misconception.

What Yana-san was trying to say is that Rachel is a strong-willed woman, much like Vincent says of the Phantomhive women. In "With Father" he was mostly talking about his sister and mother, but he probably chose to marry a woman who shares many of the same characteristics.

Rachel doesn't have the strongest physical health, given her severe asthma, but she's clearly (per the Character Guide and Vincent) the disciplinarian in the family, not Vincent. And we've seen her take charge of a situation when Vincent didn't know what to do or say (when real Ciel says he doesn't want to become earl anymore). She's also canonically the one who names the boys, since Vincent says so, explaining to the real Vicar Rathbone that he's no good with choosing names and that Rachel named their own sons.

She's also got a rather raunchy sense of humor (grabbing her little sister's boobs and being openly envious of her for her endowments). Madam Red might have developed her own naughty sense of humor partly influenced by Rachel's.

Idk exactly how the original Japanese words it in the Character Guide, but at least one translation came up with "masculine" to describe her personality. Like I said above, the fandom -- including me -- ran with it. I haven't deleted the old posts I made about it, but there should be reblogs or comments or both on some of the old posts, where I try to clear up the confusion. And there should be some newer posts, like this one, where I explain the misunderstanding.

Rachel's strong-willed and not particularly demure, with her occasionally raunchy and scathing wit. She takes charge of situations when her husband isn't sure what to do. She's the one who spanks the children when they misbehave, and so they fear her more than their father. Some would call this "masculine" of her... and that's possibly how the misunderstanding came about in the first place. She doesn't 100% fit gender norms of the Victorian era. But then again, who truly did?

Personally, I find characters who fit 100% to some stereotype to be one-sided and boring. Rachel strikes me as an interesting, multifaceted character. And we still hardly even know her....

[suchamiracle-does-exist]

“Tea for two” Der gleiche Himmel (The Same Sky, 2017)

[dyl--sprayberry]

Like Father Like Son

[ciel-phantomhive-bocchan]

Oh well my son's possessed again.

Wait,you mean it isn’t what Vincent thought?

[abybweisse]

Hi, in the side story “with father”, Vincent said to Dietrich that next time he’d ask Undertaker for help with his job. What do you think Undertaker was doing for Vincent apart from autopsies or suppling underworld gossip/info?

Asking Undertaker for help?

I had to go look up a translation of that, since there isn't a licensed one, and I don't recall Vincent saying he'd ask Undertaker for help with a job.

Thankfully, I was able to get ahold of it. Here's the whole thing:

Ahh, he's not saying he will ask Undertaker for help with a job. You see, this little extra is set in some weird realm where Vincent, Tanaka, Undertaker and Diedrich can interact... despite the fact that Vincent is dead... right?!? It's a mind-blowing paradoxical situation, because this comic is in Anthology 2... and Vincent is reading Anthology 2, borrowed from Undertaker. That's the book he's holding! How?!? 🤯

Anyway, he's saying he will have to ask Undertaker how they (the guest mangakka) knew about things Vincent did... in order to record it in a comic that even gave him a "full-page spread", while Diedrich didn't even make an appearance (until "With Father", of course). This one:

This is perhaps Yana-san's sly way of saying she's accepted that into canon... that Vincent once made Undertaker laugh by making faces while wearing a stocking over his head.

Sadly, I've never been able to find a translation of that comic. The website I was told about for the Anthology and Anthology 2 fan translations doesn't have all of the comics loaded; the only one from Anthology 2 I have found, so far, is "With Father".

Um, but yeah. Vincent is saying he has to ask Undertaker how this guest mangakka knew what he did to make Undertaker laugh.

Oh, for the other part of the ask, idk what he would have done besides autopsies and information -- Oh!! Except we do know one thing Undertaker did: he got rid of bodies. Our earl and Sebastian even use Undertaker to pick up bodies from the manor after the circus members who died there are carted off to the back gate....

[abybweisse]

Is there any character book? As far as I know we only have the manga and 3 (?) artbooks. Is there any other merch with official canon content?

Other "canon" content

Well, I wouldn't necessarily call all of it canon, but there are:

The three Artworks books you mentioned plus a fourth one in production as I type this. Official, yes. Canon? Only parts of it.

Several extra chapters that came as bonus content with various items in Japan, like DVDs. You can find more info about those on my blog. Generally, these are taken as canon. There are no licensed translations, at least not yet... probably never.

Ch107.5, the "Akuma6" special chapter, which was actually serialized and translated (thanks to it originally being published in GFantasy). That's the results of an old favorite character poll. It's in an AU of sorts, but you can call it canon. More like the canon characters have been placed into an odd realm where their rating rosettes grant them special powers.

Anthology and Anthology 2, sometimes called "Rainbow Butler" (Inside, they do mention nijishitsuji). Most of the works are by other mangaka, as an homage to the series, but "With Father" at the end of Anthology 2 is by Yana-san. The last comic in the first Anthology is also by Yana-san, and it's called "Haunted Graveyard". "With Father" is typically taken as canon, despite the fact she practically had to disrupt the Kuroverse's space-time to write it. 😆

There's an official Character Guide, but it's old, so it is missing a lot of characters, and has never had a licensed translation into English. I have it in Japanese and French. I think there's also a licensed German version.

If you are just interested in printed stuff, that's about all I can think of right now.