Just Me

I have a theory about ciel involving rabbits and dogs.

Ciel has been seen with so much Dog symbolism due to the queen and in turn has placed that same system on to Sebastian. Due to Ociel replacing his brother, he is forced to wear the mask of a dog and I believe his true nature is like a rabbit and we can see that too.

Rabbits are often prey, so they are cautious and very perceptive. Rabbits are often found around dawn and dust.

𝕬𝖚𝖗𝖔𝖗𝖆 𝕿𝖜𝖎𝖑𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙

They have also been used to symbolize both purity and promiscuity in the Victorian era.

My favorite is that rabbits have been seen as tricksters and known for their clever wit and mischief.

They are the grey area of good and evil. Grey and Blue are heavy color schemes for Ociel.

Rabbits are no stranger to horror, often being connected to it.

Yana Toboso's birthday art over the years (2008-2019):

This year, like in the years before, Yana was, unfortunately, too busy to draw something for the twins' birthday, but she acknowledged the day and congratulated the twins nonetheless!

Some trivia:

Queen Victoria's husband Prince Albert died on December 14, 1861, and her daughter Princess Alice on December 14, 1878. Alice was the first child of Victoria's to die; the day Alice passed away, the Queen wrote in her diary: "This terrible day come round again!"

December 14 is the the peak day of the Geminids meteor shower which occurs between December 7 and 17 every year. (Yana mentioned the meteor shower in the blog posts for Ciel's birthday in 2012, 2013, and 2014. Star/meteor imaginary can be found in the birthday illustrations for those years as well as the 2015, 2017, and 2018 ones.)

In 2014, Yana expressed her gratitude that she received "so many precious words by fans as Ciel’s parent [creator]" (source).

In 2012, she wrote that she believes Ciel "was born to live like a shooting star, i.e. moving in a straight line and then burning out. He’s such a happy child – so many people watch over him and celebrate his birthday with him." That blog post also contained this bit: "he acts like a real brat and commits all sorts of atrocities that are not suitable for a protagonist at all, so he’s not really worthy of so many generous words… ( ꒪⌓꒪)" (source).

The 2016 birthday illustration shows Ciel with pine: pine stand for "eternal youth and longevity" as well as "compassion" in the language of flowers (source).

In 2009 (!), Yana wrote that "in the manga, Ciel has just turned 13. Please continue supporting 13-year-old Ciel for another year" (source). (She refers to Chapter 14, the manga currently has 213 chapters.) As of 2024, he still hasn't turned 14 in the manga. (But an impressive 149 in the real world!)

these are just what I’ve noticed at a glance (I think the ciel is fine though)

the rest are a little depressing (to me) since they prove she’s been drawing characters to be plugged into the scenes where they fit, as opposed to drawing them as a fundamental element to an entire page. The latter’s process would be her drawing her characters for each and every scene, where they’d be reacting to the specific scenario currently taking place. In essence, this approach feels more like visual novel sprites :/

She didn’t use to do this… she’d even do redraws for the volume releases. If she’s taking so many short cuts, I have no idea why the last 3 or 4 chapters couldn’t have just be one, I’ve been thinking about how many pages are just fluff all year. All the pages dedicated to counting hotel rooms, all the history lessons that could have just been in the margins, the repeated dialogue…

yet the dinner scene wasn’t even shown, despite the scenario being rich with potential to explore the manga’s main themes and show us where Ciel and Sebastian’s master-servant/prey-predator dynamic is now… !!

these are just what I’ve noticed at a glance (I think the ciel is fine though)

the rest are a little depressing (to me) since they prove she’s been drawing characters to be plugged into the scenes where they fit, as opposed to drawing them as a fundamental element to an entire page. The latter’s process would be her drawing her characters for each and every scene, where they’d be reacting to the specific scenario currently taking place. In essence, this approach feels more like visual novel sprites :/

She didn’t use to do this… she’d even do redraws for the volume releases. If she’s taking so many short cuts, I have no idea why the last 3 or 4 chapters couldn’t have just be one, I’ve been thinking about how many pages are just fluff all year. All the pages dedicated to counting hotel rooms, all the history lessons that could have just been in the margins, the repeated dialogue…

yet the dinner scene wasn’t even shown, despite the scenario being rich with potential to explore the manga’s main themes and show us where Ciel and Sebastian’s master-servant/prey-predator dynamic is now… !!