Kuroshitsuji: Public School Arc, is the worst season so far

Since 2008 when the first season of Kuroshitsuji was aired, I have followed all the others, after the second one there was a hiatus of about 4 years and now, 10 years later, we can see the fourth season. Each season has different stories, that makes you can watch any season without decontextualizing, but obviously the first one is basic to understand the dynamic between Ciel Phamtomhive and Sebastian Michaelis. Kuroshitsuji has genres that I really like such as comedy and fantasy, but always full of darkness, the fact that it is set in the Victorian era is also an attraction since it was a time of many contrasts.

For those who do not know, Kuroshitsuji tells the story of Ciel, a young man whose mission is to solve mysteries for the Queen of England, he has the support of Sebastian Michaelis who is a demon with whom he has a contract that has the purpose of delivering his soul once the agreement is fulfilled. Ciel and Sebastian have a quite particular dynamic, they get along quite well and although we could say that a demon should not be trusted, they seem to have quite strong ties.

The attraction of this anime has always been the mysteries that are investigated by this particular duo. These are dark, with shady secrets that draw the viewer's attention, but more striking is the way in which the events and the plot unfold as the suspects and facts are investigated. This is not a detective anime, but it is inevitable to feel at times that it is as it requires a lot of insight on the part of Ciel and Sebastian, but that is not a problem for them as they are actually very astute.

So, as I said before, each season has had different plots, the places and secondary characters vary and in that sense each arc has had a distinctive nuance, but they have always been interesting. For me in particular the arc “Book of Circus” (third season) has been the one I have liked the most so far, although the first season is also very good since it is there where we begin to understand what is the purpose of the central characters and where the mangaka wants to take us.

The “Public School Arc” (fourth season), takes us to Weston College which is one of the most prestigious in England. The problem there is that some of the students seem to have disappeared and in that sense the queen asks Ciel to investigate the reasons. Once at the school, we meet some very particular students who become indispensable to the plot as the chapters go by. Ciel is forced to try to join the elite groups in order to get closer to the school's director, who is the main suspect. Thus begin the plans and misadventures of Ciel and Sebastian to try to solve the mystery.

So far 9 chapters have been aired and at this point I can already conclude that this is the worst arc or season of all, the mysteries are not as attractive as the previous ones and while it is true that the new characters are quite colorful, they do not compare in charisma with those of previous seasons. It feels like a sort of filler that slows down the resolution of the different situations and in that sense everything feels very slow. I'm not saying I won't be entertained watching this season, but it definitely doesn't come close in quality and story depth to the previous ones. It remains to wait for the end of the season to determine if it raises the level, probably if it does, but for the moment we can only bet.