Follow up:

Got the first volume of Black Butler yesterday and I have to say it's pretty good. It's extremely different than the anime, which I found surprising. The anime was very historically accurate as far as clothing and technology, but the manga has a bunch of steampunk elements like cells phones and video games.

The first chapter of the manga is similar to the first episode of the anime, except there isn't that first confrontation where Sebastian puts the man in the oven, or the scene with Ciel's contract. In fact, the contract isn't even talked about until chapter 4. Lizzie shows up a lot earlier too. One thing I will say though is I do like the pacing of the manga far more. In the anime you'd go 5 or 10 episodes without learning anything, whereas the manga drops little hints and pieces of Ciel's story in every chapter, and there's better flow too--even when you think nothing is actually happening.

The art is beautiful, surprisingly detailed for Shonen series. It's the kind of art that makes me go in a corner and cry for a while for not being as good. I also loved the outfits and the fight scenes. Sebastian seems a bit more willowy in the manga than the anime, but it makes his fight scenes that much cooler as he bends and kicks and such.

I've never had a book translated by Yen Press before, so I didn't know what to expect as far as translation and editing. Viz is notorious for their horrible translations, and Tokyopop is sometimes lazy. Yen seems on the better end of the spectrum, with Del Rey. There were some minor issues though, for one their translations were a little too literal, right down to the sound effects, which at one point I found a little distracting. And I didn't like that they called Baldroy 'Baldo'. Even though in Japanese he was called 'Bardo' I think Yen should have picked an original nickname which would relate more to the final English version (as it's supposed to be an English name) like 'Bal' or 'Bally'. And they messed up the translation of Maylynn, calling her 'Mey-Rin' which makes no sense. Maylynn is like a Cockney maid, with an English name, Mey-Rin isn't Western by any stretch of the imagination.

Still, I am very much looking forward to the next volume...which apparently doesn't come out until May *headdesk*