I haven't seen Hellsing, but you saying they still have a lot of trust in each other makes me think it's still not the same dynamic -- because Ciel and Sebastian don't seem to have a lot of trust in each other. If at all. Mostly, I think, they put faith in the contract between them (in that it'll serve their own purpose), but they're constantly on guard for being double-crossed. Ciel never completely lets down his guard (as far as I've seen/read in the anime/manga, at least) that Sebastian won't find some way to undermine or be less than perfectly supportive in Ciel's revenge, and Sebastian seems to be constantly on guard against Ciel finding a loophole on the whole soul-eating thing.
The anime is actually less squicky in some ways than the manga -- which does go dark at points, dangerously and very against-genre. But the anime's hardly a walk in the park, all the same. And frankly, despite the inherent darkness in the manga, I don't think it'd be the same story without it; it's such an integral part of what shaped Ciel that any less of a backstory would just seem melo without the drama. Without that, he'd just seem callous when he rebukes another character (in the anime) for being upset that Ciel's not sympathetic -- he derides the other character's pain as trivial. That's pretty cold, but when you know what he went through, suddenly it's not oppression olympics so much as it is someone who's been so brutally damaged that he can't fathom a life where bemoaning a lost servant counts as utmost pain. He's just not on the same scale anymore. He can't sympathize because he honestly can't empathize.
One thing I like about Ciel -- which I also liked about Lelouch -- is that his personal principles are principles, if not the usual honor-bound stupidity. Ciel doesn't do the "handicap oneself to level the field" -- a position I've always found rather dunderheaded, myself -- he believes firmly that any advantage one has towards winning, one should exploit fully. If that means using a demon bound to him to get/use information he couldn't otherwise, this isn't cheating. And it's not cheating because he doesn't expect others to be bound by honor, either -- that everyone should use any and all at their command, to do whatever they can. It's not a mindset I see very often in anime (or live-action, for that matter), and when I do, it's rarely from the protagonist. Only villains get such pragmatic attitudes, which is something I don't quite get. Why must heroes be so honorably stupid?
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Date: 31 Aug 2011 04:13 am (UTC)The anime is actually less squicky in some ways than the manga -- which does go dark at points, dangerously and very against-genre. But the anime's hardly a walk in the park, all the same. And frankly, despite the inherent darkness in the manga, I don't think it'd be the same story without it; it's such an integral part of what shaped Ciel that any less of a backstory would just seem melo without the drama. Without that, he'd just seem callous when he rebukes another character (in the anime) for being upset that Ciel's not sympathetic -- he derides the other character's pain as trivial. That's pretty cold, but when you know what he went through, suddenly it's not oppression olympics so much as it is someone who's been so brutally damaged that he can't fathom a life where bemoaning a lost servant counts as utmost pain. He's just not on the same scale anymore. He can't sympathize because he honestly can't empathize.
One thing I like about Ciel -- which I also liked about Lelouch -- is that his personal principles are principles, if not the usual honor-bound stupidity. Ciel doesn't do the "handicap oneself to level the field" -- a position I've always found rather dunderheaded, myself -- he believes firmly that any advantage one has towards winning, one should exploit fully. If that means using a demon bound to him to get/use information he couldn't otherwise, this isn't cheating. And it's not cheating because he doesn't expect others to be bound by honor, either -- that everyone should use any and all at their command, to do whatever they can. It's not a mindset I see very often in anime (or live-action, for that matter), and when I do, it's rarely from the protagonist. Only villains get such pragmatic attitudes, which is something I don't quite get. Why must heroes be so honorably stupid?