Manga Review – Black Butler Vol 34 by Yana Toboso (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy/ Paranormal/ Manga
Length: 186 pages
Publisher: Yen Press
Release Date: December 16, 2025
ASIN: B0FGX7L2JM
Stand Alone or Series: 34th volume in the Black Butler series
Source: Bought in Paperback
Rating: 4/5 stars

“Compared to the evils Finny and Snake were expecting in the wake of the Sphere Music Hall’s carnage, F.O.L. appears to be on the up-and-up. Here, the orphans receive a progressive, sophisticated education and the skills they’ll need to serve their new family after fledging. But a young girl’s abrupt departure piques the curiosity of Finny, Snake, and certain students. As they follow the clues, their instincts, and the most recently fledged child―what secrets might the grounds of this orphanage whisper in the dark of night…?”

Series Info/Source: This is the 34th volume in the Black Butler series. I bought this in paperback format.

Thoughts: It took me a bit to get back into this story (it would be nice if these had a quick synopsis up front). This book is more about the Aurora Society, which is a storyline that I have not been loving all that much. The illustration remains beautiful, and I did enjoy some of the new characters introduced.

I had forgotten that we were heading to the orphanage, F.O.L, to follow another part of the Aurora Society storyline. Finny and Snake head there posing as new staff, and at first, everything looks fine. Finny is surprised to see that his old friend from the circus, Doll, is there as well. However, things take a suspicious turn when one of the students has a Fledgling Day and mysteriously disappears. Finny and Snake end up joining forces with the other head students to solve the mystery of what happens to students after their Fledgling Day. They end up finding out that both F.O.L and Doll are not at all what they appear to be.

I continue to enjoy the illustration here, and it was fun to spend time with Finny and Snake. I didn’t love the story as much though. This Aurora Society storyline is getting old and felt boring to me last volume, and this volume wasn’t much better. However, once I remembered what was going on again I did get sucked into the mystery of solving what was happening at F.O.I. Some of the new characters introduced were fun as well (I really liked Theo).

I am kind of on the fence with this one. We have really strayed from some of the original storyline and seem to be stuck with this Aurora Society one, which I wish would wrap up soon. I have been missing Ciel and Sebastian, we don’t see them at all in this volume. I was wavering between 3 and 4 stars for this one because we just haven’t been making a lot of progress here. I went with 4 stars because I still enjoy the illustration, liked some of the new characters, and did end up getting sucked in to this mystery.

My Summary (4/5): Overall this is a decent addition to the Black Butler series but is still stuck in the Aurora Society storyline which is really starting to feel old to me. I miss some of my favorite characters (Ciel and Sebastian) which have been practically non-exisitant the last few volumes. I will continue reading this series because I feel like I’ve been reading it forever at this point, but the last few volumes have definitely been slower and less exciting than previous volumes.