• Grellie-Poo Nightray's Gallery
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    Grell initially appears as a meek man with long, brown hair tied back with a red ribbon, golden yellowish green eyes like most Shinigami, and round glasses. He dresses in simple, mostly brown clothes to match his seemingly shy personality. However, it is later revealed that this is not his true appearance, as he is actually a Shinigami. In his Shinigami form, he has long, red hair, golden yellowish green eyes, false eyelashes, shark-like teeth, and red-framed glasses, which are accessorized with a neck chain adorned with skulls. He also wears a suit like other Shinigami that includes gloves and a tie, high-heeled ankle boots, and a red coat he took from Angelina's corpse, which he slings off his shoulders and wears around his elbows. Occasionally, his tie is replaced with a red-striped bow. He is slender and 5'8" tall. In the forth OVA, as a young student, he is shown to have short red hair, similar to that of Ronald Knox in style, and wears a black suit, with a black tie, which seems to be the standard shinigami uniform, as most shinigami wear this. He also wears standard-issue trainee glasses, carries a small trainee death scythe.<br />
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    Grell, as Angelina's butler, is shy, awkward and fairly ineffective at his job, ruining even simple things like tea and getting lost when driving a carriage. In the anime, this results in him staying at the Phantomhive manor to be trained by Sebastian, but his presence only serves to annoy and anger the entire Phantomhive household. Furthermore, whenever he messes something up, he has a tendency to overreact and attempts to commit suicide in a fit of melodramatic humiliation. During one of these attempts, Sebastian stops him and it is at this point that Grell's pre-existing admiration for him becomes a full-blown crush (but it turns out to be infatuation). Despite these constant attempts to end his life when he does something wrong, others only stop him to avoid the resulting large, bloody mess (Sebastian informs him that he can kill himself off the Phantomhive premises, indicating a lack of friendship between himself and other servants). He eventually does this so often that even the Phantomhive servants give up on trying to stop him, much to his surprise.<br />
    As a Shinigami, however, he is over-the-top and flamboyant, with a tendency to use female nouns and pronouns when referring to himself (called onee kotoba, "big sister speech", this is a common affectation of gay and MTF transgendered people in Japan.) Grell refers to himself with female terms many times in both the anime and manga, and in the manga and character guide (written by the author) has expressed a desire to have a female body. In the musical, he explicitly asks to be referred to as 'She', not 'he'. He also has a tendency to put things in terms of theater, referring to Angelina's death as the falling of curtains on a theater act, and comparing his relationship with Sebastian to the famous play, Romeo and Juliet. He apparently has feelings for Sebastian, much to the latter's disgust, and gives Sebastian an affectionate nickname (varies depending on translation- Sebas-Chan in Japanese, translated by some fansubs as "Sebby", by Yen press as "Sebastian-darling" and by Funimation as "Bassy". Despite his overwhelming love for Sebastian, he seems well aware that Sebastian hates him as shown in episode 10 of Kuroshitsuji II. During their "tea date" Grell was very frightened and kept mentioning that although it was what he had always wanted, it didn't feel right.<br />
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    Although Grell realizes that Sebastian does not return his affections and even finds them distasteful, he is so smitten that he allows the demon to take repeated advantage of him, willingly trading his assistance for small favors (such as Sebastian striking handsome poses for his camera) even when that assistance results in injury or embarrassment. Apparently he feels that any attention from Sebastian is better than none.<br />
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    However, his affections are not limited to Sebastian, as he seems to find men, in general, attractive. For example, with William Spears, while he calls him a sadist, he seems enamored by his eyes, saying they send chills up his spine. In Kuroshitsuji, after seeing Undertaker's eyes, he inmediately says: "Hold me" (Also a double-entendre in Japanese for a sexual proposal), indicating he finds him attractive. He also hunts down Pluto, saying he made his hunk radar go off. In particular, he seems to favor those he deems immoral.<br />
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    Initially it would appear that the other Shinigami do not seem to be overly fond of him as William constantly refers to him as "trash", but the manga and musicals imply that only William has a problem with him, as the other Shinigami respectfully call Grell "Senpai". Ronald Knox in particular is exceptionally fond of him, as Ronald always refers to him as "Senpai" and takes his advice on things over William's.<br />
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    Grell's favorite color is red, as he is described as the Shinigami in red by Angelina, commits the Jack the Ripper murders so he can paint "ugly" women red with their blood, and says ordinary women are not fit to wear the color. He tells Angelina that he will join forces with her because of his empathy with her desire for a child; he too wishes to be able to give birth, he says, but is unable to because of his male sex.<br />
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    Grell has two distinct personalities. Most of the time he is cheerful, if somewhat sadistic, with a playful flirtatious quality, and is usually seen whining about William or flirting with Sebastian. However, at any given time, Grell can switch to a frightening and bloodthirsty persona who will do anything for the desired results. Apparently, he is apathetic to the fact that neither Will nor Sebastian have any interest in him, as shown in the third OVA when William stabbed him in the head twice, Grell didn't seem to care that there was blood running down his face, rather, he simply continued to flirt with both Will and Sebastian.<br />
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    When Madam Red (Angelina Durless) started the Jack the Ripper murders, he followed her around, as she was the reason his death list was so full. He reveals himself after one of the murders, and says he understands her feelings, because he cannot have children of his own. He agrees to help her, and takes up the disguise of her butler to avoid suspicion.<br />
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    Jack the Ripper Grell initially appears with Angelina and Lau in Ciel Phantomhive's London townhouse, searching for tea. He accompanies Lau, Ciel, Sebastian, and Angelina while they gather information on Jack the Ripper, but does not play much of a role. He also accompanies them to Aleister Chambers' party, where it is later revealed that he briefly left in order to commit another murder.<br />
    Eventually, Ciel and Sebastian deduce that Jack the Ripper is Grell and Angelina, working together. They go to stand guard over the next victim, but he is able to get in to kill her anyway. Challenged by Sebastian, he reveals that he is a Shinigami, and they question why he broke the Shinigami code of neutrality; he replies that it was for love of a 'certain woman'.<br />
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    He begins a brief confrontation, attacking Sebastian, and using his death scythe, he is able to gain the upper hand. He sees Angelina's hesitation to kill Ciel, and insists that she do it. When she says she cannot, and tries to explain, he kills her in anger with his death scythe, stabbing her in the chest. He then takes her red coat off her corpse, stating that she has disappointed him--that she is no better than other women, and is not fit to wear red.<br />
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    He turns to leave, but Ciel orders Sebastian to kill him. They engage in a fight again, and again, he gains the upper hand, landing a strong attack on Sebastian's chest with his death scythe, and revealing a rather dull cinematic record, much to his dismay. Despite this, he is overwhelmingly smitten with Sebastian, and delivers --as they continue to battle--a dramatic speech comparing the doomed romance of a demon and a Death God to the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. (Sebastian remarks that this is most unfair to Shakespeare.)<br />
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    Sebastian finally fights Grell to a standstill by using a shred of his ruined woolen tailcoat to jam Grell's chainsaw. He then begins to win, and pummels Grell in the face (ignoring Grell's pleas to spare his face). He grabs Grell's death scythe and moves in to kill.<br />
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    Before he can land the blow, William Spears appears and uses his own death scythe to stop him from killing Grell. He leaps down, smashing Grell's head into the pavement, and lists off all of the rules that Grell broke. (In the anime - but not in the manga - one of the broken rules is attempting to share privileged information with outsiders; this is because Grell had tried to save himself by offering to reveal who killed Ciel's parents. Sebastian hesitated in mid-strike, and William interrupted at that moment.) William, though he dislikes having to treat a lowly demon with courtesy, grudgingly thanks Sebastian, then grabs Grell and drags him away by his hair.<br />
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    Grell has illegally modified his death scythe to function like a chainsaw, because he says the average death scythe is old-fashioned. He claims it is of first-rate quality. It has been shown to have the normal functions of a death scythe, including attack, defense, playing of cinematic records, and soul collection. However, Grell claims that it has the additional ability to "play a duet within the soul's last moments.Because it works like a chainsaw, if the rotating mechanisms within the death scythe jam, it is rendered ineffectual.<br />
    He apparently carries it with him, as he has it right after the murder of the last victim of Jack the Ripper, but as he was not seen with it when walking out of the victim's house, it is unknown where he stores it.<br />
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    After the Jack the Ripper incident, he is demoted, and is given two pairs of scissors to use instead, which are much slower and more ineffective, as shown by how his previous death scythe could cut through anything, while the scissors cannot even cut through a steel doll. However, when he is needed, William allows him to borrow a death scythe similar to his own and later returns his original death scythe. It is also seen for Transportation.
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