I guess some may be annoyed by the heroine's vainness, but I rather love her character! It's so unique and refreshing to see a strong-willed, deep, aware, yet optimistic "shoujo" character. Her narcissistic character is so entertaining to read.

I have read only 5 volumes so far, but I'm already very addicted. I have read something else from this author/illustrator before, so I have known the art will be quite beautiful.
The story is unfolding at a good pace -- not too slow, and not too fast. Since it's filled with mysteries and lose ends at the moment, I wish it goes faster. It started out as a sort of flashback, which is always a good and reliable start to a series. It also serves to give us a view of the future, to see what these young witches and sorcerers (not wizards) will develop into. I can't say much else about the plot, since it's still early in the series.
The setting is Victorian-esque, except of course with magic, dragons, vampires, etc.
The clothing (cuz I like that aspect about a manga or manhwa) is so-so. Kind of too plain for my taste, but it's not horrible.
I read on one of the comments here that this manhwa is lacking in background drawings-- I concur. Often times, the background is lacking, but it doesn't take much away from the reading experience imo.

This will be a long one, I'm sure. *take a peak up there* --19 volumes. Wow. That's a long way from 12 volumes currently translated. I'm so excited for new chapters!!

There's romance in it as well. The important relationships are a combination of homosocial (borderline homosexual) and heterosexual/heterosocial. Well, just to warn you, I guess; in case anyone's not comfortable with homosocial, borderline homosexual theme. It is not yaoi. It's not shonen-shoujo-ai either (yet?). Just strongly hinted.
The pairings are to die for!! Ekkkk *Fan-girl mode*

Ciel is a story of love, death, grieving (or not), accepting and bonds. An unexpected manwha, that's for sure.

Characters
I'm personally always in for a strong female lead, but this is better than even my high standards. For the female lead Yvienne, she's not only beautiful, but she knows it and makes perfect use of it. Besides her cutie thing she has this lovely dark taint over her where she can be serious. And she's a real strong female, not some wannabe strong female. Then for January, he's the most depressed characters of this manwha, and still likeble, because you feel his strength and resolve to live on. Daughter is personally one of my favorite characters, for how mysterious he is and how he changes a bit through the story. His past is not only cruel and tainted, but it made him who he is and he isn't afraid to show it, though he keeps his secrets to himself. Larri is really a nice character, although I think she not only needs more screentime, she also needs more of a development. She has this potential that the writer (for now maybe) hasn't used, which is a waste. And finally you have Krohiten. Great character, even better development for him and so damn mysterious that you just wanna know more and more about who he really is and how he came to be.
Overall these are the best characters gatered I've seen since I've begun reading manga.

Plot
Well worked out, though the pacing seems off. Sometimes only a few hours have past in a few chapters and sometimes the writer just skips whole days in the mere turn of a page. Also though you wanna keep reading for the end, you kinda find yourself being confused through weird character introductions after a while. I personally found myself reading certain things and wondering whether this was a flashback, flashforward or something else alltogether.
Overall a captivating plot, but the pacing is off.

Art
Only one word bescribes this: gorgeous. So well drawn when they need to be beautiful and so brilliantly done when the dark hint comes. Couldn't be better. (though if you wanna get into detail the artist could put more details in the background, but that's not my point).
Overall perfect.

[b]Rating[b]
I give Ciel an 9,5 out of 10, because it is really nice and though I'm not so much for shoujo, this isn't focussed on the romance, but on characters. Besides that is the art beautiful and the characters believeble.
Overall this artist deserves my deep respect for this project

i actually like this manhwa and read them even though the pacing is weird, the characters bland and the things not known makes the story confusing. however it can be too much when you cant understand where are you in the story.

Couldn't read past vol 6. They shouldn't list this as a romance, it's more fantasy. The only romance was between 2 boys, January and Daughter. Any romance for Yvienne was at best ambiguous and lacking of any real central male lead. But if you like plot after plot after plot, then read this.

... Last updated on December 12th, 2011, 11:23am

i got into ciel because of the art, and now i'm staying for the art and the characters. the plot (on vol 11 right now) seems to be on the verge of an exciting development, too. so far it's been well-plotted but not brilliant, but so much is still to happen, so who knows. plus it's been getting better, in the beginning it seemed a little afraid to take itself seriously (inappropriate comedy in the middle of tense scenes anyone? ) but later scenes have more gravity to them.

back to the art. the character designs are very cute. (yvienne might be the "resident beauty" but i find lari's hair to be the most gorgeous thing in the entire manwha.) anyone into the slender and pretty shoujo style will find this a treat. some panels needed more background detail for a scenery maniac like me, though, haha.

now to the characters. all of them are likable, and a smart, confident, practical girl like yvienne is indeed refreshing. she has this pixieish quality sometimes, and that's cute. her mom is pure awesome. january needs all he hugs he can get. daughter is rather dashing. larry is adorable and needs more screen time. the blossoming romance has (so far) been handled passably too, even if it didn't go in the direction i'd have liked. ;;>_>

...speaking of romance, sorry but DEAR GOD january and daughter do strange things to my heart.

EDIT EDIT EDIT
I take back EVERY NICE THOUGHT i had about the so-called ~BLOSSOMING ROMANCE~ UGHHH I HATE ITTTT
well. to clarify i don't think it's bad writing and rhim ju-yeon is clearly aware of its unsavory nature! i still think its handled passably, but still, ugh, the consequences are just too much for me to bear.

also: i find myself liking yvienne more now her that her flaws are showing starkly, even though i want to smack her in the face; january and daughter cannot be any more adorkably painful (except they can, and are, by every passing chapter); and lari, oh lari, she's amazing and beautiful and my heart hurts, i wish things could have been different for her.

... Last updated on November 24th, 2013, 12:33am

Excellent! So far (10 volumes) it's such a great manhwa. NOT your typical manhwa where it looks promising at first by hinting and dropping awesome clues but never tie up the loose ends. Give it a try, don't frown upon it because it's korean because this one is actually VERY good

Ciel is very well-plotted. It shows how prepared the manhwaka was before she started it. There're many clues and hints but they're followed by proper consequences. The story is lovely, funny, warm, dark, exciting, dokidoki and many other emotions.

It art is great, made it so pleasant to read. This manhwa has everything! I don't have anything I dislike, maybe except for the fact that it's not popular enough as it deserves to be thus the scans are pretty slow but I'm grateful enough for the current group that's doing it because I once gave up on it because the scan was so slow (i'm impatient), but now it's up to 10 volumes

I'm rather sad that while waiting for the new Ciel releases, I don't know what to read because this one set the bar high.

To be honest, I've always thought that this was going to be boring (as I'm not too fond of the fantasy genre), however, a chapter into this manhwa and I was already addicted, needless to say. It's great. I love the heroine, she's hilarious and lovable. The other side characters are quite likable as well. And I love the stories behind every characters, it makes the story extra interesting. I definitely love it and would recommend it to anybody who's having second thoughts!

... Last updated on July 22nd, 2011, 8:17pm

Not your run-of-the-mill fantasy manhwa. I'm not much of a manhwa person (I find the art a bit too stylized for my liking) and while the girls in Ciel are gorgeous, the guys (I usually need my dose of bishie goodness..) are somewhat lacking--but that doesn't even matter, because their charisma just leaps off the page. Ciel contains, really, everything you could ask for in a "shoujo" (what's the term in Korean?) fantasy manhwa--a strong heroine, beautiful and brave but with flaws enough to make her likeable, intricate detail with the magical elements, monster butt-whooping, swords in canes, and, of course, dragons. Always love them dragons. I love it, and I can't wait for more!

This series has gorgeous art, a great plot and believable characters. While I'm overwhelmingly a shonen action fan, this is my second favorite series (second to nausicaa). the only complaint possible is that the story isn't as fast paced as some other series, but I find that to be a strength, not a weakness.

Edit: now I can express why I like this: it's shoujo (or the korean equivalent) while being able to stand on elements other than romance, unlike the overwhelming majority of it's peers. Also, it does not drown the readers in angst. In short, it's more than a romance, and avoids melodrama.

... Last updated on May 16th, 2011, 11:57pm

One of the most beautiful art I've ever seen, like seriously. And I really loved the story, also. I can't wait for her to become more powerful. But I've only read what Mangafox has, so now i'm going to read the rest that I didn't know was translated already Yayy!
I do recommend this to anyone, though so far it's not shounen or very action-based. But even if the story was disgustingly horrible (of which the opposite is true), it would still be worth it to just look at the art.