| Sebasstian | ||
|---|---|---|
| Gallery | Quotes | Relationship | ||
| ||
| Physical Appearance | ||
| Monster Species | Fishfolk | |
| Gender |  Male
| |
| Monster Profile | ||
| Occupation | *Secondary butler of Neptune royal family | |
| Media Debut | ||
| Manga | Chapter 34 | |
Sebasstian (サバスチャン, Sabasuchan) is the secondary butler of Neptune royal family. He makes his debut together with Flounnder in Chapter 34.
Appearance[]
As a Fishman, Sebasstian resembles an anthropomorphic fish in appearance, with his arms and legs placed where his flippers would normally be. Unlike Flounder, he is slim and tall, and he is lighter-skinned, with his lower jaw, front neck, and hands almost white. He also has webbed fingers.
Sebasstian wears a black tuxedo with a black bow tie and black pants. He also has a small monocle on his left eye.
Personality[]
Sebasstian takes his duties as a butler very seriously and is generally polite but also a bit strict. He takes great pride in his job and is quick to get upset when things don't go as planned, although he also shows gratitude to those who help him.
Although Sebasstian is polite, like Flounnder, he can be very selfish, as he always puts his personal disadvantages first when faced with a problem, even when others' lives are in danger. This is clearly seen when he was immediately concerned about his job, after Mero's "kidnapping" by Octo, to which Kimihito angrily reminded him that this was secondary given the potential danger Mero was in.
While Sebasstian take his job very seriously, he also seems to have a deceptive side, as he confesses in Chapter 36 that he and Flounnder were secretly trying to sneak up on Octo, hoping she could use magic to turn them into handsome Fishmen. Because of this, the two butlers also refused to help save Mero, as they didn't want to take responsibility for their secret visit to Octo.
The two butlers also only warned Kimihito and the girls about the danger of the giant sea anemones after they entered Octo's cave. It is unclear whether the two butlers really forgot this detail or whether they deliberately kept it secret, as they feared that they would otherwise have to take responsibility for Mero's rescue themselves, if Kimihito and the girls had refused. In any case, it shows that Sebasstian is sometimes very careless.
Skills & Traits[]
Personal Skills[]
- Driving: As seen in Chapter 35, Sebasstian can drive a car and presumably has a driver's license as well.
Physical Traits[]
- Fishman Physiology:
- Amphibious: As a Fishman, Sebasstian has gills on the cheeks of his fish-like head, which allow him to breathe water. He also has a humanoid respiratory system that allows vocalization and mouth breathing. As long as his gills remain moist, he can breathe on land.
- Swimming: As a Fishman, Sebasstian is an excellent swimmer by nature. Since he has gills, swimming actually plays a role in his natural breathing, which allows him to breathe underwater indefinitely without having to surface.
- Gender Change: As revealed in Gill's omake to Volume 18, Fishmen, like many fish species in the real world, can change their gender, which allows them to be either male or female at will, or even to change their gender identity several times during their lives.
History[]
Sebasstian is the secondary butler of the Neptune royal family, a task he takes very seriously. It is implied that Sebasstian has held this role for at least some years, as Mero seems to have known him for a long time. During his time as a butler, Sebasstian also became friends with Flounnder, the heat butler of the Neptune royal family, not least because the two are also very similar in personality.
After Mero became a student of the Cultural Exchange Between Species Bill in Chapter 10, bad rumors began to arise in the Mermaid Kingdom that the Scylla Octo would use magic to seduce the Mermaids into eloping with humans, which put a lot of strain on the relationships between the Merfolk and the humans. Flounnder and Sebasstian also looked at these rumours with concern, also because even the king of the Merfolk, Mero's father, had run away with a human woman. Nevertheless, the two butlers also tried to sneak secretly into Octo's cave to ask the Scylla to turn them into good-looking fishmen with her alleged magic. However, due to the giant sea anemones that Octo had in her cave to ward off unwanted visitors, the two butlers could not to her and for fear of losing their jobs, they did not tell anyone about their attempt to visit Octo.
Eventually, the Mermaid queen instructed Sebasstian and Flounnder to get in contact with Mero to bring her back to the Mermaid Hotel. The two butlers then hired the private security company TALIO as bodyguards for Mero before Chapter 34.
Plot[]
Zoological Classification[]
Fishfolk are a pseudohuman race resembling, in effect, humanoid fish with arms and legs, and with webbing between their fingers. Fishfolk are capable of breathing air and, ironically enough, are more capable on land than the far more humanoid Mermaids thanks to their functioning legs.
While appearances vary between individuals, the majority of their body resembles a fish, complete with visible gill covers, a thick tail, scales, and occasional tendrils above the mouth. The head appears to be at least a little different from a common fish's, however: the mouth is more articulated and capable of forming words, and the eyes, though lacking lids, have a noticeable degree of expression to them.
The Fishfolk seem to be in direct service to the Mermaid crown, and evidently handle most terrestrial affairs for their lieges.
Trivia[]
- Sabasstian's name derives from the butler Sebastian from the popular anime adaptation of Johanna Spyri's Heidi. Ever since, in Japanese popular culture "Sebastian" has become a stereotypical butler name, similarly to "Jeeves" in English culture.
- In the official translation his name is spelt "Sebasstian"
- Besides that, in the manga and anime by Yana Toboso is a butler called Sebastian. in one of the files where they discuss Octo, you can see their visions of how they would look as handsome butler mermen, as they put it. One of the visions has a striking resemblence to Sebastian by Yana Toboso. I feel as if that might be a reference. The other butler as shown in the image looks a lot like a butler names Claude, also from Black butler.
- Sebasstian, along with Flounnder, Wladislaus, Avis and Milme is one of just five named male Liminal characters in the manga series.