Taking sadistic pleasure in the characters' misfortune was not what I meant. Rather, that in Kuroshitsuji, I find it useful to lean into the emotionally difficult parts and connect with it as if it weren't going to overwhelm me. It starts out being a little more than I can take, but it doesn't stay that way, and I think part of empathizing with the characters is coming to terms with the fact that they're in a really unsafe, amoral world.