Anime: Soul Eater

Critic’s Log - Earthdate: October 31, 2013. Review #65: Soul Eater

Men and Women of all fandoms, would you like to see something strange?

Come with us if you will see, in this placecalled Death City

This is Soul Eater, This is Soul Eater. Kishins scream in the dead of night.

Set in the Shinigami technical school for weapon meisters known as the Death Weapon Meister Academy. This series revolves around 3 groups of each a weapon meister and a human weapon. Trying to make the weapon a "Death Scythe" and thus fit for use by the Shinigami, they must collect the souls of 99 evil humans and 1 witch. But it won’t be that easy. However, something creeping this way comes, and it won’t be pleasant.

To be technical, Soul Eater is a Studio Bones production and the animation is really vibrant but it also looks bizarre as it should be since this is an adaptation of a manga that did look pretty bizarre at first. But looking past that, Soul Eater has good animation. This is evident in the action scenes and humor. The character designs, the expressions, the backgrounds, and even the effects are animated very well, and even though it may have some hiccups, it still looks good and remains faithful to the source material.

The music by Taku Iwasaki is really fitting in this show. There is some hip-hop, and jazz and a few other genres which makes for a unique soundtrack. There’s even a little mix of hip-hop beats and orchestral strings. Here’s the kicker, it works. I see Taku Iwasaki as a male equivalent of Yoko Kanno, I have noticed he is just as experimentive and talented as her. The soundtrack to Soul Eater is pretty awesome. But you know what else is awesome? The first opening theme. The first opening is 90 seconds of adrenaline pumping, ass-kicking awesome. Yeah, just go with it. I hardly ever skipped this opening after I saw it for the first time. This open will definitely get you pumped up with all the awesomeness it has. The first closing theme is pretty awesome too. The second closing theme is catchy and pretty cute too. The second opening theme is also pretty badass and does fit the tone for the rest of the show. The third closing theme has kickass visuals, and the fourth closing theme is pretty damn hardcore. I bet you that if Soul Eater gets a remake, any opening or closing theme may have a hard time topping the awesomeness that these openings and closings have. I really love the soundtrack to this show and it’s worth a listen without the show.

In terms of voice acting, Chiaki Omigawa debuted as Maka Albarn and she was terrific. Kouki Uchiyama was great as Soul. Yumiko Kobayashi was fitting as Black Star, and Kaori Nazuka was great as Tsubaki. Mamoru Miyano was terrific as Death the Kid, Akeno Watanabe and Narumi Takahira were pretty good as the Thompson Sisters. Also, Maaya Sakamoto was terrific as Crona, Toru Ohkawa was great as Death Scythe, and Rikiya Koyama was fun to listen to as Shinigami-sama. Other noteworthy seiyus were Houko Kuwashima as Medusa, Michiko Neya as Arachne, Takehito Koyasu as Excalibur, Toshio Furukawa as Asura, Yukana as Azusa, Yuya Uchida as Stein, Nobutoshi Canna as Giriko. Soul Eater has a great Japanese cast and it is a recommended version to watch it in. But I will say the exact same thing with the English Dub. I will say that the dub isn’t perfect, but it is damn worth watching anyway. The dub has a terrific performance by Laura Bailey as Maka, but Micah Solusod was a tricky gentleman to begin with. To those that have seen enough anime Dubbed, you may think that Mr. Solusod sounds a lot like Johnny Yong Bosch. I even had the same impression. But the performance was very good for Micah Solusod. Brittney Karbowski is great as Black Star but her performance isn’t perfect, this was a role that viewers had to get used to at first, but Ms. Karbowski did improve greatly at first. I could say that Kobayashi-san played the role better, but unfortunately… this little turd is annoying regardless of the version choice. Monica Rial is also terrific as Tsubaki and she usually has a whiny girly voice. She is actually a very good voice actress once you get used to her voice. Todd Haberkorn was also terrific as Death the Kid, especially when he’s serious or freaking out. Jamie Marchi and Cherami Leigh were great as the Thompson Sisters. Maxey Whitehead was pretty good as Crona, Vic Mignogna was great comic relief as Death Scythe, and John Swasey was a delight as Lord Death. I do want to point out that the reason that Shinigami-sama was named “Lord Death” in the Dub was because the word “Shinigami” can be translated as Death God, but the closest equivalent that American translators went with is “Reaper”, but with Soul Eater, they decided to call him “Lord Death” which is good enough. Call him Shinigami-sama if you prefer. I call him by either title. Other noteworthy voices in the dub are Chuck Huber which was a delightful viewing experience, Colleen Clickenbeard as Marie, Eric Vale as Justin, Kent Williams as Sid, Sonny Strait as Ragnarok (Wha!? HUGHES!?) Mark Stoddard as Mosquito, Luci Christian as Medusa, Stephanie Young as Arachne, Troy Baker as Excalibur. J. Michael Tatum as Giriko, Travis Willingham as Free, and Kyle Hebert as Masamune. Mentioning these voices in either cast is quite a mouthful, but it goes to show you that they picked some well known voices as well as having performances worth listening to along the show’s progression. Both the Subtitled Version and the Dubbed Version are good and definitely worth watching both if you have the time.

What does make the show memorable are the characters. One of my favorite characters in the show is Maka, for a Shonen anime, it is a rare sight to see a female protagonist as the main character. Making this a nice change of things. But despite of that, her personality and her character becomes a bit interesting as the show progresses further. Her greatest attribute is Courage. Soul is a guy that just wants to be cool and he actually is pretty cool, but there’s more to him that keeps viewers interested instead of bored. Black Star is an annoying little brat, but that’s what makes him...Lovab…uh, Grea….uh, how about memorable… Yeah, that’s more like it. But his greatest attribute is his strength, after all… he is the strongest member of the DWMA. Tsubaki is great since she is a polar opposite to Black Star, and even though Black Star is annoying as hell, Tsubaki is totally content with Black Star’s personality. Death the Kid does have an annoying side because of his Obsessive Compulsive Disorder with…Symmetry. Wait, Symmetry, WHAT THE HELL!?. How is that even pos… Well anyway, Death the Kid gets a pass for this. He is also an expert at some skills and he is also pretty smart despite his faults.

Also, Why am I thinking of The Triforce from the Legend of Zelda series? Come to think of it. The greatest attributes of the three meisters can be compared with Link, Princess Zelda and Ganondorf. It may not to be a direct homage, but I find a little similarity regarding this or maybe I am somewhat Obsessive Compulsive on talking about the Zelda series since I tend to talk about the Zelda games from time to time with some of my friends (True Story), who can blame me? It’s a pretty popular series as well as being a prominent one at that. Oh, I almost forgot to mention, Why does the moon in Soul Eater have a creepy face. Play Majora’s Mask much?

Well, the major difference is that the Moon in Majora’s Mask is a full moon with an angry face while the Moon in Soul Eater is a crescent moon and is laughing. Coincidences? Who knows. At least the Sun is happy and laughing and not as pissed off like the Angry Sun from the Mario games



*Shivers* Moving on.

The Thompson Sisters do compliment Kid, and they are great sources of comic relief when the right opportunity hits. Crona is an awkward character but has his/her moments…Thank Goodness I remembered this little trivia, Crona’s gender was never confirmed or specified. Atsushi Okubo intentionally left it to the interpretation of those viewing it. Death Scythe is great for his silly antics. Stein is a blast to watch along the way despite his awkwardness at first. Medusa is such a slithering bitch, but she’s written well that you would hate her. Arachne was an interesting villain for a while. Mifune was pretty cool and here’s a fun fact. Mifune was named after a famous Japanese actor named Toshiro Mifune who was involved in quite a number of samurai movies and he was most famously involved with the influential Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa. Movies like Yojimbo and Seven Samurai are his most famous roles. Anyway, it is a great homage to a famous Japanese actor. Mifune is a samurai, but he serves as a bodyguard to the witch Angela. In all due respect, it is a very fitting homage. Lord Death is a riot. I love his funny personality, but once shit goes down. Well, you’ll have to see for yourself, If I ruined it for you, I would get a Reaper Chop/Shinigami Chop for doing so. Those that have seen it do know what I mean. Characters like Marie, Azusa, Naigus, Kim, Jacqueline, Ox Ford, Kilik, and the sexy kitty Blair are decent characters along the ride, but if there’s one character that would make the average viewer cringe as well as making the characters in the show cringe. It would be this incessant ham who just so happens to be ten times more annoying than Black Star… You guessed it, I am talking about Excalibur…

Excalibur being ten times more annoying than Black Star is saying quite a lot. But you wanna know something, despite the annoyances that some of these characters bring, it does bring some humor as well as some dilemmas for the characters that surprisingly can relate to real life situations. We do deal with some annoying jackasses from time to time, This anime could bring some example to this. But what about Excalibur? Ugh… I guess he’s written that way to be as annoying as ever, but still…

Most of the characters are memorable, my only main issue is Asura. He is promising at first, but is a bit disappointing at the end, if you haven’t seen the show… see it for yourself. But if you have seen the show, you may get an idea why I am saying this. But regardless, the characters make the show a blast to watch, flaws and all.

Which brings me to the story of Soul Eater, it isn’t the greatest factor in this anime. It starts off decently and becomes your typical shonen anime, but with some twists and turns. It does get pretty good at the middle, but once it nears its end. It does deviate from the manga and goes to an anime-exclusive direction, this isn’t the first time Studio Bones has done this. Back in 2004, Bones was in the middle of airing Fullmetal Alchemist and it deviated from the manga during its second season, yet it still managed to really good despite going it’s own direction with the conclusion. Fullmetal Alchemist was not the first anime to do this when its compared to its source material, but it was the first for Studio Bones, this was the second anime by Studio Bones to deviate from the manga and conclude by their own terms. Both ending in 51 episodes, the only difference is that Fullmetal Alchemist had a movie that concluded that series while Soul Eater does not. The ending may be a cop-out for some, but here’s a surprise for some of you… I don’t care if the ending was a cop-out. Allow me to explain, The ending isn’t great, but the reason I was still satisfied was because Soul Eater never failed to entertain. That was Soul Eater’s greatest strength. This anime is very entertaining. The action is adrenaline-packed and energetic, the humor is mostly funny. and it even manages to have some thrills along the way. This is one of those animes that is not acknowledged as a Masterpiece and yet it manages to entertain viewers, flaws and all. The ending could have been better, but I am not complaining much. What Soul Eater does is deliver entertainment to the average viewer as well as others that are not so average. This is an anime that’s best to binge-watch around Halloween.

Soul Eater is available by Funimation, the manga by Atsushi Okubo is avaliable by Yen Press. The Video games Monotone Princess, Medusa’s Plot, and Battle Resonance were never released stateside, another manga called Soul Eater Not! is available by Yen Press.

With all that said, Soul Eater is an entertaining anime with a decent story, memorable fun characters, great looking animation, and a groovy soundtrack with kickass opening and closing themes. As an action series, it does deliver. But it has its flaws, but in spite of that. Soul Eater is a must-see, flaws and all. It is definitely worth your time and it’s even better when you watch it around Halloween considering all the imagery in it. Soul Eater is simply a blast and if you haven’t seen it, Do yourself a favor and find the time to watch it. It may not be perfect, but it still will be a fun experience. You will not be disappointed for the most part. Out of all the animes that Studio Bones has made, allow me to make an analogy. Their adaptation of Soul Eater wasn’t the best pumpkin carving of the bunch, but it still holds up compared to its original source material.

I give Soul Eater a 9.1 out of 10, it is EXCELLENT!

Feel free to leave a comment, and Happy Halloween!

Soul Eater is a pretty good anime. But it's finally time to end this review!

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Ehh, I guess they were just words, after all.

Art & Animation

Soul Eater is, I guess, stylish? No, rather, it's peculiar! The lines are sharp, the shapes are big, faces distort easily, and everything's drawn in big, monolithic colors. Now I wouldn't say that it's a top looking show, though. It's animated fairly fast, but a tradeoff for this fast and peculiar animation/art-style is details. Locations are often plain and simplistic, a cave is just a cave, a desert just that, and jungle is as generic as can be. But the peculiarity does a lot better when it comes to character designs. While retaining the mantra of fast & stylish, but simple, the characters are all rather memorable and each with their own look. Whether you like that look, is a different question, but it falls into a sphere too subjective for me to add or deduct points from the show in this review. I liked some of the designs (Lord Death, Maka, Soul, that frog witch, perhaps Stein) and wasn't too hot about the others (Death the Kid, Black Star, Medusa), but most of them were definitely memorable, so peculiar served well!

it probably amounts to, hmm, let's say, 8/10! yeah, that sounds ok.

Sound

sound is gud. actors do their job well, I particularly liked Maka, but almost every other performance is a worthy one. Screams, laughs, groans, all very convincing. Music was mostly good, too, some of the background tunes were fairly disturbing and did their job well, when that was needed, the first OP was pretty cool, too, rest were mediocre. But, overall, a solid effort. Hmmm 8 or 9?

Story

story, hmm. well, Soul Eater has a story! it's not as cool as you might've thought from the beginning, it doesn't hold any revelations or superbig twists, too, hmm. actually, the story wasn't that good. What kept me watching the show was how cool and entertaining it was, alas, entertainment values are actually somewhat falling during the show, and the coolness gives way to a plot suffering from some cheese (although in the context of, hmm, the peculiarities of the characters, this cheese really seems like nothing) and disappointing developments - nothing is as cool as one might have hoped for in the end. All the big mysteries turn out to be fairly simple, all the hinted at backstory amount to nothing more than just some immediate effect right now, and all the moralising and arbitrary stability and order (which was actually a fairly interesting idea, props for that) end up feeling, well, a bit unsubstantiated in the show. Yeah, you're talking about interesting points, but what you're showing isn't really related to that.

The more important part of Soul Eater is its characters, so we should move to that. Before that, though, story part earns a 6/10. It served well enough for entertainment to happen, and it even had some ambition, but it falls quite a bit short of its targets.

Characters

Peculiar! The characters are, yes, once again, peculiar! They're a colourful bunch, and none too edgy, might I add, they all have some entertaining aura around them, not making things too serious, and, thus, like some anti-cheese wavelength dispelling all the cheese they have around them. Most of the characters have some sort of problems and intrigues related to just them, whole episodes are devoted to each of the one third of the main characters troubles (one third, because main characters are numerous, and they work in three teams, brilliant, no?), but there's a big BUT.

No, there's actually two BUTs ruining this party.
First, many of the secondary characters at first seem to promise a bigger role for them, but then often end up being a completely inconsequential background elements after their first big role is done. We got the slutty pussy witch (I wanted to say that), immortal werewolf, a whole bunch of witches, perhaps even some of the Death Scythes being there just for comic relief or something, appearing only episodically in places of no importance or stuck fighting background battles that don't really serve any purpose in the bigger story (hello, chainsaw guy and tootz-tootz priest, yup, what you did was a rather pointless show, yup, all of the times, after the first one, you didn't really contribute, I'm sorry).

Second and the more serious BUT: main characters get very little character development, despite all the big words that are said to trick us into thinking that something has actually changed. Nope, nope, nope. Only Crona changed some, rest of the cast was stuck in a perpetual state of "I'm developing towards something!", yet never actually leaving this state. We got Maka & Soul, being badass at the right moments and saving each other, but nothing really changes about this. We got Black Star, constantly being the asshole towards everyone friendly, but countering that with being the most comic of all characters, also, he's gaining strength, like, ALL THE TIME. Shame, that this doesn't change a damn thing about him. He said "I will transcend god" when we meet him, and he still says that when we leave him. Out of all the main characters, Kid showed the most development what with going through doubts and experiences about his father and what the hell does it all mean, alas, he alone is not enough.

Oh, right, the third BUT.
Soul Eater got some cool villains. Medusa was pretty cool, her motives were obscure "change change smth smth", but that's ok, they're rarely better. Arachne was worse, her motives even more vague, her powers unused, and her secret organisation being pretty full of spies for a lady who can hear and see everything.
But the Kishin, boy, did that guy SUCK or what? I won't delve into what's what, but for being the incarnation of madness, he was so weak, a proper classic madman (let's say, hmm, joker) would knock him out of his comfort zone with a few one-liners, and this guy would have no comeback at all. Lord Death with all its peculiarities was far more "mad" appearing than the Kishin ever managed to be. Lame.

And so, we got peculiar characters, but a few big BUTs are not allowing me to rate them too highly.
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Fourth BUT: Excalibur! Used only for comic value, he got far too much screentime. But I suppose, that might be a bit too subjective already, somebody might like that.

Anyway, 6/10 for characters. A shame, really.

Value & Enjoyment

Despite the BUTs and the sucky storyline, peculiarities and comic value of Soul Eater is undeniable - it's a pretty entertaining watch, but it's also a shame that it's storyline doesn't live up to its potential coolness. Still, it's a worthy show, one that at least tries to be original, and one that I quite enjoyed watching (even though I was disappointed in some ways).
7, 7, /10, /10.

soul eater is a 51 episode anime currently licensed by manga entertainment in the UK

animation
the animation is soul eater is very distinctive and has a lot of dark tones, also the way the backgrounds are drawn such as in death city makes everything seem as though there is something that is a bit strange going on and that it is out of the ordinary. I think that this works really well for this show as it really complements the tone and plot of this anime

characters
all of the characters in soul eater are distinctive and memorable and all of the main characters in the show seem to be given a fairly decent back story although there are some points that could have been expanded on in the anime such as the origin of death the kid and his lines of sanzu which are only briefly shown in the anime and are not really explained maka and soul make a good team and balance each other well. death the kid is a really good character along with his twin pistol partners liz and patty because he loots serious all the time but he is completely obsessed with everything being symmetrical. one of the stranger characters is Excalibur who is a weapon which will bring a lot of power to whoever wields it but most people put him back after he gets on their nerves . FOOL

plot
the plot of soul eater starts out with the goal of the students in the school trying to capture 99 kishin souls and 1 witch soul in order to turn their weapon partner in to a death scythe one of lord deaths legendary weapons although as the story goes on this aspect is toned down a lot and the anime then focuses on character interaction which makes it very enjoyable

soundtrack
the soundtrack of soul eater is really good I like the opening and ending songs and I think that they suit the show very well.

enjoyment
soul eater is definitely worth watching although it may seem quite long at 51 episodes it will keep you entertained throughout most of them and you will always remember the characters in this show and i would highly recommend watching it.

What I always liked in Soul Eater (SE), was its ability to be one of the few fighting shonen where the power of friendship means something. Fights are all about cooperation, the characters need to have harmonic resonance in order to maximize the efficiency of their attacks, instead of getting random power ups because they want to protect their worthless in battle friends, or some shit like that. (aka Fairy Tail)

And even the cooperation part has a lot to do with the mentality of its characters. The biggest conflicts they face do not have to do with super strong opponents they can defeat only with raw power. They are about facing your inner demons, surpassing your fears, and accepting your fighting partner despite his eccentric behavior. All those are reflected in their progress as fighters, and make Soul Eater to be a lot more about internal struggles instead of generic bad guys who want to rule the world. (aka Dragon Ball)

That doesn’t mean the battles are boring, since they are actually full of dynamic motions, constant change of camera angles, and of course lots and lots of screaming. The soundtrack is adding a lot to the experience with its catch BGM, although voice acting was a bit hit-or-miss. Maka sounds weird because her voice actress was inexperienced, Black Star is trying too much to sound like Naruto on sugar rush, Soul sounds too adult for his age, etc. It’s not bad, but I have heard much better performances.

It’s also one of the few shonen with a very distinctive setting. Most of them are mundane but this one looks like a never-ending Halloween party. The scull motifs, the creepy looking moon, and the mostly dark color palette make everything to feel like they are in a constant state of paranoia. Combined with camera gimmicks, such as fish-eye perspective while zooming in to insane facial grimaces, and you get some wonderful aesthetics.

It even starts right away with the action instead of spending a dozen episodes in a slow build up where the kids meet each other in school and do basic training or something. (aka My Hero Academia)

Unfortunately, just like it happened with the older Full Metal Alchemist, the anime goes into original material in its second half and loses a lot of its nuance. We get lazy drawings and sloppy motions, plus the later songs are not as good. It felt a lot more mainstream by that point and had a very anti-climactic ending where the unstoppable final boss gets defeated with a single punch.

It’s one of those series that need a remake eventually, although I am not sure it will make a difference, since whatever hype it had, died instantly when the anime ended. I can explain it as the themes running dry, or later bad guys not being as interesting as the first ones. And I have to admit that the story is not very engaging beyond the internal conflicts of its characters. The plot is very basic and almost random in how it introduces more evil organizations that up until then were completely hidden, despite the good guys constantly monitoring the whole world.

Arachnophobia felt like a lazy way for the good guys to have an army of evil minions to defeat, just for delaying the final battle. It is also very hard to accept Shinigami binding himself to the city, just to keep Ashura trapped, but when Ashura escapes, he leaves the city without a problem with Shinigami still unable to leave it. What was the point of it, if it doesn’t work both ways?

Basically, the show suffers from the same issue as Bleach. There is no sense of long-term objectives, other than dealing with ephemeral threats. Even when there is a clear final boss they need to defeat, said boss is not even present for most of the duration, making him distant and uninteresting. And when he finally makes his move, despite the build-up he gets, he is defeated with a single punch. (insert One Punch Man joke, here)

Leaving the weak storyline aside, it has good pacing to the most part, hardly any filler, and ends before it becomes unbearable. This is something very few shonen have managed to do over the years, without becoming a travesty of bad pacing and fillers ala Naruto.

Soul Eater was the most, dare I say it, mainstream show I've watched in a while. In many ways it's a simpler series than I'm used to: there are clear good and evil (you can even tell someone's alignment by the colour of their soul). Problems are solved by rediscovering the power of friendship and/or straight-up fighting -both are omniprescent in Soul Eater. The only other ingredient is the wisecracks, also ever-present. More than anything, this show reminded me of Full Metal Alchemist - which was something like the fourth anime I ever saw.

Some things have changed since then - most immediately, animation quality. Soul Eater lacks the flamboyance of some series - it's decidedly pedestrian in style, with no artsy turns beyond the occasional super-deformed moment. (Indeed, the style seems suited to live-action, if it weren't for the absurd settings and somewhat distorted palette - more on that later) But it maintains a striking level of consistency; I can't recall a single low-quality shot. Most striking are the fights, precisely because they look no different from the rest of the show; the faster motion is not used to cover animation shortcuts. Unlike even e.g. Kara no Kyoukai, where fights were a beautiful blur of flashing swords, here we see every kick and swing as it happens.

The fight choreography is quite varied, but (for me at least) always successful. Occasionally the lower-level fights seem like an excuse for each character to show off their moves in turn, but there's enough development that it never gets stale - the two rematch fights being particularly good examples. More than that, each fight fits into the overarching plot; there's a sense of progress, of getting closer to saving the world, even if the inital goal (each student collecting 100 souls) is unceremoniously dumped. At 50 episodes, Soul Eater is long by most standards, but short next to the giants of the genre, and the plot and cast are sized appropriately. Rather than distinct primary and secondary characters, focus shades out gradually - from viewpoint girl Maka and her anthropomorphic weapon Soul, to their close friends Black Star and Tsubaki, and then some of the more important teachers, adversaries and remaining classmates. We have time for some background for at least the central four, and we do get some interesting characterization for at least Maka (in her relationship with her father) and Black Star (who has a backstory that could be the source of endless angst in a different kind of show).

But many points are raised and then simply abandoned. Even Black Star's history is never resolved; two of the witch Medusa's minions get quite a lot of attention early on, but then seem to be simply dropped (we see them occasionally, but nothing more happens). The notion of a Deathscythe responsible for each continent is introduced late on, but never really used for much. A catwoman from the first episode takes up residence with the gang, but then contributes nothing at all for the rest of the series. In a serious drama I'd applaud this as realism, worth sacrificing narrative neatness for. But in Soul Eater it just feels sloppy, because if there's one thing Soul Eater isn't, it's realistic.

The setting is intrinsicly absurd - Shibusen, a school for Deathscythes and the "meisters" who wield them. The meisters act as the personification of Death, collecting the souls of the dead and dealing with anyone who doesn't respect the natural order of life and death (principally witches). Even at this level things are inconsistent: there are far too many students to fill the available places, given that it's strongly implied the Deathscythes all work for Shibusen. And if the whole school is able to mobilize to fight the main plot, it suggests their routine work isn't that vital. The school has lectures and exams, but given that collecting 100 souls is the soul qualification required to graduate, their relevance is questionable. I'm unsure whether this is better or worse than a mostly-consistent universe; the points on which we have to suspend disbelief are all clear from the start. And the setting makes sense for the story Soul Eater wants to tell: a war between supernatural powers, but fought by regular schoolkids. But again, it feels a lot like sloppiness; giant robot series accomplish the same thing all the time, in far more realistic settings.

The characters, at least, are more real. Maka is a superb lead, insecure without being whiny, strong but still vulnerable - and from this nuanced side of things her messy relationship with her family makes perfect sense. Black Star provides something close to boring invincibility, but there are hints that his boisterous shell conceals depths of insecurity. This becomes particularly evident as the series progresses, and he finds that he can't become the best simply by wishing to be. But like so many of Soul Eater's more subtle threads, this plotline just fades away without being resolved.

Relationships between characters are treated better. Weapons support and trust their masters, as might be expected, but the developing closeness among our lead couples is still cute to watch. More interesting is the dynamic in the squad as a whole, with both Maka and Black Star having to learn to work in a team and accept each other's weaknesses. The last human in the squad, Death the Kid, is a perfect fighter aside from his OCD - mostly played for comedy but treated surprisingly realisticly for that. But he has is own troubled subplot as he wonders how much to trust his father and Shibusen (but yet again, this promising thread is never fully chased up). Perhaps the most compelling relationship is that between Medusa and a teacher, Prof. Stein, as she attempts to seduce him to evil.

It culminates in I think the best 1v1 fight I've ever seen, helped by some fantastic background music. As a long series, Soul Eater can establish musical themes early on, and uses them to good effect later on. Voice acting is consistent and clear but never outstanding, and sadly I find myself unable to recall much about many of the endings or the middle openings. However, this may be due to the fantastic first and last openings, both memorable, catchy and utterly appropriate tunes, and matched by beautiful animation sequences. More than any other series, the first opening summarizes Soul Eater perfectly; we have a lot of power but also emotion beneath it, we see the large cast and the absurd setting, and we see it all in a skewed palette, at once dark and primary-colour (some bright yellow and red, but lots of black purple, and not a green or even much blue in sight).

It's a palette that carries over, though slightly less extremely, to the show as a whole, and reaffirms the choice that defines Soul Eater: a firm rejection of realism, for the sake of everything else. The dramatic plot and well-realised characters are worth it, and the whole is presented very well. I do wish the show tied up more of its dangling threads, but that's a small complaint against a highly enjoyable series.

First, the conclusion...
I'll cut to the chase, overall, this is a fantastic show. Regardless of what score you apply to a show, there are some shows that have a personality, edge and vibrance that separate them from a hundred other shows that you forget moments after you're done watching them. Soul Eater makes a lasting impression.

Soul Eater exudes 'cool' from every pore, in a way few shows do. If I had to draw comparisons to other shows that can compete in this regard, I'd pick Cowboy Bebop from back in the day, or FLCL or Samurai Champloo - more recently Gurren Lagan struck me as having that same bold visual panache. Whether you thought these shows were great or just over-stylized, you tend to remember their unique vibe long after you're done viewing them, which is a big plus in my book.

Who needs a plot anyways, when you have busty cat-girl witches...
I won't recap the entire storyline (not the strongest point of the show anyways) but it's about a school run by the Death Reaper (Shinigami-sama in Japanese) where students are paired into weapons and wielders. It's hardly even worth adding "alternate universe" to the description, as I'm sure you could guess that from the previous sentence, however this world is both like ours and yet immediately recognizable as different, in a fairy tale sort of way.

The students who are weapons are literally transformed into a weapon [guns, chains, blades, maces and of course, death scythes], to by used by the students that are wielders.

Most of these pairs are boy / girl, although the Shinigami's son is dual pistol weilding lover of symmetry, which makes that paring a boy / girl + girl menage a trois. So, this is a shounen show, with lots of fights and villains (and of course boobs and skimpy outfits - very toned thought down after the first couple of eps) - but don't be too quick to dismiss it if that's not your cup of tea - this show is much more than the sum of it's parts.

The early plot regarding two the protagonists, Maka and Soul, catching their quota of demons and devouring their souls turns out to be a vehicle for the introduction of the rest of the cast, including some villains that turn out to be friends and allies. Because the plot has 51 episodes to stretch it's legs, the real storyline does not start until much later. The earlier eps are far from filler, though, as they introduce important concepts and personalities, and of course establish the characters. While the plot is not poor or boring, in the balance between characters / tone and plot, I'd say the characters / tone are the stronger half of this show.

Quite the looker....
There is a definite western influence on this show - in look, storylines and characters, specifically western myths and nursery rhymes. Despite the Shinigami-centric view of the world (a very Japanese concept,) many of the characters and stories, particularly the 'villains' are references to characters from mythology, pop culture and literature - with names you may recognize. It's not Harry Potter, of course, but characters include Baba Yaga (from Russian folklore), Medusa, Blair (as in the Blair Witch Project) and so on. I laughed when the only samurai in the show turned out to be called 'Mifune' (after Mifune Toshiro, a mainstay in Akira Kurosawa's samurai films including The Seven Samurai and the seminal Yojimbo.)

The entire world looks very Western, with European castles, visits to European cities, but filtered through something more dark, twisted and Tim Burton-esque than you might expect, where even the moon looks as demented as something out of a nightmare you may have had after hearing a scary nursery rhyme as a child. Overall the artwork has bold lines and very vivid colors (a little digital looking, though) that positively pop off the screen. Despite it's relatively long run of 51 episodes, rarely do the art and production values flag, which if you've watched much anime, you'd know is rarer than it should be.

The character designs are solid - distinctive and cool, with a personality and motivation all their own. Often enough, shounen shows have protagonists driven by the noble (?) desire to be stronger, as if lust for power is a deep and justifiable motivation. Here, each one has strong motivations that are more understandable (mostly), and each character is fleshed out with foibles and weaknesses (without getting too whiny) that make them more sympathetic, and this invests you more in their individual progression through the show.
Some of the side characters get short shrift though - Blair the comedic busty cat-girl witch (is that enough fetishes in one character for you?) was totally sidelined halfway through, and some of the other side-villains that you may develop a soft spot for just disappear towards the end. Some later introductions including Arachne make up for it, though (she gets my vote for most unique eye design that isn't totally creepy).

Stylistically, I think the only controversial aspect to the sensational art will be the noses on all the characters, which have a weird short and stubby look that make them look like they've been sliced off - just a quirk of the character designer / artist.

I'll be controversial and say I hated Maka's VA....
The Voice acting is very good overall, with some recognizable VAs filling in for Soul and BlackStar. There's a new VA doing the main character (Maka) who is very unique sounding, unfortunately her voice tends to be polarizing - some love it, I hated it. Maka's VA sounds like a total amateur, IMHO, and I kept wishing that she was voiced by someone with a little more professionalism and personality. Maka just sounds shrill and annoying to me, and even some moments that could have been moving were just ruined by the voice acting, for me at least. I re-watched some of them with the sound off and liked the scenes more that way! The rest of the cast is talnted and well suited to their characters (OK, one more complaint - the Shinigami's VA is way too nasal.)

Music was pretty good, although the orignal OP was just OK. Effects and BGM, mood pieces are really good, so I still gave sound a 9.

Once more, the conclusion...
Overall, I think you should watch the first few episodes, and you can decide whether you like the mood and style of the show - it's not very brainy or deep, but it's sexy and has style to spare, and keeps you entertained through its 51 episode run. The ending is satisfactory, and will not ruin your affection for the show, as many other style-heavy shows may have done in the past.