Death City is home to the famous Death Weapon Meister Academy (Shibusen), a technical academy headed by the Shinigami—Lord Death himself. Its mission: to raise Death Scythes for the Shinigami to wield against the many evils of their fantastical world. These Death Scythes, however, are not made from physical weapons; rather, they are born from human hybrids who have the ability to transform their bodies into Demon Weapons, and only after they have consumed the souls of 99 evil beings and one witch's soul.
Soul Eater Evans, a Demon Scythe who only seems to care about what's cool, aims to become a Death Scythe with the help of his straight-laced wielder, or meister, Maka Albarn. The contrasting duo work and study alongside the hot headed Black☆Star and his caring weapon Tsubaki, as well as the Shinigami's own son, Death the Kid, an obsessive-compulsive dual wielder of twin pistols Patty and Liz.
As they take on missions to collect souls and protect the city from the world's threats, the Shibusen students work together under the snickering sun to become sounder in mind, body, and soul.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
Nenhum episódio encontrado.
Comentários
BatOtaku13
Soul Eater is about a group of students who attend a school for aspiring demon hunters, Shibusen. The story follows Maka, an scythe weilder and her partner, Soul, who transforms into the scythe she uses. Each hunter is paired with a partner who can turn into a weapon, and the two must fight in unison. The other main characters include Death the Kid, and his weapons Liz and Patty who become twin pistols, and Black Star, along with his partner Tsubaki, who has the unique ability to transform into several weapon types as a jack of all trades. These students as well as their teachersnow fight the various demons and witches who want to destroy Shibusen in order to take over the world without consequence.
This show is incredibly stylish, literally everything has a very cool vibe about it and really stands out from other similar animes. If FLCL and Bleach came together and had a love child, that child would be Soul Eater. The characters are all likeable and unique, even if they do follow the list of shonen anime stereotypes (loud kid who wants to be the best, check; quiet cool guy, check; self-depricating girl who holds much potential power, double check.) The adult characters are less stereotypical than the kids, which can make them more interesting to watch in certain episodes, however. Even if their personalities are familiar, there is enough unique and enjoyable about them that it never becomes a problem.
The fights themselves are very well animated and choreographed. They're all ridiculous and cartoony, but they are always visceral and exciting to watch. The progression is also very shonen in nature, with enemies that are way stronger than the heroes, and the heroes having to train to beat them and gain new powers, but again its so entertaining it shouldn't become a big issue. The fights are all about style and execution though, and if you keep that in mind and don't analyze them with rational thought, they all become very entertaining and exciting. The first 26 episodes are great flashy entertainment for anime fans.
I really wish I could stop the review at this point, and tell you Soul Eater is a really fun shonen series that fans of action anime should see. Now the bad point of the show, the entire second half of the series. Around the halfway point, Soul Eater changes from a lighthearted, entertaining fun action anime into a serious, melodramatic action anime. The story starts to take itself way too seriously, and the enjoyment of this anime greatly suffers because of this. When your anime is about people who transform into guns and swords who fight witches, it's kind of hard to take the change in tone seriously.
Soul Eater ends up losing most if not all of its charm because of this drastic and unnecessary shift in tone. All of the characters become whiny punks who sulk all day, and Maka becomes borderline unbearable as a main character with her melancholic attitude and constant bitching about how she's not strong enough to fight the main enemy of the show. All of this nonsense comes together in a final episode that is so ridiculous I would sound stupid if I tried to explain it in this review. Let me just put it to you this way, all themes the show was building up to this point are thrown out the window, the main villain turns into a gigantic pansy, and the logic behind the ending makes absolutely no sense in the grand scheme of the show. Oh, and it tries to copy Evangelion in ways that are so unnecessary and artistically nonsensical in the show that I laughed out loud when I first saw them in this episode.
What in the world happened to Soul Eater? What happened to this really fun, always entertaining action anime in the second half of the show? What is with all this ridiculous emo nonsense that gets introduced in the second half? How the hell could Bones, the studio behind Fullmetal Alchemist and Eureka Seven fail so badly at this show? I have no idea how to answer any of these questions. If you are going to watch Soul Eater, watch the first 26 episodes, and then stop. Otherwise, you are in store for one of the strangest, confusing, and most disappointing action animes ever made. Come on Bones, you are better than this.
Final Grade, C-
Sandileina
Here we have Soul Eater, a shounen anime produced by Bones (Wolf's Rain, Full Metal Alchemist, Ouran High School Host Club) that came out in 2008. I've never read the manga, so this is based solely on the anime. Set in the fantastical Death City, Soul Eater focuses on the Shibusen Academy, where students both work together and compete in order to turn their partners - boys and girls that can turn into various different weapons - into world-class Death Scythes. My university pally and I blasted through all 51 episodes in about a week, if you don't count the days that we were toobusy to watch any. Let me tell you, this does not make for hard watching.
The first few episodes start off as prequels for the main seven characters - three 'Meisters/Technicians' and their 'Weapons'. These episodes are ones that I found to be somewhat disjointed, and to be honest I probably would have given up on the anime after 4 episodes or so if it wasn't for aforementioned pally. Swiftly afterwards, once the main characters start to interact together, I was hooked. And shortly after that when the frankly ingenious support characters were introduced and fleshed out, I was manic about it to the point where I was screaming in outrage at the screen if any other character DARED to so much as harm a hair on their heads.
Plot - [7/10] I wouldn't describe the plot as being either typical or particularly inventive. I will say, however, that it does dangle a standard premise in front of you for a good few episodes (in order for a Technician to turn their Weapon into the ultimate Death Scythe, they must collect 99 evil souls and then one Witch's soul; cue epic quest) and then almost entirely removes it for something much better - a pleasant surprise that, as I understand it, doesn't quite happen in the manga. While some elements of the plot remain unclear and somewhat incomplete by the end of the series, I ultimately felt that it didn't detract too much from my enjoyment. Bar the very last scenes, unfortunately, in which I was left starving for a bit more of a tie-up, or better yet, a follow-up montage in the ending credits. Still, I suppose that's what the manga's for.
Characters - [9/10] The meat of Soul Eater, with some big-name voice actors who really give the characters life. Firstly, we have Miyano Mamoru-san (Yagami Light of Death Note, Kiba of Wolf's Rain) as the symmetry-obssessed Death the Kid (an awkward-sounding name, I have to say, that belies a truly slick character); the ever-prolific and utterly fabulous Koyasu Takehito-san (Sakarazuka Seishirou of Tokyo Babylon, Zechs Merquise/Milliardo Peacecraft of Gundam Wing) as the Weapon Excalibur, who will surprise you in several different ways with his presence throughout the series; and Kobayashi Yumiko-san (Sarah McDougal of Love Hina, Dan Taichi of Prince of Tennis) as the headstrong Black*Star, to whom a nod must go for the most subtle yet engaging main-character development; to name a few. On top of these, Soul Eater showcases a surprising amount of young, new talent - notably, the voices of Soul (the title character) and Maka Albarn, the female lead who I unfortunately found to be incredibly irritating.
Let me make my point hard on this. Maka is hard-working and academically very smart, with a down-to-earth attitude that helps her to deal with her absent mother and womanizing father, who recently divorced prior to the start of the series. But (and oh, it's a big But) it doesn't last. Rather than character growth, we seem to have a case of the exact opposite as the series progresses. Maka repeatedly ends up making absolutely ridiculous decisions that can in no way be logically justified. As much as I don't like to use Naruto as a comparison, I think I have to. Maka's choices aren't a Naruto-style situation wherein Naruto makes sometimes-stupid decisions because of his raw emotions, because that's Naruto's character and way of life; plus, Naruto has (for the most part) the strength to back up his convictions. Maka, on the other hand, does not. Not only that, but she apparently doesn't learn from her monumental mistakes. And /then/ she'll bitch to the series' headstrong character Black*Star about how he acts before he thinks. Though, come to think of it, at least Maka isn't exactly a hypocrite on that matter because it's shown that she does in fact think about her actions before she carries them out, comes to the conclusion that it's stupid... and then does the wrong thing /anyway/. If it wasn't for almost every other character providing sustained interest and sheer compelling brilliance whenever Maka's off-screen, I think Soul Eater would fall far short of greatness.
Art - [9/10] And of course, there can be no characters without the visual art. While the quality of the animation itself is fairly standard shounen-style fare, the rating for this section gets bumped up enormously for originality. The designs of virtually everything - from the fantastically surreal moon and sun to the laboratory of the anime's resident Mad Scientist (who would have an entire paragraph in the above section if it wouldn‘t turn into an essay on why he’s such a /darn good character/ on both an emotional and a story-telling level) to the eyes of the later villains - positively shines with mouth-watering creativity. I could wax lyrical about the brain-melting inventiveness of the character designs all day. It's honestly worth watching for the artistic genius alone.
Music - [8/10] With the exception of the very first ending theme (which was painful, if I'm honest), I thoroughly appreciated each different ending and opening. They were well-chosen and fitted the style and feel of the anime well. The music used throughout the episodes themselves suited the atmosphere wonderfully - the fighting music was driving, the sad-scenes music was sorrowful and the cheery music gave the anime a smile. While it wasn't as memorable as, say, the music to Gundam Wing or Gintama, it did its job in style. Also in this section, I'd like to add that the song sung by the Weapon Excalibur made me almost die of Sheer Heart-Rending Joy.
Overall - [9/10] Easy to watch and a great mix of creepy, surreal and fun. Objectively, I'd give this a high 8, and then I'm going to take the liberty of bumping it up to a 9 for the downright enjoyment I experienced with this show. I thoroughly recommend this to anyone who enjoys Full Metal Alchemist or Gintama - or, for that matter, any shounen manga/anime - as well as anyone who enjoyed the quirks of such series as Ouran High School Host Club.
HardToName
Short and Sweet Review: Soul Eater is one of the most unique anime’s I have ever seen in the sense of graphics and story. The graphics are ultra-high quality, along with very interesting anime cut-scenes. Soul Eater has a little taste of everything an anime should have – a first-class story, superior graphics, a modest bit of pervert, and a VERY interactive world. Camera angle and character motions are very musical, flow very well with each other, and so on - which is one of the biggest plus sides to this anime. The characters are very fun and surprising - which is a big part ofthe story.
10/10 ~ Epic.
This review will be updated as the series progresses.
If you did in fact find this review helpful, I do take value in my “Helpful” rating, so please take a moment of your time to tell me how you liked this review.
Julius_sleezer
:STORY: 5 Ultimately my main complaint about this series lies in this area. And I am going to be a little hard on it because of how much potential I saw that it could have had. I guess I should start by saying that what the story lacks is organization and commitment. Throughout the entire series, different conflicts would be shoved on the backburner right in the middle of their climax, the conflcts would be built way up and then fall flat within a single episode or two, and sometimes conflicts would be forgotten about all together without any resolve being made at all. It becamefrustrating after being promised some huge development so many times only for it to either turn out to have no relevence to the story at all or just never followed through with. This applies to characters as well. There were several times where there were characters who took up whole episodes to be introduced and set up to do big things only to poke an uneccesary line every 20 episodes or so. I mean, I'm still mad about how this show handled Free and Eruka. Even the tone was a little flakey. It started out almost primarily a comedy but around halfway through almost stopped with the jokes entirely.
But with all that said, I want to point out the good things they did, because there were things done well. I've found that many shounen series are a little shallow, and use things like "cool action" as a crutch. While this series did utilize action, it definetly wasn't a crutch, simply because it didn't need one. The action and the traditional main story of a larger than life villian out to destroy was used effectivley as a medium and as dynamic for what the show was really about, which was the inner growth of the struggling main characters. There will be pieces of the story where you find yourself in an expressionist environment that represents one of the character's soul, where the character grapples with personal conflicts in impressionistic ways. I found these portions of the story to be very profound and moving. Through this process you develop strong relationships and understanding of the main characters and really makes you care about what they are doing and what happens to them.
:ART: 9
The art and animation was truly great. It perfectly fitted the tone of the series as a whole and was furthermore customized to perfectly fit each character. Technically speaking, it was innovative and very fluid. I especially enjoyed the creativity shown in the design of pretty much everything. The characters, the buildings, the backgrounds, even the sky (you'll see what I mean if you haven't seen it yet) was drawn very cleverly and creatively. I could honestly say that someone could enjoy this series for its appearance alone.
:CHARACTER: 7
As said before, the characters are one the series' strengths. I'm sure the fact that a lot of the story comes from character development helps. Each character has tons of defining personality and everything about them, from their appearance to their diction works together and makes perfect sense. What really set the characters of this series apart from others is the intimate introspection we are subjected to as a viewer. What I think this did for the viewer is that it gave a deep understanding of the characters and because we understood where they stood emotionally and what drives them, it made it very difficult to dislike them. The bad guys hardly got the same treatment, which was fine because that wasn't what this show was about. All we really needed to know about them is that they sought to hurt and destroy the heroes (although I would have liked for Asura to retain his crazy mindless monster role instead of turning into the cliche arrogant bad guy).
:ENJOYMENT: 7
I hate putting a numbered rating for this because of how subjective it is. It really comes down to what you appreciate in an anime, and even still, it depends on what you are feeling like at the time. So I just put what level of enjoyment I found myself getting from Soul Eater. This series definetly fits a niche and provides easy-to-watch stimulation. Despite a good handful of deep moments, I don't know if a classy no-nonsense viewer would like wading through all the episodes to find them.
:OVERALL: 6
This anime could have been truly great, but all the extra, unimportant nonsense they threw in kept it from excelling. But still, if this fits your style, it'll definetly be one among the good ones.
Doodlittle
Soul Eater is a good series with a great sense of humor, art style, and an excellent cast of characters but lacks the strength to be an over 50 episode series. What really stops this series from being a great series is that the story is dull and you feel like that the show is moving like a snail on a freeway in the middle of the series. Story: 6 From the beginning, Soul Eater threw you the three meisters and their weapons. These short "monster of the week" episodes were exciting with tons of action and humor which kept me laughing and admiring the direction thisseries was going. Once the main plot kicks in you start getting introduced to more side characters and antagonists which keep the story interesting. I would have gave this story an 8 if the other half of the series wasn't so long.
It seems at the second half the action starts to repeat itself and the show suffers from the main plot not going anywhere. The plot is predictable and probably because the second half has not been written in the manga and it just makes the ending seem rushed. It feels to me that the story is your average "Kids save the world" story and acts like a generic show because of this.
Art: 9
I have to say, the art in this show is awesome. The fight scenes look slick and the animation never seems to slow down or I never really notice. Bones is a studio that knows how to use animation right and it amazes me.
The atmosphere of the show is done in a Halloween like style that really works with all the characters and the setting and makes it stand out to other anime out there. The characters all look great and all have a clever design.
The only thing that really bugged me with the animation was that the random people were just purple, I found this to be lazy and question why they make them fit in with the classroom.
Sound: 8
The OST of the show has a varied selection of songs which is I love in Anime. There is a feeling of jazz, rock, and hip hop surrounding the soundtrack and I never felt like I was hearing the same song over and over again. I never felt that there was a song that I was in love with during the show but all and all I recommend you try out the soundtrack for yourself.
As for the Openings and Endings I really enjoyed a lot of them. The first opening "Resonance" felt like it was kind of a pump up to the series and had to be my favorite out of all of them.
Character: 7
All the characters in the show are very unique looking and have a nice style to them. Maka and Soul are both enjoyable characters that are fun to watch. Black Star and Tsubaki were a mixed bag for me and Black Star most of the time felt obnoxious and Tsubaki was dull but they had their moments. My favorite out of all of the main characters has to be Death the Kid and the Thompson Sisters because they were all so goofy and different from other characters I have encountered. Kid's obsession with symmetry was a funny gag and the sisters acted like two nuts but all and all it worked.
The supporting characters (there a ton of them) all have something to offer the viewer and you can choose which one is your favorite. All I have to say is that all of them are unique and throws something different to the table.
The main problem with these characters is the lack of development with them. Since the number of characters is so high I never really got attached to a character and notice their potential. The series constantly jumps from one character to the next which slows down the story. If the anime was more focused on its protagonist than every other character in the show I think it would have been stronger.
Enjoyment: 8
With everything negative I said about this show, I still enjoyed it. The first half was hilarious and the humor is something this series did an excellent job on. The action scenes looked awesome and kept me watching and seeing all these characters throw crap at each other was just so satisfying. The only thing that killed the enjoyment of this show was the second half lacking the same punch as the first and I wish the humor was as well delivered in the second half as well.
Overall: 7
I enjoyed Soul Eater and it was a solid series and I wouldn't mind giving it another watch another time. I will conclude saying that this is a show that you would like if you are a fan of the action and comedy, it does a great job with both of these and if you are a fan of either one of those genres, give it a try. If you are a fan of the series, go check out the manga as well because it does a better job with the later parts of the story than the anime.
If you have any comment you want to share or questions about the review please message me on my page.
50-Yen
This truly is a unique anime, but it lacks something in all departments. I found this anime quite overrated, considering how much potential it had. The pacing is horrible, the music (especially the piano score) is annoying and some of the voices sound so unnatural (Patty, Soul, Maka), and the art varies a whole lot (the character's noses annoyed me). Still, I've never had so many mixed emotions about a show. I found myself annoyed, confused, curious. bored, excited, sleepy, refreshed, amused, intrigued and laughing. Mostly because the episodes varies so insanely much. But the show indeed has a cool feel to it, with a uniquesteam punk style, with different abilities and personalities in each character, a cool concept (shinigamis, witches, samurais, shinobis, magic, demons) and a whole new world we unfortunately get to see and experience little to nothing of, since almost everything revolves around Death City, an illusion or inside someones head...
Soul eater can also be quite funny at times and the anime has its quirks and charm. It's not the characters, it's not the concept, it's not even the story, but how the story is told that I have a problem with. Soul Eater's character development is frankly quite annoying... since almost everything they experience happens inside their head.. and some abilities aren't even explained, suddenly they just get this epifani and BOOM, there's a new ability.
The story is quite intriguing actually, and it's what kept me going. Making it one of the few animes I haven't dropped midway through. But it had so much potential here. It should have been darker, more violent, more serious. One of the most positive things about this anime is actually hitting a good joke at the right moment, but the show doesn't really get any serious until the last 5 episodes or so, and these are the episodes I found most amusing (I stand corrected: All the episodes where we get to see Lord Death in his true form). Actually, the whole series should've been more like the last episode. At least the fight sequences.
Several of the characters are just too annoying and gets far too much screen time (Excalibur, Crona, the guy with saws) and some get way too little screen time, especially in fights (this includes almost all the characters). The ultimate bad guy, however, is just plain bad ass (Kishin).
As I wrote earlier, Soul Eater lacks pacing in all departments, not just in the character development, but how the story is told, not to mention the most annoying thing about this anime, the fights. Some of the fights could have been really epic, instead there's always a bunch of talking, a reason for not fighting or not going all-out or one of the sides just forfeits. A battle would just end, just as the climax hits. I kept thinking that we'll probably get to see a real fight by them soon, but some battles never actually finishes... it just ends.. Not to mention how almost every single fight is interrupted by some kind of illusion, dream or thought sequence inside one of the main character's head. It could have been cool, but it just ruins the suspension and climax in the fight, since they keep over-using it!
Now back to the story... the different arcs varies a lot. Some of the arcs feel rushed, and some of the backstories of the characters could have gotten more depth and better told. (I would love knowing more about Spirit's backstory, Lord Death and Black star). I find myself thinking that the series could have been a lot better if there were more episodes (but then again, a lot of the episodes are just simply garbage).
Overall I actually did enjoy the series and I can see why there are so many fans. The characters are lovable and funny. Their friendship and loyalty warms your heart. The concept is cool and refreshing, the abilities are unique and intriguing, the weapons are huge and deadly. The world they have created is exciting and amusing, but it could have been so much better.
TheRipperMan
In our community there exists animes which receive a large amount of hype, ones which everyone knows and most have watched. Soul Eater falls into this category. But why? This is what I am to explore in this review. (Please note, I have not read the manga, so this review will be written looking solely at the anime) Story: 6/10 Soul Eater introduces a very interesting and unique plot. Students who fight evil sprits with their companions who transform into weapons to fight said spirits. Going into Soul Eater, I loved this idea. The students aimed to fight 99 spirits and one witch in order to transformtheir weapon companions into "Death Scythes", weapons used by Lord Death himself. This goal was introduced in the first episode, in stuck for awhile, and it was dropped. I sat there as the plot went on wondering where this idea went. I wanted to see how our protagonists tried to accomplish this goal.
Instead, Soul Eater gave us a large cast of protagonists dealing with the issue of "Asura." While I liked the direction this went, it suddenly flipped roughly 15 episodes in to the issue of Medusa and her plans. It was by no means bad, but the first 15 episodes just seemed like a waste at that point. Yes, there was valuable character development, but it would have been much more effective if factored in to the direction the plot went.
Another issue I had was the constant idea of teamwork set through the entire anime which seemed to be dropped during the ending. I can give it the benefit of some good comedy, though.
Art: 8/10
The art was one of my favorite parts of Soul Eater. The art was comedic yet serious, which fit the anime very well. It was very fluid, and the fight scenes were animated brilliantly. The art style used was very unique and distinguishable. The biggest issue was the dull appearance of the colors on occasion.
Sound: 7/10
The voice acting in Soul Eater was stellar. Every line was delivered masterfully by the diverse and strong cast of voice actors. The sounds track, unfortunately, did not meet the same standard. While the tracks used fit their relevant scenes, few, if any songs were memorable. They acted a lot more as ways to fill empty space rather than an intriguing way to enhance the different scenes.
Characters: 6/10
I have a lot to say here, so I'll try to keep it as concise as can be.
The first group of characters to discuss are the set of protagonists: Maka, Soul, Black Star, Tsubaki, Death the Kid, Patty, and Liz. It seems that writers like to give characters in stories with lots of characters very specific quirks to keep them memorable and distinguishable. Each of characters in this set of protagonists had his or her specific quirk. The unfortunate thing was, some were focused on more than others. Some received significantly more development. Maka seemed to be the focus for the development. Soul fell short though. And it got annoying having him talk about being cool all the time. Black Star remained his arrogant self through the whole anime. He had brief moments of camaraderie, but never really developed. We did get a fair amount of backstory on him though. Tsubaki fell to the same weakness as Black Star. She was never really developed past a bit of background information. Death the Kid was definitely the most well written character out of the protagonists, he was developed clearly, and as he became more suspicious of his father there was a clear shift in his personality. I still can't quite figure out what's going on with Liz and Patty. We got their backstory but they weren't really developed well.
The side characters were significantly better. Professor Stein was interesting. He went on a journey that began and was seen through to the end. Medusa had the same sort of experience. Crona had a great set of development and adventures to his character. Soul Eater seemed to put a lot more effort in the side characters than it did the main characters. However, there were still a plethora of not so well written side characters. Sid never really seemed to change, and just kept going on about what kind of man he was before he became a zombie. Death himself was made to be hyped to hide the fact that he really had nothing behind him. He oversimplified things and frankly it made him uninteresting.
Enjoyment: 8/10
I've been pretty critical of Soul Eater in this review. It's not bad. I thoroughly enjoyed all 51 episodes of Soul Eater, and I'm really glad I watched it. From a writing stand point, it had some weaknesses, but I also take into mind the audience Soul Eater is intended for. I'm someone who prefers a story that challenges me - the viewer- to think. Soul Eater most certainly isn't intended for that. I can still respect it though because it interested me enough to keep watching.
Overall, Soul Eater gets a 6, which MAL defines as "fine". I can consider it an above-average anime, but it doesn't go above and beyond. If you haven't seen it you should watch it, even with it's weaknesses it's still a great anime worth seeing for any anime fan.
Credulous
SOOOOUUURRRUUUUUU Yes, that's the annoying scream you will have to endure when watching this anime, the one who screams is the main character of Soul Eater, Maka Albarn. Now before writing this review I was thinking about in which order to put the good things and the bad things that this anime contained. I decided I'd start with the bad feautures. First of all; Soul Eater is a shounen anime, hence it has shounen screenplay which is to say it exists not to be either good nor bad, it's just there so that the characters have something to say. In truth though, the screenplay/script of thevery last few episodes of Soul Eater was a bit of a joke. What the hell were they talking about? No really, please can someone explain to me what they were talking about? I've never seen such meaningless nonsense.
Let's swiftly move on to storyboard, Soul Eater had a storyboard that was all over the place, which is also fairly akin to the typical shounen storyboard we're used to, still it never deviated far from the overhanging main storyline which is a good thing, then again the story became blurry as the anime continued and it ended in, well I don't want to spoil anything but it ended in a way I found far from satisfactory, I'd even have appreciated some random comic relief ending more than how Soul Eater ended.
Moving onto to the characters; as I might already have hinted the main, main character Maka Albarn is annoying. She's not only annoying because she's an annoying character, she's annoying because of her character design which to me looks like some jacked up hobo and also and foremost her voice actor (seiyuu), it was a bad choice. She screams all the time, and even when she doesn't scream her cracky teenage sounding voice is just annoying. The Shinigami was supposed to be funny, he wasn't funny, he was stupid, not funny stupid, he was really stupid. These two characters pulled this anime down a notch by themselves. Now let me move onto to the redeeming characters. First we have the idiotic ego-trip of a testosterone filled brat, his name is Black Star, his goal and purpose in life is to surpass God. Now we have seen these characters in numerous shounen animes before, one of the most famous ones is of course Uzumaki Naruto. The thing about Black Star is that it works for him. He shows no humility or subtility, he is never humble, he never drops his act even once and for this he turns out to be this animes best character, he knows he's the best, he knows the world exist only for him to have something to walk on and for him to rule. He is genuinly funny. You know who else is genuinly funny? Excalibur. Excalibur is annoying, self centered and has a bigger ego than Black Star himself, but he is funny.
Do not get me wrong now, I have been bashing this anime quite a bit and rightfully so because everything I have said I believe to be true, but I still watched this anime in like three days. It's very easily watched, you never feel weary when watching it and the next episode comes along easily as you want to watch what happens next. Soul Eater pulls this off partly because of some of the characters, partly because of the vivacious and colourful art and animations (not even the CG feels misplaced) and partly because the storyboard, as blurry as it may be at times, still has you compelled to keep on watching.
ktulu007
Soul Eater is a relatively famous anime based on a manga written by Okubo Atsushi. Now, it is from Bones studio. So far the only reviews I've done of their stuff have been Darker than Black, Fullmetal Alchemist and Wolf's Rain and while that doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to like this it does bode well. Let's take a look at Soul Eater and see if the trend of quality continues. Soul Eater follows a group of students at Shibusen Academy, a school that trains living weapons and their masters. The goal of the students is to collect 99 souls from evil humans and awitches soul to advance the weapon to the level of a death scythe, but that's interrupted by a conflict with witches who are experimenting on using souls of regular humans to create a demon god called a Kishin. One big problem with the story in this anime is that the death scythe setup ends up getting dropped pretty quickly and ultimately serves no purpose to the plot. It's just clumsy writing. I'm told that it serves a purpose in the manga, but it is a problem with the anime. The biggest issue with the anime though is that the end is pretty rushed. The series has a lot of subplots and most of them just get rushed resolutions that don't have a satisfactory payoff. The final fight scene is just lazy, which leads to an anti-climactic ending. That being said, there are a lot of good elements to the series. It has a lot of creativity and the series maintains a good blend of humorous and semi-serious moments, for the most part. A lot of the subplots start out pretty strongly, even if they kind of fall apart towards the end. There are some really stupid action elements towards the end, but I'm pretty sure they're intentionally stupid for the sake of humour and they are pretty hilarious, particularly Death City's transformation.
The characters range quite a bit in quality. The main cast works pretty well, but a lot of the side characters get one or two personality traits or, like Maka's dad, get used for the same types of jokes whenever they demonstrate any kind of personality. It especially becomes a problem toward the end when several characters get introduced and ultimately have very little impact on anything. Still, there are a lot of interesting characters in this. Maka, Death the Kid, Tsubaki, Crona, and so on.
The art in this has a very bright and vibrant style. It kind of reminds me of a cel-shaded game, actually. The backgrounds look nice, but the character designs fall a bit flat. The noses just look bizarre and the eyes look pretty blank most of the time. Which can lead to some awkward moments where you don't know what emotion they're trying to express. Although you can usually tell from the context. Also, like Katanagatari, this is a series that tries to have fan-service in spite of an art style that doesn't lend itself to it.
The cast in this is pretty strong. Miyano Mamoru, Omigawa Chiaki and Nazuka Kaori all give strong performances. The biggest issue with the acting is that there's quite a bit of exaggeration. Particularly from the over the top characters like Black Star and Patty. The music mostly works effectively, albeit not spectacularly.
The yuri factor in this one is kind of difficult to measure. Why? Because there's a character named Crona, who is just a great character by the way, who doesn't have a stated gender. The series keeps it vague, always referring to Crona with gender neutral pronouns. I'm not sure how they manage that in the English version given the lack of English gender neutral pronouns, but the fact is that I'm going to have to give to different scores because of Crona's ambiguous gender. If Crona is female, then the yuri factor is a 4/10. Largely because Crona and Maka seem to have a pretty substantial amount of sexual tension. If Crona is male, however, that would qualify as het and the yuri factor goes down to a 2/10. There are still a couple moments in the series, but nothing substantial.
Now we move on to my final rating. I'm giving Soul Eater a 7/10. Yeah, it has some issues, but at its core it's a fun, energetic and creative series with some strong characters. If you can appreciate the goofier moments, you'll probably have fun with it.
Jellyfish13
Soul Eater is by far an entertaining anime with fresh comedy packed with action. Story: The story opens into a more comical theme with the introduction of the main characters and the important sub characters along with the purpose they carry. However, it takes a turn off the normal shounen themed animes and dives into an action rollercoaster with the plot taking a completely different direction to what is first thought. Even with the many plot twists and adventures present, it continues to keep its comedy side to an almost perfect proportion. It must be noted though that once the story diverts from the mangaand into its final stages, it loses some of its fresh style and stability.
Art: Although it may not look spectacular at first compared to the many notable animes, the artwork grows on you. One of the most notable and lovable things about the art of this anime is that there is not one character in the whole show that is designed similarly to any other anime characters which is quite rare to see nowadays.
Another refreshing thing about that artwork of Soul Eater is the imaginative backgrounds and area designs, most notably the school in which the plot centers, Shibusen. Although its impossible to say that theses buildings are realistic, it can be said that they are of a unique style never before seen in any of the anime I've watched myself. This style is continued throughout the whole anime, never once changing keeping the Soul Eater style.
The animation is quite well non-standard especially during the battle scenes, notably unique compared to the normal standard shown in battle animes like Naruto and Bleach. Its this animation style which Soul Eaters animation style notable to all anime fans.
Sound: I would say the Soul Eater music isnt given enough credit, it has a brilliant choice of opening and closing themes aswell as some amazing theme songs to accompany it. Also, the music hypes you up, makes you feel the mood of the anime at the perfect moment whether its action or comedy.
Character: All of the characters, protagonists and antagonists, are lovable, colourful and refreshing in both appearance and characteristics. There is a wide range of personalities mixed into the Soul Eater world aswell as unique attributes in appearances such as the the stripes in Kid's hair and the drool mark on Soul. It is both comical and interesting to watch as these characters with almost nothing in common relate to one and other aswell as taking part in the key events of the plot.
Enjoyment: By far, Soul Eater is one of the most enjoyable anime out there at the moment. It is filled with superb action and outstanding comedy, both balanced out perfectly throughout the 51 episodes!
Overall: It is an anime well worth watching; great story, fresh art and animation, nice sound, lovable characters and very enjoyable! The only disappointing factor of Soul Eater is that its only 51 episodes long, it deserves a much longer run!
ali_k7
Soul Eater: A Promising Start, a Disappointing Finish Soul Eater initially captivated audiences with its unique blend of dark fantasy and comedic elements. The concept of students at Death City training to become Death Scythes was intriguing, and the characters seemed poised for a thrilling adventure. However, as the series progressed, it unfortunately veered off course, leaving many viewers feeling disappointed. One of the most glaring issues was the underutilization of powerful side characters. Characters like Death the Kid, a skilled swordsman, and Maka Albarn, a formidable wielder of a soul, often found themselves relegated to the sidelines, their potential unrealized. The fact that a young student,with limited experience, was able to defeat a formidable foe that even Death itself had failed to conquer, felt both illogical and unsatisfying.
While Black Star's character arc was a highlight, it was overshadowed by the lackluster development of the main protagonist, Maka Albarn. Her character seemed stagnant, lacking the depth and growth expected of a lead. It was frustrating to see her overshadowed by other characters, particularly Black Star, who, despite his flaws, exhibited more significant character development.
In conclusion, Soul Eater started strong but ultimately faltered due to its inconsistent pacing, underdeveloped characters, and a disappointing conclusion. While the series had potential, its execution left much to be desired.
Nito-San
"A sound soul dwells within a sound mind, and a sound body." What can I say about Soul Eater? Well, it's hard to review this anime since there are times where I hate it and times where I love it. The moments where I find true brilliance and moments that are just flat out annoying. Let's take the show apart piece by piece. Story and Characters: The story is the weakest part of the show, but it's not bad it's just it could be better. We have a conflict and that's good, but then halfway through the series we have another conflict, then comes in the MacGuffin. Onething that confuses me about the series is that in the first episode (without spoiling anything), the characters do something, fail, and redoing it again seems like that would be the plot of the show but no, that gets thrown away. It's not a hard story to follow, but it's a story that doesn't have a central focus. However, like I said earlier, there are moments in the show where I just stare at it and say to myself, "Wow, that was beautiful." If you happen to see the character Crona, then make sure you pay attention because when he's involved, believe when I say that it becomes among of the best episodes in the show. Although, there are the episodes that are just plain filler which are good episodes except for the one that happens THREE times that I swear to god provides nothing and is literally there to annoy us. I have found it, I have found the most annoying character in anime and his name is Excalibur.
The story maybe weak but the characters are nothing but memorable. You got Maka and Soul, one is the bookworm with passion and her partner Soul who tries his best to be cool. You got BlackStar who wants to someday surpass a god and his weapon the kind hearted soft spoken Tsubaki. Then you got my favorite Death the Kid, a boy who fears nothing but has a obsessive compulsive weakness to things that are not symmetrical and his two weapons, the Thompson sisters, pretentious yet likable Liz and clueless yet cheerful Patty. There is never a dull moment with these characters except for maybe when they give cliche friendship speeches but beyond that these are really great characters that I really wish I could see more of. Every character in the show has a personality and I love every last one of them...except for Excalibur. Really, Excalibur is so annoying even the characters in the show hate him...SO WHY HAVE HIM!?
Art:
The art in Soul Eater among some the best I've probably seen in an anime. The characters all have distinct appearances and not one character is a carbon copy of another just with different features, except for Excalib--OKAY I'M SORRY, but how can I not be upset with him when he looks like something out of Dr. Seuss' trash can. The way I look at the animation of Soul Eater is like if I'm seeing a Japanese Picasso on drugs. It has a dark Tim Burton feel to it but it also has this bright color imagery that you stare in awe at. If there is one thing I can say I don't like about the animation, it would probably have to be the character's noses. Another thing, since this is Bones Animation expect their famous emoticons but unlike FMA: Brotherhood where I felt they didn't fit, it fits perfectly here since this is in fact a somewhat dark-action comedy.
Sound:
The music in Soul Eater is pretty good. You'll get musical cues that sound like the whistles of train and sometimes even the intro to a Reggae song. You'll get the dramatic choir and your epic metal fighting music. There's a different genre everywhere. Now comparing the SUB and the DUB. Both are pretty good, often I would see myself switching back and forth just to hear what each really sounded like the other language. One doesn't have one the shines over the other and I don't really prefer one over the other.However, if there was problem it would have to be the voice of BlackStar in the DUB. First of all it's a girl doing a boy something that is very common but my god is it annoying. It's not unlistenable but it's something that you are going to get over. Everyone else in the DUB on the other hand is actually pretty good including Excalibur despite being the abomination of this anime. Let me just mention that Vic Mignogna is in this doing a surprisingly deep voice which is sort of interesting especially from what he normally sounds in other roles but don't worry his famous screaming voice still gets in there.
Overall:
Soul Eater is a very good anime with great characters and beautiful animation. If the story was a lot better than it is, than this anime would probably get a better rating and probably be in my top five favorites. Is it worth watching? Hell yeah it is. Watch it for the characters and the animation but if your looking for a strong story prepare to expect the least. I'll say it again, when Soul Eater is good, I love it, when it's bad, I'm just waiting for it to end. I definitely recommend Soul Eater for any anime lover. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to now destroy the person who thought Excalibur was actually a good character.
urbabysoncrak
Rating: 8-9 Overall: Finished Soul eater about a week ago. Loved the overall concept and the artwork. Although the ending left me wanting more. I just felt that the anime could have done more with the story. Story: The development of the story proceeds pretty well with the exceptions of the excalibur episodes.(after the 2nd one, I got pretty sick of that guy)If you read the manga(which is pretty good right now), you notice the anime stays true for awhile and eventually darts off and does its own thing, the ending really threw me for a loop.
From the way I see it, the manga is taking soul eater to its true potential. So if you love the anime give the manga a go. I think the story starts darting off around episode 38 if you don't wanna start from the beginning start there.
But the story in the anime wasn't bad, but like I said It left me wanting more and who knows if this is gonna have a 2nd season.(I hope so)
People have been saying its a typical anime with good vs bad or whatever, but looking past that, this anime is pretty damn unique. There are things to be discovered, you just have to watch. ^_^
Animation/Art:
The artwork has good texture and is unique. The animation is very smooth.
The animators did not get lazy at all. From beginning to end. The animation and artwork is top notch.
Sound:
Not too picky about it, I didn't notice anything bad.
Enjoyment:
Even though the anime darts off and does its own thing. I still enjoyed this anime ALOT, because of the fluidity of the animation, the cleanliness of the art, and I thought the voice actors did an awesome job.
When Maka yelled, it pierced my soul, a powerful performance in my opinion.
Conclusion:
-If you're looking for lovely action scenes that will blow your mind. Watch it
-Looking for unique artwork and characters. Watch it
and it's not a serious anime, so expect a few laughs. ^_^
LifuLifu
There are shows that simply entertain, and then there are those that captivate your very soul. This series belongs to the latter category. From the onset, it was like diving headfirst into a whirlwind of dark, gothic brilliance that I couldn't pull away from. The art style is nothing short of unique: vivid, distinct, and beautifully dark, reflecting the tone of the series impeccably. The animation is crisp, and the fight sequences? A dazzling display of choreography that is as fluid as it is breathtaking. What truly enamored me, though, were the characters. Vibrant, complex, and deeply relatable, they form the pulsating heart of the narrative. Theirrelationships, struggles, and growth form a compelling story that's as much about personal evolution as it is about epic confrontations.
The plot, with its inventive take on soul reapers, witches, and the eternal battle of good vs evil, offers a fresh perspective in a genre filled with clichés. It deftly balances humor, heart, and horror, making for a roller-coaster of emotions from start to finish.
To simply say I love this anime feels inadequate. It's a journey that resonated deeply, and its impact has stayed with me. If you're on the hunt for a series that challenges the norm, delivers depth in characters, and showcases action-packed sequences that will leave you in awe, this is it.
In a nutshell, this series is an epitome of storytelling excellence. It's set the bar sky-high, and future binges will undoubtedly be measured against this standard. Dive in headfirst, and be prepared to be completely entranced.
NYanimefan
Ahh, Shōnen. Shōnen Shōnen Shōnen. Will everyone please give it a break and please focus on what we came here to read, a pure anime review. When I look at the reviews for this anime, only one thing can come to my mind, is this a Shōnen? Personally I couldn't care less, what I do care about is that this is a really enjoyable anime. So let me begin this journey into a story that eats the Soul by saying, Fairy Blue. ___________________________________________ A little too dramatic ehh? ___________________________________________ O.K. here is the actual review with my IADb rating system: Story: Soul Eater centers around the relationship between a weaponmeister and (at least one) weapon that can transform into a human. This relationship is formed with the ultimate goal of transforming the latter into a death scythe and fit for use by the Shinigami. While the story originally appears to be no more than a simple, enjoyable, quest by three teams who attempt to complete this feat, the story quickly evolves into something much more. Even chronicling two separate wars and producing several more relationships.
The Battles: Soul Eater is advertised as a combat anime, meaning that the battles contribute to at least a third of the story. These battles have several positives but a couple of key negatives that do lower the rating a slight bit. The positive part is that the battles are well written and rarely get boring, aka the pace is great. However, this anime to many extents features the "good wins after severely losing," belief, which means that a lot of the battles are protracted and feature the protagonists losing, only to suddenly gain some sort of excess hope and beating the living crap out of their opponents.
The Characters: Very few anime produce this type of array of characters. You have seven main protagonists, two main antagonist, and whole team of supporting characters. As good as the protagonists are, it is the antagonists that truly take command of the show. My favorite charter in the show, by far might I say, is Medusa. I would even go on a limb and call her one of the best female villains of 2008.
Art: A very different type of artwork. This all depends on taste. If you like abstract art then this is for you, if you are looking for the fourth generation (2013/2014) HD anime visuals, then you wont view the artwork for this anime favorably
Sound: The soundtrack for this aime is good, it is nothing notable, but nothing bad. Its good. To be honest it is the weakest part of the anime. All of the voice actors sound close to their age which is a plus though.
The openings and Endings are amazing though. Easily contains some of the best openings and endings in anime.
Enjoyment: This is always a very hard category to digest, as it varies by episode. Most episodes left me very satisfied, however it lacked the desperate feeling to watch the next episode. Don't get me wrong, I gladly watched it, but their were no cliffhangers and several episodes ended with five minute extended dialogues.
____________________________________________
The IADb official scoring:
Plot, Sequence, Flow: 2.5/3 Points
Overall Characters: 1.7/2 Points
Visual Effects: 1.6/2 Points
Soundtrack: 0.7/1 Point
Enjoyment/ Lust to watch the next episode: 1.5/1 Point
_______________________________________________
Final Rating: 8.0
NY Grade: B
TakaCode
After watching Fire Force, my eyes were open to the fact that this show was very lacklustre. The pacing was a mess, and the writing was painfully bad that relied on cliches and most of the characters were just as interesting as eating cereal. It may have a good English dub and the production values were pretty but they didn't save the anime for being shallow. It's such a shame really because Fire Force was one of my anticipated anime of 2019 as it was coming from the same creator that gave us one of the most iconic shounen's of the last 2 decades, Soul Eaterwhich was a show I grew up with. After the mess that was the final episode of Fire Force Season 1, I decided to grab Soul Eater Blu-Ray (which I upgraded from DVD the day after the final episode of Fire Force aired) from my anime shelf and re-watch the whole series just to see if it holds up since my first watch of it in 2011 and fortunately it did for the most part.
On the surface, Soul Eater looks like you run in a mill shounen series, however when you actually watch the series you will start to see unique Soul Eater compared to most shounen animes of its time.
For starters, this is one of few shounen animes that features a primary female lead. As much I like watching my Naruto's Deku's, Asta's and Gon's having a primary female lead not only allows the series to have more writing opinions but it makes your shounen series stand out from its popular competitors where all of them were male.
Another great aspect of Soul Eater is its world-building. Soul Eater wastes no time introducing its world and lore to the viewer. We learn how the world death city in great detail.
The most underappreciated thing about Soul Eater was how it blends with comedy in the dark setting. Despite having dark and spooky atmosphere Soul Eater spices it with quirky and hilarious humour. It gives the show its own unique flair as this could have easily been the darkest shounen ever made.
This was only complemented by the show's outstanding character interactions. Whenever a character does a joke, the characters react in the most hilarious way possible. What stands out the most about the character interactions is the comedy itself because you see Soul Eater is one of the few shounens that understands comedy structure.
One of the main issues I have with more recent shounen series like Black Clover and The Seven Deadly Sins is that it hamfests its repetitive and unfunny comedy right down our throats.
This doesn't happen in Soul Eater as it knows it set up the mood and it delivers the punchline perfectly. Honestly half I reason why I love Soul Eater so much. Seeing theses character interact with each other in humorous situations always had me giggling.
It's such a shame the excellent comedy structure did not translate in his future work Fire Force.
As for the story itself, I found to be engaging. It mostly knows what it wants to be. The pacing was good rarely feeling rushed nor dragged. The writing ranged from good to excellent and the show its overall fun. Themes of friendship, acceptance, teamwork and identity take centre stage of Soul Eater's narrative and they were well-executed.
The only problems I had with Soul Eater plot was the ending and the slightly rough second half transition. Without going into spoilers, the ending was too cheesy and anti-climatic for its own good. Not only that, but the writing was weak compared to the rest of the episodes. To give the ending some credit it does try to close off some plot threads that it set up throughout the series but the results were mixed as some got better resolution than others.
I may have liked the more serious overarching plot of the second half but the transition from the mostly lack back first half wasn't that great. It just happened so suddenly without much build-up and as a result, certain character actions during that transition were questionable at best and at worse overdramatic.
The strongest aspect of Soul Eater is without question is its colourful, diverse and engaging cast of characters.
Maka is a fantastic shounen protagonist if I ever saw one. Not only is she a kick-ass fighter who's able to hold her own in combat but she also a complex and well-written character. I loved how she developed throughout the series. She starts off as a stubborn individual who had a grudge with men due to her backstory that featured her father cheating on women to a more responsible and brave individual who's able to open up to men.
On top of her beautiful character development, I adored her determined personality as well as her interactions and relationships with the cast, especially with her childhood friend Black Star and her partner Soul. Easily my favorite character in Soul Eater.
Soul is another character that I really liked. Unlike Maka he's more layback and stubborn who loves claiming something that is ''cool'' or ''not cool as he catchphrase.
Just like with Maka he gets a lot of character development but I actually prefer Soul development despite Maka being my favourite character. I found his transformation from stubborn demeanour to a more cool-headed individual in the second half to be fascinating as it plays along with some of the themes that were presented in Soul Eater and it in this case growing up. He's, like a totally different person around in the second. Always cautious about his mister and friends, completely scrapping his ''cool'' catchphrase from the first half and he just became a more discipline person overall.
Now it's time to talk about the most controversial character in Soul Eater Black Star. Now there are two camps of Black Star. The people who love him and the people who despise him.
Personally, I loved Black Star, but I can see why people would hate him. He's loud, full of himself and arrogant but that makes him so special in my eyes. I also found him to be funny. Every time he does fails of something or does something stupid, and he always puts a smile to my face. That's not all. For a character that has a big ego, he's actually the strongest character out of the main three.
He's a very skilled and determined and his character development as well his bond with Tsubaki reflects that.
Speaking of Tsubaki she also another good character. She perfectly plays off Black Star cocky and eago-personality by being the voice of reason for Black Star with her forgiving personality.
Now we have Death The Kid who's easily the funniest character in the entire series. He has a recurring gag about OCD where he's always obsessed with symmetry and perfection. The moment he sees anything that is not perfect symmetry he will literally break down out of embarrassment.
He's accompanied by the Thompson sisters Elizabeth and Patricia who provide support of Death's perfect symmetry as his weapons.
While I did like Death and Thompson sisters presented for providing a lot of comedy for the series I felt they got the short end of the stick when it comes to character development. They did get some development in the series, but it wasn't that noteworthy personally especially when you compare to Soul, Crona and Maka development.
Lastly, we have Crona. He may not be the main character, but I still want to talk about him as he is just as great as the main characters. (I know Crona gender is unknown, but I will call him a male in this review just to avoid confusion). He's my second favourite character in the show only losing to Maka. I loved how charming but broken this character is. I loved he and Crona character development throughout the series and he was always a joy to watch every time he was on screen.
Colourful is the word that sums up my thoughts on the supporting cast of Soul Eater. They were all fun and interesting cast that do a great job of supporting the main cast whenever its for action or comedy. Highlights go to Stein, Spirit and Lord Death Shinigami.
The only problem I have with the characters it would be the villains. With the expectation of Medusa who was a solidly written shounen that provided a lot of great moments for the show's plot and characters the rest of them were not that interesting. There weren't terrible, but they were not that memorable including the final villain for the last quarter of the series.
Unique and stylish are the best words to describe Soul Eater's visuals. It's striking, vibrant, spooky and colourful to the eye. Studio Bones did a fantastic job at with the character's designs and background scenery that perfectly captures Atsushi Ookubo's art from the manga. The animation is smooth, crisp, and consistent. Fight choreography and it didn't rely on recycled animation which plagued a lot of shounens from the 2000s
Soul Eater soundtrack is one of my favourite anime soundtrack of all shounen. Every single track whatever its for action, comedy, and horror is superb and it fits the series perfectly.
Both the openings themes are kickass on their own right but I prefer the second opening theme Papermoon which is one of my favorite openings of all time.
With the expectation of the excellent 3rd ending theme, the ending themes were good but nothing too special.
Lastly, we have the English Dub which despite it coming out in 2010 when English Dubs were finally getting good the English Dub is nothing but incredible. To this day this is one of Funimation's best dubs and it holds up beautifully to this day. Stand out performances go to Laura Bailey (Maka), Micah Solusod (Soul Evans), Todd Haberkorn (Death the Kid), Luci Christain (Medusa), and Maxey Whitehead (Crona)
The one dub performance I also want to mention is Brittney Karbowski as Black Star. I really liked her performance as Black Star. A lot of people would say that her Black Star was a miscast and I can see where they are coming from to a degree but I feel she gave it her all of portraying the loud and arrogant Black Star. You can tell she was passionate by the role, despite Black Star clearly sounding like a girl.
Even with its issues Soul Eater still remains to be one of my favourite shounen animes. While the ending, the shaky transition, and few unresolved plot points are to be desired, it excels on everything else from its intriguing plot and themes, fascinating world-building, a well-crafted comedy that is only bettered by amazing character chemistry. Nicely written and likeable characters, outstanding production values that stood the test of time. Wonderfully composed soundtrack and an amazing English dub by Funimation.
It may not be the perfect shounen series but it's still one heck of a great shounen that can go toe to toe with some of the newer shounen animes such as My Hero Academia, Black Clover and Demon Slayer Yaiba.
ChibiHime
Soul Eater. I had always had high expectations of this anime. The animation looked amazing from the few scenes I had seen, and they were also quite scary. The AMV 'This is Halloween' on this anime is what attracted to Soul Eater most. It looked flashy, scenes were scarier and more brutal than normal shounen; I expected a lot, something different. But alas, this expectation was not met. At all. I realise that the manga is not yet completed and the story of the anime probably took its own path and just went the wrong way. I don't know much about the manga, but nonetheless, Iam reviewing the anime and nothing more.
My first impression of the first episode was different from other anime. I was really quite shocked with the events that happened being a bit cruel for a shounen. As I went through the anime, it became normal and it was just Soul Eater. My impression of the anime from the AMV is pretty much all there was to Soul Eater, great animation and somewhat brutal scenes. Soul Eater had the potential to be a great and exciting anime but it fell so badly in the two most important areas, the story and characters.
What Soul Eater tried to do was give the main characters challenging missions in attempt for some character development. The characters were sent off to missions which brought them back to tragic pasts, conflicting emotions and all that jazz. By the end of the episode, the characters seemed to have matured only to return back to their original ways in the next episode. The only character to have received some character development was Black Star, who wasn't even the main character. He was an immature brat, like Naruto, than was consumed by his past making him a bad character than realised his mistakes and matured. This maturity stayed for the rest of the anime. Stein also got some pretty good development too now that I think about it. He was quite the interesting character to watch.
The actual main characters, Soul and Maka, just stayed the same. Maka continued to be the annoying protagonist who couldn't actually achieve anything, got mopey about it, promise to try harder, and still didn't achieve anything. She made no progress what so ever. Soul did have some stuff going on with him but it was never really concluded so his character never felt finished. Disappointing how it was the side characters that received the best development yet the main characters were left for dead.
There were quite a few fillers in this anime. Fillers are a major anime turn off for me. I was hoping Soul Eater wouldn't have any but it does. There was one episode of just Excalibur just talking. Such a waste of time. So maybe a quarter to a third of the series, you don't actually needa watch. The ending was horrible as well. Nothing was concluded in the ending. The fighting literally stopped in the last minute and your ending was a 'triumphant' smile. Terrible ending.
On a brighter note, the animation is incredibly good. Character designs are different, cool and quirky, it's a nice break from regular anime where everything looks 'cute' and 'pretty'. The latest trend in moe is unpleasant and the crisp edgy animation of Soul Eater is just amazing. It is also a much more brutal anime than you'd expect from something that's raated for teens. Soul Eater could've been soo amazing. It would've easily have been one of my favourite anime as everything is fun and exciting except for the story and characters. It dropped in these two areas so badly, it was such a disappointment. The bad ending also left an incredibly bad impression as there was nothing much in the series to make up for it.
Soul Eater to me, is not a serious anime to watch. It's amazing for when you're sick of watching cute girls who can't do anything for themselves (the cool factor of this anime makes up for Maka's uselessnee...sort of). It really could've been great and I wished it was. But it isn't. I suggest maybe reading the manga f you want a better story/characters but I'm not sure what that is like. Sorry to the people who love this anime, but it really doesn't deserve an 8/9. More like a 5.
NinjaKirby1322
Av: How's it? NK: Going pretty well. Just going through my anime list right now, making sure it's all in order. It's been a while since I've maintained it. Av: Thanks to school, eh? Find anything interesting? NK: Yes, actually. It's fun to see when I've watched anime. I have three or four series during the semester, then during breaks there's just series after series. Av: Speaking of, you watched Soul Eater last summer, right? NK: Yeah. Took a while to get through, but we did. Av: You like it? NK: Well, let's see. I have a wall scroll with the main characters on it,a messenger bag and an Excalibur plush, and also the DVD cover signed by Travis, Vic and Colleen. You tell me.
Av: Revising question, then. What'd you rate it?
NK: 9 out of 10.
Av: No 10?
NK: Nope. It was promising for a while. The series was incredible. Then either the director forgot he only had a few episodes left, or they decided to have Disney write the script. I've never seen so much stuff piled in to that small a space, and you've seen my room. Add in that little speech Maka gives at the end of the final episode, and the series just feels like it builds up to a fat disappointment.
Av: So, another case of "Oh, crap, the series is ending, but the manga's not close to finished," eh?
NK: I really wish anime producers would stop that. Either come up with a plan for the anime adaptation all at once, or wait for the series to be near finished. Wasn't Negima! enough evidence of how not to end an anime adaptation of a continuous manga?
Av: Very true.
NK: At least most of the characters were intact at the end of the series.
Av: There was one that wasn't?
NK: Kind of. I though Death the Kid started acting a bit strange in the last few episodes, but that's probably me just being nit-picky. It was still a really fun series to watch.
Av: Well, the characters must have been good for you to nit-pick like that.
NK: Oh, yeah. Even the characters I hated were done well. Even Naruto's long lost brother.
Av: Who?
NK: Black Star. He does tend to grow on you at the end, but he's still really annoying. I really feel bad for Tsubaki. Then there's Medusa, who is designed to be hated. She is really an amazing character, though.
Av: Should I brace myself for a dub lecture? I know you've harped on many a dub.
NK: This was a really great dub, actually. Granted, I was a little concerned with Monica Rial playing Tsubaki at first, but her voice is so soft, it's hard to believe it at first, especially comparing her voice to Coopa's or Renge's.
Av: Well, that's about it. Obviously I shouldn't be asking about art or music. You have the OST and all, plus the wall scroll and messenger bag.
NK: What? Don't like the sarcasm being thrown back at you?
Av: Shut it. Just get to your recommendations.
NK: There's enough action to keep that part of the shounen crowd busy, as you're well aware of.
Av: Not that much.
NK: That's because there's *gasp* character development! I was honestly surprised, seeing as how it's listed as a shounen anime. Those, like me, who actually care about the characters more than anything else will find a lot to like here.
Av: So...that pretty much covers every one.
NK: Except the pervs, yeah.
Av: Not many anime you can say that for, eh?
NK: Unfortunately. Though anyone else should brace themselves for the ending. It feels kinda flat compared to the rest of the series.
Av: Well, now that you've watched your one shounen anime for the year, what's next? Air?
NK: K-ON!, of course. Air comes during winter break.
Av: Good lord. You really need to stop finding these Slice of Life anime.
NK: Correction: I need to find series not made by the same people.
Av: You have fun with that.
YourMessageHere
I started Soul Eater feeling fairly ambivalent, thinking that it would disappoint eventually and it was simply a matter of time. Real life got in the way for a bit, but I amassed a backlog, got a kendo injury and while immobile, I decided this was the time to catch up. That was a hell of a good marathon; in fact it's literally years since I was so gripped by anything and now I've finally cleared the decks and finished it, I am unusually satisfied. I can't help comparing Soul Eater to Bleach on some level. Cards on the table: I lost almostall interest in Bleach when I realised it was basically going on perpetually, but I found the initial premise interesting, if silly, and to this day I see Tite Kubo's character designs as absolutely superb. Other than the fact that it's an action series full of Shinigami, there's not a lot in common that I can see.
Skipping the plot summary, I am most impressed by what I can only call the sheer completeness of the series - quite unlike Bleach, then. Something like this, an action series largely composed of single-shot episodes with arcs, is of a kind that fairly reeks of the incomplete, slapdash, on-the-fly nature common to the likes of Naruto, Bleach or their ilk. A tightly formed storyline and true plot resolution is not something I expected. Not only that, the series' look and feel are similarly rounded and fleshed-out.
The heart of the thing is of course the characters, and Ookubo's single best idea of the whole series is to pair up the protagonists, and have the pairs composed of complimentary characters. Not only does it mean you can have camaraderie, exposition and conflict without engineering ever more implausible reasons for two characters to be thrown into a situation, it also ensures that you can have a wide range of different characters and not end up hating a pairing or an episode devoted to one particular pair, because whichever characters you don't like (and you can be sure there will be some), they are accompanied by one who is generally speaking opposite in most respects. For myself, I initially found Black Star fairly insufferable, but I really like Tsubaki, so from being an annoyance that accompanied Tsubaki, he gradually became bearable, and as he developed I came to realise that his constant self-promotion was essentially a coping mechanism rather than a terminal case of arrogance - a cause, rather than an effect - so I got more and more interested in him.
The closeness of weapons and meisters is in itself an engaging facet of the series, and makes a somewhat refreshing change from the constantly ambivalent trust/betrayal relationship many allies tend to have in action narratives. The only possible exception is Death the Kid, who I simply cannot like, thanks to his obsession with symmetry getting in the way of any sort of actual character trait, and Liz and Patty, who are too ill-defined to provide an effective character contrast to Death the Kid or to actually provide any opposition or conflict in their relationship with him (although I am somewhat fond of them). Then again, others I know really like him and hate Maka, who I rather like. Allied to this oppositional pairing, there is the fact that all the major characters are both flawed and powerful, and that they are more than simply the sum of those flaws and abilities; they seem much more plausible and sympathetic as a result. It takes all sorts to make a world, as the saying goes, and the characterisation of this series tends to prove that. An interesting side note: most meister/weapon pairs are of mixed gender, but not all.
While weapons and meisters are effectively immune to ambiguity, there are plenty of other characters who are not, and these are some of the best; naming names here risks spoilers so you'll have to find these yourself. The villains are also interesting; in fact they are at times much fresher and more intriguing than the protagonist ensemble, who for all their appeal do nonetheless represent a very familiar set of archetypes, remixed and covered endlessly in much the same way we keep hearing classic musical hits made over by new acts. The appeal of the antagonists is largely due to Soul Eater's mastery of the ability to walk the fine line between either overdoing things and hence obscuring a potentially interesting plot behind needless gore (c.f. something like Mnemosyne) or being excessively tame and not actually creating anything like a real sense of threat to drive the story (c.f. something like Heroic Age). Soul Eater's antagonists therefore come across as ruthless, psychotic bastards, but in the very best way, in that they remain somewhat sympathetic for all their carefully constructed nastiness, and everything is tastefully handled. The voice acting is universally praiseworthy; only the characters who are meant to grate on your nerves actually do, and everyone else's voice is natural and well-realised.
Art in this series is a peculiar mixture. The lack of a universal style, beyond an eyecatching fondness for arrows that tends to crop up a lot, I found really disconcerting at first, until it hit me that the blend of styles was in itself a style; the sheer diversity of styles across the end credit music, spanning punk, pop, rap/hiphop/whatever the hell you want to call ED#3 and rock, and in fact the eclectic mix of instruments and styles in the BGM, all fit this unexpectedly tasty gumbo of styles too. Accordingly, the light-toned action baseline episode format also frequently switches over into knowingly cheesy horror, engaging seriousness, pure comedy interludes (unique for a character who is simultaneously very funny and almost unbearably annoying) and a finale that contains enough of the Evangelion approach to be memorable without being either incomprehensible or tedious for any but the most attention-deficit watcher, who will probably have given up by now anyway. Ultimately, I stopped fretting about the fact that every character was drawn differently and had different visual quirks, and the music was all over the place, and the damn thing couldn't decide what it wanted to be, but it took a while to work out that what it wanted to be was a jack of many things and master only of combining those things.
As for the sheer outlandishness of it, what with the giant sun and moon and the total implausibility of Death City and sundry other locations, not to mention the whole conceit of humans who literally are weapons...if you were to describe it to me, I'd just not be interested. As things stand though, especially given the lack of concentrating on explaining all this and simply treating all these patent absurdities as givens, it makes the whole thing into an engagingly escapist piece of work - something that is pure undemanding fun.
