Seven years old tomorrow, sixteen volumes, Soul Eater was originally a manga released in 2003 by Square Enix. Written and illustrated by Atsushi Okubo, the same man who brought us ‘Get Backers’ and ‘B. Ichi’, it was originally published as three one-shot pieces and didn’t get a regular release in 2004. The manga is based around the ‘Death Weapon Meister Academy’, three students and their human weapons, each of whom are trying to collect ninety-nine evil human souls and the soul of a powerful witch. Since its release in 2003, Soul Eater has gone on to spawn three video games and a fifty one episode Anime series.
The Anime series began in 2008 and finished up 2009 and it is based on the manga adventures of Maka, Black Star and Death the Kid. Like the manga, the anime follows the trio and the human weapons as they endeavour to collect 99 souls and the 1 soul of a witch. The series kicks off with Maka and Soul as they hunt down their final evil human soul and then are tasked with collecting the soul of the witch Brea – Maka is the meister (master) of the scythe Soul Eater and together the pair are the protagonists of the series.
Failing to collect an actual witch soul, the duo are forced to forfeit their 99 evil human souls and must now start over and collect again alongside their classmates Black Star and his partner Tsubaki (Shadow Weapon) and Death the Kid with his human weapons the Thompson Sisters (Semi-Automatic Pistols).
The plot follows the trio and their human weapons as they attempt to collect their souls and uncover the mystery behind the villain Crona and that evil witch Medusa who wishes to transform Crona into the Demon God and ultimately destroy the ‘Death Weapon Meister Academy’.
Each of the teams have their special quirks and abilities.
Maka and Soul are the Scythe team, while very different people, Maka is a driven young girl who only wishes to create a death scythe and match her mother’s talent while Soul is somewhat of calm and laidback guy he often annoys Make with his ‘cool guy’ attitude but is also willing to die for her, throwing himself in front of fatal attacks to save her.
Black Star and Tsubaki are the Assassin team, this is somewhat an ironic team, given the fact that Black Star is the loudest and most obnoxious meister despite being trained to be a silent and deadly killer. Tsubaki helps balance her partner out though as a quiet and compassionate person, she has the ability to take on various weapon shapes, including a smoke bomb, shuriken and ninjato.
Death the Kid, is actually has no need to enter the Academy, as the son of the Reaper he is an actual Death God but enters only so he can attain a human weapon and death scythe of his own. With handy gadgets, wielding the Thompson sisters as magnificent and identical silver pistols with inhuman skill, he is unfortunately somewhat Obsessive Compulsive and is unable to operate at his best if he is surrounded by unsymmetrical objects – he must either correct the problem are utterly destroy it, thankfully the sisters Patty and Liz are able to put him in his place.
Okay so let’s start off by getting a few things out of the way – Soul Eater is not Bleach and Naruto’s lovechild. Yes there are Shinigami! Yes there are inhuman powers and techniques! Yes there are cookie characters who don’t really seem to fit into episodes! Soul Eater doesn’t take itself very seriously and that is really refreshing from Anime. It doesn’t have the same smart sense of humour as Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei but it doesn’t have to – everyone loves boob jokes and frisky closet perverts and easily angered girls! At times these jokes are a little annoying and when you are so heavily engaged in a battle scene that suddenly there is a cheesy joke and the intense fight is lost.
The animation in Soul Eater is probably one of our favourites and dare we say it, the whole concept reminds us of a good Tim Burton movie! It is delightfully colourful and with gothic influences in architecture, it really is a visual feast.
The action and fight scenes are perfectly illustrated and beautiful in their performance (if you just ignore the odd lame joke), with fantastic battles that leave you with goosebumps and a sudden lust to go out and collect your hundred souls (this is probably and definitely still illegal so please don’t do it). If you can get past the lame jokes and overuse of boob and awkward sexy moments then this is definitely a series you can enjoy. The plot isn’t the strongest, it’s fun to follow but it does feel like it’s all over the place – there is no need for filler in a 51 episode series, seriously!
We enjoyed the series and though it wouldn’t make it into our top ten, you have to check it out.
Bad Points
The jokes wreck the intense action
Plot is a little bland and see through
Good Points
Colourful animation
Interesting and quirky characters
Awesome battles with deadly weapons
The Verdict: 6/10
