Weekly Review: Soul Eater

Soul Eater is a very interesting anime, without saying anything about it, I can tell you that it is the perfect anime to make an AMV for the song “This is Halloween”. Almost every time I start watching an episode and the opening theme comes up, I imagine that song. It is not a joke. So what is Soul Eater? Well, it’s an action-comedy-drama anime series that takes place in a city called, you guessed it, City of Death! The city is watched over and ruled by Lord Death himself and his faithful scythes of death.

Lord Death, many ages ago, established a school in this city, called the Death Weapon Meister Academy. As it sounds, it is a school for young meisters and weapons. A meister is a person who has the special ability to bond and wield a weapon. A weapon is a person who can literally transform his body into some kind of weapon. The ultimate goal of these students is to form partner, teacher and weapon, and go hunting kishin and witch souls. The Kishin are evil people who are possessed by … well, evil. Most of the time they resort to devouring human souls, which is a big no no. One weapon must consume 99 kishin souls and one witch soul to become a scythe of death. This means that they become more powerful and have the opportunity to serve Lord Death as their weapon. Ugh, I think that covers it.

Our main characters in this anime are quite descendants, some more than others. First we have Maka, a young Meister whose father is a scythe of death and whose mother was the Meister who brought him there. Soul is his comrade in arms, he’s a pretty beast scythe. Black Star is a flamboyant “ninja”, who is actually quite powerful. Tsubaki is his weapon, he has the unique ability to switch to different “modes”. Then we have Death the kid, son of Lord Death himself and absolutely obsessed with symmetry. Liz and Patty are his weapons, they become a pair of powerful shooting pistols.

Now when the anime begins, Maka and Soul are just a witch soul away from completing their final goal. You would think they are beasts … right? Incorrect. After the intro, the show has a whopping 360 which makes this pair the underdog of all the main characters. Maka, who can wield the “last rare ability” of a scythe meister, swings it like a baby with a spoon, making me shiver every time she tries to use it. Instead of training and getting stronger, the top two tend to spend most of their time complaining about not being stronger.

I’m not a huge fan of Black Star as he is quite annoying, but the fight scenes are quite good with him. It’s annoying and unpleasant, but his character works hard to get stronger and the bond between him and Tsubaki is just beautiful. Death the kid is, unsurprisingly, quite powerful. However, it falls apart very quickly for asymmetrical things, if you look … you will see. There are quite a few supporting characters like Stein and Spirit who are great, but they don’t spend a lot of screen time (well … Stein does).

The main story is about the main characters not only progressing in their abilities, but also facing challenges as powerful witches. The first and main enemy is Medusa, a powerful witch who controls snakes. Later we meet his lovely sister who controls something even creepier, spiders. Beyond them, there is a major enemy, one that involves epic fight scenes with Lord Death himself, but I’ll have you watch to find out.

In general, I like this anime, but I am not a fan of the main characters at all. I like Soul, I like his personality, but I can’t get on the Maka fan wagon. I don’t see much chemistry between the two and it seems forced at times. It’s still a good anime, with funny moments and lots of action. I enjoy the story line, but it can be a bit long at times.