Alternative TitlesEnglish: SoulTaker Synonyms: The SoulTaker Japanese: ソウルテイカー
Information
Type: TV
Episodes: 13
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Apr 4, 2001 to Jul 4, 2001
Duration:
20 min. per episode Rating:
PG-13 - Teens 13 or older
L represents licensing company
StatisticsScore: 6.801 (scored by 1080 users)
Ranked: #21462
Popularity: #836
Members: 2,269
Favorites: 7 1 indicates a weighted score
My Info
Popular Tags
action adventure dementia gothic horror |
Votes are counted and displayed within 24 hours
| Overall |
6 |
| Story |
6 |
| Animation |
6 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Character |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
5 |
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Nov 10, 200813 of 13 episodes seen 15 of 18 people found this review helpful I will always remember the first time I saw SoulTaker.
It was very early in the morning (the sun hadn't come out as yet), and I couldn't sleep so I turned on the TV to a channel I know had anime. Then I think I went blind for a few minutes, but soon realised I was watching something called The SoulTaker on Anime Unleashed. I'm giving out my first warning here: if you are epileptic or cannot endure flashing lights and constantly changing colours, then you definit...ely need to stay away from this anime.
SoulTaker is an anime that's an assault on the senses. I'll get to whether or not that's a good thing.
The story is interesting enough for the most part: young man is murdered by his mother, comes back to life and gets tied up in a scandal that involves a gigantic, powerful pharmaceutical and medical facility known as the Kirihara Group. Oh, and there are mutants. The plot runs on with this 'monster-a-day' theme, not quite unlike old school magical girl or shounen anime. Interestingly enough, though, there is actual progression as each mutant appears; a bit of the plot is revealed every time, and the audience gets to learn more about the mystery surrounding Date Kyousuke. Unfortunately, if you don't have a lot of patience with this anime, then you're going to get very frustrated as the storyline drags on. Yes, drags on. Despite the seemingly straight-forward plot, SoulTaker takes the longest route possible to get where it's going; if you ask me, I think there's a lot of unnecessary dialogue and action sequences.
And here's what makes this anime stand out from the rest: the art. No, it's not exceptional. I can't even begin to describe if it is good or not, because this one definitely relies on your own personal taste. SoulTaker is colourful. Really, really colourful. It seems almost abstract. There are colour themes, and as there are scene transitions, the primary colours of the scene would change quickly from orange to green to purple to etc. etc. I almost got a headache from it for the first few episodes. After a while you will get used to it, but it is definitely distracting. The animation however was pretty good. The fight scenes, well some, were well-animated, and the character design was pretty good. However, the background art ranged from decent to terribly bland. It seems they just splashed colours whenever they didn't feel like drawing in detail. I will say though, there are a lot of visual symbols in this anime. Crosses, churches, and blood, even. I don't know what any of it meant, though, since the only religious event that happened was Kyousuke being murdered in a chapel. Wait, that's actually blasphemy... My mistake.
The sound was not impressive. You won't even notice it half the time since your eyes will be spinning, anyway.
SoulTaker's saving graces are the characters. The main cast is made up of what seems to be a group of outcasts: the reborn monster boy, the mysterious, blase older man, the neko-loli-nurse and all of Kyousuke's 'sisters'. Sometimes these characters are frustrating to deal with, but I will say that most of the storylines following the Flickers are the more interesting parts of this anime. There is a lot of psychological damage done to every member of the cast, and their development is only minimally seen as the anime progresses. It's only really Kyousuke who endures any real change as each episode passes.
SoulTaker is not for everyone, and it certainly was not for me. I did not enjoy watching this series. I kept waiting and waiting for it to end, and it was only thirteen episodes long. It had an interesting start, which interested me, but as it wears on, I began losing interest and nothing could have reeled me back in.
I don't recommend this anime to just any anime viewer. If you like psychological anime or abstract art or heck, if you like mutants, then maybe you should try SoulTaker. Otherwise, it may be best if you avoid this title. read more
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| Overall |
10 |
| Story |
10 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Character |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
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Oct 7, 200713 of 13 episodes seen 9 of 18 people found this review helpful I loved this anime. At the beginning you might have a bad view of the anime as just an all killing, no story anime. As the story moves on it becomes much deeper, so don't be too influenced by the first few eps. I recommend that you should watch this anime in segments, don't watch it all at once or you won't enjoy it. There are some that will like this style of art, it is a different, somewhat darker, little gothic style that keeps things interesting. Music's pretty good, I epecially like the op...ening. I really loved the characters too, each person had their story and it played out. Some people might feel that the story is a waste of time, watch and see why, but it still has a point. I'm not going to guarantee that everyone will feel the same, but if you want to watch a powerful anime you should really try SoulTaker. Remember that you shouldn't watch this anime in one day, or you won't be able to fully enjoy it, just trust me. read more
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| Overall |
6 |
| Story |
5 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Character |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
6 |
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Jan 1, 200913 of 13 episodes seen 2 of 4 people found this review helpful The one word about SoulTaker is "colours".
Colours, colours everywhere!
The art of this anime is simply astounding. It breaks all the rules about colouring patterns, uses innovative games of light and shadow and the overall achievement is a confusion of bidimensional planes: awesome!
But... While the art is original and superb, the rest is pretty much mediocre. We can't really ask too much from a plot that mixes winged monsters, aliens and s...hotguns, except for high doses of bloody entertainment. They give it to us and, somewhat, the amazing art is appropriated to the flow of the events. The characters don't have any especially original trait: they "work for the story".
Amazing for the eye-breaking art, you should not hold any more expectations about SoulTaker. It's still a very enjoying and easy to watch series (except if you have epilepsy, of course, then it would not be recommended) read more
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