Soul Eater

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 manga ... and 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!

The setup of Soul Eater is simplistic and works with perfect charm. You have a team of two -- a technician and a weapon -- and it's their job to collect the souls of 99 evil doers and 1 witch. All the weapons and technicians go to a special school run by the Grim Reaper himself. The series revolves around three different teams: Maka and Soul, Black Star and Tsubaki, and Death the Kid with the twin guns Liz and Patty.

Okay, so first off, the characters: I LOVE the characters. Half of what makes this show absolutely hilarious is the characters and their quirks. For ... example, I love Death the Kid, who retains a serious side but also goes ballistic when it comes to his obsession with symmetry. Then there's Black Star and Tsubaki. Black Star is really annoying, but he has a great heart and his ego is hilariously big (he thinks he has god-like status, though he's really just an annoying kid). Then my favorite pair, Maka and Soul. Maka is really down-to-earth and genuine. Soul is great, and he strives to be "cool" in everything he does (though really, Soul doesn't need to try much harder...he's already cool in every way).

The animation and art in this series is suburb. There are slick action sequences, and the whole series is drawn with a "Halloween-y" feel. The sound is also perfectly matched with the scenes, and I love both the current opening and ending song.

The story itself is very well-written. It has an easy flow to it and you don't have to keep a thousand story lines in your head just to see the next episode. It seems to have a setup where you have a whole bunch of mini-arcs, then a big antagonist appears, then several individual series and so on. This is one series where its easy to go back and watch previous episodes and you can skip around without much difficulty. It's great!

I can't think of any strong downside to this show. Black Star can be a little TOO annoying at times (though I'm sure that's just me). Also, the occasional sexual joke (*cough* Blair) makes me suggest that only 13+ should watch the series. But overall, it's done an amazing job so far, and I'll be watching every episode as the series progresses.

"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. One ... thing 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.

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. ^_^

Well, i think that the guy who wrote before me hasn´t seen sufficient anime, how could you say that soul eater is a rip-off? It is not a rip off its just that the history is about shinigamis but it doesn´t have any other similarity with bleach, this is a very interesting story with an incredible design of characters and sound effects, also the animtion of figths its really good too. Please do not believe that all the stories about shinigamis are rips of bleah. I understand that its the most popular but it wasn´t the first one and it isn´t the best one ether.

Soul eater is about three groups of students at some university(Shibusen) each group made up of two pairs, a weapon wielder & the weapons themselves.

I tried really hard to like this anime, so hard. The premise was so unique that i got 29 episodes in before i shut the whole thing down.

The show started off incredibly boring & basically just carried itself with humor that was barely funny at all. The jokes are always the same and they just reuse the same humor. If you take a real funny show like Gintama and compare the two, you'll understand what I'm saying. But obviously ... gintama is a parody & this is not. Too bad because the entire first half seems like a parody. The first half seems like a typical shounen with too many goofy aspects and over the top humor. I'm personally someone who likes more serious anime so honestly, I don't imagine it will put too many people off. The second half changes drastically into a serious anime with action, which is hard to adjust to because they're still fighting witches and they're still the same stupid characters. In fact the main characters, death the kid, black star, maka & their counterparts, the thompson sisters, tsubaki & soul are all stereotypical shounen characters.

While the art is unique and cool, as it follows a Halloween style of animation, I thought it was just way too goofy. Like the moon & sun had faces for goodsakes. It was like a super mario meets tim burton's jack skellington. I can't say I liked it. Furthermore, Black star was animated so poorly. He legit looked like a retard sometimes, and though every character has their own style and uniqueness, you just can't ignore the quality of the characters. Even soul looked like an idiot. But it's not that the animation is really poor, it's just the style and the way they were drawn, but for me & maybe for you, it comes off as poor.

The sound is certainly very good, as far as openings and ending go, and the background music gives off a good vibe and fits the situations well. As for voice acting, I found Maka's voice actor to be nasally & whiny. I hated her voice. Like hated it. I dreaded every time she talked. Then there was black star whose voice I hated even more. It was small, like kidlike, and nasally as well and sounded like the dumbed down version of naruto's voice actor(jun fukiyama...something like that) I really only stayed for Mamaru miyano who plays death the kid but I found that despite his excellent work that his voice just didn't fit a kid, though I can't say why they all look like kids since their at a university and have adult comprehension.

The characters were all unique that's for sure. Too bad they were all annoying as hell. Black star always went on about how big he was. Like literally "how big he was". Not like, I'm really strong or stronger than you but he always used the words big. That shit got really annoying. Other than getting slightly stronger, his loudness and stupidity was way too over the top. He was like the original naruto from 2004 or whenever the show started except with no character development or cool background. He's a retard I promise you. Soul always went on about being cool which was annoying as hell. It's like if naruto kept saying Believe it(datebayyo) but even the writers there knew when to call it quits. Here, he just keeps saying. Death the kid's symmetry, which he always talks about was probably the only funny part and he's legit the only character who ever changes and stops going on about symmetry all the fucking time. His weapons, the thompson twins, are so undeveloped it's hilarious. The one sister always laughs & i hate her because her laugh is annoying and almost always uncalled for. Maka always goes on about how weaks she is(hmm...sakura much?) & Tsubaki(black star's weapon) is rarely given a background but at least she isn't annoying. The adult characters are much more unique because they aren't stereotypical except really maka's father, the weapon of the shinigami. He's just a pervert. a strong pervert. like jiraya? Pretty sure this is just naruto with a different story.

While I can't say I enjoyed the anime too much, that largely stems from my standards. I'm actually not trying to dissuade anyone from watching this anime. I mean, if i had to tell someone to choose between say, fairy tail or soul eater, I'd say fairy tail and i think that's ranked lower(or higher i guess) so don't let my negativity keep you from watching this anime and giving it a try like i did. The whole point of a review, according to the dictionary, is to give a formal assessment or examination of something with the possibility or intention of instituting change if necessary. So, I'm just giving my opinion and you should try this anime out. It's a shounen so if you like shounen you'll probably like this one but as for me, I found its over the top goofyness and uninteresting characters too much to handle.

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. Their ... relationships, 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.

Plainly and simply amazing show.
Story: Its good but there are some parts where it could be better...
Art: Amazing, Maka, Soul, Death The Kid, Black Star, etc.. their own induvidual sense of style and the background art is really cool
Sound: The director cleverly and effectively puts in the music during the fighting and the music is really cool too.
Character: The characters are my favorite part along with the fighting, they are each halarious in their own way, Death The Kid's OCD with symmetry and Soul's gentleman but asshole style :]
Enjoyment: 3 words: SUPER MEGA IMPRESSIVE. lol
Overall: Watch it if you have not, but dont watch it ... too fast becuase only a small amount of episodes out there so far.

PS. Its scheduled to have 51 episodes, but supposedly its going to have more and which i hope it will have more.

Soul eater is about a Soul Organization that teaches its students how to become Death Scythes(advanced weapons) and Technicians(weapon users) who train to protect good souls from the bad. Sounds familiar eh? Kind of like Bleach or Naruto, but this show is much different from your normal shonen and ill tell you why.

Story-
The show primarily centers around 6-7 kids who train in this school to protect the "Pure" souls from evil factions that look to reap these souls. The goal for the evil factions is to obtain enough Pure souls to transcend into the terrifying Demon king. The Demon King is the ... strongest villain in the show, he who posses great power and the most pure souls becomes the Demon King. Villains usually have red souls which represents a dark heart while the good have white/bluish pure souls. You find out early in the show that the first ever Demon king is a powerful dude that was locked up centuries before, so some factions of bad guys actually look to reawaken the Demon King instead of striving to become one themselves. The primary villain is named Medusa, there are even characters with names like Stein… as in Franken Stein, you also have a vampire, a grim reaper, a were-wolf and witches. Hence Soul eater does something impressive: it uses European mythological creatures in a brand new role and it does so quite well so viewers will feel more familiar with some of these character. The setting is kind of emo and dark but complete humor otherwise, so I repeat don’t expect drama or anything in terms of story.

Cons-
First with the negatives, the one thing you must know about this show that pissed me off was that it doesn’t take it self seriously when it should. You will have random cracks and jokes in the middle of an intense battle!!! You never once fear the good guys life to be in danger, since this is a comedy first anime, it looks to deliver laughs before entertainment. The show is quite funny but sometimes it tries to be comical when it shouldn’t be. This is unfortunate since the battle animations and fighting styles are done real well.

To me Soul eater got boring and slow at times, the story isn’t very deep or interesting, most people will watch this for laughs or some action, but don’t expect anything deep.

Pros-
With the cons out of the way I found a lot of pros that must be mentioned

The Animation is superb, great fluid fighting animation, and all around great drawings.

The fighting styles are very cool, you will usually have two partners one will become a weapon for example into a sword, and the other will then use that sword to fight with, hence you have a death scythe and technician.

The villains are very colorful and original I thought, and since we know of them from European mythology its easy to pick up.

To sum things up, the best thing about Soul Eater is its comedy, the worst thing is also the comedy if your looking for a show with a balance of comedy and drama like Naruto or bleach, look elsewhere. I was hoping this show would be more like One Piece which is another Comedy first anime, but what One Piece does better then Soul eater is it gets serious when it needs to be (during decisive battles). You don’t need potty humor in the middle of an intense combat. Overall Soul Eater is definitely a good pickup if you just want to have fun with an anime but its not something you will get sucked into by the story, with that said I did enjoy this show.

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 weapon ... meister 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

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 Eater ... which 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.

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, I ... am 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.

When I first read the manga I know it's the best thing for me since I love adventure anime the characters were also quite funny well some of it, what I can say about this anime it that it's not dull and not to much on perverted moments.

The opening and ending song matches the show perfectly no doubt about it, I quite like the opening, the 1st Opening Resonance sang by T.M.Revolution 2nd Opening Papermoon sang by Tommy February6 in other words the music video was totally awesome! This is a must watch anime!

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.

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 almost ... all 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.

Soul Eater came out around the same time as some of the other "shinigami" anime got popular, yet it still stands out on it's own.

The animation is different from the average anime (but not to the creepy extreme of One Piece), it adds a unique touch to the series, especially the characters.
The music is also amazing, especially the first opening.

Story: The first arc of the series is captivating. Full of action, comedy, and character development. It has a good balance of lighter and darker moments. We get to know the main characters, their strengths and weaknesses. The filler episodes usually involve ... Excalibur, the first such episode is still one of my favourites, but it got a little old after the second one.
The first arc, which is about the first 26 or so episodes, are amazing. The series should have had the final battle at this point, or continue in that way, but alas it did not. There are plenty of ways the stories could have continued from this point on, without introducing characters that don't develop and could easily vanish without being noticed. The first arc gains a 10/10 on all fronts!

However, all of these good qualities are somewhat lost in the second arc. The story of the second arc seemed forced, and wasn't all that interesting, dragging on for pretty much all of it. There are all these demonic tools and the mysterious Eibon, which seem like they're going somewhere interesting, but really aren't. Medusa comes back, but really the series could have gone on well if she didn't. Her role was small, and overall unnecessary. The addition of the new deathscythes is also a bit forced and unessential. Besides Mary, they just seem to fill roles existing characters could have filled.
Arachne isn't anything special either. Mosquito provided one good battle scene, and left some "foreshadowing" that he had stronger forms, hinting that perhaps we'd see them, but we don't.
The finale left much to be desired as well. It was meant to stir emotions, but just didn't do it. The climax of the black blood in Soul occurs, but was a bit anti-climatic for something that had been built up for so long. So, for that matter was the battle with the kishin.
His madness has supposedly spread, yet the only person this seems to occur in is Stein. Otherwise it doesn't seem like the world is in danger at all. And all of the pointless gadgets just seem to be fillers to make things seem worse off than they are. You would think they would at least show more soul-collecting, considering that the madness would bring out more dark souls.
Overall, the second arc was pointless. I didn't care about the story at all, and just watched it because I like the characters. The best quality of the second arc was the development of Crona's character. (episode 26 is priceless)

Character:
This is Soul Eater's finest quality. The three main characters all have their strengths and weaknesses, and throughout the series they grow a lot. They are all entertaining, although Black Star can get on one's nerves easily. There were a couple of battles where I was cheering against him, and happy to see him get the crap beaten out of him. Death the Kid is one part serious, one part neurotic. His obsession with symmetry is hilarious. Maka is also a good character. She is the most developed, and really is the strongest. Medusa and her minions make for a fine villains, however in the second arc, her minions are only there because they didn't die in the first arc.
All of the characters are well done. (and chibi ragnarok is awesome!). They are what kept me watching even when the story started to fail. In that respect, the enjoyment value of the series was high. I watched the last arc and kept watching just to see them.

Overall, I recommend this series. It is entertaining in spite of it's flaws, and is still worth the watch!

For the record, this review is for the Japanese subtitled version of the anime.

Story: The storyline for Soul Eater does jump around about halfway through the series. They start out with the collecting 99 kishin souls and 1 witch soul to evolve their weapons into a Death Scythe. The anime however goes straight into another direction in the middle and jumps into a more epic scenario. To not spoil anything, lets just say that emotions start running deep, and battles get a lot more epic. With the exceptional filler episode, which you'll know when you see, the story keeps you sucked in and wanting ... more till the end. However the last episode is a bit of a let down, the second last episode totally makes up for it. 9/10

Art: I really like the artwork in Soul Eater. It has a unique style to it that kinda has a more punk feel to it without the cockiness. It goes with something different and the battles in the series are quick paced and smooth. Not to mention I love the sun and moon in this series. I also enjoy some of the surreal environments because of how far of a depth they go to, ranging from smooth and beautiful to just downright creepy. 9/10

Sound: Ok I know there's a lot of people out there who say "You know, since its Japanese voice acting you'll never know if it sucks or if its good". This anime gives a general stfu to that statement. Along with some of the amazing music, it has some of the best voice acting I've ever seen in an anime. When you hear some of the high pitched vengeance shouting of Maka, you can feel how much hate she has. Black Star's cockiness is blatantly obvious, but amazing. Even the quirkiness of Shinigami is just awkward and awesome. Not to mention, some of the music is beautiful at times, and scary when it needs to be. 10/10

Character: The character development in this series is pretty damn good. Soul Eater doesn't have a lot of characters you don't really care aboutl. From the loud and oblivious assassin to the OCD filled son of death, the characters fill their roles very well, especially when the insanity aspect starts to kick in. I also like the the dialogue which is filled out very well. The characters aren't always oblivious to everything or overly heroic, they have different emotions at different times which is great to see. The only reason I'm giving this a 9 is because of one particularly annoying character that will be obvious when you see the series. All in all though pretty well developed. 9/10.

Enjoyment: I have to say, usually I don't watch series while they are coming out to prevent Naruto-syndrome (constantly watching episode after episode though 90% of them are pointless), but this anime was an exception. Though the series is a little bland during some parts of the first story arc, the drastic change it goes for later on really makes an awesome difference. I really enjoyed it, but the only major disappointment I have is that i feel they could have done the last episode so much better than it was. However that doesn't make up for the awesomeness the series has on a general level. 9/10

Overall: Overall Soul Eater is pretty damn good. I generally liked the series and even though it may not be for everyone, it has some awesome storyline, epic battles, and really sucks you in when you get into it. If you have a chance, give it a look and check out a few episodes. 9/10

So you're without an anime to watch and you're thinking in watch Soul Eater from what your heard and read on the reviews and recommendations? Well let me tell you something you should do it right now; I was delaying the day that I would start to watch Soul Eater, although I was recommended from a friend of mine and had read awesome things about it but I never expected it was so good, it was way better then what I was expecting.

Story: This anime talks about a School (Shibusen), but well it's not an normal school, it's a school were teenagers learn to work ... in pairs (the craftsman and his weapon ,being the weapon his/her companion) and develop their skills in order to kill all evil souls named Kishin, in the first episodes you will know the main plot and then you'll start to become a Black Star (like me) or any other character fan.

Art: Well, in all the animes that I've ever watched most of them I can say that their art was similar to that one, but in this case I think that it as an Awesome and unique Art, the quality it's outstanding and the costumes of the characters are pretty well done.

Sound: Well to me one of the things that I remind most from one anime it's the soundtrack, we can forget from a catch phrase or a name of a character but a good soundtrack it's unforgettable, and in Soul Eater we have a good opening and ending theme and each character has it sound, what I think it's pretty nice.

Characters: Well we don't have a large plot, but that's Ok, since that way the author gives us a good information from all the characters and theirs weapons.

Enjoyment: This anime has a large amount of actions scenes and hilarious ones, I couldn't count the amount of times that I Laugh about some scene or joke, their humour it's based in the repetitive type but it should give you some happy hours.

Overall I would give a 9 since it was one the best animes I've ever watched, it jumped right to my favourite list, but it's not perfect so a 10 it would be not fair.

Plot: 7
- The story is decent at best, with no over-arching plot lines or central idea development there's not much to look forward to besides some fight sequences.
- First 8 ep are just introductory scenes where the link between characters are formed, the next 16 ep are amazing with great comedy and development. If you're interested in keeping a vivid recollection of the story watch the first 24 ep and then stop, consider it to be S1 in some sorts.
- From the halfway point the plot is essentially lost and diverged into multiple story lines, the character development is great but the story ... is confusing and horribly paced.

Animation: 8.5
- Very telltalesque type of animation, one of the few factors that made me continue despite the average plot.
- Great fight sequences throughout, perhaps the only complain is the final fight where I hoped for a better sequence then what was presented.
- General animation is quite cartoony and nostalgic, its like paper cut which makes it quite unique.

Voice Acting: 7.5
- Not a lot of emotions or personification of characters, there were a few scenes where the characters felt real but throughout the anime they all felt fake, as if it wasn't enough or appropriate for the situation.

Music: 8.75
- Some OP's are elite some are goofy
- Most of the ED's were really good, can't fault any tbh
- General music and background OST's were pretty good too

Execution: 7.75
- Perhaps the biggest flaw of the show, the pacing at times was off, the tone of certain scenes just didn't fit right, and by far the alarming problem was the length of the anime. Very easily, could the show have been divided into 2 separate seasons or a total of 40 ep.

Enjoyment: 8
Overall rating: 7.9
Adjusted weighted Rating: 7.77

P = 35% - 2.45
A = 30% - 2.55
V = 20% - 1.5
M = 10% - 0.88
E = 5% - 0.39

In an anime world filled with stories surrounding shinigami it is often difficult to sift out what is worth watching and what to avoid. After hearing countless comparisons to Bleach and other such shows and witnessing its popularity rise at an astounding rate, I was immediately skeptical of Soul Eater. After having recently finished watching the 32nd episode raw the other day I feel as though my transformation from skeptic to believer is complete, and I will extrapolate on why.

The first few episodes of Soul Eater are really nothing to write home about, and honestly almost turned me off to the show. The animation was ... impressive, certainly, and their were some well done action scenes and timely humorous episodes, but it didn't really seem to be going anywhere. The two aspects of the show that really made me want to keep watching, however, were the music (somewhat reminiscent of Bleach, though even better at setting the mood), and the dark and strange world that the show takes place in. After a few episodes however, the story began to pick up and the strengths of Soul Eater really began to shine through.

One of the best things the show has going for it, especially in the first 26 episodes, is the pacing. There was practically no filler (apart from an episode regarding excalibur, which although many hated, I found to be hilarious), and the flashbacks did not go to the extremes of shows like Naruto and Bleach, keeping the viewers intrigued but not bored. The characters are well rounded and all are interesting in their own ways, especially in their neurotic intracacies (Death the Kidd being a perfect example). The humor is often and yet not overpresent, as the storyline remains fairly serious, and the characters combine enough realistic traits with ideal and heroic behavior to be excellent protagonists in the story.

Perhaps the crowning aspect of Soul Eater, as I mentioned before, is the lack of filler episodes, and while I feel that as of late this may be wavering a bit (episode 31 was the only one that really had me on the edge of my seat), I still look forward to a new one every week, and the story is progressing quite nicely. Soul Eater is a very original series in a time in anime filled with copycats and unnecessarily drawn out shows, and it is a most welcome and entertaining change.