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As a fan of Tekken I felt it was my duty to at least watch this and after watching this all I did was let out with a disappointing sigh. Here's why

::STORY::
This story takes place around the Tekken 1/2 period but differs a lot from the original story of both games. The main plot being Kazuya's vow to take revenge on his father Heihachi Mishima for throwing him down a cliff at a young age. Through this story we encounter many sub-plots filled within a short space of time, Jun Kazama who is an officer working for a Wildlife protection organisation has a sixth sense that she uses to detect power or intention within people, she was with Kazuya before he got tossed down the cliff and thought he was dead. 16 years later she again meets with Kazuya after searching for Heihachi during the Tekken tournament and can sense a dark power within Kazuya known as Devil, at this time she is accompanied by a police officer named Lei. Another sub-plot being Jack's (A Massive Humanoid Robot) mission to save a young girl named Jane using the tournament to get to a secret lab, he is also accompanied by Lei later into the story. Basically the story and it's sub-plots are simple, which can work at times, but in this case, it was a miserable failure. It just didn't work, you hear all of this talk about fighting spirit near the beginning, yet in the end that stuff isn't important the tournament isn't even the actual highlight of the movie as it should have been.

::CHARACTERS::
Pretty, no, very dull characters I'm afraid, if you have never played Tekken you probably wont remember anybody's name. Kazuya tries to act like the hardass living for revenge, Jun is one of those caring, yet terribly irritating characters that talk of love and crap, Lei is the one with all of the jokes, Jack is your typical robot character with a somewhat dead personality, and the others are barely worth mentioning as they add very little colour to a dull cast that fail to develop.

::ANIMATION & ART::
The art is probably the worst thing about this OAV, from the horribly textured backgrounds to the poorly drawn characters to their poorly drawn clothes, it's just poor. The least they could do is match all the clothing to the actual clothing they have in the games, but they didn't even do that, the artists just designed their own horrible clothing and splashed in some effortless background images. The art just suffers, most anime if poor, is credited for its decent art, yet this actually pulls off having bad art as well.

The animation itself isn't awful though, not that anything in this OAV would have been significantly hard to animate, much of it is simple running or basic fight scenes, there aren't as many fight scenes as you'd expect since this is based off of a fighting game, but when the fights do come around they come off looking pretty stiff, sluggish and very simple. As an avid fan of good fight scenes AND Tekken, I was harshly disappointed with the simple uppercuts and body blows used in this anime, but overall there is just about enough action throughout the movie.

::SOUND::
I only watched the dub of this but the voices weren't horrible, if you've played the game you might have been annoyed with a few voices, maybe Kazuya and Heihachi are slightly too deep, but all-in-all it wasn't as bad as dubs can get.

The opening and ending wasn't anything special I have trouble actually remembering the themes but as they come to me I see its because they aren't worth remembering, basic rock here.

And the background music, well they aren't that bad themselves, but mixed in with Tekken, which thrives on having smooth, eclectic beats in the games, doesn't suit it at all. Mostly you'll hear overly-generic hard rock tunes that someone will throw on to their AMV thinking that it's original. This is the case with every fight scene.

::CONCLUSION::
Don't even bother, unless you really feel the need like I did, just don't watch, if you are a Tekken fan but you aren't a fan of Kazuya, Jun, Heihachi, Lei, Jack 2, Lee, Nina or Anna and possibly Michelle don't bother watching because you'll be disappointed most of all, especially fans of Law, King and Paul because they barely get more than a minute of screentime, and they'll mostly be standing there with expressionless faces, actually even if you are fans of those characters, don't watch this. You'll be doing yourself a favour and could be doing something productive in the hour you'll be wasting by watching this. As an adaptation, this is bad but as an anime, this is just pathetic. Not worth watching read more

Soul Eater is an impressive anime. It's one of those where you will no doubt enjoy watching

::STORY::
After watching some of the first episode you'll think Soul Eater will have your typical Shonen story. Basically, human weapons and their student technicians reside in Shibusen and have to collect 99 evil human souls and 1 witch soul, the reward being that the technician's weapon will transform into a Death Scythe.

It seems pretty formulaic, nothing you haven't seen before. The way the first few episodes pan out will make this seem like the main goal, but soon after you'll realise there is actually a deeper story developing. This story isn't something complex or too clever, but events that happen during the story makes Soul Eater watchable and interesting, the action is ever present, it always keeps humour in mind, but can be serious and emotional when it needs to be. Eventually you will forget what the main characters were initially trying to acheive because the story drags it in such a different direction. The problem is that the story isn't anything memorable. At points you might watch and forget the reason why they are doing something. That is the anime's weak point


::CHARACTERS::
This is what Soul Eater will be remembered for. Its colourful cast of characters.

Maka, our main character and a technician, despite being flawed she is always looking to do the right thing, always thinking of others, easily annoyed and determined. She grew on me as I realised she is probably the most human of all the characters. Soul, Maka's weapon. Just your typical cool guy? No. He is much deeper than he looks. Despite what he says he is only concerned about one thing: To protect Maka.

Black*Star is Energetic, rash, loud, bashful and his one goal in life is to become bigger than God. He can provide you with comic relief and become involved in intense battles yet shows his human side often, his weapon Tsubaki is always willing to help him whenever she can.

Death the Kid seems like some 'Mr Perfect' character. And he can be, but also has his flaws, most notable his obssessive compulsive disorder about symmetry. Anything slightly out of alignment will either cause him to fix the problem immediately or spiral into goth style depression. His weapons Patty and Liz are usually around to comfort him when he goes crazy or gets depressed.

The supporting cast are memorable as well. The grim reaper is always cheerful and relaxed; Spirit (Maka's father) is desperate for Maka's attention, even though she doesn't enjoy his company much; Blair is your typical fanservice character; Professor Stein is strong and clever yet deeply maniacal; Crona is shy and fearful, but powerful; Medusa, the main antagonist is pure genious; Mifune is an action and Samurai fan's dream character and plenty more who you'll come across.

Most characters will stand out at least once giving you reasons to like or dislike them. Characters are a strong point in this anime.

::ANIMATION & ART::
The good thing about this anime is that nobody looks ordinary or familiar, you'll notice every character has a certain design, from Soul's sharp teeth and Maka's plain green eyes to Kid's strange hairstyle and Liz & Patty's odd hats, all characters are uniquely styled.

All scenes are quite detailed, the atmosphere is usually dark but manages to look bright at the same time (a rare sight in anime). If its what the background artists were going for, I think they nailed it. Shortcuts are rare which is good, you can see that episodes weren't rushed. The art stays consistent (unlike Naruto) and the quality remains the same throughout.

The action is fluid, creative and non-standard (unlike Bleach) fight scenes aren't just repetitive movements shown at different angles, or just sword bashing and gun blasting. It manages to keep fight scenes interesting. Another strong point is action, which never fails.

::SOUND::
At first you will be introduced to 'Resonance'. A memorable opening track that fits very well to the series. This would be among the best if it wasn't for 'PAPERMOON' the 2nd opening which is even better than Resonance. I'm yet to come across anyone who thinks otherwise. This opening is epic. All ending themes are decent. Some are generic, the best being the current ending 'STRENGTH' and the 2nd ending 'Style' which stands out more than the 1st ending 'I wanna be' and 'Bakusō Yume Uta' which you will not remember at all.

Audio is decent, but there aren't any special moments or tracks that will hype you up or give you that tingly feeling inside when coupled with a good action scene. Songs aren't memorable like something Bruce Faulconer could cook up but do fit well with most happenings.

::CONCLUSION::
Soul Eater is an anime that manages to keep consistency throughout. It's lack of fillers (with the exception of the excalibur episodes which will drive you nuts) is enough for action fans to watch without worry, seriously 98% of the episodes are significant to the story (unlike Bleach which has whole filler arcs. 20+ FILLERS IN ONE GO!!!).

I find this more enjoyable to watch than Naruto or One Piece (which are heavily overrated). Mainly because the anime has a point and sticks to it. The Medusa Arc is to stop Medusa reviving the Demon God. The Arachnophobia Arc is to stop Arachne to allow the Demon God to spread madness over the world.

People complain about lack of originality but I am yet to find an anime that is truly similar. Shinigami's have been used before, but Shinigami literally translates to The Death God or The Grim Reaper, who in this case rules Shibusen and his son. Due to the halloween theme of Soul Eater I find the Grim Reaper necessary and is in no way similar to Ryuk of Death Note or characters like Rukia of Bleach. Let's get this straight their only link they have is the word 'Shinigami'

And finally Soul Eater is a must watch for any Shonen (Action, Comedy) fan. It has already been licensed by FUNimation which means a dub is coming soon and I believe Soul Eater will become another one of those famous anime shows. The only difference is it is actually has consistent entertainment value. show less read more