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.
