Soul Eater NOT!

*Minor spoilers ahead*

What is Soul Eater Not supposed to be? Is it a yuri slice-of-life made to appeal to people unfamiliar with the original Soul Eater, or is it a necessary part of the Soul Eater canon, aimed at those who enjoyed the action and drama of the original series? The answer to that question remains a mystery. I'm not even convinced the author of the manga understands what he's working on.

Soul Eater Not is an exercise in mediocrity. It is a gust of wind with no particular destination. By jumping from genre to genre and trying to appeal to both the slice-of-life crowd ... and fans of the original series, it ends up pleasing neither. The end result is something that, while not offensively dumb, lingers in the mind with no more than passing apathy. I doubt anyone will remember its existence after a year. Even half that time might seem generous.

The first few episodes were promising enough. It didn't seem like it would make any impact in the industry or do anything particularly interesting, but it was fun nonetheless to watch the banter between the innocent protagonist, Tsugumi, and her two companions, Meme (think Yui from K-ON) and Anya (the tsundere ojou-sama). The unique setting of the Soul Eater franchise even gave 'Not' its own distinct identity in the sea of indistinguishable slice-of-life, and hey, it did its job just fine in the moe department. There was no drama, no deep themes or underlying message, and that was OK. For the first half, Soul Eater Not is actually a fairly decent slice-of-life anime.

And then everything turns upside down in the seventh episode. The main three are off shopping, fooling around as they always do, and then from nowhere comes a generic villain who attempts to murder one of the side characters in gory fashion, throat slicing and all. Uhh... all right, then. What's supposed to come as a shock instead brings confusion and frustration. It almost feels as if the script was suddenly hijacked by a different team of writers. There is no consistency, no purpose in this except perhaps for a vague thought of "Well, I guess it's time to add in some drama so Soul Eater fans don't get bored." In reality, all that was accomplished was both sides of the audience being alienated.

The melodrama is guilty of more than just existing. It is terribly written, every scene reeking of some eye-rolling cliché. Even the accident at the end of the seventh episode is written off as inconsequential, the story awkwardly shifting back into yuri comedy just minutes into the next episode. The drama itself is so boring that falling asleep becomes a more exciting prospect, because, hell, how are we supposed to immediately empathise with characters who previously were only used for gags and fanservice? After trudging through the predictable 'one of the main characters is now possessed by evil!' cliché, the final episode treats the viewer with a full dose of stupid: said character comes back to reality with a kiss and the group then defeats the powerful villain (who they do not have the combat ability to even defend themselves against) with the indomitable power of friendship! Please. I want to puke.

Among Not's many issues is its clumsily-written romance. The fourth episode has Tsugumi falling for Akane, one of the few male characters, merely because he threw a few suave words her way. It's never explained whether Akane feels anything for Tsugumi, and of course nothing ever comes of the romance either. It's actually completely forgotten by the next episode. I guess one way of explaining it would be that the manga's later chapters are meant to focus on the two's romance, but even then it shouldn't be completely discarded and brought up again whenever the author feels it's convenient. It's doubly awkward since the author doesn't even know whether he wants to pair Tsugumi with Akane or one of the two girls; it haphazardly alternates between heterosexual romance and yuri. All of it just feels very out-of-place-- a lot like the drama.

On the plus side, there are plenty of cameo appearances with the cast of the main series. They don't add more than a few lines of dialogue here and there, though, so don't expect another adventure with Soul or Death the Kid. I suppose it's always neat to see what they were doing behind the scenes.

With regards to the sound and artwork, Soul Eater Not does not offend the eyes and ears but it never hits any high points, either. It looks okay. It sounds okay. The only issue is that the unique, paint-like art style of the main series is missing here, so those who enjoyed Soul Eater for its visual design will be quite disappointed. The opening theme is pretty nice, though. It's overwhelmingly cute and mirrors the fluffiness of the anime's first half. The OP was almost like a glimmer of hope in the show's unpleasant final episodes.

It's difficult for me to recommend Soul Eater Not because, well... who would I recommend it to in the first place? Soul Eater fans? They will be bored with the yuri of the show's first half. Slice-of-life fans? They will be frustrated with the tiresome melodrama of the second half. Critics? Well, maybe if they enjoy yelling at their monitor.

Soul Eater Not is an anime that doesn't really please anyone. It is not quite awful, but it also exerts no effort to be more than just a passing, colourless breeze. It's the kind of show that comes and goes every single season. It is destined to fade away, lonely and forgotten.

The original Soul Eater series was a shounen battle romp done right. It was zany, high-energy, and alternatingly funny and adrenaline pumping. It had a distinctive, colorful, and lively art-style that would make Tim Burton jealous, and an off-beat sensibility that separated it from most other shounen. It was a show that bled attitude; simultaneously unique and recognizable as a shounen title. The show is considered a classic of the late 2000’s in some circles, and rightfully so. In stark contrast is its spin-off, Soul Eater NOT, a show that falls firmly into the conventions of its genre; in this case, slice-of-life anime (for the ... most part). Well, that’s not entirely true, some of the magic that made the original such a blast is still there. However, it doesn’t shine through nearly enough to overcome the decidedly over-treaded tropes that dominate the show. This is perhaps why Soul Eater NOT feels so lukewarm, and why it will likely be a disappointment fans of the original.

The show isn’t bad for what it is trying to do, and certainly has some nifty things to offer. This spin-off takes place sometime before the main story, so some of the fun comes from seeing the original cast pop up and get a little insight on a few of them. We get to see Liz and Patty’s edges soften as they go from hardened street thugs to the quirky sisters we know from the original Soul Eater series. It’s also neat to see the beginning of Kim and Jacqueline’s partnership, and why Sid is a zombie. However, the most important bit of information that the show offers is that not all the students in Death Weapon Meister Academy are badass fighters. Some weapons and meisters are just learning how to control their powers so they can live normal lives, these students are put into the NOT class.

Some such students are the three heroines of the show: Tsugumi, Meme, and Anya. They’re a rather odd trio in that Tsugumi is the only weapon of the three, while Meme and Anya are both meisters. Since partnerships usually consists of only one meister, though it can have multiple weapons, it’s up to Tsugumi to choose who her partner will be. Of course, with Tsugumi being the archetypical nice yet indecisive heroine that she is, this is one of the central plot-lines of the show. Much of the show’s duration is spent with the trio getting into misadventures and deepening their friendship, with appearances and cameos from the original cast sprinkled in. Needless to say, this means the show is largely light-hearted fair, with tons of silly shenanigans and a lot of quaint scenes of cute girls doing cute things, though of course it has some dramatic moments mixed in. Being set in as zany a place as DWMA, there is no shortage of strange situations for the girls to encounter or colorful personalities for them to meet. It’s light and comfortable and has a quaint charm to it, unfortunately, it also greatly lacks inspiration. Tsugumi, Meme, and Anya are ultimately too plain of protagonists. They don’t have the extremely distinctive quirks and personalities of the original’s cast; it often feels like someone grabbed the protagonists of generic School Comedy A, and dropped them into the Soul Eater universe. The humor can often also come across as uninspired, not necessarily unfunny, but just too commonplace in slice-of-life anime. The material has a feeling of being done before multiple times, which diminishes the show’s charm. It dilutes the twisted weirdness that made Soul Eater so appealing to begin with, watering it down into something inferior. At times, it honestly feels like a waste of the setting.

Of course, this belonging to the franchise that it does, there is a plotline that involves fighting and nefarious schemes, lurking beneath the slice-of-life antics. Citizens of Death City are going on sprees of violence, under the control of a witch. Sid and other DWMA staff are trying to find the witch causing these attacks before things get worse, and while Tsugumi and her friends are blissfully unaware of the unseen threat, they soon find themselves right in the middle of it all. In stark contrast to the fluffiness of most of the show’s material, this plotline is ominous and creepy. The tonal shift is honestly rather jarring, especially when an episode which is mostly contains light-hearted shenanigans has an eerie scene that has a threat written in what can only be assumed to be blood end the episode off. It doesn’t gel well with the rest of the show’s content because tonally it is on the opposite side of the spectrum. Which is sort of a shame, because the best part of the show is this darker plotline. Shaula, the younger sister of Medusa and Arachne from the first Soul Eater series, is a menacing presence. She lurks around in the shadows, plotting chaos and murder, so gleeful in her evil that it’s almost infectious. The show always gets more interesting whenever she makes an appearance to disrupt the typical slice-of-life fluff, and it’s her villainy that provides the show with its most striking and memorable moment: a day at the market that takes horrific turn. It also puts Tsugumi and her friends through an emotional wringer, giving their relationship some much needed conflict. Unfortunately, the show never strikes a balance to make the tones fit together, and it culminates in a less than spectacular final battle, at least for this franchise.

On the technical side of things, Soul Eater NOT is also a step down from the original series, but it’s still a good looking show for the most part. Character designs are cutesier than before, which is certain to rub some fans the wrong way. However, the world retains the off-kilter and colorful outlandishness that makes it standout as unique, creepy laughing sun and all. The animation concerning characters’ body language and behavior is pretty solid, however, action sequences are spotty. Some fights look good, some look average, and some look genuinely bad. Even at their best, the action sequences here never reach the exhilaration and excitement of those of the first series. The music is pleasant, fits the show tonally in both its silly and serious moments, and is used accordingly. However, it is just not a soundtrack that will be memorable or that supports the content in an exceptional way. It does its job, and little more than that.

I’ve compared Soul Eater NOT to its predecessor quite a bit in this review. While that might not be completely fair, as a show should be judged by its own merits, it isn’t without justification. The sad fact of the matter is that NOT suffers from the same stigma most spin-offs do, it doesn’t live up to the expectations set by the original; both in content and quality. When a show uses the name of a franchise, viewers will have set expectations, fair or not. It’s only when a spin-off adds something substantial or improves upon the material that fans will react positively to it; those kind of spin-offs are a rarity. Unfortunately, Soul Eater NOT is not amongst those rare exceptions. It has problems even when it is not being compared to the original, and ultimately doesn’t add anything of great substance to the much beloved series.

Soul Eater NOT! is difficult to judge because it's hard to pick what standards to judge it from, as well as what demographic it is trying to accommodate. If you come in looking for a slice-of-life anime, the steep, intermittent changes in tone and the general story-arch may be jarring for many. If you are coming in for a story-driven action-fest akin to the original series, this show will disappoint with its sparse and short actions sequences and how few episodes are actually driving the story forward. This show also assumes you have seen the original series, else many of the unique concepts behind the ... canon as well as back stories and cameos from the original story will be lost to the viewer.

Story:

The first half or so of Soul Eater NOT is very episodic with little overarching story to speak of, instead using the time to introduce the characters as they go about their first semester at DWMA. The last six episodes is when the story starts kicking it in to gear, but up through the end I found it somewhat shallow, both in complexity and scale. The anime does offer up some quite entertaining moments, whether its humorous or unsettlingly dark and unexpected, but these are relatively few and far between. Overall, it is a very "the power of friendship" kind of story, so be aware.

Art:

There isn't a lot to say about the art except that it was "okay." As a slice of life the colorful and somewhat simplistic nature of the bulk of the animation holds up fine, but the few action sequences were largely hit-or-miss; some scenes were relatively fluid and enjoyable, while others were completely lacking.

Sound:

Again, the sound was okay for the purposes. The voice-acting was decent enough, as I didn't find myself cringing at any particular characters when they spoke. The music was forgettable however; literally I can't remember any of the songs besides the opening...

Characters:

In terms of the three main characters, their personalities and motivations are pretty generic; you can pretty much pin them to a T from the first episode or two. You have the main girl who wants to get stronger to protect her friends, one who lived her child-hood in high class and wanted to escape it, and the overly enthusiastic, dim-witted one. Not much else to say.

The supporting cast is where I believe much of the show's entertainment lies, as long as you are familiar with the original series. Many recognizable faces are present in one way or another, and it was actually very interesting seeing their stories expanded upon from before the events of Soul Eater without any major discrepancies of the overall canon. I feel that I would have enjoyed the show much more if it gave more focus to this pre-story in terms of these recurring characters. There are a few characters, however, that I feel are not given proper justice and/or inconsistent if you are familiar with the original canon.

Enjoyment:

As I stated before, most of my enjoyment came from the expanded narrative around the supporting cast. I didn't find the show overly bad in any way, but as I am confessedly not a huge fan of the slice-of-life genre, those who are fans may get more out of it than I did. Although I still find the action-side of it lacking, if you are a fan of both genres and aren't afraid of switching between them in the same continuity, I would say go ahead and give it a whirl.

An intriguing spin on the Soul Eater franchise, to say the least. I'm going to go out on a limb and say this could have been so much better if the writers actually had more episodes to work with. They set up a lot of potentially intriguing character development only to be abruptly cut off in the end. The development of the new characters thus felt choked, and it's hard to be invested in any of them, especially since ample screen time was given to cameos from the original series. A lot of the plot points were also interesting, but alas, came out ... half baked because of the limited format. 8 more episodes and these writers could have wrapped up something special, but when life gives you lemons...

The inexplicably large proportion of yuri moe fluff felt forced at times, especially in light of how the series ended. It had to have been some bizarre upper management mandate to force itself into a market it didn't exactly fit in. I didn't even mind the art style change, which I thought would have been an interesting choice, had the series turned out better. As a huge fan of the original series, I can see that a lot of talent went into this work, but ultimately it was dulled by what can only be described as a money grab by the owners of the IP to start selling merchandise to the moe market. Disappointing, but there's definitely enough there for fans of the series and Manga to enjoy.

***I'm not a hard core critic, this is just a short paragraph sharing my thoughts/ opinions on the anime.***

I started watching this series knowing it wasn't going to full of action like the original soul eater series, and expected more of a slice of life kinda anime. As a slice of life type of anime it was pretty enjoyable, and it did have a yuri feel though out the anime. The little fight scenes in the last half were pretty sick, but nothing too crazy or intense. It was also really cool to see the original characters make appearances every now and again, ... which made me want to rewatch all of Soul Eater. It would also be really sick to see a whole new series with all of the characters from both anime incorporated into a new story. The openings and ending were okay, but i liked them. Overall it's worth watching if you have nothing better to watch.

I came already expecting it to not be like Soul Eater then it brings characters from Soul Eater in this anime THAT ITSELF P*SSED ME OFF
So a girl finally becomes a weapon goes to school with the rest , meets two girls seperately ones a Tsundere who ill act like a b**ch and the other barely even knew the MC but wanted to be her partner anyways.
Here comes the complaints and spoilers

SOO SHE CANT DECIDE WHO TO CHOOSE BETWEEN? F**KING TWILIGHT ALL OVER AGAIN (Never watched it) Anyways I thought that might be nice knowing its anume "it cant possibly be like twilight
WROOOOOONG!!! Because she ... never could choose I created sooo many conflicts it felt like twilight cause it was a rip off twilight
ANYWAYS
After realizing what NOT truly meant I HAD to change my expectations
I expected there to be awesome fights knowing she had 2 partners NOPE!!!
NOT THE CASE, shes still useless.

I liked the yuri (One of the only things that kept me watching)
and the reoccurring characters (The other only thing)
I knew not to expect much sooo I gave it a 4 maybe 5 then I realize the yuri was a plus for me so I added one more (shame on me)

Soul Eater NOT is arguably the anime equivalent of ice cream on pizza. Two perfectly wonderful foods that when combined create something far less than the sum of its parts.

Soul Eater is without a doubt a cult classic with a unique art style and one of the things that makes it shine as a piece of art is its reluctance to rely on cliché tropes to float the narrative that, in this case, stands strong on its own merits. There's nothing to say a sequal/prequal would be inherently bad or disliked and i'm sure fans would welcome such a project providing it honoured the original ... universe (you could probably deduce from that remark that Soul Eater NOT does not).

So what makes SE:NOT so bad? Slice of life is often a refreshing change of pace to the otherwise typically fantastical stories that dominate the world of anime, cartoons and TV media in general. I enjoy both action and slice of life so i like to think i am not biased in judging this show on both accounts since i approve of both equally anyway. Simply put, SE:NOT is a failure of juxtaposition and a failure of writing. That is to say it fails to really choose what it wants to be and then fails at both, then trying to fix it after-the-fact with popular tropes rather than making something not broken to begin with. Trying to cash in on both the contemporary "cutesie" SoL element that has become popular recently and the rough and raw elements of SE that made it popular back in the day simultaneously.

The original Soul Eater universe plays such a small and even moot role in this title it begs an obvious question of why they even bothered. The DWMA plot could be replaced by any other similar concept and functioned all the same, if not better. Which makes one consider the likelihood this was simply an attempt to milk an existing popular title to boost views on an otherwise generic, magic themed SoL. The cute generic main characters seem almost injected into a foreign world, slapped on like a sticker or after thought.

If i were to summarise my thoughts on this title it would be that the authors should have chosen one concept and run with it for the sake of consistency. Either honoured the original title with a proper sequel/prequel instead of a half arsed spin-off with cameo's or stuck with a SoL with magical elements and utilised the typical conventional art style for an original story that would have stood humbly on its own.

The attempt to try both smacks of laziness, but also a surreptitious money grab and neither sit well with me as a consumer.

If you like Soul Eater, cameo's and slice of life then you may want to check it out if only to tick it off your list. It's not horrible, but it wont blow you out of the water either.

I came in expecting to see cute girls having fun and being friends. The more I watched, the more I THOUGHT this was turning into lesbians. Which is nice. We all need a cute lesbian story in our lives.

Turns out this is like 1/2 yuri bait and 1/2 sexualizing minors. I wouldn't have been THAT surprised at the female objectification considering the original Soul Eater, while I hold it near and dear to my heart, is kinda gross to women; except NOT! is exceptionally bad!!! I really don't need to see nearly naked 14 year old girls in a pg-13 story. I really don't. ... Those gym uniforms??? I absolutely refused to believe Death would actually be okay with that.

Also the one girl who literally dreams about kissing another girl and then decides it's not romantic love is the most disappointing cop-out since naruto and sasuke. It's ok to be lesbians.

The ONLY redeeming factor is the black haired megane and that's literally just because I'm biased af.

Soul Eater NOT! is an anime that's not particularly good but receives much more flack than it probably deserves thanks to its relation to the far superior Soul Eater.

Story: 6/10
The plot is... okay. It doesn't really break any new ground, with the whole "two girls want to be with me and I can't decide which one I want" plot-line being established in episode 1. Oddly enough, this plot-line is established minutes after the main character, Tsugumi, meets her suitors, so to speak. She's had a short conversation with Meme and a rather unpleasant interaction with Anya, hardly basis for such a dilemma. As the ... plot moves on it gets reasonably interesting, with Tsugumi learning how to become a weapon, something we never got to see in Soul Eater, and a villain, which I didn't expect in an anime that tries to emulate slice-of-life.

Art: 7/10
I quite liked the art style. The main characters from Soul Eater don't change much other than Maka's eyes, and the fight scenes are mostly pretty good, discounting an embarrassing moment near the end of Episode 7.

Sound: 5/10
I didn't notice other than the opening theme. I'm bad at the sound department.

Characters: 5/10
The characters are characters. Tsugumi has the most variation, though she has an annoying habit of saying she's "In love with love" despite never actually showing that. She just kind of says it and expects us to accept it as truth. Meme is forgetful. Now you know Meme. Anya is a tsundere rich girl who knows martial arts. Admittedly, she does get some cool scenes here and there but her personality when she's not fighting pretty much amounts to "I don't know the value of money and also I am the tsundere archetype." There are a few other minor characters, with my favorite being Clay, the guy who's smart but not very quick on his feet so whenever someone asks him what he's doing and he has to come up with an excuse, he says he's in love with someone.

Enjoyment: 6/10
I happened to be in the mood for a cute slice-of-life anime with action thrown in there, and Soul Eater NOT! largely delivered on that. It's not a particularly good anime, but it gave me what I wanted in a decent manner.

Overall: 6/10
Soul Eater NOT! is not a particularly good anime. At the same time, it's not really as bad as everyone makes it out to be. It has its upsides and it shows some stuff that Soul Eater never got around to. None of the main characters in Soul Eater ever have trouble learning how to turn into weapons, they know how at the beginning of the series. Seeing a character learn how to do that was pretty nice. It shows how Sid became a zombie and what the Thompson sisters were doing before Kid officially partnered with them. It also goes a long way toward showing what the other students at the school do, since looking at Soul Eater's main characters is like looking at the Justice League and saying "that's what humans are." Seeing the NOT class has its merits. Overall, Soul Eater NOT! is a great way to get yourself motivated to watch Soul Eater again. That's pretty much what it does best.

Britt: Jeez. I don't even....Golly gee. This was....something.

I know I just did a review, but I felt like doing another before I forget about all the complaints I have with this series.
Let me tell you that I watched up to episode 9 and didn't really want to watch more. There's 12 episodes in total, so I really think I watched more than I thought I actually would. Because I um....this anime was....weird. I guess.


Let's uh, start with the story:
Story: "Soul Eater NOT! is a spin-off and side story that takes place one year prior to the events of the original Soul Eater. At ... the Death Weapon Meister Academy, humans born with the power to transform into weapons and those with the power to wield these weapons (Meisters) train to hone their natural talent. The characters of the main series are enrolled in the Especially Advantaged Talent class, where they train to become warriors of justice capable of defeating what threats prey on innocent lives—or even the entire world.

Other students at the DWMA are less talented. Members of the Normally Overcome Target class focus less on being warriors of justice and more on controlling their powers so they don't hurt themselves or anyone around them. Tsugumi Harudori, a new halberd-transforming student, meets Meisters Meme Tatane and Anya Hepburn and quickly grows indecisive about which of the two new friends should be her partner. As they learn to use these powers and settle in, their lives as everyday students will be far from normal."

As I said, I didn't finish this anime because I didn't want to. I was watching ERASED originally, but then I got my boyfriend into it and we decided to watch the rest of it together. While I'm waiting to watch it with him again, I decided to try and find another anime to watch in the mean time. I honestly couldn't decide on something I wanted to watch that had a dub. My mind kept coming to this anime, and I was actually trying to avoid it. So I decided to try watching Kim Possible or the second season of Miraculous Ladybug. The website I used for Ladybug didn't have episode 4 for some reason. It literally skips 4 and goes onto 5 and 6. So I thought "this is stupid" and moved onto Kim Possible....I loved KP when I was little, but after watching the first episode it's not as good as I remember it. (Nostalgia is a very powerful thing.) Soooo, I settled on this...anime. The story is really nothing to write home about. If you're a fan of the original Soul Eater, this probably threw you off. I'm not one of those "hardcore Soul Eater fans" who hate this anime simply for not being like the original. I read like, 3 volumes of the manga and thought it was cute. Had no problem with the change of tone it had from the original series. Nah, my problem with this anime lies in it's dull, cliche nature that is very inconsistent. Seriously. I don't think the author knew what he wanted this anime to be. At first it just seems like a slice-of-life. So I'm like "yeah. I dig slice-of-life." But...Slice-of-life isn't even one of it's tags on MAL. So I'm like OK...There's also a lot of Yuri bait going on in this anime, yet....Yuri isn't in the tags either. OK.........2 tags that it does have however are Shounen and Action. And yeah...there's some action in this anime (very badly choreographed action), but it's so minimal that it's pretty much misleading. And this honestly feels more like a freaking Shoujo than a Shounen, and I feel like whoever added the tags to this thing reeeeally wanted people actually looking for that kinda stuff to be pissed off and/or disappointed. Really though, this anime tries to do too much. It wants to be dramatic in one scene, then RIGHT after that it's back to the Yuri bait. I can't tell if we're supposed to take any of this seriously or not. Are you trying to be an action drama or a slice-of-life? I don't know, and I don't think the author knows. So I give the "story" a 6 outta 10.

Characters:
I don't really....like any of the characters. Tsugumi was actually kind of annoying, even if she's the character I probably relate to the most. Anya was OK. She's a Tsundere, and I'm not really a fan of those. Meme was a freaking moron and her constantly stripping off her clothes and sneaking into Tsugumi's bed at night actually made me a little uncomfortable. The side characters are pretty "meh" at best. Kim is a b*tch. She could have the saddest backstory she wants to, but at the end of the day, making someone pay you money every time they use your cheap baseball equipment is pretty low. Jacqueline was meh. Just more Yuri bait cause of her "crush" on Kim. Eternal Feather is probably the only side character I actually cared about. And she was "meh" too. The guy characters, Akane and blonde haired dude (forgot his name) were also "meh". The characters from the original series didn't do much of anything at all. Except when Eternal Feather got possessed. And I guess Maka made sort of an impact on Tsugumi since she started wearing her hair like hers (even though she kinda looks like a mini Black Rock Shooter with that hair.) Otherwise, their cameos were a little meaningless. Kanna (I think her name is) was cute, but didn't do anything. Sid was OK, boss guy who they called "Master" (creepy) was OK, Liz and Patty....were OK....The villain........What were her motives again? Long story short, the characters are pretty boring, one dimensional, archetypes and I didn't really care if they lost or succeeded in...anything really. I don't have much else to say about the characters, so I guess they get a 6 too.

Art/Animation:
Eeeeeeh....The characters are cute. And the only time the animation looked off was when characters were fighting. The fighting was sooo weird here. Like, I know the original Soul Eater was action packed and had some pretty cool fights, but they really weren't needed here. They looked so stiff and unnatural. It was kinda cringy really. Other than the fight scenes, the animation was fine. Nothing spectacular or anything. Just decent. The character designs were more unique in the original, and looked a bit more generic here. But not terrible. Honestly....just take another 6. I really don't even know anymore.

Sound:
GENERIIIIIIC. *Ahem* Sorry. I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on this section. The Opening and Ending were both extremely generic. I don't even know if I can say they fit the show since everything is so inconsistent. Both songs are cutesy and cheery. And it seems like the anime wants to be more than that at times. I don't remember any of the background music or sounds, but the voice acting was fine. Just....take a 5 or whatever. I've given up.

Overall Enjoyment:
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh. It's probably....really difficult to tell, but I didn't hate this anime. I enjoyed some bits and pieces of it, but I thought it was mostly boring and cliche. The story is all over the place. One minute it's Yuri pandering and the creator can't even tell himself if Tsugumi is straight or homosexual since she switches between having a crush on Akane (which obviously won't go anywhere. How old is she again?) and being touchy feely with her gal pals. It wants to be an action anime one second then a slice-of-life. The characters are boring, the sound is generic, and the animation is average. All in all it's just a very VERY average anime. I wouldn't recommended it to fans of the original Soul Eater, but if you're bored (like I was) and just want an average, cute anime to watch, then maybe you'll enjoy this.

Overall score is.......a 6. I honestly can't rank it any higher, but I'd feel bad if I rated it any lower (not including the sound portion where I gave it a 5.) Nothing is spectacular about this anime. I won't compare it to the original because that wouldn't be fair. "Soul Eater" isn't a masterpiece by any means, but it was better than this. More entertaining. Try watching both and see which one you prefer.

In short, for me, this is like if someone had a fever dream of the original Soul Eater anime and decided to write a fan fiction of it on Wattpad. Don't know why but it just gives me that feeling. It can appeal to a newer audience but I personally don't like it like how I love the original Soul Eater anime. Reasons as to why is because the rugged art style of the original art style isn't present in the Soul Eater NOT anime. Yeah it's cutesy but it doesn't give me the same raw feeling that the original one gives me. Yes I ... have re watched the anime two times in order to see if I have a different opinion to it as I did before. I watched the anime when I was younger and then watched it again when I was older, like 17 or something. I don't really remember my age. But that aside. my opinion was the same. The Soul Eater NOT plot felt confusing and it also felt like things changed too quickly.
However don't let my opinion sway you. Give it a go if you want. While I don't like it doesn't mean that you probably have the same opinion as me. You will probably like it since we all have different opinions.

Soul Eater NOT! was clearly made for a different audience than its predecessor Soul Eater. If you're looking for more of the OG Soul Eater, this anime will be a disappointment. However, if you don't care, and like slice of life, fanservice, and moe, you'll probably have a good time watching Soul Eater NOT! For me though, this was a snooze-fest as I really enjoyed the original Soul Eater and was hoping this would, at the very least, have the same charm as the first. Furthermore, you could watch this without having seen Soul Eater and understand it just fine, but if you choose to ... do that don't let this spin-off deter you from checking out the real thing.