Soul Eater

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Is it the most complex story ever written? No.
Will you still enjoy it if you like more lighthearted shounen stories? Yes.
It is a fun shounen, with a unique world setting and a bit of comedy.
If you like the genre, and are not in the mood for anything depressing, then I d say this is one of the better shounen options out there.

So all in all for me - as somebody who has been reading/watching shounen for over 10 years - I d still give this manga a solid 8/10.
It is not for those who crave bloodshed and a more complicated plot, but rather for ... those who yearn for a fun action shounen with interesting characters that go through some character development along the show.
Also Black Star is basically free therapy, which already by itself is a bonus point.

For those who d like a comparison, while I dont love doing this, I know it helps me personally a lot when people do this so: I d say it is probably closest to Black Clover(not finished at the time I am writing this review), just a tad bit darker.

What mangaka Ookubo Atsushi is really good at is making unique setting and in this case you got Halloween vibe to mesmerize you. The way he being creative not only the setting but also character design that really blend with the Halloween vibe. But what stood out the most about the manga are the power system. I like the idea of a person turn into a weapon and you need the partner to be compatible usually base on their personality. The art style also drawn you in when character goes crazy and the expression really make it easy to understand what their feeling are.

However that ... is the only positive, now let go to the negative starting with the plot. It not that it generic thus it bad but it really messy to a point it more of after thought rather make it flow naturally example we being told that if the kishin resurrect it will bring madness and people will go crazy but it didn't happen until the final arc that you start question why the kishin is the bad guy? where the effect of the madness that we being told about?. Don't know .This tied to the main villain kishin asura, He not a character but just a plot device. You literally change him into a Bom and will not change the plot. The other villain also a let down especially medusa who a master mind in the plot but turn out just a one dimension villain that want to destroy the world just because....she want to. Character that were kill also didn't evoke emotion like there this guy who have a power to find the villain that hide in the city but he got kill and that it. We never see other character get a revenge for him and soon got forget by the plot. The plot armor also get annoying as the story progress example when the MC fight this dude (KIRIKO) that manage to beat MC and about to kill them but then all sudden his hatred or something got so huge that his soul could not contain it and kill the dude....WTF just happen???. There also the late introduction of character at the last arc that I just don't give a shit and while the ending much better than the anime but it still bad because it didn't solve the conflict but return to status like in the beginning, what I mean is how the MC defeat the villain, well by seal him back of course. Genius!!. Heck even if you ok with it, in the last chapter the writer make stupid joke that ruin the tragic tone that it create like for example when kid find out that the shinigami dead he start crying but then there this character that interrupt him and make the scene have a tonal whiplash which is bad. Also what with the boob joke at the end chapter, it like the writer think it will be funny but instead ruin the ending of the series.

In conclusion, Ookubo good at making unique setting and power system but fell short on the other department. If you ask me which is better the anime or manga, I suggest follow what you like the most because there both will get bad. My advice is to watch the first half of the anime and don't bother anything else.

After I watched Soul Eater, everyone said, “The manga ending is better.” So I decided to take them up on that and read it.

Why oh why did I finish this manga? Because I’m an idiot?

Maybe.

More likely than not it's because I wanted to reach this “better ending”. While I’ll admit that “bravery” isn’t the best ending to a series, the Soul Eater anime surpasses the manga.

Let’s break down why, shall we?

... Characters: 4/10

The characters ranged from bland to erratic with no one I formed any particular attachment too. I liked Crona in the anime, but the character went from interesting to relatively boring in the manga. I enjoyed watching/reading about Death the Kid and Excalibur, but, in the manga, the rest of the cast fell short.

Most main characters—like Black Star, Tsubaki, Soul, Patty, Oxford, Maka, etc.—seemed dull and underdeveloped. While some had vibrant personalities, they still lacked emotional depth. Sure, some matured as the manga went along (Black Star in particular), but I never found them compelling or a driving force of the series.

Soul and Tsubaki were capital offenders. Between the two of them, I can’t think of any adjectives to describe them apart from their shounen trope counterparts. Soul barely had any personality besides his “cool” vibe and wish to live up to his brother. He played the piano, but that didn’t really add to his personality. And Tsubaki was “nice” and a powerful weapon but that’s about it.

After 20 something volumes, I had hoped for a bit more from the cast. Instead, most of the characters battled a single problem throughout the series and received a single chapter of backstory (or a few scattered panels) for development. The caricatures were fine, I guess, but difficult to distinguish from other characters like them. Needless to say, I didn’t attach.

None of the character annoy me, but I didn’t care for them either. At the very least, I found Death the Kid’s eccentricities amusing, as well as Excalibur’s. Both, sadly, lacked “screen time”, if you will. Excalibur remained a joke character, but Death the Kid whiplashed between a humorous and a serious one. It usually worked fine, but once in a while it jarred me.

Plot: 4/10

While, I applaud Soul Eater for its distinctive art style and tone, the story trapped itself between humor and (attempts at) philosophy and ended up falling short of both. It couldn’t decide if the reader should take it seriously and transitioned from ridiculous panels to long spouts about insanity and madness—which I found about as compelling as watching paint dry. This is a real shame, because I usually enjoy a good philosophical meander.

The plot did move smoothly from A to Z without any hard to swallow plot jumps, but some fights dragged on for volumes. I quickly lost interest in an enemy who revealed a 7th or 8th form. It made Aizen (from Bleach, for those who don’t know) look as if he didn’t have too many final-final-final forms. Several antagonists in Soul Eater pulled this “my true form!” nonsense out. Oh, and the bad guys never die. I swear our heroes have to fight them 3+ times each throughout the manga.

Not only were the battles with the same opponents seemingly endless, but I never felt any tension during them. Relatively sure the characters wouldn’t die (good and bad), nothing seemed to be at stake, which made the battles feel a little pointless.

Uninvested in the characters or plot, the story often seemed to drag and frequently bored me. In the end, though, a lot of unexplained story elements came together nicely.

Nothing about the plot is particularly fantastic, mind-blowing, unique, or interesting. But, aside from the never-ending fights, it’s pretty average and moved at a solid pace.

Art: 7/10

The story had a sort of quirky-cool style that fit surprisingly well with the story’s main antagonist: madness. The art added to the feel of Soul Eater, and, I think, helped it stand out from other shounen. Soul Eater’s bold, Halloweenish style benefited the story’s humor as well. While I found the anime humorous, not even “the test” chapter made me laugh while reading the manga (and I loved that in the anime).

The lines were clean. The fights were (usually) easy to follow. Most panels were simplistic with an occasional “text panel” (what I call panels that have only text and no image). Some, though, were detailed.

The angles were pretty normal. I don’t remember it doing anything above and beyond to increase the story’s meaning. Same thing goes for the paneling. Of course it had some clever layouts, but, generally speaking, the angle of the panel and paneling itself did not add to the story. One chapter focusing on Crona was a big expectation to this. Stylistically, I thought it was the best chapter in the series.

The story did make great use of black and white, using black to help indicate madness and create some intense panels.

Female representation: 1/10

I’ve actually had people complain about this category before, but, if you aren’t interested, don’t read it. If I find the males of a series overtly sexualized and poorly written plot tools who serve solely as “dream boys” for girls, I’ll be sure to mention it.

In the anime, the first episodes were grating, but after those only certain scenes irritated me (like a cat fight between two basically naked women). I could swallow the ecchi fan service for the most part. It was nudity, but it didn’t make rape jokes funny or needlessly sexualize young girls. It had big boobs, short skirts, and accidental (and sometimes intentional) pervert scenes, but that’s typical for shounen. It was more of an eye roll than an issue.

But let’s get to the manga, which is a whole new story.

First, sexual assault was comedic. From boob grabbing to skirt lifting, Soul Eater frequently promoted rape culture through humor. I shouldn’t have to explain why that’s problematic.

Copious scenes unnecessarily took place in the shower to “cleverly” showcase naked girls. Females, especially villains, often wore outfits that sexualized the body and sometimes emphasized certain parts of it, which I found disturbing, unnecessary, and distracting. One villain continuously taunted her opponent, saying lovely lines like, “don’t imagine my naked body” and “I bet you want to touch my naked body”. If you can’t see through this thinly veiled plot device to entice young boys, than you probably enjoyed this manga more than I did.

Fan service aside, gender representation was far from equal. Aside from one female villain, the girls usually had less power than the boys. For example, Maka, the protagonist, was far behind the power level of her male counterparts. Some girls had power, and lots of girls were weapons, but that didn’t really resolve the issue.

What about Tsubaki!? Well, frankly, her abilities as a weapon did not factor into a fight nearly as much as Black Star’s skills and capabilities.

It is worth noting that, without the fan service issues, I probably wouldn’t complained too much about this. Shounen typically feature boys who are more powerful than girls.

And yet . . . when the characters were in “weapon form”, the manga showed their faces instead of a talking weapon. But the girls were always naked in this state, though the boys wore clothes. That was so obviously sexist it’s laughable.

We have another great addition to female representation problems: Blair. She served as nothing more than someone to strip down and treat the males to a little fan service (not that all men even want that. I know a guy who watched Soul Eater and found Blair annoying and unnecessary). She sexually assaulted a character constantly, pushing her impossibly large boobs into his face. Unamusingly, this also promoted rape culture (this time girls assaulting boys). She’s not the first cat-girl in a manga, though, and I’m sure she’s not the last.

I could go on, but I’ve hit the major points. If you’re into that stuff, go for it. That’s why it’s there, after all. If you like having female character with substance and something more to them than their bodies, which are constantly being displayed or touched to create jokes and “bleeding noses”, I suggest you find another series to read.

At the very least, the main protagonist, Maka, was not overly sexualized. While she fought in a skirt (always humorous and unbelievably stupid), she didn’t suffer many up-skirt shots or clothing damage. The females also had as much character development as the boys, which is to say very little.

The manga did offer a variety of female personalities and even one major female villain. But the endless ecchi fan service and rape culture promotion sort of nullify that.

Overall: 3/10

I obviously did not enjoy this series. Why did I read it all? I heard the ending was better than the anime’s and wanted to find out. I'd take a crappy ending over the horrible female representation, snooze-worthy battles, long rambles about madness, and lost humor any day. Reading it probably wasn’t worth all the frustration and boredom I felt.

I don’t recommend it.