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Jul 17, 2019
Soul Eater is a good shounen series with exciting action, fun characters, and a unique sense of style. It's not a must-watch, but it is a fun ride all the way through.
Story:
First, I would like to address some concerns about adaptation. Now, unless someone really screws up and does an absolute disservice to the source material (*cough* Rosario + Vampire *cough*), I normally don't care a whole lot about how something adapts. After all, The Shining is a bad adaptation, but a good movie.
Soul Eater is kinda like Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), wherein it's a bad adaptation, but it works on its own. It diverts
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from the source material majorly, but not in a way that hurts it. It suffers from a little less developed characters, but if you never read the manga, you wouldn't be mad about it.
Art:
Soul Eater's highly stylized animation and art works in its favor. The original creator just wanted to extend Halloween a bit further, but didn't want to go full horror so stylized the manga. As such, the anime adapts the high stylization of the manga to its full extent and it never fails to impress.
Moments of dramatic tension before action scenes are often punctuated by high-impact camera angles that distort proportions for dramatic effect, with little foreshortening in order to stylize it even further. Characters often become distorted or highly simplified for comedic effect. However, it always looks good, and the action scenes flow well.
Sound:
I would talk about the voice acting, but there's not a whole lot to say. The voice cast in the English job does it well. It's high quality, but there's nothing really all that special. What I would like to talk about is the soundtrack. It's hip, stylish, diverse, and...really dated.
While there's doing something retro-style a la Persona 5's soul-jazz soundtrack, this sounds like the greatest hits of George W. Bush's first term. "So Scandalous" sounds like a beat that Pharrell Williams threw in the trash can around 2004 and was scavenged by Taku Iwasaki for this anime. "Never Lose Myself" sounds like My Chemical Romance-style emo pop rock if you replaced the self-centered adolescent angst with self-centered adolescent egotism, plus some VERY SPECIFIC lyrics ("Excalibur, I just can't stand him/I just hate the name, I wanna break him." Yeah, me too). Despite that, it's really great when you hear it in the anime. When the main character's themes come on, you know stuff is about to go down. It is worthy checking out on its own.
Characters:
Like I said, the characters suffer a little bit because of the adaptational changes, but you will quickly take a liking to at least one of them. My favorite is Death the Kid, but you will gravitate towards Soul, Maka, Crona, or any one of the various characters that the anime presents to you. It does a good job of making you hate the villains as well, with Medusa being a particularly despicable example.
I'd like to point out something interesting about this series. Maka Albarn is a unique example of a female shounen protagonist. I feel like this is really difficult to explain without being misinterpreted, so I'm going to use other series as a comparison point. Maka fills the role that the titular character plays in Naruto or Monkey D. Luffy plays in One Piece. While there are other female characters who are part of main ensemble casts and I can't say that it's unexpected that most shounen protagonists are male, it is interesting that a series intended for young teenage boys to make its main viewpoint protagonist a young teenage girl.
Enjoyment:
The combination of all of the above, from the likable characters to the interesting art to the cool soundtrack, makes for an enjoyable experience. However, I would say that it is not a must-watch. It's not bad, it's just not truly special enough. If you could watch only one long-running shounen series this year, I wouldn't put it past you to choose something else over this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Nov 26, 2016
Kiss X Sis is one of the most surprising manga I've ever read. What is surprising about it is how trashy, sleazy, and exploitative it is. Depending on your point of view, the incest is already pretty trashy. If you're not okay with the concept of two step-sisters lusting after their younger brother, then you probably shouldn't even come close to this manga. Don't touch it with a ten-foot pole.
Story: 1/10
As I said in the introduction, this is one of the most sleazy manga I've ever read outside of actual hentai. I get the feeling that the author doesn't know what he's writing, because the
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manga plays the entire thing for pathos and/or sexiness despite some pretty exploitative stuff being away a couple pages away. Sex is a huge part of the entire enterprise, but it can get pretty messed up in regards to that. If the incest wasn't screwed up enough for you, there are multiple depictions of urine and/or vaginal fluids played for sexiness (I guess), several scenes where characters are implied to masturbate, erections depicted through pants, and one attempted rape scene. Again, this entire thing is played for pathos which is completely destroyed by the cringe-worthy scene you've just read a few pages ago. It's an manga where the words "this is so wrong" are repeated several times in your head as you read the thing. Those with strong stomachs will be able to make it through without quitting the entire enterprise, but those who can't take it should stay away. It's completely and utterly shameless, but not in a lighthearted way, or a comedic way, or a clever way, or an ironic way, or a dark way, or even a good way. It's shameless in an exploitative way.
Art: 4/10
Despite it's sexually explicit content in regards to situations, this is an manga that really contains very little nudity or fanservice. Compare it to something like To Love-Ru Darkness or High School DxD, and the difference is clear. I have a theory that if it were like that it would be slapped with an 18+, but it's strange how restrained it is in the nudity regard. Those looking for naked girls should look elsewhere. That said, the art isn't great. It's highly simplistic, and can border on amateurish at some points. Still, it does its job well enough to give it a 4.
Character: 2/10
This is a harem anime, so lets talk harem protagonists. Keita Suminoe is basically what would happen if you crossed Makoto from School Days with Kasuga Arata from Trinity Seven. He's a realistic depiction of a teenage boy in that scenario, but in this case the teenage boy is kind of a two-timing jerk. He's not entirely bland, but he's certainly not a character who you can imagine a girl falling head-over-heels in love with him. Alright then, let's talk haremettes. His harem, save for one character, is a collection of thirsty hormonal women that can get pretty annoying at times. The only one you really want Keita to get with is Miharu Mikuni. She's the most likable person in the cast, and is pretty much a one-dimensional big-breasted meganekko stereotype.
Enjoyment: 3/10
I said that this is a manga where you can't help but repeat the phrase "this is so wrong" in your head. Well, that's for certain scenes. A lot of this manga is played for pathos and drama, and since the characters range from unlikable to bland to annoying it won't affect you in the slightest. Outside of some of the hilariously awful lines ("Why is incest everywhere?") that make it worth the read, it's rather a rather bland, boring, and often annoying waste of time.
Overall: 3/10
Skip it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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