Story: 6/10
Soul Eater introduces a very interesting and unique plot. Students who fight evil sprits with their companions who transform into weapons to fight said spirits. Going into Soul Eater, I loved this idea. The students aimed to fight 99 spirits and one witch in order to transform their weapon companions into "Death Scythes", weapons used by Lord Death himself. This goal was introduced in the first episode, in stuck for awhile, and it was dropped. I sat there as the plot went on wondering where this idea went. I wanted to see how our protagonists tried to accomplish this goal.
Instead, Soul Eater gave us a large cast of protagonists dealing with the issue of "Asura." While I liked the direction this went, it suddenly flipped roughly 15 episodes in to the issue of Medusa and her plans. It was by no means bad, but the first 15 episodes just seemed like a waste at that point. Yes, there was valuable character development, but it would have been much more effective if factored in to the direction the plot went.
Another issue I had was the constant idea of teamwork set through the entire anime which seemed to be dropped during the ending. I can give it the benefit of some good comedy, though.
Art: 8/10
The art was one of my favorite parts of Soul Eater. The art was comedic yet serious, which fit the anime very well. It was very fluid, and the fight scenes were animated brilliantly. The art style used was very unique and distinguishable. The biggest issue was the dull appearance of the colors on occasion.
Sound: 7/10
The voice acting in Soul Eater was stellar. Every line was delivered masterfully by the diverse and strong cast of voice actors. The sounds track, unfortunately, did not meet the same standard. While the tracks used fit their relevant scenes, few, if any songs were memorable. They acted a lot more as ways to fill empty space rather than an intriguing way to enhance the different scenes.
Characters: 6/10
I have a lot to say here, so I'll try to keep it as concise as can be.
The first group of characters to discuss are the set of protagonists: Maka, Soul, Black Star, Tsubaki, Death the Kid, Patty, and Liz. It seems that writers like to give characters in stories with lots of characters very specific quirks to keep them memorable and distinguishable. Each of characters in this set of protagonists had his or her specific quirk. The unfortunate thing was, some were focused on more than others. Some received significantly more development. Maka seemed to be the focus for the development. Soul fell short though. And it got annoying having him talk about being cool all the time. Black Star remained his arrogant self through the whole anime. He had brief moments of camaraderie, but never really developed. We did get a fair amount of backstory on him though. Tsubaki fell to the same weakness as Black Star. She was never really developed past a bit of background information. Death the Kid was definitely the most well written character out of the protagonists, he was developed clearly, and as he became more suspicious of his father there was a clear shift in his personality. I still can't quite figure out what's going on with Liz and Patty. We got their backstory but they weren't really developed well.
The side characters were significantly better. Professor Stein was interesting. He went on a journey that began and was seen through to the end. Medusa had the same sort of experience. Crona had a great set of development and adventures to his character. Soul Eater seemed to put a lot more effort in the side characters than it did the main characters. However, there were still a plethora of not so well written side characters. Sid never really seemed to change, and just kept going on about what kind of man he was before he became a zombie. Death himself was made to be hyped to hide the fact that he really had nothing behind him. He oversimplified things and frankly it made him uninteresting.
Enjoyment: 8/10
I've been pretty critical of Soul Eater in this review. It's not bad. I thoroughly enjoyed all 51 episodes of Soul Eater, and I'm really glad I watched it. From a writing stand point, it had some weaknesses, but I also take into mind the audience Soul Eater is intended for. I'm someone who prefers a story that challenges me - the viewer- to think. Soul Eater most certainly isn't intended for that. I can still respect it though because it interested me enough to keep watching.
Overall, Soul Eater gets a 6, which MAL defines as "fine". I can consider it an above-average anime, but it doesn't go above and beyond. If you haven't seen it you should watch it, even with it's weaknesses it's still a great anime worth seeing for any anime fan.
