Reviews

The premise of Soul Eater is fairly straight forward. New students are inducted into an academy for the sole purpose of being soul reapers. As for the particular genre it falls under, it's a little more difficult to say. Soul Eater has elements of a comedy, drama and typical battle/fighting anime. It's whimsical art style seems to indicate that it could be a comedy, particularly the character designs of Death and Excalibur. As a drama, the relationships between Maka and Soul as well as Maka and Chrona could also be explored in a more meaningful way. Finally, the student soul reapers have been shown to have a multitude of fighting techniques though this is not developed very well.

Soul Eater appears to have potential to be a greatly entertaining title. However, it's direction takes it from one spectrum to another in a rather distasteful manner. By spreading itself too thin, it cannot be enjoyed to the fullest. Those looking for comedy will lose interest during the fight scenes and vice versa.

The focus of the characters seems to be off kilter as well. While Maka Albarn is the main character, she gets significantly less air time than the other students until much later in the series. Black Star, Kid and even Excalibur are more memorable characters and make better use of their time than Maka. Finally, when she is the main focus, I find her annoying and boring in comparison.