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.
