Right from the start I was already drawn in by the characters, I truly felt that the character design was top-notch with every character given a unique flavour and vibe that adds to the enjoyment of watching this series. Character development for the 3 main meisters was well paced and it was really heartwarming to see them grow and develop over the course of the anime.
One of the things I would like to point out is that Soul Eater will be one hell of a emotional rollercoaster ride. I'm not certain if it's because I got too invested into the characters and hence over empathising with them, but even if that's the case it means that the show had done a good job with character engagement with the audience. The show starts out slow, with an episodic style with minimal continuation, but still enough suspense to keep you coming back for more. Every episode seems to hint at something, and you feel something build up as the episodes progress, and its that subtle feeling that trouble is brewing that really hooked me into Soul Eater. Weirdly enough, this anime had a fair share of really emotional angst scenes even though its a comedy genre. This is what turned some people off in the later episodes, but personally I could use some angst so I was sucked deeper into this series (lol). But if you're a fan of comedies, then this show is a must watch because the antics of BlackStar and Soul Eater are HILARIOUS and will have you laughing at how silly everything is. The pacing in this anime was perfect for me (and apart from the two really annoying filler episodes of Excalibur) all the episodes were deeply enjoyable and satisfied me.
Now on to the art. I really really liked the art style. It was simple and easy to set your eyes on, and it felt fresh. The action sequences were also a feast for my eyes with a variety of fights varying from sword fights, hand on hand combat and guns. The soundtrack for this series is also something different from your usual soundtrack, with most songs having English lyrics and being pop, and the change to a sadder music when the time required it, every piece of music really suited the scenes and it just flows so well you won't even realise that the music really played such a huge part.
If you have been reading other reviews, you would have come across people saying they were disappointed by the ending, or by the second half of the series when things got more serious. If you have not read the manga, then it the ending isn't really that bad, maybe you might consider it slightly underwhelming, but for me it was perfect.
Another thing I want to add, is that this show actually cleverly dealt with many of the internal conflicts and struggles that we have within us. With the main enemy of the show being "the madness that lies within us all", and how we fight it every day so that we're not overtaken by it. It was really beautiful, and the dialogues in Soul Eater were written really well, and there are takeaways in this anime that resulted in my emotional stir at the very end of the last episode.
I hope you will enjoy Soul Eater as much as I did. (:
