Anime/manga Title: Soul Eater
Reviewer Name: Cool Beans
Anime/manga Rating:4 out of 5
Creator/Artist: Atsushi Okubo
Short Summary: The God of Death; aka shinigami; has established a school to train both meisters (people who use weapons) and weapons (people who have the ability to transform into weapons like scythes, guns and swords.) Meisters are teamed up with a weapon partner and given the goal to collect 99 evil souls (that have the potential to turn into demons) and 1 witch's soul in order to graduate and become a qualified weapon, known as a death scythe that shinigami will himself use. Meanwhile a witch named Medusa is plotting on reviving the most powerful demon that ever existed, the demon god Asura.
Manga/Anime status: ongoing/monthly
Review:
One of the first things you will notice about Soul Eater is its unique art style and design, it seems as if the author has been watching one too many Tim Burton films. Also the whole theme of the series seems to be centered around halloween, it is a fun occasion but also a dark twisted one at times as well and this in a way sums up Soul Eater to an extent. The best possible comparison of Soul Eater to other mangas is it is a sort of hybrid of Full Metal Alchemist and Bleach with a touch of Dragonball's perverted sense of humor.
The plot of Soul Eater seems quite weak to begin with and doesnt seem to be going in any particular direction, the characters are given an introduction chapter each but it may not have been the best introduction as they at first seem to be pretty one dimensional characters. After a few chapters however; once the villians and their goals are established then the series really does kick off in the right direction and becomes a brilliant read, but the series also gets a lot darker as the series continues, particually with its continuing and growing themes of madness and death.
Soul Eater follows 3 teams of meisters and weapons Maka Albarn and her weapon partner Soul Evans, Black Star and his weapon partner Tsbuaki and Death the Kid and his weapon partners Liz and Patty. Most of the time Maka and Soul are the true main characters, however they never hog the spotlight too long, it has been quite evenly balanced throughout the run of the series so far, each character gets the chance to shine, and evolve further than the sterotype nothing special manga characters they began as. In fact it seems the more characters in the series and their personalitys and agendas clashing the better the series gets. At the moment the cast of characters is working well and no one seems to be completly forgotten about compared to other mangas of a similar genre
With 3 teams of meisters and weapons comes 3 very different fighting styles, and this is one of the things that keeps Soul Eater interesting and varied is the fighting and the matchups these fighting styles are given. Each fight is as different from the last, even 2nd or 3rd round fights in some cases are still interesting as even though the fighting styles may still be the same the characters have developed some brilliant rivalries between each other and your almost hoping no one dies so you can see another match up in the future. It also helps the action sequences are quite clear so you can easily follow what is happening.
Soul Eater is now roughly 6 years old and still going, with a brand new story arc just starting last month. It has even had an anime adaption done and dusted within a year which followed closely to the source material, however like the original full metal alchemist anime series it caught up eventually due to the monthly releases of the chapters and that is probably the most infuritating thing about Soul Eater, the long wait between chapters and combined with the annoyance of each story arc taking a little while to get going. My advice best read in small doses to leave room for a couple of chapter releases, however with the amount of brilliant and shocking twists in this series its hard not to rush to the most recent release and becoming increasingly impatient month upon month.
Soul Eater is to be officialy released in the west later this year, and so far the series has been a superb memorable read and hopefully it will continue to do so for many years to come.
http://www.onemanga.com/Soul_Eater/
Reviewer Name: Cool Beans
Anime/manga Rating:4 out of 5
Creator/Artist: Atsushi Okubo
Short Summary: The God of Death; aka shinigami; has established a school to train both meisters (people who use weapons) and weapons (people who have the ability to transform into weapons like scythes, guns and swords.) Meisters are teamed up with a weapon partner and given the goal to collect 99 evil souls (that have the potential to turn into demons) and 1 witch's soul in order to graduate and become a qualified weapon, known as a death scythe that shinigami will himself use. Meanwhile a witch named Medusa is plotting on reviving the most powerful demon that ever existed, the demon god Asura.
Manga/Anime status: ongoing/monthly
Review:
One of the first things you will notice about Soul Eater is its unique art style and design, it seems as if the author has been watching one too many Tim Burton films. Also the whole theme of the series seems to be centered around halloween, it is a fun occasion but also a dark twisted one at times as well and this in a way sums up Soul Eater to an extent. The best possible comparison of Soul Eater to other mangas is it is a sort of hybrid of Full Metal Alchemist and Bleach with a touch of Dragonball's perverted sense of humor.
The plot of Soul Eater seems quite weak to begin with and doesnt seem to be going in any particular direction, the characters are given an introduction chapter each but it may not have been the best introduction as they at first seem to be pretty one dimensional characters. After a few chapters however; once the villians and their goals are established then the series really does kick off in the right direction and becomes a brilliant read, but the series also gets a lot darker as the series continues, particually with its continuing and growing themes of madness and death.
Soul Eater follows 3 teams of meisters and weapons Maka Albarn and her weapon partner Soul Evans, Black Star and his weapon partner Tsbuaki and Death the Kid and his weapon partners Liz and Patty. Most of the time Maka and Soul are the true main characters, however they never hog the spotlight too long, it has been quite evenly balanced throughout the run of the series so far, each character gets the chance to shine, and evolve further than the sterotype nothing special manga characters they began as. In fact it seems the more characters in the series and their personalitys and agendas clashing the better the series gets. At the moment the cast of characters is working well and no one seems to be completly forgotten about compared to other mangas of a similar genre
- Spoiler:
- *cough vizards cough*
With 3 teams of meisters and weapons comes 3 very different fighting styles, and this is one of the things that keeps Soul Eater interesting and varied is the fighting and the matchups these fighting styles are given. Each fight is as different from the last, even 2nd or 3rd round fights in some cases are still interesting as even though the fighting styles may still be the same the characters have developed some brilliant rivalries between each other and your almost hoping no one dies so you can see another match up in the future. It also helps the action sequences are quite clear so you can easily follow what is happening.
Soul Eater is now roughly 6 years old and still going, with a brand new story arc just starting last month. It has even had an anime adaption done and dusted within a year which followed closely to the source material, however like the original full metal alchemist anime series it caught up eventually due to the monthly releases of the chapters and that is probably the most infuritating thing about Soul Eater, the long wait between chapters and combined with the annoyance of each story arc taking a little while to get going. My advice best read in small doses to leave room for a couple of chapter releases, however with the amount of brilliant and shocking twists in this series its hard not to rush to the most recent release and becoming increasingly impatient month upon month.
Soul Eater is to be officialy released in the west later this year, and so far the series has been a superb memorable read and hopefully it will continue to do so for many years to come.
http://www.onemanga.com/Soul_Eater/
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