Soul Eater Episode 01
I’m currently shaking from a 25 minute non-stop intake of Soul Eater crack. I’m seriously shaking with excitement as I sit here trying to pull my brain together in an attempt to write up some kind of episode review for you guys. I guess we could start off by saying that I was so eager to watch this show that I ended up stealing Impzie’s Chinese ninja subs before the regular RAW for the episode was out. I don’t care who you are, or what you like…WATCH THIS SHOW! (at least the first episode) Our resident trap and shonen-hating shoujo-fanatic Impz even tolerated this episode.
This…is the most amazing shit I’ve seen in a long time.
So far, the anime follows the manga quite closely, and if that’s any indication, then the first three episodes of this show will focus on three different pairings of characters. You see, Soul Eater (SE) is about shimigami scythe technicians, humans who are paired with a “weapon” partner in an attempt to create a “Death Scythe”. A Death Scythe is an ultimate weapon that is used by Shinigami-sama, the president of the school for scythe technicians. The manga focuses on three initial pairings: Maka and Soul Eater, Black Star and Tsubaki, and Death the Kid (DtK) with his two weapon partners, Patty and Liz. If the anime follows suit, ep 01 will be about Maka and Soul Eater, ep 02 will be about Black Star and Tsubaki, ep 03 will be about DtK/Patty and Liz, and ep 04 will bring them all together. So far, it’s looks like that will be the case.
In this episode, we’re introduced to scythe technician Maka and her weapon partner Soul Eater. They’re out in the human world trying to collect the 99 evil humans souls and 1 witch soul needed to turn Soul Eater into a Death Scythe. They’re up to 98 human souls when they come across Jack the Ripper, a psychotic murderer with a carrot nose and some crazy ass wicked blades for fingers. As the battle ensues, Soul Eater transforms into a scythe that Maka wields to fight the Ripper. At this point, I could only think a few things…
“OMG! OMG OMG OMG! BADASS! WOOOOOOOOOO! HELLZ YEAH! THAT ANIMATION IS THE SHIIIIIIIIIT!”
*cough* Anyway..the animation for fight scenes (and just in general) is superb. I mean, I got excited when I found out that BONES was animating this, not because of ‘oh my gawd Ouran!’, but because I’ve watched all of Fullmetal Alchemist and the fight scenes were fantastic. BONES has outdone themselves. I can’t describe it in words, you just have to see it for yourself. All I can say is that it’s worth it for you to watch this in the highest quality you can get your hands on.
After pwning Jack the Ripper, Soul Eater proceeds to…well, eat his soul. That makes 99 human souls for the Maka/Soul Eater combo, and all that’s left is for them to get the soul of one witch and BAM! Death Scythe complete! So they dial 1-800-Shimigami-sama (or 42-42-564) to find out where you can get a hold of a witch to eat. Enter Blair, neko-witch, seductress and pumpkin flinger all in one. Hawtness. Determined to get their last soul, Maka and Soul Eater begin their assault on Blair’s house…if you can call it that. Soul Eater does what any normal man would do at the sight of a naked woman in a bath tub: spews blood from his nose, collapses in shock, and stares in awe. Oh wait, that’s probably not what a REAL man would do.
As technicians battle witches and pumpkins are exploding all over the place, we encounter yet another of SE’s strengths, art style. Now, there are more detailed or shinier character designs and backdrops out there, but the reason I list art style as a strength is simply because SE manages to look unique without being so out there that no one would want to go near it. From Blair’s neko-cuteness to Shinigami-sama’s blocky fingers…there are a million little things that stand out if you’re paying attention. Soul Eater is fun to watch simply for the sake of watching it.
Eventually, Maka and Soul use a nice trick to take down Blair, and Soul chows down on her sparkling blue soul. However, instead of a full transformation into a Death Scythe, Soul only sees the beginings of the process before something goes terribly wrong. As it turns out, Blair wasn’t really a witch! Even worse, due to him ingesting the wrong type of soul, Maka and Soul have lost all the souls they gathered up until now, placing them back at square one! Bummer.
Maka and Soul head back to the school with Blair in tow (on a flying pumpkin) as the scene transitions into a preview of the show’s next pairing, Black Star and Tsubaki. It is here that I’d like point out another of SE’s strong points: the audio. I want to bring it up here because as Black Star is introduced, there’s an insert song playing that works perfectly to build the suspense and excitement for what’s coming in the next episode. Whatever that song was, I want it…now.
Staying on the topic of audio, the voice acting was great. So far, not only do I not mind any of the voices, there are several that I’m psyched about (Maka, Soul Eater, Black Star, to name a few). I’ll have to admit though, on the part of the Op and ED, I wasn’t all that excited about the OP song. However, the beat behind the song fit well with the OP animation, and I ended up liking it after seeing the two together. There are better songs out there this season, but this one was pretty good in and of itself. The ED seemed like standard fair until it suddenly exploded out of nowhere it a driving punk-style tune. Once again, not one of my faves, but not bad either. The background music was fantastic and evoked the proper emotions for each scene (I was even tapping my foot to it at one point without noticing).
After all is said and done, THIS is the show I’ve been waiting for…maybe for this season, or maybe it’s the show I’ve been waiting for for longer than I’ve known. Either way, I’m excited, I’m psyched, I’m pumped…I can’t wait. This show is going to be amazing. Quote me on it.
Notes:
The write up here was massively long due to it being the first episode and me having to do something with my excitement. I don’t plan on write-ups this long for the future, especially not with another version of the show airing every week with bonus content. So my question for you is this: what do you want to see each week for Soul Eater? In-depth summaries? More focus on thoughts? Or quick summaries/thoughts with greater focus on crazy content that goes above and beyond the norm?
Extrange’s Short Remark: This is also fscking better than Naruto. Wait for episode 2 and Black Star’s insanity ( free loli too).
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if i have any issues with this show its soul’s voice, i think he would have sounded better with a naruto like voice
@kody: That voice is reserved for Black Star. Besides, Soul’s personality is a bit dark and will fit better with the voice later on the plot.
It’s interesting that you say this is better than Naruto, because I would say that Naruto’s storytelling is better than Soul Eater’s (based on manga). The Soul Eater manga does get started a little faster, however, and the story itself seems tighter overall.
What will probably make everyone think that Soul Eater is the superior series is the fact that Bones is animating the anime. The real reason why everyone thinks Naruto sucks now is because the anime has become this horrible, draggy, fugly disaster. If Bones animated Naruto and kept the same pace as the manga, the universe would probably implode from fanboy/fangirl lurve.
With that said, the story gets better, so if the animation quality keeps up, this could be a very entertaining series.
It looks great. Can’t wait until it is subbed.
btw: I noticed P.A.Works was mentioned in the ED, are they doing animation assistance for Soul Eater or something like that?
Wah!! I wants to watch this NOW! I’m in need of a massive dose of high octane shounen action, great animation and quirky plot, Soul Eater appears to be offering it…….there are too many interesting series this season! :S
It’s tiight. The style is so sweet, might check out some manga chapters. Keeeper, and Blair is a keeper too :3
LOL I was like “oh shit that sucks” when I heard that XD
To be honest, everything I’d heard about this show up to this point failed to grab me, and I think the premise is, in one word: retarded. but I actually think “OMG Ouran” would be enough reason to get excited about anything Bones related. And as I recall, some of the combat scenes in Darker than Black were pretty sweet. So your enthusiasm is having the desired contagious effect. Here’s hoping for epic awesomeness.
Yes-yes-yes. BONES, you never let me down. -hearts-
A lot of people have complained that Maka’s seiyu is horrible, but if anything, it fits her character. The casting is all perfect, like the seiyus were made for their roles.
The animation is outstanding, I love the unique art style, the manga material they get to work with is great, and incredible music.
I haven’t seen a shounen with this calibre in forever, definitely worth it to watch in the highest res RAWS you can find.
This is going to be the best of this season.
This is completely awesome! I totally love the death reaper, and the huge difference between this and 90% of the shounen series is that Soul eater has characters with extremely quirky behavior. I am sick of the typical shounen main lead.
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@Kabitizin: I think that the universe is already imploding from naruto and bleach tards. No worries there. We just need to convert them to Soul eatertards.
I was totally looking forward to this show when I read the reviews and that Bones were the ones doing it (I have high respect for these guys. They created my favorite anime ever, Eureka 7 after all). And now these hawt screencaps make me want to watch it even more
But there are no subs, I’m a noob with no Japanese language skills 
I didn’t start reading the manga from the 1st chapter onwards. Instead, I was reading the later chapters, and how you could still understand the story without reading from start to scratch. But I would still say this anime brings out it’s distinctive style. (And YAY! No more Naruto cliche stuff anymore!) That’s what I thought, though not as attractive as characters from KHR and Bleach.
*insert epic response comment*
@kody
What Extrange said…wait ’til you hear Black Star. I’m Excited about his crazy Naruto voice.
@Kabitzin
I never compared this anime to Naruto (except in terms of fight scene animation), that was Extrange and his random sneak comment.
I do also agree that Naruto would be kickass if it still had good animation and the anime’s pacing wasn’t that of a retarded snail. I enjoyed Naruto until it turned it massive filler (post-attack on Konoha), and even picked up Shippuden hoping that’d they’d get it right.
@Ravage
I looked around a little bit, but couldn’t find any info in regards to P.A.Works.
@Caraniel
Glad you’re as excited as me…can’t wait for subs!
@Ryan A
Have you heard her voice? OMG…
@Hinano
Yeah…I’d be pretty pissed (and they were) about the whole situation personally. It’s awesome that you’re reading the post.
@D4yt1me_L4NT3RN
The premise does seem kind of bland at first, but I’ve read the manga up until chapter 19ish, and you’ll find that soon enough, and entirely different plot sets in. Keep watching, keep reading, and trust me…it gets better.
@Sylvira
OMG thank you! I’m getting so sick of people complaining about Maka’s seiyuu…I for one think that not only is it perfect for her character, but it’s nice to hear a new voice around. I like her voice and yes, so far I think every voice fits perfectly with each character. It’s mind boggling how they pulled it off.
@Impz
Nice to see a shonen in your Top 3 (so far) this season…I hope it stays there!
@anime fan
I’m waiting for subs as well…only reason I know what’s going in is from having read the anime. Either way, the subs will come, and hopefully soon.
@RV
Haha…you know some of what’s coming later then. *cough* crazy three-eyes *cough*
@Ravage
I looked around a little bit, but couldn’t find any info in regards to P.A.Works.
Hmm, weird, it does say P.A. Works 38-40 sec into the ED(along with a bunch of moonrunes I can’t read
).
Wow.
WOW.
I’m afraid I will have to relearn how to breathe again, after all. Every single thing in this episode was downright perfect. The seiyuus (especially with Maka and Soul, it’s as though they were born for the roles), the audio, the animation. Oh, the animation..
I didn’t think this was possible.
*crawls back to watch the ep again for the umpteenth time*
@rieuzedx
They complain because most haven’t bothered to read the manga, which has a charm all its own. The seiyuus were chosen aptly to portray the unique tone of each character.
BONES has always been adept at making mind-boggling awesome animes. XD
As for posting, I’d prefer for you to do option three, but keep enough summary so people who don’t read the manga will know what you’re talking about. Crazy content ftw!
HAPPY TO READ A BLOG ABOUT SOUL=EATER！
I LOVE THIS COMIC, AND I THINK THE ANIME IS VERY GOOD!
Thank you so much for posting this blog. I was so freakin’ thrilled to see this (after reading as much of the translated manga that I could get my hands on). Everything about this series is awesomely epic. I love EVERYTHING. and I can’t WAIT till the next ep comes out.
This first ep. had me wiggling around like a rabid fangirl as I attempted to restrain my excitement.
I agree with you on the BGM they used to introduce BlackStar. He is so badass, I can’t wait for the next ep.
So yes, I don’t care what kind of stuff you talk about for each episode, just keep it coming. I am glad to know there’s someone else out there who is as enthusiastic about this show as I am!
Too many f’n bloggers and others on the net SHITTING on this show for being “OMG SHONEN” and “50 episodes = suck”. Personally, yeah. This is the SHIT of the highest caliber. I mean that as an utmost praise.
theres a lot of character to your blogs, I like it, you’re getting me pumped up for this series now too.
I think Maka’s voice is horrible. But other than that, the VA fits. As much as I love Taku Iwasaki (he’s my absolute fave composer), I can’t help but to think that jazz fits Soul Eater style more. But anyway, first impression is bound to change.
@kody lol funny you should say that because his voice was originally voiced by naruto’s seiyuu Junko Takeuchi on the drama cd that was made.
if u find what song is playi during the black star preview could plz email it to me or tell me where to go to get it
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