Soul Eater - A Lesson in Disappointment

Spoiler Rating: Moderate

Soul Eater, this anime is decidedly underrated, and for myself unexpectedly influential. The series took me by surprise, it really did, if simply for how little I had heard of it. One day, while browsing anidb.net to stay ahead of the anime curve I found an intriguing image buried amongst a hundred other forgettable titles. The art and character designs looked decent, the story at least mildly interesting, and I had nothing else of note to watch so I took a chance. (See image above.) I downloaded a fansubbed copy as (although I didn't realize right away) the series was still being actively released. Little did I know that I would be embarking on a title that would set a new precedent  for my watching habits and embed itself as a signature series in my mind. 

Soul Eater came into my life during a time period I like to call my "Golden Age of Anime", a term slightly inspired by the obsessive amounts of Civilization 4 I played at the time. That time period was also a relatively low point in my life in which anime was one of my few joys and passtimes that distracted me enough to, at least temporarily, forget about a myriad number of problems that made me feel as though my life was burning to the ground around me. So it was a time of outstanding anime, terrible life circumstances, and copious procrastination that helped shape many of my early impressions of Soul Eater. I was living in a house with some of my best friends from High School at the time too, so I generally always had someone looking over my shoulder during a series. I shared a room since I was less likely to care if awoken (if I wake up at all, I'm a heavy sleeper so I'm told) or for that matter go on homicidal sprees. Watching anime became a communal activity that, usually, eventually drew in everyone. That said, Soul Eater started out as a solitary activity strangely enough. 


So, as I said I originally found Soul Eater on anidb.net. A short time later I discovered that Soul Eater was by Studio BONES. Now, this is somewhat of a big deal because I generally don't pay attention to which studios actually produce the shows I watch. The fact that I am capable of recognizing studios beyond Ghibli and Gainax now should be noted as remarkable for me. I know, I know, bad reviewer, bad! Go find a real job! Anyways, I had recently watched another series, hell if I can remember what it was, that was also produced by Studio BONES and decided that they were pretty much as awesome as something could get without adding explosions, ramen noodles, or the word 'uber'. However, my first impressions of Soul Eater were mixed; my reception of the early episodes left me feeling that its story was rather schizophrenic. The first episode confirmed that the reputation studio BONES had earned for top notch animation was still in tact, but Soul Eater was certainly not out to make any friends. Aside from a strong first episode, the beginning trialed its adherents much like Lucky Star. Soul Eater (from here on out: SE) was out to make sure that only the strong survived. The first three episodes were a gauntlet of one-sided characters, annoying catch-phrases, and predictable outcomes. SE was a far cry from being fresh or original, and even after the obvious introductory episodes the series did not exactly put its best foot forward. The first solid fragments of plot were largely uninteresting, the first major villain's introduction didn't adequately convey the danger the protagonist faced, and the fight with Ragnarok was abrupt, bizarre (not necessarily a bad thing), and borderline annoying (bad thing). Maybe it wasn't as bad as trying to prevent bits of brain leaking from my ear, during the first episode of Lucky Star, but SE wasn't doing much better with characters so utterly cringe-worthy that I had to resist the urge to turn away from the screen. 

Looking back on it all now I can see the big picture, the real strengths in SE's weak wind-up. There is a certain genius in the apparent shortcomings of the early episodes that make its subsequent rise all the more amazing. From a weak start SE crafts an excellent story that crushed my expectations and really provided a solid baseline for comparing how its characters have grown. The first episode introduces Maka, a female Meister (essentially a hunter of corrupted souls), who is training to become a Death Scythe while attending a battle school that is, quite literally, headed by the Grim Reaper (aka. Death). Maka is accompanied by her companion, Soul, who looks (more or less) human but transforms into a weapon that Maka uses to battle errant souls. The point of it all? If Maka and Soul (who actually eats the souls they capture somehow justifying the series' title) collect 99 souls and the soul of a witch they get to become Death Scythes, master and weapon, together. In a lot of ways it's a tired and reused plot element, but it has a certain driving force to it which is why it sticks around. The basic premise of the series, however, is strange if not intriguing. Even in the first few moments of the pilot episode SE makes it clear that the characters live in a bizarre and interesting world. Their world is one sprinkled with notes of black humor and touched by a dark aesthetic sense. Fans of Ragnarok Online will be be want to make the (apt) comparison to Niflheim while other viewers may more readily identify with Majora's mask. Comparisons to Nightmare Before Christmas wouldn't be unjustified either. Particularly, aspects such as the sun and moon having a face and Halloween-esque touches like pumpkins, black cats, barren trees, and blood in the environment point to obvious influences and drive home an ever-present connection with death. 

Maka largely assumes the lead role but two other meisters introduced in episodes 2 and 3 also get their fair share of screen time. However, unlike Maka who finds some depth of character in her father issues which also double as a character quirk, Black Star and Death the Kid (introduced in episodes 2 and 3 respectively) have quirks that add little if any depth and mostly just come off as annoying. As detrimental as this is to the early episodes the beauty of that approach is that it gives the characters a lot of room for improvement. Black Star may start out so downright brash, impulsive, naive, and just plain stupid that you feel genuinely sorry for his relatively bright weapon, Tsubaki, but that means that the characters have almost nowhere to go but up. To the show's credit it doesn't forget about character development while still reminding you of the character weaknesses which serve as a reminder of how far they have come. On the other hand the series likes to introduce a lot of characters and, in the end, never answers a lot of the questions it raises. 

So what have we covered so far? What is the bottom line? Early episodes are weak but the animation is stylish and while the supporting meisters are weak characters there is a lot of room for improvement that the show, mostly, takes advantage of. And again because this is worth repeating, the animation is slick, beautifully so.Whatever faults the series finds in its misplaced beginnings the animation almost makes up for. The series starts off strong in the animation department and stays consistently good through the end.  Despite the first 6 or so rough episodes SE begins to come into its element. The characters begin to round out a little, and even the annoying ones start to become likable. Hollow traits gave way to motivations and strengths that really made you start to question whether you should continue to dislike certain characters. The villains, Medusa especially, establish themselves quickly as diverse and multi-faceted and characters like Stein, a mad scientist with a gear on the side of his head, begin to flesh out into something more than a personified quirk. Right as I started getting into the meat and bones of the series one of my friends decided that they liked one of the later episodes and wanted to start it from the beginning. Always happy to share an anime I obliged in starting the series from the beginning. At the time I considered the possibility that I had just judged the opening harshly, the memory of the awkward beginning dulled by the better later episodes. If nothing else, watching the early episodes again confirmed two things. Unintentional or not, the writers went above and beyond in creating unlikable and annoying characters in Black Star and Death the Kid. The second point being that, damn, the animation is really quite lovely. 

Jobless, out of college, and largely unoccupied between filling out a copious quantity of job applications, I found myself with plenty of free time. Watching SE became a daily, and later, weekly habit. Unbeknownst to me at the time SE was still releasing. Twenty-six or so episodes into the series that fact became painfully obvious and my friend and I, fully caught up on the series, began eagerly anticipating the release of a new episode each week. With the lack of any other great anime on the horizon SE became our new obsession. The series was our go to drug for occupying my wayward mind and passing the dusty days of an Arizona summer. Those flimsy characters progressed from terrible to admirable, the thin plot that had seemed like an extended counting game had fallen by the wayside giving way to a complex and shifting game of power. Don't get me wrong, this wasn't the anime equivalent of Game of Thrones, but considering where it started from SE seemed to be building a path to greatness. SE had become a steady morphine drip of distraction and quality in my life, and for the first time ever I was downloading episodes on a set schedule. In the past I had only ever downloaded and watched an entire series at a time, after all I liked to watch at my leisure. It had been years since I had to wait weekly for a new episode as I had long since stopped watching cable TV. It became a weekly event for my friend and I to watch the new episode the night that it came out. Eventually my other room-mate/friend became interested enough that he marathonned the series so that he could watch new episodes with us too. Soul Eater had become a source of stability in my largely unstable life. 

Giving credit where credit is due I have to hand out a few awards to Soul Eater. First off is one of my more prestigious commendations: an award for best animated fight scene(s). One of these days I will create a Top 10 list of my all-time best animated fight scenes, and among them will be Tsubaki's Masamune fight from Soul Eater. I have seen my fair share of fight scenes, and I love excellent animation, so I collect fight scenes in my head and (dare I say it?) SE may even be in the top 5 with the Masamune episode. I loved the animation so much that I was even ready to ignore the rather unfortunate idea of occasionally interrupting the battle with mood-breaking vacuum cleaner imagery. That episode aside many of SE's other fight scenes also deserve honorable mentions. The Grim Reaper himself gets a rather decent scene a little over halfway through the series and many of the scenes involving Arachnia and Medusa, the main villains (villainesses?), are quite spectacular as well. On that note the other award I would like to give out goes to Medusa, who is perhaps one of my favorite villains in all of anime. She is twisted, ruthless, want to play with one's head, and knows how to wait for the long-term gains. Until I actually sit down to make to make a list I can't say, but I'd wager it's a pretty safe bet to say that Medusa will make my top 5 for villains. Whatever else I have to say that detracts from the series, let it be known that despite an apparent affinity for annoying characters SE never disappointed in quality art and made a heroic effort at developing both the plot and the bad gu-...er...mostly girls. 

By the time the series was drawing to a close both of my friends and I were in the habit of watching the new episodes and discussing them as they came out. Character development had remained consistent throughout the series and while there were a few disappointments, and certainly plenty of questions, SE had entertained and intrigued enough to keep us happy. Occasional outbursts of exceptional animation kept our hopes high even when the plot occasionally sagged. All in all the series was doing alright, and so was I. Almost six months after I had started SE and I now had prospects on my horizon that extended beyond joblessness and debt. Despite the soul crushing (or should that be soul eating?) work of devoting time to sending out dozens of job applications for months on end with no replies I had finally received word that I would have an eventual escape from my torment. Perhaps that was my great mistake, perhaps SE sensed that I no longer needed support in the same way, but in Soul Eater's final episodes its quality at last began to falter. After months of watching religiously, after weeks upon weeks of dedication, in SE's final moments it abandoned the quality it had fought so hard for. In a single episode it transformed, literally and figuratively, and introducing a city-sized mech, aka. a giant robot, as a way that the heroes might assault an otherwise impenetrable fortress. Were Soul Eater a satire it might have succeeded with aplomb, but in the face of all the series had established it simply seemed like a moment of panic and blunder. 

Soul Eater is based upon a manga. As is often the case the manga came first and the anime followed suit. As is also too often the case the manga's story was still ongoing while the anime had caught up way too fast. In a moment of misguided passion and terror the writers for the series, deprived of manga for inspiration, penned a script that could have been suggested by a 10 year old and may, in fact, have been. As I would later discover with Big O, a handful of episodes brought the series teetering close to disaster. Once again, to SE's credit, the series rallied for a good finish but unfortunately our morale and expectations for the rest of the anime never recovered. Upon watching the final episode of the series there was a sense of closure, even if it didn't make up for the writing sins of some of the episodes leading up the the finale. The ending was rushed and awkward but came together long enough to remind you why you had stuck with it so long in the first place. I still wonder sometimes what happened though. SE deviated from the manga in quite a few ways, just as the first Full Metal Alchemist series did, but maybe in the end the lack of new material from which to base the new episodes off of was too much. It's hard to imagine any situation in which adding a giant robot to a series largely based off of death, magic, and madness would seem to make sense. Putting those words together, however, I can start to see the faintest of connecting lines, but I suspect that down that path lies only darkness.

In the end Soul Eater just kind of faded away from our conversations. My lifeline dissipated in much the same way that it had seemingly materialized: unexpectedly and without ceremony. Occasionally my friends and I would complain half-heartedly, hurt and confused, about the inclusion of the giant robot or the unanswered questions, many of which were meticulously set up. Somewhere in the series are the signs of a pull-the-plug order, but in some ways I feel like maybe the series just felt its time was up. It's self-centered and absurd to think that the series was there for me, but whether it was or not, it was there for me. In the wasteland down-slope at the end of my great golden age of anime Soul Eater had united my friends and I one last time before I started getting ready to move on and move out. However disappointing the end of the series was SE had left me with some lasting impressions, good times, an excellent sound track that provided many an hour of listening pleasure, as well as characters that still occasionally rattle around my head on an idle day. 

I've always said that: If you can't get it out of your head it must have been a good story. It's why I remember Pulp Fiction and Butterfly Effect even if there wasn't always much that I liked or found pleasant about those movies. If by that measure alone, Soul Eater passes. Soul Eater may be colored by the tawny days I spent living in Somerton Arizona with my friends, but at its heart SE has the makings of a great story.

The Short Version: 
     Soul eater suffers from a rocky start and finish, but has warm center of character development and good story that brings the series come to life. The animation is more solid than Snake (MGS) and the music, opening and ending songs, are catchy and memorable. The characters start off two dimensional but quickly grow into well rounded protagonists capable of keeping the viewer engaged and interested. In other words: a cakey flakey outside with a warm gooey center. Oh god, I'm so hungry all of a sudden. 

Random Thoughts:
     I'm not sure what it is about Maka, but she became one of my favorite characters, it was nice to see a departure from form for her design. Death, the grim reaper, is also awesome and I'm glad to that he got at least one really good fight scene. Last but not least, among all my big questions the series never touches on Maka's mother, who was supposedly a badass. According to my friend the manga series does a poor job of addressing the issue as well. What the hell!? That was one of the biggest questions on my mind!

Arbitrary Weighting:
     Soul Eater will get a special double rating. The weighted score gives a little more credit to the things the series does well. Sure SE raises a lot of questions but even if a number remain unanswered it created a world and characters that pull you in. The unweighted score judges the series harshly for its flaws and calls it mean things. Ultimately the series didn't wrap up well and didn't develop all the side characters that were introduced to a satisfying level.

For: Soul Eater
8 / 10 (Weighted)

6 / 10 (Unweighted)