Name: We were on the same wavelength, for the most part
Item: Soul Eater
Rating: 80
Author: yiendubu

We were on the same wavelength, for the most part · Waifora

It’s been quite some time since I watched the Soul Eater anime. Even if I knew that it deviated from the manga, the anime original ending left such a bitter taste, I couldn’t bring myself to read the manga until now.

To me, where Soul Eater excels the most is its aesthetic. The sun and moon with the creepy faces, the architecture of Death City, DWMA, and the character designs should be enough to make you at least a tad bit curious about this series. I dare to say Soul Eater does Halloween better than Halloween itself. Talking about character designs, Okubo constantly blew my mind with them. Aside from, ironically, the MC Maka, all of them are fantastic and distinct. Distinction between characters is a really important aspect for me, so I appreciate the effort put into everyone looking different. If I had to crown someone for having the best design, it would be Black Star. He reminds me of a ninja from Naruto, but way cooler looking. Despite the aesthetic tho, the worldbuilding felt bursting with potential that wasn't explored. The only setting that felt like a legitimate world was Death City.

~~~

The characters in this series are a hit or miss for me. I found the main character Maka to also be one of the most boring characters. There’s a time when she and Soul struggle to resonate because she feels like Soul is carrying her on his back. He convinces her that this isn’t the case, but I couldn’t agree with that. Almost any time they need to power up, Soul steps in. Thankfully, Soul, Kid, Crona, and Black Star are enough to carry the series. Kid and Black Star had outstanding character arcs and a really enjoyable dynamic. Reminded me of Naruto and Sasuke at times, and had they been the MCs instead of Maka, I think their dynamic could’ve been on the same level as the duo from Konoha.

Spoiler, click to view

Kid’s struggle with finding the ultimate order and Black Star’s struggle with confidence felt real and resonated with me(no pun intended)

Crona is easily a favorite shonen antagonist of mine, but if I go into detail why I’ll just spoil the entire series from start to finish. Just know that Crona is awesome(For fellows who have finished the series - chapter 87. Pure perfection, only rivaled by Shigaraki’s backstory in MHA for me). Soul is a bit of a weird case. I do like him, but not for the reasons the author might have wanted me to. He’s cool, loyal, supportive, fun to be around and god I love his “mean” comments. I didn’t feel like he needed backstory or conflict, but it was nice to learn more about him later on. Tsubaki, Liz, and Patty were given some characterization, but not nearly enough to make me care about them. Stein and Justin on the other hand felt like an idea without good execution.~~~

Soul Eater reaches its peak during the Baba Yaga arc and from then on steadily declines. I don’t blame Okubo for it, it’s hard to top such an arc. It encaptures everything I love about Soul Eater.

Spoiler, click to view

Black Star vs Mifune is my favorite fight in the whole series, and even if it didn’t have the fantastic build-up it did, the art would’ve been enough. I really think it has some of the best artwork in the manga. Kid vs Mosquito was also great, Kid’s despair felt genuine and real, especially when he yelled at Patty. Maka vs Arachne fell flat IMO, and as always Soul carried.

Soul and Maka’s relationship is also one of my favorite things in the series. Instead of forced romance, it’s mutual respect, loyalty, and just plain friendship. Friends that will go above and beyond for each other, always there to support the other one. It was refreshing to see this kind of relationship between a boy and a girl in shonen.

I mentioned at the start that the anime original ending left a bitter taste and well...I can say the same about the manga. It’s not nearly as bad, but a series like this didn’t deserve such an ending. I feel like it needed 2 or 3 more chapters to give a good conclusion to everything.

The last thing I want to say is how fun it was to watch Okubo’s art progress. I’m going to be real, the art at the start of the series is far from appealing. It came as a shock to me, someone who had seen the anime first. I saw on Twitter that the author got inspired by the anime’s art style, and if that’s true, it might have been the best decision in his career as a mangaka. Atsushi Okubo’s style is iconic and extremely recognizable, which I think should be one of the main goals of an artist. Around chapter 80 is where he really hones it and it starts looking like his ongoing manga Fire Force(I think Soul Eater’s Justin might have been the main inspiration for Fire Force)

Soul Eater gets an 8/10 from me! A fun ride with some bumps along the way.
(Thank god I didn't rate it any other number, Kid would've freaked out about the symmetry!)