This is my first review ever so don't except a big one, but I had to tell what I thought of Soul Eater so others don't make he same mistake as me.

I never watched the anime so I will only talk about the manga, I had always wanted to watch it because of the art style and the high praise it gets, so I informed myself and apparently the manga has a better end and is better overall, I then decided to read it full of expectations, thinking it will be insane or could be in my top 10/15, or atleast be worth it, but was decieved right at the start.

First of all the 2 first volumes are hell, worst introduction I've ever read, and it's for 2 main reasons :

• The HEAVY / OMNIPRESENT / BORING SEXUAL FAN SERVICE, I've never be as much annoyed of it than while reading Soul Eater, and even tho theres less after tome 5~6, it stays in every volume at least once or twice, sometimes even more, the main problem of it is that it is entirely pointless, don't serve the already weak plot, and gives a bad image and enjoyablity of the manga, it always ruin every scene for no reason, why did the author had to make so much of it in both of his most popular manga ( Soul Eater / Fire Force ), and it isn't small, always entirely naked, sometimes in supposedly serious scenes that get ruined by it, the worst is that the characters react rarely to it, and it never have consequences

• The fact that in the prologue ( almost the entire first volume ), the introduction of the 3 main characters is made so poorly and bad, they are introduced with Fan service scenes or scenes that happen right after, and we are told nothing of the actual story from Volume 1 to 2, nothing that pique interest, just 400 pages of nothing.

The first 2 volumes are by far the weakest of the 25, and for an introduction that makes it so worse, although it gets a bit better after, the story and plot remain really weak. At first I thought it was on purpose to reveal immportant elements after, or just that the manga would get better after, foolish mistake of me that read these long 117 chapters, it does not at all, to be correct : The beginning ( 1~12 volumes) is really weak plot wise, the middle ( 13~19 ) are mostly really good and interseting, plot get better, more mysteries and things that could make a really nice plot, but the problem is that the end ( 20~25 ) keeps the mysteries, adds nothing to it, the plot becomes once more really weak and leave the readers decieved.

Another bad thing is that some characters appears like that, no explication afterwards, just pop in the manga, and aren't even important to the story or fights, and they are part of the weak side cast that Soul Eater has, I have to say some side characters are intersting like Free, Eruka, Mifune or Crona, but appart from Crona, none of them are developped.
As for the main cast ( Maka, Kid, Black star and their weapons ), they are better ofc than the side cast, but Maka isn't so great as a protagonist imo, her developpement isn't really good, the Thomson sisters are just present but thats almost it, nothing more, and Tsubaki is a bit better but her omnipresent fan service and attitude made me not like her that much.
The characters that "carries" the manga are Soul, Black Star and Death the kid, they're really enjoyable, fun and serves the plot better than the others, they also are the ones making the fights good.

Another big problem I didn't talk about is the annoying, stupid and useless character that is BLAIRE, no good fight, no good scene, no writing, no developpement, nothing, just 100% fan service, haven't seen a character ruin so much the ambiance of entire volumes, and so much that I have to make her an entire categorie of what makes the manga not good.

That said, thankfully, the manga has good points :

• The really great art ( 8,3/10), almost amazing, is a big pillar that I enjoyed alot when it wasn't for the Fan service.
• As the side Character, Stein Franken, for 3/4 of the manga he's really important and is most of the time the best or most interesting/enjoyable characters.
• Medusa as an antagonist is really good, her fights are peak and she's the character that make the plot almost average, really enjoyable too, and her having not an insane depth isn't so problematic as she's almost pure evil and fits her role well for a shounen.
• As I already said Soul, Death the kid and Black Star.
• The fights : sometimes bad, sometimes average, most of the times really good, probably what keep most readers reading the manga as it serves for the characters to shine without needing strong writing, and I have to say, the fights of Medusa / Stein, and Mifune / Black Star are peak.
• The arc of the Baba Yaga castle, the best one in the manga, that happens in the middle of the manga where all get better, where the fights get even better and we meet Eibon and Arachne.

-The conclusion, not that great, but compared to the rest of the manga it's fine I guess.

If my rating was almost just based on enjoyability, it's be between 6,6~7,5/10.
But giving a real rating ( counting categories like depth, consistency, pacing, FC, Side cast...) it's a 5,5/10.

Don't listen to those saying it's peak, you'll be quickly decieved as I've been, I know theres tastes etc etc, but all my statements shows that it can't be as good as people praise, you can still give it a try, but can't say I didn't warn you.
I'm probably being really harsh to the manga, but that's what hoping throughout the 25 volumes that it'll be as good as people said did to me, overall, it's a manga that had great potential and that could've been really good but that got ruined by many things, it's around fine and average because of these problems.