For the first time for this blog, I am going to do a review for a series that was requested to me by one of my friends, Joshua Maldonado. The series that he requested was actually one that I was very interested to watch, and that series is none other than Soul Eater.
Soul Eater is an anime adaptation of the manga of the same name written and illustrated by Atsushi Ōkubo, and it was originally aired on television from April 2008 to March 2009. The anime was directed by Takuya Igarashi (who also directed several of the Ojamajo Doremi anime series), and the animation studio behind the adaptation was none other than Bones (who were the minds behind the anime adaptations of Wolf's Rain, Eureka Seven, and both anime adaptations of Hiromu Arakawa's Fullmetal Alchemist.
The plot of Soul Eater is based around the students of the Death Weapon Meister Academy (or the DWMA for short), which is run by Shinigami (or Lord Death in the English dub). In the school, the students are split into two different categories: Weapons and Meisters. The weapon students have the ability to transform into weapons used against evil creatures (such as witches), and the meister students are the chosen wielders of the weapons that the Weapon students turn into. The main goal that is given to each meister and weapon team is that they must fight and collect the souls of 99 evil humans and one witch for the weapon student to become a Death Scythe, which makes them become a weapon for Shinigami to use. The main students who are the main focus of the series is Maka and her partner, Soul (who can turn into a scythe). Maka is the daughter of Shinigami's current death scythe, Spirit, and is very dedicated to her work as a meister. Soul is a very laid-back character who has a talent at playing the piano, but when he's working together with Maka, he becomes very useful (even though both Maka and Soul bicker at each other throughout the majority of the series). Other meister and weapon teams includes Black Star (an arrogant yet determined assassin) and Tsubaki (who can turn into weapons used by assassins), and Death the Kid (Shinigami's son) and his partners who can turn into pistols, Liz and Patty.
The plot goes more along the lines of following the student's missions until the introduction of the villains at certain points of the series, which includes Medusa, Arachne (who is the leader of the group, Arachnophobia), and finally, the major and most feared antagonist of the series, Asura. Other characters in the series include the meister and weapon duo, Chrona and Ragnarok, teachers of the DWMA (like Dr. Stein), and even the legendary weapon Excalibur is a character within the world of the series (even though many of the characters are annoyed by his characteristics and rules for him to become a meister's personal weapon.
Like several other anime based on manga, the series itself has a great amount of humorous moment within the plot to make the story very enjoyable, but it does have its share of dramatic moments involving such things as character and story development, intense scenes involving several of the characters in peril, and other plot related material. In a way, it balances out the entertainment values of the series.
In the terms of Soul Eater, it is very well done on its story and characters. I found the series very entertaining, and I have to give some additional credit to FUNimation (who owns the North American license to the series) for their dub. Like the series, the dub is very entertaining, and the voices are very well cast. As said, I highly recommend this series.
Soul Eater is available to purchase on Blu-ray and DVD from FUNimation Entertainment, and the series is also available to watch from FUNimation's streaming services and Netflix.
Written by Nolan Schmidt
