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REVIEW: Soul Eater Part 1

Head-scratching ending aside, I still hesitate to read the manga. I bought the first volume, but all the extra fan service was a big turn-off.

Awesome review of a great show, and now I have to make the usual recommendation to everyone: Read the manga as well! The anime follows the manga almost exactly for most of it's run, which ought to have made it more worthwhile (albeit less well-paced in it's very nature) but there is a very good reason to read the manga, which is that the anime makes up it's own ending very suddenly at the end of it's 50-episode run... RIGHT before the manga reaches it's highest peak of awesomeness and all of it's most amazing fights.

The manga may be a little difficult to get into at first because the artist's style changes drastically from 'decent' to 'excellent' over the course of the first few volumes, but if you push past that, you'll reach an incredibly stellar manga that, as a fan of the anime, will only make the experience that much more fulfilling.

I'm also loving Hope's almost lyrical descriptions, they capture the mood of the shows so well and sound dang good as well. Do more reviews please!
And as soon as I can I'll try to see more of the dub (Soul's voice threw me off in the few subbed episodes but the English version was exactly as imagined). Oddly enough, while I haven't seen tons of dubs, I had no trouble recognizing Vic. Must be the pitch, he always sounds unusually high to me, but he really did tone it down for SE.

Jedi General wrote:

Head-scratching ending aside, I still hesitate to read the manga. I bought the first volume, but all the extra fan service was a big turn-off.

The fanservice really gets toned down later (I think one of the fan jokes now is that Blair's boobs go down a cup size in each of the recent chapters). When I bought the first volume I was actually astounded since I couldn't remember that much fanservice in there.

21stcenturydigitalboy wrote:

Awesome review of a great show, and now I have to make the usual recommendation to everyone: Read the manga as well! The anime follows the manga almost exactly for most of it's run, which ought to have made it more worthwhile (albeit less well-paced in it's very nature) but there is a very good reason to read the manga, which is that the anime makes up it's own ending very suddenly at the end of it's 50-episode run... RIGHT before the manga reaches it's highest peak of awesomeness and all of it's most amazing fights. The manga may be a little difficult to get into at first because the artist's style changes drastically from 'decent' to 'excellent' over the course of the first few volumes, but if you push past that, you'll reach an incredibly stellar manga that, as a fan of the anime, will only make the experience that much more fulfilling.

I absolutely agree with this comment. This box set (first of four) directly follows the manga. However, come episode 35 (snow time dome episode... I forgot exactly what it was called, haven't seen the show in months) the anime takes a turn away from the manga to its finish. A pretty sad happening considering the manga (as quoted) was just getting to its greatest stuff. I can only hope Bones gives us more Soul Eater, bringing the new manga material to life!!!

I would have said that there wasn't much of a chance, but then I would wait to see how it does in the US before deciding that. FullMetalAlchemist's massive success stateside probably had a lot to do with Bones going ahead with Brotherhood, so who knows if we could get a second chance years down the line. I know that there is nothing I would love to see animated more than the Kidvs.Mosquitto fight. That remains one of the coolest manga battles I've ever seen.

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I felt the same way. I heard a clip of Vic's voice acting in this somewhere (I think Amazon?) and I had to doublecheck on ANN if he was really playing Spirit because I could hardly tell it was him. This is very good news for me, since I was one of the people that criticized him for being too similar in some of his roles. I haven't ordered the first set (yet) but that positive voice acting already makes me want to buy it even more.

Yeah, the review was really long as is, so I didn't have time to mention it, but I feel I must point this out: this is the first time in his voice acting history I had a LOT of trouble recognizing Vic Mignogna. And I'm counting the bizarre, cartoony bit stuff he did in Kino's Journey and Super GALS. He can be "Man Gasping in Crowd" and you can always tell it's him, his voice is so distinctive.

I want to get soul eater so bad but if i buy it now i am certain a Blu Ray release will come. IDK if i should get it now or wait until it comes out on Blu Ray ( which i want it on this format).

I'm also loving Hope's almost lyrical descriptions, they capture the mood of the shows so well and sound dang good as well.

introduction of a “villain,” Dr. Franken Stein, who slides in ominously on a rolling chair only to hit the doorsill, collapse painfully and grunt “I'm going to try that again.” (He does. Guess how that turns out.)

i.e. it's something all done before, but with better production values.

I appreciate the stylistic tricks but I am one that should "run far far away" from a show that uses every shonen trope in the book and relies too heavily on humor targeted to the intended teen audience, no matter how stylistically it is executed.

Soul Eater is old-school shonen, at its simplest and brashest level.

New" shônen?
Let's see:

- "I want to be stronger to protect my friends": check
- "You cannot be alive after my special attack!": check
- "You're a jerk! *girl punches*: check