Celebrate Soul Eater's 20th anniversary in style with this deluxe, full-color, hardcover art book protected by an archival-quality slipcase! Soul Eater: Soul Art Encore! collects more than 200 of the best illustrations from the franchise's rich history, including colored pages from the Perfect Edition manga volumes, promotional materials for the anime adaptations, and exclusive new art by creator Atsushi Ohkubo!

Soul Eater Art Encore has art by Atsushi Ohkubo. Translation and lettering by Edward Hong. Published by Square Enix. (October 28, 2025).

Bolts
Rating:

It really does suck that I could pull over a casual anime fan today and there's a very good chance they would have no idea what Soul Eater is. I remember a time when Soul Eater was one of the most popular things on the planet. There is still a very strong, dedicated following and many older anime fans consider it a classic, desperately waiting for the day that somebody gives us a reboot that more closely follows the original manga. But these were some of the thoughts going through my head as I was going through this art book. Atsushi Ohkubo has always had a very distinct style that I don't think a lot of manga have been able to effectively re-create today. At the very least, I don't think a lot of shounen lean that much into the gothic style the same way that Atsushi does.

They use muted multi-colors, really thick black lines and exaggerated smiles that really did stand out back then. There was a twisted, almost Tim Burton like look to everything and it makes me wonder if Soul Eater would've been as popular as it was if it did not have that style. This art shows off the peaks and valleys of Atsushi's artistic direction. There is an assortment of large spreads of iconic panels, book covers and collections throughout both the Soul Eater and Soul Eater Not! manga. Seeing these art pieces enlarged without compromise really gives them a lot of space to breathe and you can just soak it all in.

I personally find it a bit of a shame that their art style got a lot “moe” and less macabre as time went on, especially when you compare the art pieces of Soul Eater to NOT. But that latter manga was already trying to go in a different direction and the counter argument is that it is a testament to how Ohkubo was able to be versatile with their art style instead of permanently fitting themselves into a box. It is a shame though this art book doesn't really have anything else going for it besides an arrangement of pre-existing art pieces. There's not a lot of original artwork in here and there is barely any text. I was at least hoping for there to be author interviews or little comments that Ohkubo might've left in the original manga volumes. This way you can at least get more from the author without having to go back and purchase the original volumes. But if you're an artist and just want to appreciate the artwork as it stands, then this isn't a bad thing to add to your collection. It is very standard and stripped back in terms of its arrangement, but I think even in that format, Ohkubo's artwork is still more than worth it.