Back in the distant past of February 2010, Funimation released the first set of Soul Eater, which I bought. For some reason after watching it I felt like writing a review, and then posting it on the Internet. That was when I got into this whole anime blogging thing. That review is long forgotten and will likely never be shown to anyone, but now I have an opportunity to talk about the show again. It’s interesting to give a second look to a show you’ve (partially) reviewed already, even more so when it’s the first one you reviewed.
The Death Weapon Meister Academy is a school dedicated to educating and training students to hunt down kishin, humans who have started devouring others’ souls to gain more power. The students at this academy are divided into two types: weapons and meisters. Weapons are people with the ability to transform into different kinds of weapons, while meisters are the people trained to use these weapons in combat. If a weapon and meister pair collects 99 kishin souls and one witch’s soul the weapon can become a Death Scythe and gain tremendous power. Maka and her weapon Soul are close to this goal until a mistake results in them having to start all over again. While the two go about hunting down kishin, a more sinister plot is lurking in the shadows.
Right off the bat Soul Eater has one thing going for it that is a very important aspect of any shonen fighting series, the fights are amazing. This is clear from the first fight in the first episode of the series, where Maka and Soul take on a monstrous looking Jack the Ripper. The fight is intense, the choreography is fast paced and fluid, and the fight is actually animated instead of relying on camera tricks and quick cuts. These elements are present in every fight, and they make for great entertainment. This isn’t to say the fights aren’t without their problems though. The problem present with most of them is that they’re too short. The aforementioned fight against Jack the Ripper only lasts about a minute. The fights are amazing and entertaining, but they certainly don’t make up most of the content of the show.
