Anime Essentials: 'Soul Eater'
Let me try to convince you to watch this oddball, well-crafted series about Death, magic, witches, weapons, and mental illness.
We're going to try something a little different here in lieu of straight up anime reviews. For the moment, we're calling it "Anime Essentials," and it's a look at some titles--movies, series, OVA's--that merit checking out. Some of them you may have heard of, some of them you might not have, but for whatever reason, we humbly submit that you need to give them a try already. Where possible, we'll try to tell you where you can pick them up (or watch them for free).
I came to Soul Eater the anime after having had the pleasure of reading a recent volume of the manga from Yen Press, which--while confusing and out there--had me hooked on the bizarre stew of elements, particularly the chunky, quirky character designs and the strange earnestness of the plot. In my review, I might have gushed over the contents of the volume, but after having had the chance to watch the anime it inspired, having filled in some of the backstory and coming to know the characters, I don't feel the praise was all that out of line. Soul Eater is a show worth watching.
So what's the deal? Why am I so crazy for this admittedly juvenile title which I described (at least in print form) as "Naruto meets Looney Tunes."
The Story
The series is based in the Death Weapon Meister Academy (the DWMA), where teenaged Maka and her weapon Soul are trained by the staff to hunt down, defeat, and feed Soul the, er, souls of evil humans. You see, Soul is both Maka's deadly scythe, but he--like all of the other weapons at the DWMA also transforms into a boy. Likewise, many other weapon users--meisters--are tasked with killing these evil, sometimes demonic humans, and on occasion have to contend with witches who, in general, want to get up to all kinds of evil chaotic mess.
The academy was given its charter by its founder, Death, who--contrary to expectations--is kind of a nice, a little absent-minded, and obviously hiding something. Oh, and he likes to brand everything like some kind of grim Disney.
Lord Death. Believe it or not, the toughest guy on the planet.
The series follows what's perhaps a year or so in the lives of Maka and the other characters in the academy as the long-brewing war with the witches erupts and threatens to consume the world. It spanned 51 episodes over two seasons, encompassing two major arcs in the escalating conflict.
Characters, design, and a little bit of craziness
The strength of the show is its varied cast of characters that don't fall easily into the tropes of anime types. While some of them may start out that, way, Soul Eater takes the time to invest each and every one with an issue or a need that fleshes them out in the long run. Better still, those quirky designs I mentioned at the top of the post are very informed by the character and you'd have trouble confusing one design from another. Animation studio Bones should be commended for nailing the looks of the characters from the manga without sacrificing the often complex line work that Okubo put into the look of the cast.
And when I mentioned issues, that a major chunk of what this show is about: characters with problems or who need something. It should go without saying that this should be important to a show, even one with a sprawling cast like Soul Eater's, but you'd be surprised (well, not so much if you watch plenty of anime) how many series simply leave background characters hanging around, waiting for the protagonist(s) to need them to drop a plot point or something. Soul Eater gets points for giving each of its characters something to do, something to need, something to want, and/or something to fear over the span of its two seasons.
More importantly, a lot of these characters are in some ways profoundly mentally messed up--and again, this is something you'll see in their designs. Whether it's the sharply-dressed Death the Kid's sometimes crippling OCD, or Chrona's tilted, hunch androgyny, the designs lend insight into the motives, needs and problems of the cast. A mid-season addition of a madness-causing entity actually give the character issues a bit more resonance, since many of the characters are trying to keep their problems and needs in check. In some cases--as with the DWMA instructor, Professor Stein--there's actually an explicit need to keep his madness, his need to hurt and kill in check.
Here's a lineup of the main heroes of the series--and I'll give you a quick rundown on each of them below from right to left:
Maka: The hero of the series. In spite of the school girl uniform, Maka's never sexualized by either the manga or the anime. Instead, she's simply wearing a uniform because she identifies as a student--the best student at the DWMA, actually. To that end, she's all about doing what she's told and trusting her teachers and the staff at the Academy. That's the breadth and depth of her self-identification and appropriately, late in the series events occur that challenge her beliefs and her loyalty. There are actually a couple of junctions in the story where Maka's losing her straight-laced control makes her more formidable and dangerous.
Black*Star and Tsubaki: The muscle kid with the tats and the triangle hair is the extravagantly-named Black*Star, and his weapon/partner is Tsubaki. His design speaks to the character's flamboyance--he's not especially smart, but he's incredibly self-confident (dangerously so). His lofty goal is to become strong enough to beat God in a fight. Everything from his exposed sleeves, to his tattoos, to his hair speak to that outsized personality. His partner/weapon Tsubaki has a costume that matches his but is more muted in colors and tone, reflecting her warmer, less bracing personality.
Soul: Maka's weapon/partner. In contrast to Maka, Soul is perpetually laid-back and seemingly apathetic about his circumstances. But interestingly, he shares her issue about not wanting to lose control, thanks to developments in the middle of the first season that see him--not possessed, more like occupied by a demonic, blood-borne entity. Behind his facade of apathy lies a personality that's afraid of losing control and of hurting his partner.
Death the Kid, Patty, and Liz: Kid is the son of, you guessed it, Death, and you'll notice that he has two weapons. Some meisters have more than one weapon--that's a thing. And it's very appropriate to Kid, who's obsessive-compulsiveness demands symmetry. Note how his weapons (Patty and Liz) sport similar costumes in a way that kind of accessorizes with Kid: it's cues like this that let us know what he's about and how fundamental to his character symmetry is. There's actually a running bit throughout the show where Kid--one of the most powerful students at the Academy--nearly loses several fights and struggles in class because of the need for perfection. There's actually an episode where he spends the bulk of an exam simply filling out his name at the top of the paper, unable to bear leaving anything but the perfect signature.
Scope some of these other character designs and see how clear Okubo is in laying out what his characters are about through their unique look:
Rules of Friendship
The backbone of the show is it complex, at times almost esoteric set of rules that govern its universe. Apparently, meisters have to have "resonance" with their weapons, otherwise one can't use the other in battle. Resonance can be affected by friendship, trust, doubt, anger, fear, etc. and in effect, manga creator Atsushi Okubo finds a way to quantify friendship between characters in his world. The major throughline for the show is Maka and Soul's struggle to increase the latter's power so that he becomes a "Death Scythe"--an ultra-powerful weapon that can be wielded by Lord Death and used to protect the world.
I think maybe this underlines what I like the most about the show: its earnestness. Underlying all of the students' attempts at gaining more power, there's some foundation of friendship--either they need it to be strong enough to face the world or they're gaining strength to protect their friends. I can dig a show that has the discipline and structure to carry its theme and to make the theme something relatable and human at the same time.
Ways to watch:
FUNimation has released the series on DVD and Blu-ray over the last few months with some very respectable packages, but if you're not willing to shell out, you can also stream the show through its page on the FUNimation site, as well as via Hulu (with the dubbed and subbed versions) and Netflix (dubbed only).
To give you a taste, I've included the Hulu embed code for the first episode below:
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