Soul Eater

This has been the first manga I bought in my life. Back then, in 2013, I only could afford to buy one manga every month, so it took me a long time to finish it. But reading it was always very exciting and it was soooo hard waiting for the next chapter.

So, well. What is it about? Sorry for eventual mistakes, I haven't read or watched it's adaption in a long time.

It's about the life of Maka and Soul, who are students in the school of a Shinigami (Death God??). But this school is not an ordinary school, no.
Every student in it is either a weapon master or a weapon. So the students need to get a partner to get started and after they've found one, they start to train to slay these beings who've 'left' the human way of living. The souls of these creatures have turned into so-called Kishin-eggs. And a Kishin is basically a really strong and evil monster which just keeps killing humans in fear of dying.
But before they turn into A Kishin, they have to consume lots of human souls.
The objective of the school is to pretend a new Kishin from hatching.
After the weapon of one of the students ate 99 'dark' souls and 1 witch soul, they become way stronger and graduate from the school.
After collecting 99 souls, the two protagonists finally beat the cat-witch Blair,
which turns out to be just a cat and not a witch, so they have to start collecting souls from 0.

After that, they slowly begin to realize, that there's a Kishin really close to them...

The artstyle is really clean and there's some nice ecchi here and there.

Same goes for the characters. All really different and unique.

I loved this and I still do.

10/10

Soul Eater was one of the very first mangas I picked up, and is the reason why I read and watch manga and anime today.

Story: 10/10 Soul Eater has unique concept of people who can turn into weapons and then controlled by their soul partner who is also their meister. But the jist of it- teenage grim reapers who go to a school that has them fight off the evil forces of the Kishin and witches. The story does a FANTASTIC job of balancing out lots of comedy, action, and dark themes. The story knows when to take itself seriously and when and how to get the mood to feel dark and depressing. It deals with philosophies of anarchy, nihilism, faith, government, madness, and love.

Art: 8/10 The artwork in the beginning of the story is very cartoon-y towards the beginning, giving the series a ghoulish, Halloween tone to it. As the series goes on, the art style changes into a more detailed and fantasy inspired work. Both work great for this series!

Character: 10/10 This is what makes Soul Eater so special. I'll start with Soul- He has spiky white hair and pointed shark teeth. He is part of the Evans family, a family of famous jazz musicians. Soul plays the piano, and is the brother of Wes Evans who plays the violin. Because Wes was a better musician than Soul, he felt inferior and ran away to Shibusen where he met Maka. Despite being arrogant and rebellious at times, when he is with Maka he becomes caring and protective, often willing to give his life in order to save Maka's. Maka is a straight A student who father is Lord Death's weapon. However, despite loving her father, she doesn't like his company because he cheated on her mom, causing the two of them to get a divorce. She became a meister because she wanted to create a stronger death scythe than her father, thus she teamed up with Soul, creating a strong friendship with him. Black Star has spiky blue hair, and shares a comedic bromance with Soul. He is obsessed with surpassing god, and is one of the best fighters in the manga. Tsubaki is his weapon partner. She has a sweet and accepting nature, always willing to help those in need. Death the Kid is the son of Lord Death. He has an obsessive compulsive disorder with symmetry and always tries to make his surroundings symmetrical. He has a kind heart, and truly cares about his friends. Liz and Patti are sisters who re the weapon partners of Kid. They were raised on the streets of New York City, but were taken in by Kid when he decided he wanted to make a Death Scythe(s). They dress in cowboy-like attire. Liz has the attitude of a typical teenage girl, and has an immense fear of paranormal activity, however she cares greatly for Patti. Patti is childish, and just as hyper as Black Star. Professor Franken Stein is their teacher, and has a love for researching. He is the archetype of a mad scientist, and he is the strongest meister to graduate from the DWMA, also being Spirit's (Maka's father) partner. However his character runs deeper than that. He often questions the meaning of life, the purpose of government, and the existence of fear and insanity. THe characters for Soul Eater are truly colorful ones, and are the main reason for Soul Eater's popularity. They are relatable, and are very well written, you can clearly tell that they are all best friends.

Enjoyment: 9/10 Soul Eater constantly leaves you on the edge of your seat, always making you crave for more, even after the series finishes. The arcs last for a perfect amount of time, and you feel yourself satisfied when you finish one. However, there are a few fight scenes that tend to drag on, and could have easily been replaced with some character development scenes. Overall, you will enjoy Soul Eater.

Overall: 10/10 Soul Eater is truly a one of a king series, and is my favorite manga that I've read. I highly encourage you to read it, for it's interesting intakes on life, friendship, government, and philosophy.

Soul Eater Review

Story:

This series has fantastic a plot that should keep your attention from start to finish. Soul eater has a lighthearted feel but dark plot for a shonen manga. One thing of mention is this theme present in soul eater that is every human being is fighting madness/fear that lies within yourself and it takes courage to stand up against such a thing.

Art:

Soul eater when it comes to the art of soul eater the opening chapters have very poor art and looks close to that of a gag manga.But the art improves having a better style that fit's the series more especially during its fight scenes.

character:

Maka - being the main character and a female gets brownie points for me being one of the few strong females manga/anime that can stand on her own.
personality wise i enjoy maka's cheerful attitude and, love for her friends.

Death the kid - death the kids serious attitude is a good mix balance between his other classmates. A fun thing about him is his desire for perfection that adds both a nice quirk and something special to his character.

Black Star- the comedian of the group who in almost every situation does something stupid or try to solve any problem using force.

Enjoyment:

soul eater is something that continued to entertain with it enjoyable plot and cast of characters

overall:

Soul eater is something that i'd recommend almost any fan of shonen battle manga enjoyable worth the 1-2 years i spent reading monthly.

I started reading soul eater after watching the brilliant anime. The anime ending was a bit of a disappointment, so I started reading the manga where the anime left it.

After reading the manga only one word springs to mind: EPIC! This is why...

Story 10/10

From reading the first chapters you probably think the story's going to a based around the characters collecting 99 evil souls and 1 witches soul. However, the plot turns out to be much more interesting with various twist's and shocked to keep you excited about this manga. Throughout the story there is a great balance between Action and comedy. Overall much more solid then the amines.

Art 10/10

An amazing thing about Soul Eater is its art. The drawing have an unique Gothic style with detail which is pleasing to the eye. The fight scenes are drawn superbly which adds the the intense feel.

Characters 10/10

This is the best thing about Soul Eater. All of the characters, good or evil, are awesome (Yes... even Excalibur) They all have there own ticks to make you fall in love with them.

Enjoyment 10/10

Soul Eater will always get you excited about the next chapter with its intense build up and action will make you beg for more. You'll love this manga.

Overall 10/10

As you can tell by this review I really like this manga and will follow it till the end. Try reading it, I guarantee you will love it!

The theme of Soul Eater is development. Throughout the manga everything gets more developed.

Story: In the beginning you would think it would start out as getting 99 Kishin or Afreet egg souls and one Witch soul would be the end of it. The answer is no. The story develops into it's own unique way adding humor along with it. There are multiple plot twists also that you will not see coming. More sub plots come in the mix but gets balanced out and fits in the main plot nicely. Still going on today, the story still holds on strong.

Art: Once again very developed. A perfect example is the design of Soul. In the beginning Soul's design looked immature, young, and second rate. Today, Soul's design comes out more mature, suave, and more eye catching. Atsushi Ohkubo does know how to physically mature the characters and make them a little older as time goes by. The art is very unique with unusual designs and disturbingly awesome scenes that glue your eyes to the page. Expressions of the characters are also very believable and realistic. It's not the same repetitive expressions you would see in Naruto. In short the art is top notch.

Character: This is where the manga excels in the most. Every single character is unique with their own different personalities, designs, and expressions. Most of the characters also feel very realistic for Anime standards. A great example is Maka Albarn who's personality is described as a stubborn bookworm who sometimes can act unknowingly immature and bratty but in the end, she manages to bring her cool up again and kick a**. She is a very well done character who many girls her age could relate to including myself. Other characters that you would normally not take seriously also like Black Star, Ox, or Kid have very fleshed out development and can bring out a more serious side to them. To tell you the truth, there is not a single character I hate. All of them are likable including Medusa who plays one of the best villains ever spawned in an manga. I promise that more than one character will satisfy you.

Enjoyment: What can I say? It's a very well developed manga that keeps me entertained to this day! So far everything is very well paced and there is always a highlight at each chapter. Today, I collect the manga volumes in Japanese and re read them in the fluent language. It's that good. I recommend Soul Eater to anyone who likes a fast paced, action packed, dramatic, and hilarious manga with TONS of very fleshed out characters and a well developed plot.

Oh. My. God. I love this series. Maybe it's only my opinion, but this series has everything: characters, intense plot twists, action and comedy. I personally think they kinda messed up the anime adaptation.
Let's talk about the main characters (spoiler freely): creativity gets some extra points. There are about three main characters, but Maka Albarn takes the spotlight, in a good way. They tell every detail from their personality to fears and relationships, but still make enough time for action and epic battles. Almost every character is at least okay. 25 volumes isn't too much, but is just enough for good plot movement and little side stories at the end of the manga (I read the physical copies, so...)

IF YOU DON'T LIKE SPOILERS, STOP HERE!
So, I just had to clear my mind about the difference between the manga and the anime. I watched the whole anime just to see DTK to turn into an evil character for a few chapters, but in the anime, it didn't happen! I was so disappointed and almost ended that there. No, actually I watched it to the end. The manga's final battle was also so much more epic. So please, read this manga!

I fell in love with this manga from the very first chapter I read.The drawing style,the story,the characters and pretty much everything else make the reader not wanting the pages to come to an end.There's almost everything someone might ask from this gender of manga and probably even more.A great story with amazing action and sudden blasts of humor when one least expects it make it worth reading.

The characters all have their own quirks that make each one of them unique in their own weird ways which adds even more to the whole package :P

I undoubtly recommend it for everyone that likes to get a thrill from battle action as well as good laugh at the same time...

"This is the madness of BOOBS!" - a VERY cultured character (not kidding, someone says it in this manga LUL)

Ahhh Soul Eater, the love child of Bleach and Naruto, kidnapped and raised by Cthulhu and infamous for its bad anime adaptation (dont worry, the manga ending is better). Let's see if I can convince you to read this beautiful, wild mess.

Story: 7/10

Soul Eater is a shounen battle manga with big focus on plot, which is ironically its weakest point. The plot is simple and fast-paced, with some decent twists here and there, which is very serviceable for a typical shounen, but nothing out of ordinary for people who are used to the genre's tropes. There is a LOT of wasted potential here, like poor effort into world building, very poor lore exploration and confusing conclusion of some plot points, but all of that is overshadowed by the series qualities.

What makes SE really stand out from other shounen is its unique blend of comedy and "creepiness", two ingredients you don't usually see together. By creepiness I mean it has horror elements, clearly inspired by H.P Lovecraft (hell theres even a being whos pretty much Cthulhu), which are used to great effect to illustrate the plot's main theme, Madness.

The internal struggle every character has to face throughout the series to keep their insanity in check is portrayed with sinister, abstract artwork, which keeps you often on the edge. Its not Junji Ito levels of horror ofc, but some panels have managed to creep me out, which is more than I can say for other non Junji Ito attempts at horror manga.

The comedy is pure GOLD. Some characters are already funny by themselves (Excalibur is bae), make them interact with it each other and the result is the biggest amount of laughs I've ever had with a shounen battle manga. Some of its great amount of fan-service have not aged well though (intentional boob grabbing and skirt flipping etc), so if that really bothers you, its better to give this manga a pass.

The battles are very epic and well made, the main characters can lose badly so its always exciting and some of the powers are very interesting and creative, a full meal course for any shounen battle fan.

Art: 10/10

How does the author manage to blend comedy and horror elements so well? The answer is superb artwork. The cartoonish visuals of SE are Halloween themed, with lots of references to classic western horror movies, which works very well for both fronts. The flexibility is astounding: the drawing style changes drastically depending on the tone of the scene, with characters going from making light derpy jokes with cute faces to killing people with maniac Joker expressions in the span of a single chapter. This series was published monthly with 40+ pages per chapter, so this back and forth between tones has enough build-up to not feel out of place. A true marvel to look at, still leagues above most of shounen manga published nowadays.

Characer: 9/10

A death god with hilarious OCD fits, a narcissistic ninja that thinks hes greater than god and a stubborn nerd girl with daddy issues. BEST. MAIN CAST. EVER.

Death the Kid, Black Star and Maka are very likeable, memorable MCs that will entertain you when interacting with pretty much anyone, being able to go from hilariously pathetic to super badass in a way very few MCs manage to pull off. I finished this series only hours before writting this review and I miss them already.

The rest of the cast is pretty meh, one-note characters with shallow personalities (except Dr. Stein and Medusa, they are great), but thats fine, their interactions with the MCs are very entertaining even though they are not well developed.

I have two big problems with this cast though, the first being the "main protagonist", Soul Eater. How can a character that is named after the series itself be so underdeveloped?! His personality is so boring and shallow you'd never believe him to be a MC (to me he's in a supporting role at best).

The second is the unexcusable lack of romance. The main gimmick of the series is that some people can transform into weapons and partner up with meisters, in a relationship that in many aspects resembles that of a couple. This premise SCREAMS romance, yet sadly it doesnt go any further than a very small hint here and there. The partners even live TOGETHER AND BY THEMSELVES GODDAMMIT! Argh, so much wasted potential..

Overall: 8/10

The funniest and creepiest shounen I've ever seen! A weird title yes, but that just shows how unique this series is. If you're looking for a funny shounen with lots of epic fights and fan-service, look no further.

I first started reading Soul Eater because my friend recommended it to me, saying it's "the lovechild of Bleach and Naruto." Which is pretty true, this manga is overall very very epic.

Art:
I think art is not as pretty as some of my favorite series (ie. Hikaru no Go) but it's not horrible and it's actually quite likeable. The style changes very slightly while in a different dimension and reflects some of the actions in the plot which I found very awesome. Also, it's not difficult to see what's going on in each panel like in some dramatic action series (ie. 07 Ghosts, I need to reread the chapter at least three times to figure out what exactly is going on). Overall, the art is great, this should get a full score but I'm just really picky and dislike the way how some of the eyes (MAKA) are draw. 9/10

Story:
Soul Eater isn't exactly your typical story, which is why I absolutely adore the manga. The main characters don't always win, the plot twists are awesome, and the concept of soul partners as weapons, although not exactly unique, works very well with the story. There's a mix of humor, action, and plot and there isn't really any super long fights that drag on for 20 chapters or something. I really wish I could fully express the awesomeness of Soul Eater's plot, but I really just can't. 10/10

Characters:
A lot of the characters are very amusing, they each have their own flaws (ie: Kid's Obssessive Compulsive Disorder) and are all pretty eccentric which gives me endless amounts of lulz. The character development isn't that obvious (or maybe I just suck at noticing it) but it is noticible and it makes me smile. Kinda.
The relationships between the characters are one of the manga's strong points as well. The characters alone are great, the character interactions are...well... *____________* (This is me being speechless in awe)
And Medusa is a pretty bad-a** villian. 10/10

Enjoyment:
Soul Eater is very enjoying for all the reasons above. I read all the chapters in one sitting because I absolutely fell in love with the characters and the plot. It's all really engaging, there's constantly new things in each chapter so it's never really dull. 10/10

I have to give this manga a 10 despite its many, many flaws because I was so completely captivated by it that it would be dishonest to give it anything less.

This series is just so enjoyable. The world feels as if it is breathing. Every character is perfectly developed just a bit more than someone of their importance in a different series would be, and it makes the story feel completely alive.

I almost never reread or rewatch anything. At a minimum, I read this series over four times while it was still coming out monthly because I wanted to be sure I remembered everything about what was going on. I never felt that it had gotten old. It covered so many emotions that when I read or watched other things I was constantly comparing them to Soul Eater.

The story follows Maka Albarn, one of the most irritating and hate-worthy protagonists I've seen. And the series (the manga, not the anime) handles her extremely well. In the wake of her parents' divorce due to her father's repeated infidelity, Maka comes to the conclusion that all men are untrustworthy and should die. This is complicated by her relationship with Soul Eater, a boy who turns into a scythe, whom she fights alongside and must trust with her life daily.

Soul himself is an expertly crafted character, a former member of a high-class musical family who was forced to leave after finding out he had weapon blood. He is so conflicted by his past and future that he changes his name in an attempt to declare separation from his past as a pianist, but music still seems to follow him everywhere. What Soul really needs is a hug, but instead he is faced with hostility by Maka, the person he is now sworn to protect.

The emotional core of the series is the relationship between these two characters. Many coming-of-age stories deal with the protagonist learning independence, but Soul Eater takes the opposite path and tells a tale of learning to trust. This theme of love and teamwork is present in every single character and interaction in the series.

And these other characters are just as enjoyable, and in many cases more so, including a hotheaded boy raised with Maka who wants to gain enough fighting skill to surpass God, a young prince so concerned with doing well in his role that he develops obsessive-compulsive disorder, a mad scientist teacher who fears his impending insanity may one day harm his students, a warrior woman conflicted in whether to continue fighting or settle down and get married, and a father who seeks only his daughter's forgiveness.

The art style starts out, frankly, terrible, but just like Maka's character, it improves exponentially over the course of the series.

The humor is top notch. The reason I'm writing this review so many years later is that I remembered a joke in chapter ~104 or so the other day and I busted out laughing all over again. (For those of you who have read it, it's where Kid tells a certain council about what happened to him in the girls' shower.)

The ending is, not gonna lie, iffy, but I didn't think it was bad. The reason so many people hate it is that the last chapter is like a 6/10 when you've been conditioned to expect a consistent 9.5/10 every chapter. Regardless, everyone, no matter how minor, makes at least 90% progress towards their goals, and you can easily see where everyone is going. The epilogue is a little ambiguous, but it's certainly not criminal and it didn't affect my enjoyment of the series as a whole.

All around, from me it gets a definite 10/10.