Soul Eater

It has always been a habit of mine to stay clear of Shonen anime in general seeing as they all follow the same repetitive formula for (supposed) success which additionally almost always seems to include a large amount of fillers to try and milk these shows to the public as much as possible.

However to every rule there is an exception, and in the case of Shonen anime it`s without a doubt Soul Eater which to my pleasant surprise was produced by Studio BONES which were responsible for giving you gems such as Full Metal Alchemist, Eureka 7 , Wolfs Rain and more recently: Bounen no Xamd. Soul Eeater`s main storyline revolves around individuals called "Weapon Meisters" that attend a Shinigami school for the purpose of learning how to fight and more accurately to train their living weapons who may have the appearance of humans to ultimativly become a Deathsythe. Deathsythes are weapons powerfull enough that are capable of being wielded by the grim reaper himself in order to vanquish the evil and madness that plagues the world. In order for a weapon to become a Deathsythe it needs to be trained and devour 99 evil souls and last but not least the soul of a witch.

Thus, the story will at it`s core sound very familier to every other Shonen setting out there, where young teenagers find themselves in search for power in order to protect or defend what they firmly believe in. Yet, that`s also the only thing with which you can compare Soul Eater to other Shonen anime. The visual style is highly refreshing, twisted and often wacky Tim Burton-esque elements are combined with a more familier medieval/steam punk setting. The action is incredibly stylised and fluid, with extreme camera angles , fish eye views and completly over the top action-choreography as never seen before. The bulk of the story which has it`s fair share of brilliant plot-twists is told trough the perspective of three weapon meisters and their accompanying weapon partners.


Starting off we have the talented Maka, a long-haired, down to earth girl who is partnered with Soul Eater, a rather sarcastic and often rebellious young man who relishes in eating souls. His weapon form transforms him into a long handled scythe which Maka is very adapt at wielding Next up is Black Star, the sole surviving member of the Star clan who would be an excellent ninja if only he could keep his loud mouth shut. Best compared with the great (and late) Kamina from Gurren Lagann His weapon Tsubaki, a complete polar opposite to Black Star is a soft-spoken girl who's weapon form encompasses different traditional ninja weapons. Last but not least is Death the Kidd, the son of the Shinigami (grimm reaper) , and is best characterized as being extremely OCD; if something is not symmetrical, he has a nervous breakdown and is only able to pull himself together with the help of his weapons, a sister pair named Patty and Liz, who transform into a pair of Thompson side-arms.

The Soul Eater anime is based off the manga by Atsushi Okubo, a fresh artist who's found success with this work, as it is currently eleven volumes long and still running.

Soul Eater is an essential watch for Shonen fans, but it is also highly recommended to those who like a show that mixes fantasy,comedy and some extreme action.