I’m trying to give Bleach a chance to get a couple of chapters out before I jump on the speculation bandwagon, so instead I went back to one of my old favorites. Soul Eater. I realized that I haven’t read Soul Eater since April (like most of my non-WSJ mangas) so I was surprised to [...]
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There will be Red River fangirling. That's the only warning you get. Sora wa Akai Kawa no Hotori © Shinohara Chie/Shogakukan [First serialized in Sho-Comi] Published in Indonesia as Red River by Elex Media/Level Comics Yuri leads a charmed life. She just passed her senior high admissions exams AND shared her first kiss with promoted-to-boyfriend childhood friend Himuro. Everything goes down the
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. . . . Winter Sleep by Olivia One of the songs from the anime NANA’s soundtrack I SERIOUSLY got to watch this anime one day… -.-” One day… . . . . A Thank You is in order… for bringing me around Johor looking for good food. Then for picking up Rice for a [...]
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Soul Eater is Ookubo Atsushi's labor of love, and he's packed full of fun little details, references, and symbols. Among those details are the stylized, demonic sun and moon that can be seen almost constantly throughout the manga.
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The main protagonist, whose name is used as the title of this anime. In the end, I chose to watch the 51-episode (and not 50 as mentioned in my last blog entry) anime series titled Soul Eater, instead of the much shorter and recently finished High School of the Dead. The latter will definitely be [...] Related posts:Review: CODE-E Review: Umineko no Naku Koro ni (うみねこのなく頃に) Review: Princess Nine (プリンセスナイン 如月女子高野球部) Review: el cazador de la bruja (エル・カザド) Review: Demashitaa! Powerpuff Girls Z (出ましたっ���パワパフガールズZ) Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
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Ah well, I suppose it was too much to ask to expect a show like Soul Eater to allow its dead to stay that way (I mean, look at Sid...). As well as an unsurprising return from the dead, we have Stein's continuing descent into madness and the nagging feeling that Lord Death may be up to something unsavoury... Read more...
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There is one advantage to being the child of a prostitute: you don’t have to go through all the trouble of disabusing yourself of the illusion that you are anything other than an accident. You don’t need explanations from Mom.  It’s easy enough to visualize a nasty customer, or two, or three coming along and [...]
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Hot on the heels of volume one (at least in my viewing order, if not actual release dates) comes volume two of Soul Eater, and with Medusa's plans to mess up the world coming to a climax, it's time to see just how good the DWMA is at this soul-catching business. The sanity of the world may just depend on it... Read more...
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I just got done watching episode 51 of Soul Eater (the English dub version. I didn’t watch the subbed version because I started watching it in English, I can’t go between subbed and dubbed on the same show) and all I want to know is, where’s my second season? I know Bones stopped following the [...]
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Soul Eater © Ohkubo Atsushi/Square Enix (Serialized in Shonen Gangan) Published in Indonesia by Level Comics (Elex Media) May contain   [SPOILERS!] Meet weapon meister Maka, a student of the DWMA or Death Weapon Meister Academy founded by Death himself—Shinigami-sama—to school fighters and their living weaponry. Maka has one ambition: to turn Soul Eater, her human weapon, into the strongest Death
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Square Enix will launch an online service for providing manga including Fullmetal Alchemist and Soul Eater in North America and France this autumn. The number of titles and the amount of the charge haven’t been announced yet. Square Enix intends to meet the demand of the foreign readers and to control the pirated scanlations. I [...]
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nenena‘s translation and the discussion surrounding it [here] are so enjoyable and encompassing that I almost feel this post is superfluous.  However, I’m still writing it if anything because I want to admit to the world that my ultimatum to Ookubo in my last post failed: I told him after chapter 72 that he’d better [...]
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<style type="text/css">.nobrtable br { display: none }</style> The story is quite simple, really. It's just your typical shounen anime but what makes this anime interesting is its quite unique animation and weird characters that could spice up the comedy a lot for this show. Let's go over them, one by one. It was kind of a tearful, (typical) happy (typical) ending. Nothing particularly anything to mention about its story except it basically strayed out of the manga at around its 38th-40th episode. I was rather underestimating it with the expectation of having a much more open ending (because of the past few anime that I've watched such as Tantei Gakuen Q and 07-Ghost). Well, anyway, looking back at it right now, the story is kind of messed up. While that isn't really noticeable compared to its characters and animation, it really is sad to say that the character-improvement really stopped except for Crona, the messed up guy/girl/thing with his/her/its sad way of growing in his life. Well, I don't particularly would really care about that thing anymore, seeing as that they put up a wide range of characters that you could easily picked out your likes and dislikes. Before I watched this anime, I had doubts every time I see the picture in ANN. It had a unique animation, an animation that I've never seen before and still, it isn't disappointing but I felt that something would be "off" when I watched it. But when I convinced myself to watch it since it's become a hype in a certain place, I really liked the first episode and kind of engaged me in watching the anime (although the three episode-prologue wasn't my type so I kind of hate it in a way). It isn't basically just the animation, the character, etc. that made me love this anime; it's also about the music they put up! The first OP, "resonance" by T.M.Revolution, gives a really mysterious feeling, a clock ticking fast. It kind of pumps your adrenaline up! When it becomes a music that isn't fitting for the episode, it kind of "drags" out and (feels or) becomes dull. But when it needed a change, it went up for the second OP, "PAPERMOON" by Tommy heavenly6. The second OP had that typical but not-so-typical-these-days music. The part that makes it typical is that it gives you that sad, sorrow feeling + the feeling that the ending is really approaching fast. It gives you a thumbs up to the anime no matter how bad it may seem. The first ED, "I Wanna Be" by STANCE PUNKS, wasn't particularly my taste, probably because it had that screaming "effect." Although it's nice for an ED, it just... doesn't feel right for me. But at least the second ED, "Style" by Kana Nishino, really pays up for the "fk-you-ED" feeling. Though the second ED doesn't really stand out until the middle of the song. (Well, it's normally like that but I'd prefer if the opening of the ED was a bit more lively but whatever, it's still great!) Third ED, "Bakusou Yumeuta" by Diggy-MO', still doesn't surpass the greatness of "Style" and still, the reason is probably of the screaming-like opening. Nothing much to say except it's also "fun." And now, the final ED, "STRENGTH" by abingdon boys school. For an abindon boys school song, it's great. For the final ED, it was really sugoi! It goes well with the second ED, and basically same comments on the second ED. I don't really know the lyrics but it still feels nice for some reason. STRENGTH >> Style >> Bakusou Yumeuta >> I Wanna Be — As you can see, I don't really like "I Wanna Be" of all the EDs which makes me say that the ending of the anime made it worse than its cheesy-like ending. Story: 7/10 - Fine ending; feels really dragging. Animation: 10/10 - It's kind of nice to see a different animation once in a while. What's more is that it's nice for them to point out the right expression. Music: 8/10 - I blame the songs with screaming. Fav: 2nd OP, 4th ED Character: 7/10 - It would have been nice if they had a good development but I can understand that because this show drags it out to increase the airing time. Enjoyment: 9/10 - I fairly did have fun. Although I am really bad at reviewing comedy anime or anime with comedy as the element, for me, it's still great! Please leave a comment if you have any corrections on my review or opinions.
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Soul Eater » Episode 3 » The Perfect Boy - Death the Kid's Magnificent Mission Death the Kid, Patty, and Liz travel to the desert to battle a witch who's raising the dead. If a horde of mummies doesn't stop them, Kid's freaky symmetry obsession might.  
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Soul Eater » Episode 1 » Resonance of the Soul With 99 evil souls consumed, Soul just needs to defeat a witch to become a Death Scythe. He and Maka make their move against Blair - but a pointy hat doesn't always mean witch!  
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 If you knew of his glory, you'd be this excited to. So, we've discussed various characters of Soul Eater before. Now, while I was thoroughly reprimanded for not including enough Death the Kid, the most serious omission went unnoticed. That is, of course, the most powerful, amazing weapon in all of Soul Eater... Excalibur!   But What/Who is Excalibur? Don't let his cartoonish exterior fool you, Excalibur is, in fact, "the sword" from "the stone." Yes, Excalibur is the one weapon to rule them all. Armed with an impressive beard, he has been paired to influential figures of history has had to offer. You too could be a hero of legend, at the simple expense of dealing with the paltry 1000 tasks his wielder must perform. YES, that's all it takes, 1000, easy to remember tasks... including   Ensuring his mornings start with a cup of coffee Offer a refreshing greeting upon his waking up  When he hums a tune, you must not speak!  Excalibur's birthday must be celebrated in a grand manner  Excalibur's birthday is every day of the year The highest class toilet must be prepared Carrots are never permitted in his meals  You must attend his daily 5 hour long story telling sessionsYou must always walk 3 step behind Excalibur   As a true hero, you must always tell the truth All food must be freshly prepared You must always praise Excalibur Dehumidifier must be present in Excalibur's room   Got those ones? Well, there's only 987 more to go!   But why do I want to wield Excalibur?  Its a trap! You don't. No one does. The joke of it all is that it doesn't take a "True hero" to pull the sword from the stone. The true hero is someone who can actually put up with him. Despite the near limitless power he offers, no one seems to be willing go along with his insane commands. Its almost like a rite of passing, many meisters (including Stein, Death, and Black Star) have all attempted to harness his power, only to end up in total failure. The sheer mention of his name will often induce severe reactions from his victims.  He's had such difficultly finding a master, that he even commissioned the printing of his "legend," to make him more desirable. Though, of course, he left out his 1000 tasks, though its questionable if he actually embellished on his power.     That's all folks!
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No, I’m not breaking out of my hiatus.  This blog is still very much asleep.  However, it isn’t dead.  And as its death would be the only thing keeping me from commenting on gender-bending Ookubo madness, here comes this post. Let me get the esoteric stuff out of the way first. It seems the seven chapters of [...]
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The Death Weapon Meister Academy serves to train young meisters to reap the corrupt souls of humans who have strayed down the path of evil before they can transform into Kishin, demon gods who seek to plunge the world into darkness. Students of the academy strive to make their human-weapon partners into the most powerful Death Scythes, allowing them to become powerful fighters in the battle against the Kishin. Meister Maka follows in the footsteps of her mother, a meister who successfully created a Death Scythe. Maka fights with her own scythe weapon partner Soul, who just wants to prove that he’s the coolest fighter at the academy. Standing against them is Medusa, a witch who seeks to turn her servant Crona into a vessel for a demon god, and sends every manner of monster to prevent the students from halting her plan. Soul Eater relies on the normal staples of any shonen show, wacky teenagers and their equally eccentric mentor figures engaged in a battle to prevent the forces of evil from destroying the world. Characters will deal with their own weaknesses and haunted pasts, all while taking down various baddies and monsters with the help of their friends. If the standard shonen clichés don’t turn you away from the series and you can get through an entire episode dedicated to the screeching idiot of the group, then you’ll find the series still manages to be an entertaining adventure. In an unfortunate move the series sets up what is essentially a collection quest in the first episode with Maka and Soul’s goal to collect 99 corrupted souls. This set up could easily turn away most viewers as it hints at the series being a plot free, enemy-of-the-week-series, which isn’t what the series is at all. The soul collecting quest is dropped quicker than Ash’s goal to “Catch ‘em all” and drops out of focus within the next few episodes. But by setting up a premise like that, even though it’s quickly dropped, they end up driving away potential viewers. The series’ quick pacing really helps to keep you engaged. The story is pushed along at a decent pace, and the heroes don’t spend several episodes trying to take down one opponent as fights are handled rather quickly, sometimes a little too quickly. The fight scenes are easily one of the strongest points of the series, and in some cases are over so quickly that you might find yourself hoping that the enemy finds some contrived method to stay alive just so the fight scene can last a little longer. If fight scenes appeal to you then there’s plenty of them to keep you entertained, and you’ll easily be drawn into the series within the first five minutes. The very first fight displays the fast paced, brutal action of the series, along with the brevity as the whole thing is over in under a minute. Like any shonen, Soul Eater features a great deal of comedy scenes. Any time between the brief fights will be filled with characters engaged in typical shonen style humour, spying on girls in the bath or brutally assaulting each other in a comedic fashion. Unfortunately it also tends to run some of the characters’ more humorous behaviours into the ground. If you’re not sick of Black Star talking about how big he is by the end of the second episode you’re a more patient person than I am. Episode 9 is worth watching just to see the series’ rendition of the legendary holy sword Excalibur, a weapon whose mere mention brings a nervous sweat even to the face of the twisted Franken Stein, and who I found to be one of the more funny characters. The art style of the anime does much to improve on the designs of the manga. Maka and Soul in particular look much better than their manga counterparts, and more detail is put into the surrounding buildings and other background items. The anime also cuts down on the fanservice present in the manga. Any focus on nudity is usually done so in a humorous sense and not necessarily to titillate the viewers, whereas the manga on multiple occasions draws attention to nudity that serves no purpose other than to show off the female characters with little to no clothes on. So if you desperately need to see Maka’s panties than you’ll probably want to read the manga instead. The dub for this show is pretty much what we’ve come to expect from Funimation these days. Good acting and voices that work for the characters, featuring the normal stable of Funimation voice actors, with little to no complaints across the board. There are two voices worth mentioning however, Micah Solusod as Soul, and Brittney Karbowski as Black Star. Micah Solusod is a relative newcomer in the industry, with Soul being his first role as a main character. Given that he’s new, it’s reasonable to be a little worrisome over whether he would be a good fit for the character or not. However, he gives a great performance as Soul, giving the character an air of cool disinterest in the world around him. Brittney Karbowski is worth mentioning for less positive reasons. While there isn’t anything wrong with her overall performance acting-wise, she doesn’t really do a great job of sounding like a boy, though she does start to sound better as the series goes on. It’s a minor issue though, and the overall quality of the dub is quite good. The one thing in the extras on the DVD that stands out is the Soul Eater Late Show, extra footage added before and after each commercial break of the late night Japanese broadcast, along with different previews for most episodes. While it is a nice little extra to include, you really aren’t missing anything if you don’t watch them; one joke out of the whole batch managed to get a snicker out of me. Other than that the extras are just the standard textless opening and closing themes, as well as a commentary track for episode 7. Overall, if you haven’t grown completely tired of the standards of shonen and are willing to just sit back and enjoy a few good fight scenes and quirky characters then Soul Eater is definitely worth checking out. It has plenty of great fight scenes and offers some nice visuals making worth at least giving a chance even. It’s nothing revolutionary, but it’s still a decent watch.<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=anthsrevi-20&amp;o=1&amp;p=8&amp;l=bpl&amp;asins=B002Y0KRES&amp;fc1=D5D3D3&amp;IS2=1&amp;lt1=_blank&amp;m=amazon&amp;lc1=0000FF&amp;bc1=000000&amp;bg1=060606&amp;f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=anthsrevi-20&amp;o=1&amp;p=8&amp;l=bpl&amp;asins=0759530017&amp;fc1=D5D3D3&amp;IS2=1&amp;lt1=_blank&amp;m=amazon&amp;lc1=0000FF&amp;bc1=000000&amp;bg1=060606&amp;f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>
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SEASON: 1 EPISODES: 1 – 13 GENRE: anime, action, comedy Synopsis Soul Eater sees a group of teens questing to become ultimate weapons and warriors, death scythes and death scythe wielders respectively. The teens work in teams of two, one the wielder of a powerful weapon, the other the weapon to be wielded. That probably sounds a bit strange, but the latter are able to change back and forth between human and weapon form. It’s worth noting here that the weapon and wielder must be compatible beyond “just getting along” in order ...
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One of the things that I like about the niche anime we tend to get on dvd is most of these shows weren’t expected to run very long (12-26 half hour episodes), so they would end in a reasonable amount of time. This preference meant I passed on the action/fighting-type shows like Naruto, Bleach, [...]
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